Hannah's Actual Birthday

To continue on from Stephen's previous blog (yes, this is Hannah - I've remembered how to blog!) I thought I'd share a few pics from my actual birthday.

Last year I finally got myself organised enough to apply for Chartered Professional Review with the Institute of Civil Engineers. I'd done a lot of the hard work back when I was in the Leeds office and 'just' needed to sit the actual review. I submitted my reports (after much writing and re-writing) in August and went for the actual review in September (a one hour grilling / interview, followed by an essay in exam conditions) and then awaited my fate.

Results day was a Friday in December, the very same day Mr Greene was coming to the UK for a week for work. I went to pick him up from the airport (yes, I remembered how to drive when I was back home!) and while I was waiting I thought I'd check my email... lo and behold I got a very nice email telling me I'd passed, just as he came through arrivals , awesome!

This email also said that the presentation ceremony for certificates would be on the 16th January, my birthday! If I was in the UK I'm not sure I'd have bothered to go, it would have meant a day off work and a trip to London. This was an evening bash and only on the other side of the harbour, the invitation also mentioned free drinks, which may have influenced my decision.

Anyway, I roped Stephen into coming to hang out with a bunch of engineers for the evening (he loved it...) and went to collect my certificate from the president.

Bit of 'fun time' on the stage, standard.

The event was held in a posh Japanese hotel, this panel in the toilet was quite interesting!?

Woo, I did it! When / if we buy a house I'm framing it and putting it in the toilet....

We walked along the waterfront to get the Star Ferry back to the island, I couldn't resist an obligatory picture with the skyline.

Got home and Mr Greene had got me some balloons and presents :-) 

And SIFT CAKES! Yums. (The best cupcakes in HK).

And that was that! A random but fun birthday and I'm pretty chuffed to have the letters CEng MICE after my name (not that I actually ever use them but you know, nice to know I can!). I'm having a year off this year, next year I'll work on becoming a MIStructE... then should I manage to pass that (might take several attempts...) that's me done with exams for a long time!