In the recent past I have been watching a program on the BBC called “All Change at LongLeat“. Longleat is engrained in Britishness being the home to Lord Bath and his safari park. Lord Bath’s son and his wife have moved in to take over the day to day running of the house and park and the change is not without some problems. The estate needs to change if it is to remain viable and there is a constant friction of the old versus the new. Ceawlin, Lord Bath’s son, seemed to know what was needed but those who heavily influenced the situation, like Lord Bath, made transforming the estate a challenge. I got an appreciation for the way Ceawlin dealt with things; drawing lines and borders, sometimes harshly, he manage to get things changed. I think most of those borders he drew to keep his sanity whilst keeping his eyes on the end goal.
2015 had to be my “Annus horribilis“. If it could go wrong, it did and even when you thought there was no surprise left, there was something waiting around the corner. However, its now 2016 and I have drawn borders and lines under things and am making this a year of change. Since 2003 I have worked for SDL (I started when it was just the Dutch company Tridion) and I have enjoyed an awesome 11.5 years and have traveled the world. I have had a wealth of good times, worked with truly great people, learnt a lot and have grown as a person hugely. There were good times and bad times but the good out weighed the bad. But sometimes, things have to change.
In early March, I started as a Solution Architect for Amazon Web Services. Since then I have been overwhelmed by the freight train of new things and new people. I am sad to miss the awesome people I have worked with over the past years, some of which I count friends but I am enjoying the change of scene and the new technology.