What was the best thing to happen to you personally in 2018?

[SpiderChrist]

Just thought I'd leap into this maelstrom with something positive. Back in May I deejayed at Bearded Theory festival, in a beer tent, with this beastie:



It was ace.

New page alpaca.

[Kryton]

Wow. This thread went sour fast.

On the plus side I've been with my partner nearly a year now and I'm happy and she's happy. And I still get warm, fuzzy feelings when I think about her. Life is more or less good.

I still need to tone down the beer drinking though, I keep finding excuses to 'nip to the shop for a few cans', which isn't good.

[northernrebel]

Not that anyone knows me but FWIW

Romania, in August.  Transylvanian castles and old monasteries and baroque squares and little grilled sausages. It hit the spot.
Lake Constance, as it is just gorgeous and it lifted my depression (for a while at least)
The sex I had in February - memorable, all the more so for being illicit and morally reprehensible and generally naughty but nice.

[imitationleather]

The sex I had in February - memorable, all the more so for being illicit and morally reprehensible and generally naughty but nice.

Sister? Child? Dog?

[Ferris]

Sister? Child? Dog?

Yes.

[northernrebel]

A Gentleman slut keeps his mystery

[Buelligan]

Self then.  Thought so.

[Stoneage Dinosaurs]

Boring list of things time!

-One year anniversary of my first actual proper and not bollocks romantic relationship and all the fun and good times that entails
-Found out what clothes I like to wear, thereby rendering fashion a fun thing to do rather than just a tedious necessity and turning myself into the massive ponce I was always destined to be
-Started liking tomatoes (a bit)
-Learned to cook properly (chicken)
-Moved out of my awful maggot, shouting and mould filled houseshare of doom and into a lovely little rural-ish Tudor house (it is cold and next to a level crossing but you can't have everything pal)
-Successfully knitted a scarf and hat and most of a jumper and another scarf
-Less wanking
-Got back into going places and planned my first abroad trip (Oslo) that wasn't arranged by someone else. Also went to Paris and Manchester and had a wicked time
-Two cab meets, one of which marked the first time sleeping with another CaB member (as in sleeping in the same room overnight (and some low-level bumming))

[sevendaughters]

a really smashing holiday in Lubeck with my other half at the tail end of August, in my mind I'm still there.

[seepage]

upped the thread count on my bed linen. 600 vs. death - it's a race.

[Small Man Big Horse]

As some people are doing long lists I thought I'd add some more:

Saw some fantastic live comedy including Maria Bamford, Marc Maron, Natalie Paladimes, Jen Kirkman, Michael Brunstrom, Marcel LuCont, Andy Kindler, Jordan Brookes, Bridget Christie and Steen Raskopoulos.
Went to two music gigs this year when I hadn't been to any in ages due to the shit knee.
Met Bryan Cranston when he did a talk and a book signing.
Started my website which has been doing relatively well (for a wordpress blog at least) and through that have got to interview Tony Law, Andy Kindler, Danielle Ward, Michael Legge, David Reed of The Penny Dreadfuls, Laura Lexx and a good few others.
Lost three stone in weight so I can fit in to old clothes and don't have to buy new ones.
Had a lovely wank in the bath a couple of weeks ago.

[Twit 2]

Glad things are working out for you lately. I massively respect the way you've given up weed/fags and wish I had your will power.

[bgmnts]

I gave up weed and fags before I even got hooked on them.

Where're my plaudits?

[Ian Drunken Smurf]

Became a father of twins, and Austrian although not necessarily in that chronological order.

[Cuellar]

A Gentleman slut keeps his mystery

Oh god Jonathan King isn't back is he

[Ian Drunken Smurf]

Lake Constance, as it is just gorgeous and it lifted my depression (for a while at least)

It is a lovely part of the world - love Vorarlberg and also Lindau. If I had a teleworking job that I could do from there for a few weeks a year I would do it in a flash.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Glad things are working out for you lately. I massively respect the way you've given up weed/fags and wish I had your will power.

Thank you for that, it took a stay in a psychiatric hospital to get over the weed but I'm so glad I did it, I feel much calmer in general and get so much more done too. I still have the odd day I miss it but they're few and far between now.

[kittens]

oh yeah forgot i bummed angrew

[Satchmo Distel]

Adopting two kittens - the best treatment for depression I have had.

[non capisco]

I think it might have been seeing Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds this summer, probably the best live performance I've ever seen in all my dedicated years of gig going. I've never seen someone so utterly in command of a crowd. He was singing one of the hushed, bedevilled, grief-wracked numbers from his latest album and halfway through it I realised NO-ONE in the audience, not one person in a huge outdoor crowd at Victoria Park, was saying a goddamn thing. Everyone was hypnotised. When he played 'Jubilee Street' I didn't even feel I was in my own body for a while. I wasn't in command of my reactions whatsoever. The whole performance was spellbinding in the truest sense of the world. I've been to and enjoyed countless shows this year, it's been a really great year for live musical experiences from John Maus to Sparks to Melvins to the blistering Protomartyr gig at The Scala where it was so packed I could only see the top of Joe Casey's head and still knew it was astonishing, but old Cave-o was absolutely something else, man.

[greencalx]

We finally fixed the "guest test" in our bathroom, which for several years had led to unsuspecting visitors serially creating a flood whenever they flushed the toilet.

[Pranet]

OK I've been thinking hard.

The weather at End of the Road was absolutely smashing.

I saw an unexpected badger.

Got more reading done than 2017.

[Rev+]

Happened only last week.  After waiting about five minutes in hacking rain to cross a road, a driver paused to let me cross.  I wanted to kiss their bonnet.  These things never happen around here.

Actually there's another that happened today - I'm involved in a credit union, and some very wobbly arsehole has been attacking us after 4 years without contact.  Just received notice from the Financial Ombudsman that they're not upholding her complaint.  Getting that out of the way before the pissed and inactive season felt good.

Worst year of my life other than that.  Still, look for the positives.

[Icehaven]

- Living very happily in one room with Mr. Haven since March (bodes well for when we finally get our act together and rent a whole flat or house.)
-'Officially' appointed to my job after acting up for over a year.
- Recording a Marc Riley session.
- Spoons starting doing American breakfasts.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

My serious answer to this is "Nothing", of course. 'Twas ever thus.

(Quite literally, Nothing, not Paul Morley's autobiography from 2000 )

(I was lying about the maginificent mid-may masturbation. Sorry. I lied to myself, which is no big deal, but I also lied to Small Man Big Horse, and that saddens to me. No-one should lie to SMBH. Except if he were to ask you "Am I a cunt?", then a tactful white lie may be in order.)

[Small Man Big Horse]

I can't believe you lied about that wank, I've been boasting about it to friends and family all week. A good few strangers too, and they clapped me on the back and said how happy they were for me.

[northernrebel]

It is a lovely part of the world - love Vorarlberg and also Lindau. If I had a teleworking job that I could do from there for a few weeks a year I would do it in a flash.

Indeed. Stunningly beautiful. I stayed in Lindau, had coffee and cake in Austria, then beer and chocolate in Switzerland. Certainly beats a commute at the crack of dawn!

[zomgmouse]

Punched annoying receptionist in the tits*

* wishful thinking.

Hey sorry but this is out of line and even jokingly not okay to say.

[colacentral]

Built half a puppet.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

Hey sorry but this is out of line and even jokingly not okay to say.

Alright then, I kicked her in the former bassist for The Stone Roses.

Sorry.