About this time last year, I wrote this, a review of 2008. I did one for 2007 too, so might as well do one for 2009.

2009 started with some uncertain ill health, that turned out to be gall stones. I had my cholecystectomy in February and have been a reasonably good health ever since. My weight has slowly crept up toward my pre-illness weight, but thankfully still about 5kg down.

There was quite a lot of travel in 2009, starting with a long weekend in Dubai in February for wife’s birthday. Amazing place.

At Easter, we had a long weekend in Cornwall/Devon, giving Herman a mini road trip.

In June we had a much longer road trip; two weeks through France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland and Germany, taking in the Alps, Italian Lakes, French Riviera, Black Forest and generally some of the Best Driving Roads in the World.

We were to return to Belgium in August – Antwerp this time for a minibreak, and another chance for Herman to play with the trains.

In September, we left Herman at home and travelled to Turkey for a week and met up with my mother-in-law, sister-in-law and niece, and a very nice time it was too.

We would have gone to Belgium (Brussels) again a couple of weeks ago if it wasn’t for the wrong kind of snow in Calais

Finally, for travel, I took Herman up to Aberdeen for Christmas, visiting my dad and stepmum. A bit of drama on Britain’s roads, but generally OK.

Work wise, this year started out very well, rebuilding business with Nomura and generally things were good.

By the middle of the year, long hours and weekends were ramping up my stress levels and I began to look for an exit strategy. This culminated in a move to Barclays Capital in October, where stress and work levels have dropped to the floor, so much so, that I’m seriously craving challenges for this year.

Family life took a bit of a dent toward the end of the year, and apparently there was a credit crisis too.

So, for 2010, I will try to strike a better balance of work, personal and family life, reverse the weight gain trend and generally stay healthy.

Yesterday, I was on the phone to my mum, saying how I’d been feeling fine for the last two weeks, that the trip to see a proper doctor in the week had filled me with confidence and that all was well in the world.

Two or three hours later, I was back in the familiar pattern of pacing around in pain.

It’s probably my fault, being cocky about my apparent good health and throwing caution to the wind with my food choices, but I am now reminded that I am not, in fact, well, and had just masked the symptoms by having a non-dodgy diet.

So for now it’s back to boring food again, or at least cutting out anything overly fatty (which we think is the main trigger).

I’ve got a scan and possible subsequent endoscopy examination this coming week, so hopefully complete diagnosis will be forthcoming.

In the meantime, I’ll take comfort in being 10.5kg lighter today than I was on December 1st, even after a week or two of eating fairly normally.

When I joined Lehman in April 2007, the systems and processes imposed by the US part of our global team were very messy and required a large amount of man-power just to keep going. The philosophy seemed to be “long hours = good work.”

I’ve long wanted to clean this all up, but it’s just not been possible as it requires buy-in and enthusiasm from all concerned.

Since the Nomura/Barcap split of my group, however, I’ve had the opportunity to do that cleanup.

It’s very satisfying.

But it feels like Friday already – been a busy and tiring week; last week too.

Today is going to be very busy with already-planned interviews and the first day of the Lehman/Nomura merge, so half the day in the City and half in Canary Wharf.

Fortunately, I’ve got a long weekend coming up, with an Audi Driving Experience day at Silverstone on Monday, so something to enjoy and take my mind off business.

I predict lots of sleep on Saturday and Sunday.