Another year ends and the 20s are about to begin. I can look back on 2019 with almost unalloyed satisfaction. High spots of the year:

• A two-night mini break by rail to Warrnambool.
• Seeing our church continue to grow, with the opening of a new service in Docklands.
• Being headhunted to help with our church ‘mums and bubs’ midweek meeting creche. For some reason this old single guy seems to be quite good at looking after little people!
• A four-night cruise, Melbourne-Sydney-Brisbane, on Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth, made even more special by being upgraded to a suite. No upgrade for my 2020 cruise though!
• Visiting Brisbane for the first time.
• Through the year working as a volunteer with Habitat for Humanity, building homes in Yea.
• Visiting friends and family in the UK – when I emigrated I promised to go back and visit them each year, a promise I had to break in 2018 following surgery, and taking a first-time stopover in Singapore on the way home, something I will do again
• Through the year working as a volunteer guide at the Newport Railway Museum, also joining the works team.
• Taking a winter holiday in Port Hedland – seeing big boys toys close up.
• I only got to see one musical but it was a superb one, ‘Come from away’, the remarkable true story of thousands passengers and the small town in Newfoundland that welcomed them in the aftermath of 9/11
• And continuing to run my software business, which celebrated its 30th birthday in April and once again reached my annual sales target (just).