18 Moments Of 2022
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Well it’s that time of year for looking back – and 2022 has certainly been a fun year, even if I didn’t quite achieve as much as I like to demand of myself.
As normal, most of these moments are positive, but a few are negative – this is “moments” as opposed to “highlights”, as I don’t want to forget the challenges and difficulties of the world. Not particularly in order, but definitely the best moments at the end.
Let’s start with an achievement, shall we?
18. Promotion!
Possibly a bit of a cheat including this as I knew in 2021 that it was going to happen, but it wasn’t officially confirmed until 7th January 2022, that I was being promoted to senior engineer – and being paid as such.
Not everything went my way at work, as I’ll cover later, but there are plenty of other positives – including being tech lead for a team of 5 other engineers, being a mentor for a very impressive graduate, learning TypeScript, NextJS, GraphQL, Github Actions, pre-commit hooks and improving my React knowledge – I’ve definitely missed things from the learning list.
Annoyingly the most revenue-generating piece of work I did was move the add to bag button around, which I could have done as a junior, but hey, such is life.
17. That October Storm
We had some interesting weather in 2022.
I still remember laughing out loud to myself when one of the weather models predicted 40’C in the UK more than two weeks before it happened…but as time went on, and knowing all the background signals favoured unusual heat during the summer, it became realistic – the models even suggested 43’C could happen at one point, but thankfully relented at 40’C. Was horrific, but also fascinating. We’ll reach 42’C in my lifetime.
Then we had that storm EU-nice in February that tore a load of trees down – the strongest winds down here for years. And a proper cold December, with actual snow on the ground. Not to mention just how much sunny and hot weather we had – summer never seemed to end.
But, my favourite moment, was an autumnal thunderstorm – a wild end to a Sunday roast. THE POWER.
16. Stock Market Crash
From a storm to a crash – I went from a very healthy £3,000 profit (not including dividends) in January to a £3,000 loss by October as the bear market just got worse and worse.
It wasn’t all doom and gloom – I had very little in the way of the US growth stocks that were majorly overhyped in 2020/21 and seriously crashed in 2022, I had plenty of oil/gas/mining stocks which did really well – and plenty of investors did worse than I did. It could easily have been worse!
15. Johnson Fucking Off
Gosh wasn’t it a prolonged and painful fucking off? It feels so long ago given everything that has happened, and I cannot help but worry that he’ll be back “to save us from woke remainery Islington types” or some other guff in 2023 or 2024.
I was kind of expecting some form of street parties erupting to celebrate his demise, but as it was so drawn out and prolonged, it was possibly only really a surprise to Boris Johnson that he was resigning when he did.
What a fucking shambles. And then we had Liz Truss.
14. Gunpowder
Gosh the segues keep on writing themselves – from an ousted politician to a restaurant called Gunpowder. Thanks to covid, I had celebrated Christmas on New Year’s Eve, so after driving back to London on that ridiculously mild New Year’s Day with my sister, we decided to go to a really good restaurant.
Gunpowder was the choice and it was some of the sexiest Indian food that I’d ever had. Detox waited for one more day as we ended up drinking late and listening to 80’s pop/dance in the pub.
13. Skopje Mountain Trail
I didn’t expect that a highlight of my holiday, let alone my year would have involved me getting sweaty doing exercise.
For when in Skopje I decided to climb up their mountain trails, halfway up Mount Vodno, to a bar with a view. Not the view below – the bar is further up than that.
Fuck me it was difficult, the climb up never seemed to end, then the climb down on a different path, was ankle-twisty kind of terrain – but I made it down before it rained.
Who knew that exercise could make you feel good and give you a sense of achievement?
12. Sewing Factory
If you thought me doing exercise was a weird thing to have on my list of annual highlights, what about me being in a sewing factory?
My dear sister moved to Walthamstow in January and it turns out that it is rather cool there – not only is my sister’s flat gorgeous, but there is a collection of excellent breweries nearby and some ace restaurants.
This one impressed, called Slowburn, not only because it was in an active clothes manufacturing factory and hence had sewing machines, etc, but also because the food surprised me.
Not only did it surprise me as to how tasty it was – but the meal was mostly vegetarian. Yep, one of my best meals of 2022 was vegetarian…with chicken.
Alas, I cannot afford a flat in Walthamstow.
11. Ballet
I didn’t do quite as many cultural things as I aimed to do in 2022. I did make it to Hamilton, which was very impressive, even if the singing could occasionally have done with a break.
Back To The Future, also a musical but with words and comedy – totally different to Hamilton. I went to a Francis Bacon exhibition, a grime-ish dance performance about the struggle of black teenagers, saw techno performed live at the Barbican, watched Hull City lose – is that cultural though?
But my highlight was the ballet – yes another thing that you didn’t have in your James Will Do In 2022 Bingo card. There were lots of young women in stockings and suspenders…
It’s kind of strange watching something without words, and I didn’t always understand what was happening in the story – maybe reading the story of Casanova might have helped in advance.
But ballet was spectacular and enticing. I’ll go again.
10. Goodbye Queenie
That national mourning period was a strange time, wasn’t it?
The Queen’s death had looked on the cards ever since Prince Philip died, and she looked so frail when she was meeting Liz Truss. It wasn’t a surprising death, per se.
I didn’t really know what to do with myself. I’m not a massive Royalist, but I’m certainly no Republican either – as long as they continue to be a tourist attraction then I’m fine with the concept of a Royal Family.
I did spend the evening reporting people to Twitter for hatred, and I did indulge myself with unplanned wine. I didn’t want to watch the funeral, but I found myself drawn in to watch it – the whole marching to a drumbeat thing was mesmerising. The service itself was dull as – all hocus pocus religion stuff.
And I didn’t even go see the queue, though I did go into London that Saturday. For a cheese tour.
9. Goodbye Outfit Generator
The first half of 2022 (roughly) I was working on a really cool project at M&S, called the Outfit Generator.
Using the new tech stack, which is all the coolest tech in my area – React, TypeScript, NextJS and GraphQL, I was learning so much, really enjoying the challenge (mostly) – though it did have a drawback in that I was the only person doing it.
It was around 80% complete – then they canned it.
I’m kind of in limbo now, doing a bit of this, a bit of that. My role is now really quite uninspiring. But I’m shit at interviewing. What to do…oh what to do…
8. Hull City’s New Owners
Goodbye bastards running the football club. Hello Acun Ilıcalı – the Turkish Simon Cowell.
Yes, our football club has new owners – out goes the misery and loathing of the previous owners, in comes positivity and hope – and he seems to actually know his football, and be in love with the city of Hull.
Of course things can still turn sour, he’s signed a load of duff players and we are still near the bottom of the Championship.
But things feel good now. He goes to the pub. He talks to fans on the street. He took 300 fans on holiday to Turkey. He’s paying for coach travel to away games. And we even have our own branded aeroplane:
7. Actually being home for Christmas
I really enjoyed Christmas this year – I didn’t especially make a big deal of missing the last two, thanks to lockdown and having covid – it didn’t feel like I majorly missed out as I can revel in melancholy, but this year it was just quite heart-warming being with the family, actually being together on Christmas Day.
Saw a fair amount of the extended family, my grandmother managed to get through a whole Christmas without being racist, nobody mentioned Meghan, though I did stun people into silence when I announced that I was woke. Had an ace pigs in blankets bao bun on Christmas Eve drinks in Hull, also.
6. Croatia
I don’t think there is an actual “moment” of being in Zadar in Croatia. But it had everything you want in a 3 night holiday – glorious sunshine, nice walks, good local beer, shit local beer, good food, terrible food, bad service, gorgeous local women, boats and a wonderful sunset.
And ridiculously cheap. Especially compared to other holidays of 2022.
5. Invasion of Ukraine
Easily the most important moment in the news in 2022 – one of those game-changing events, like September 11th was – there was even a point at which I was checking what to do in the event of nuclear war.
I didn’t think Putin would invade – or maybe he would extend the existing war in the Donbas region at the most. Mostly I didn’t believe he would invade, as I assumed it would become another Vietnam – the Ukrainians were going to fight back, that was clear, and I learned just before the war how corrupt the Russian army was – how unprofessional it was, and how it was full of drunks.
Like all wars, it is a tragedy – particularly for everyone in Ukraine, which has been invaded, bombed and now struggle with no electricity for much of the time. I do feel some sympathy for the mother’s of Russian soldiers, needlessly thrown into Putin’s heinous vanity war like cannon-fodder. Many Russians are also victim’s of Putin.
Interestingly, the Ukrainians have fought back far more impressively than I expected (and I did think they’d fight back fairly well) – so much so that the main questions are over the future state of Russia, and how long Putin will last – as opposed to the other way around.
2022 wasn’t the best year to be a dictator – Russia, Iran and China all being shaken to various extents by the follies of their dictators. Shame so many people have to suffer because of them.
4. It’s Coming Home
No, not the men, durrr. The women.
I thought that the Women’s Euros might be quite a good occasion, and bought some tickets to a couple of games. To watch Spanish women, of course. Who were technically gifted – but couldn’t muster a shot, let alone a goal.
But there was a feel-good factor about England women’s team, perhaps even more so than the men’s team during the World Cup – though the latter is possibly down to where and when it was played. Then again, the former may have partly have been because England were hosting it.
And then we actually won the Euros. I reckon I could still name a few of the players. I even did my hair in a pony tail to support them.
Roll on World Cup 2023. Which is in Australia and New Zealand – roll on early morning drinking too!
3. Copenhahahagen
I’m not entirely sure why we decided to go to Copenhagen – I think maybe it was so I could do two new countries in one trip, but I’d been to Denmark as a child so that wasn’t a new country.
Anyway. Copenhagen is a super cool city, albeit a super expensive city and money certainly did drain from my Revolut card. Highlights included Freetown Christiania, going to Reffen for drinks and food, the train back from Malmo (boring place but a different country) and well, the vibe. Just the vibe.
And we had so much fun there – all accomplices on absolutely top form.
2. That Beer In The Sunshine, in Las Vegas
Remember 2021? Remember how crap the weather was? A summer of constant cloud, I’d given up by August on the idea of having a beer in the sunshine – and it was far too difficult to travel abroad with masks, tests and shit.
So one of my top priorities for 2022, as soon as it was physically possible, was to have a beer in the sunshine. And it happened to be in Las Vegas, right on the strip. Absolutely glorious. And, yes, I got sunburnt.
I could have hated Las Vegas – it does have a “yuck” factor, incessant r’n’b music, overly in your face, desperate for your money, some desperate people around.
But, fuck that. I’m here to enjoy life – and it was just about getting stuck in. We were only there a few nights, but I had one of the best meals of my life there in the Wynn, we went to an art district brewery, met a roast dinners Twitter follower who lives in Las Vegas and his wife, went out to the old town, fell in love with showgirls, won money on roulette. I’d go again.
1. Falling In Love With San Diego
OMG. I messaged my mother when I was there and said, “would you come visit if we moved to San Diego?”. Her answer was, “you are not being serious, are you?”.
Well. I fell in love with San Diego. It’s the vibe, mostly – being in California just feels so damn fucking fantastic.
It’s also the glorious sunshine, the gorgeous beaches, the beautiful sunset, the zoo, the I thought Britain knew about making beer but knows fuck all beer scene, the Latino vibe, the beautiful smiles everywhere – maybe they are faking it, but everyone at least lied to us about how much they were happy to see us, unlike in “urgh do I have to do my job and fucking serve people” London.
And how friendly are the people?
We even had a good roast dinner in San Diego. I could actually live there.