It's pretty safe to say 2009 was a rollercoaster!  There were the highs of some spectacular music performances and the lows of a broken elbow, broken foot and a surprise redundancy for good measure.  I had a guide dog puppy live with me for five months, and the arrival of a second niece.

I am likely to be one of the very few who have broken their foot playing the trumpet. Although to be honest I didn't actually have my trumpet in my hand; I was dressed as Riff-Raff from the Rocky Horror Show and I jumped off a stage during the Time Warp. To say I broke my foot wearing the costume of an alien pretending to be the man-servant of a transvestite from transsexual Transylvania doesn't quite have the same ring to it.

The broken elbow was the result of an unfortunate road accident in which a driver (I won't mention her sex of course) failed to check their mirrors or indicate when pulling out of a parallel park into traffic, moving directly into the path of a cyclist who, in order to avoid a collision, hit the brakes and flipped themself over the handlebars.

I've been called many, many things in my life, but boring isn't one of them.

There also can't be too many people who can say their redundancy was one of the best things to ever happen to them. But I can, and that makes me happy. After a little over a year working for an IT consulting company (JASCO Consulting), enjoying the challenges of working for a distributed company with vastly-distributed personalities, I was invited to my annual performance review only to be immediately turned on my heels and shown the door. My facebook status on that morning read "What a day today will be. Annual review with the boss, then Krystal arrives. Don't know which to be more nervous about!".  I think I found out around 30 minutes later.

Thankfully it wasn't due to my performance, or so I was told, and I have since been contacted by past clients needing work done they can no longer hire JASCO for. That, I have to say, is nice.

That lead me to call the International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP) to find some short-term work, only to be invited onboard for a six-month contract with a view to permanency. iRAP is a team of passionate people dedicated to saving lives on the world's roads. And with 1.3 million road deaths each year, it's an amazing organisation to be working with.

Based in London, iRAP now have three staff in Australia.  Our CEO is in Brisbane and our director of Asia-Pacific operations works in Canberra.  I was initially hired as the Programming and Software Support Manager, working from home in Melbourne, but with a promotion to the IT Manager (which is a much less-complicated title) I have also been promoted to an office.  With a view. Of another office building.

Working with iRAP has already seen me travel a little in 2009, with trips to both Brisbane and Canberra followed by a two-week stay in Singapore in October for both work and play, and a three-week expedition to London in November. In Singapore I found myself at Little India for most meals, purely by coincidence of course. And in London I found myself inside, hiding from the rain.  I also caught a lot of trains and taxis, with the head office being located in Basingstoke and a lot of meetings held in London.

2009 also saw a small, black, attention-absorbing, insomnia-inducing beautiful little guide dog puppy called Krystal introduced to our house. And while the rule book dictated we couldn't leave her for longer than three hours (among many, many other things), the time we spent together was wonderful.

Krystal was brought to our house at seven weeks and lived with us until the was a little over five-months-old. Guide Dogs Victoria provided almost everything, including food, toys, kennelling and importantly, veterinary services. In return we house-trained her, taught her basic behavioural traits like sitting patiently for her food and waiting for a door to open before going through on command. Those of you who met her will remember there were a few traits we tried desperately to work out of her; pulling so hard on the lead she walked on two feet, urinating in friends' houses and of course the whole four-am wakeup thing.

When my new job started sending me around the world we realised we just couldn't give Krystal the attention and training she needed, so she left us to stay with a couple of experienced puppy raisers until her assessment and training (hopefully) at 12-months.

My music commitments in 2009 came in waves, with the most exciting engagement being CLOC's production of Miss Saigon in May. The production was spectacular, received splendid reviews and sold out each of its eighteen performances! Plus the orchestra was second to none, and the opportunity to work with them all under the direction of Michael Loughlin was wonderful.

The Itchy Feet Pep Band continued to suffer the effects of the financial climate as businesses and festivals tightened their entertainment budgets.  A couple of gigs at the end of the year, including the Myer Christmas Parade rewarded the band for their hard work and patience, though I was travelling with work and missed the chance to dust off the costume.

While I was in London my sister Melissa gave birth to Chloe Laimi Much, the first in the next generation of our family.  The family are all well and it's great to have another baby about to play with.  And this niece doesn't scream every time she sees me!

And so on that bombshell I'll leave you to your business.  If you made it this far, thanks for reading, and 2010 will be the year I actually pay attention to this website.  There'll be lots of travel and lots of music, including an exciting vocal project I'll post about one of these days along with lots of other inane babble to satisfy your procrastination.