Last week, Jake stayed while he was working out of the Google SF office. It’s nice having him around - gets us out of the house, drinking too late, talking in proper British slang. I hope he can convince Jen to come out and visit so we can have some California road trip adventures, since that’s what you do here.

Took care of more bureaucracy and got Global Entry to skip the TSA nonsense and to be able to pass through the US e-gates. Of course, I’m trying to travel less this year, so it arrived just in time.

The three of us hiked around Mt. Tam. (very beautiful) and visited Alcatraz (really cool).

Getting back into an office has been very nice. I like the routine, new faces, daily purpose.

I’ve been in America for half a year already. It doesn’t feel like it.

It was my birthday yesterday.

Started new job yesterday. So far, so good.

It's been quiet around these parts, but I have a good excuse. I've been busy.

As you may already be aware, in July of 2013, I emigrated.

I left my beloved London to set up home with my American husband in San Francisco. A combination of visa issues and job shenanigans led us to making this decision, which are far too boring and tedious to bother to explain in any other setting than that of "over a beer in a pub", which I'm happy to do should the situation arise, but let it be known that I left London and my job there with great sadness. If given the opportunity to go back one day, I gladly will. I miss London a lot, but that's almost exclusively because I miss all the people I counted as friends there more than I let on.

Come visit me, guys.

And so, we've been busy with moving and finding somewhere to live in the madness that is the San Francisco real-estate market (it's a really quick way to learn your way around SF, if nothing else, after you've viewed near 30 apartments) and doing all the sorts of boring bureaucracy that comes with starting over, not to mention dealing with the ridiculous US immigration system - I'm now a family-based visa expert, if anyone needs that.

We're pretty settled in now, finally.

What's next?

I loved working for the Government Digital Service. Having been there from before that department was even born, back in those slightly dingy offices in Lambeth, I was in the enviable position to see things grow and have an early impact. I can barely believe how big they are now and how much has been achieved in such a short space of time.

It was truly an honour to get to play a part in all of it and to get to work with such an incredible team of people. It's affected me greatly in terms of what sort of work I now want to do. I knew when I arrived in San Francisco, that I didn't want to just jump on board with the first thing I came across. I wanted to find somewhere that I knew would "get it", somewhere that wanted to try and do Good Things™ for real people.

And so, on January 7th, I'm joining Code for America as their senior designer and front-end engineer.

• Built some good stuff
• Won the design awards
• 17 airplane rides
• Visited the USA (3x before move), Poland, France (x2)
• Attended 10 conferences/events
• Spoke at 4 conferences/events
• Got married
• Got to see a best friend get married
• Left my favourite job to date
• Emigrated
• Bought a house
• Got a new job

I got a new job. Starting at CfA on 7th January. Pretty excited.

Painted a bit more of the house, but did a lousy job and ran out of paint, so I’ve got a top-up coat to do.

Had our first dinner party type thing at the house now we have some dining chairs. Christmas dinner appeared to be a success.

Visited the DMV and applied for some ID. I think I am considering maybe thinking about learning to drive eventually perhaps.