2019 review

At the end of each year, a few us gather over a bottle or two to mull over the year, voting in our top 20 highs and lows, discussing our euphoric memories and to contemplate the events that made us miserable.

But with the end of this year and the end of a decade, we decided to only look only at the good, or the funny and the stupid and we gave ourselves a little leeway because some of the tech changes happened in 2008/2009 and they are noteworthy.

But before we get started, we are not adding that in 2010 Jamie Oliver called his son Buddy Bear and we are certainly not going to mention the Lancashire couple who returned home to find a burglar asleep in their bed... well at least he had done the washing up after having a bubble bath!

Without further ado and in no particular order...

1. It was only in 2010 that Steve Jobs introduced us to the iPad
2. Go ahead, Google that... Google Chrome didn’t exist till 2008
3. Tell your friends about it... Instagram only appeared in 2010
4. And while WhatsApp launched in 2009, it never really got started till 2010
5. In the same year, Lady Gaga wore a dress made of meat
6. Metro Bank – the first challenger bank launched in 2010, Starling and Monzo since followed in 2014 and 2015
7. Uber was founded in 2009 but its first trip wasn’t till 2010
8. And 2010 is when 4G hit the iphone5
9. Would you believe you couldn’t Snapchat till 2011?
10.  And Prince William and Kate got married in the same year
11.  The London Olympics – 2012 – all of it
12.  The same year that Gangnam Style became the most played video of all time
13.  Same sex marriage was legalised in the UK in 2014 and in the US in 2015
14.  Donald “Chip” Pugh didn’t like the picture the police posted of him... so he sent them a photo of himself that he did like
15. In 2014, scientists discovered that sea turtles have a third 'eye' that allows them to sense when the seasons change
16. In 2015 it was confirmed that more people die from taking selfies than they do from shark attacks
17. England didn’t win the World Cup – 2018
18. In the same year, scientists discovered that our eardrums move when we move our eyes.
19. And in the same year still, we found out that the computer power needed to create each Bitcoin consumes at least as much electricity as the average household burns in two years
20. And finally, most of us apparently touch our phones over 2000 times each day!

Have a great 2020!

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