This is the 4th new year since I moved to the UK. I made some significant achievements in my career, but few things else.

Achievements in the year

Career

At my job at Jnction, I introduced real-time National Rail train data into Aubin using GTFS-RT and OpenTripPlanner as the underlying technology, and made a lot of contributions into the real-time processing of OpenTripPlanner. Aubin has now grown into a separate business and is now in public beta in the UK, with capabilities now exceeding big names such as Google Maps and Citymapper (for example, the ability to route travellers onto diverted trains, and to plan park-and-ride journeys). I will work closely with the team to complete the missing parts of the product and bring it to production in 2025, along with open data and open source software improvements which benefit the whole country and the world.

Swimming

I have become an ice swimmer this year by racing the 250 m in 1.17°C ice water in the Ice Bear Trophy on an extreme day trip flying to Austria (although I don’t actually want to fly if I have an affordable choice). I did my first English open water nationals as well. However my time was not great in these races. I had no improvement at all in the Barnet Copthall 1500 m Masters, which I participated 4 years in a row. My swimming ability is so bad that it is unlikely for me to be able to swim the channels I am interested in, including the shortest routes of Bristol Channel, North Channel, and Gibraltar Channel, which all have strong tides.

The planned “Hongkongers in the UK” English Channel relay didn’t happen due to bad weather. I crewed Ingrid in August and she has become the 4th Hongkonger to swim the English Channel.

Orienteering

My orienteering performance deteriorated this year. My TrailO world ranking has dropped to the 169th globally and the 3rd in Hong Kong, with only 4113 points out of 6000. In the UK, I ranked the 9th in the BriTOL with 259 out of 300 in the best 3 out of 4, while in the SEOUL, I ranked the 11th with 550 out of 700 in the best 7 out of 21.

Review of my year goals

The following is the list copied from last year’s review, with the bracketed item my achievement in the year:

Active list

• To get into the top 3 for the 19+ age group in the London Region Open Water Swimming Championships, 5 km. [done – I got the 2nd]
• To complete at least 1 marathon swim, in order to continue my streak of completing marathon swims every year since 2019. [done – I did 2 marathon swims]
• To swim the English Channel in a relay team composed of solely Hongkongers living in the UK. [weathered out]
• To complete a swimming marathon (10 km) within 3:40 (pro-rata for longer races). [I couldn’t make the time]
• To get at least 5 L% improvement in my swimming in terms of race times, which are 24:20.29 for 1500 LCM and 25:55.83 for 1500 SCM [I couldn’t make the time]
• To halve my place behind winner in British TrailO League and Southern England Orienteering Urban League. This means I aim to get into the top 17 in BriTOL and top 3 in SEOUL in 2024. [I did it in BriTOL but not the SEOUL]
• To complete a 250 m ice swimming race in the 2023-2024 Northern Hemisphere winter. [done]
• To lose weight to 65 kg. [I couldn’t make it]

Deferred list

• To complete my first running marathon. [not attempted at all]
• To complete a running marathon (42.195 km) within 3:40 (pro-rata for longer races). [not attempted at all]

My goals next year

I am no longer confident in myself and don’t want to set myself goals which are out of my ability to achieve, such as swimming the North Channel (short route). To simplify matters, I will only have the following items in my list for 2025:

• Buy myself a home. [new goal]
• To complete a swimming marathon (10 km) within 3:40 (pro-rata for longer races). [carried over]
• To swim the English Channel in a relay team composed of solely Hongkongers living in the UK. [carried over]
• To lose weight until I sink naturally in the sea without a force exhalation (i.e. FRC in diving terms). [adjusted – no longer targetting a number but instead to let me enjoy the feel in water, and the density is a better measure for fat ratio as well]