Louise Lockie's Letters from London

I don't think that it will seem terribly controversial for me to state that 2016 has been a crappy year. The last 365 days has seen some rubbish things happen, not just politically (in my opinion) on both sides of the Atlantic but it has also been a year which has seen more shared loss than usual. Those in the public eye taken from us too soon aside, I know I am not alone in having experienced personal bereavement this year. BUT as I always try to focus on the positives, to keep my glass half full 🍷, I can't help but look back at this disparaged year with rather a LOT of fondness. So, what's to love? Having been part of the London UG community since the London Admin User Group was established in Autumn '14. 2016 was really the year I switched from consuming content and wisdom from the leaders in our groups, to trying to impart some knowledge of my own, to give back to the community which had supported me so thanklessly. When I now reflect on the year passed, these

I've got one of those r0und birthdays coming up. I am 40 in May. Now, I am OK with that, I know that 40 isn't old, I am not worried about my own mortality, that comes to us all and, if related to age, then we are one of the lucky ones. It is just that as soon as we ticked over into 2016 and the phrase  I am 40 next year  entered my inner monologue, I have been in a state of evaluation. As I say, this isn't about age and death, but about landmarks and measuring myself against my own expectations.  Now that I am approaching it I don't feel that 40 is at all old but when I left university and entered the workforce in 1999,  where did I expect to be come 2017 ? I've always been keen to move up the ranks and progress at work but more from a point of being ready to take on a new challenge, having mastered the last one, as opposed to outright ambition. In my company I have had a number of long-term colleagues who are the same age as me, against whom I have been