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

[Ambient Sheep]

The truly horrifying thing is that I can't think of one.  It's been arguably the worst year of my life from start to finish, and things are only going to get worse going forward.  Nothing, absolutely nothing.

Sorry to bring down the thread.  I entered it with good intentions but then when I stopped to think... there was  nothing. :-(

Oh great.  New. Fucking. Page. (with apologies to Barry)  Shoot me now.

[Twed]

Best thing to me was probably getting laid in space

Train station lifts are not "space"

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

The truly horrifying thing is that I can't think of one.  It's been arguably the worst year of my life from start to finish, and things are only going to get worse going forward.  Nothing, absolutely nothing.

Sorry to bring down the thread.  I entered it with good intentions but then when I stopped to think... there was  nothing. :-(

Oh great.  New. Fucking. Page. (with apologies to Barry)  Shoot me now.

Could have mentioned my " It's Kristen Hersh! " thread as an absolute highlight of yer year. Honestly, some people.

[Howj Begg]

Leaving my second wife 6 months ago. I'm not throwing this around casually, she genuinely has Borderline Personality Disorder. Highly volatile relationship, and an extremely strange break-up. There was the usual sadness, regret, relief, but in addition, I had to work through kind of resetting my own image of myself. A BPD person will break you down mentally, they'll warp who you are and spit it back at you relentlessly and with absolutely sincerity until you believe it as much as they do. You'll be accused of abuse, gaslighting, invalidating their feelings, hating them, never having loving them, all the while you're being abused, and gaslit, and invalidated and all the rest of it. You'll be literally physically ill from the 24 hour tension of not trying to set this person off, of never know where or when or why the next fight is coming from. You'll be a tightly-wound coil of fear and anxiety for the entirety of your waking life, and when you snap you'll be asked why are you like this, why are you so abusive, why do you hate me, why are you so horrible.

Never get involved with a Borderline person, kids.

I don't know what to liken it to - a near death experience? Going through that and rebuilding myself afterwards has changed me. Before this relationship, I was generally an anxious person, prone to depression and self-loathing, and I'm not like that at all any more. I still have the usual daily stresses of life and frustrations and bad moods, but at my core I have become profoundly content and peaceful, never in my life have I experienced this. Maybe it'll wear off, but it hasn't yet. So 2018 has, in a weird way, been the best year of my life so far.

Well, just want to agree with all of this, and I've glad you escaped it. I was with someone with BPD for over 5 years, and only this year have I fully realised how lucky I was it ended, but I was devastated for about a year afterwards. Now, I'm pretty euphoric to be free of the psychological pressures it involved.

Probably been the best year of my life, tbh. Got my BSC degree, that I worked damn hard for, then got my CELTA in quick succession at International House. Earning good money doing something I love, and doing things I want to do in my spare time. I've got loads of friends that i see regularly, and doing nice things for them is a buzz.  I can't ask for much more than that, really.

[Ferris]

Conception of my son. I don't even know what to make of it we're so happy and terrified.

January 2019, folks. Watch this space.

[The Boston Crab]

I did a marathon one day with no training to make a petty point to a few mates and acquaintances who were always banging on about marathon training. Nearly killed me and I got a stress fracture in my foot and badly sunburned but I actually did it. Kind of sums up the year, in many ways. It's been tough. Ended up top rod on a fishing trip and won a handsome wager. Some great laughs with my wife and a couple of nice weekends away.

[PlanktonSideburns]

Got married

Made the decision to go back to do my masters next year

Started a music project with some mates that I'm really stoked about

Got an electronic blanket - seriously, this is fucking brilliant

Good thread. Counting my biscuits and reading yours has been a balm

[PlanktonSideburns]

The truly horrifying thing is that I can't think of one.  It's been arguably the worst year of my life from start to finish, and things are only going to get worse going forward.  Nothing, absolutely nothing.

Sorry to bring down the thread.  I entered it with good intentions but then when I stopped to think... there was  nothing. :-(

Oh great.  New. Fucking. Page. (with apologies to Barry)  Shoot me now.

My sympathies to you - my 2017 was like this, a real shitcake up the arse with no pregape, couldn't wait to be done with the cunt. Started almost exactly on the dot with an explosive diarrhea attack and gushing nosebleed combo in a chalet in the Swiss alps, the sound of flaming gut discharge and fireworks, and ended in an Amazon warehouse, trying to codine away a herniating spine with a 15 minute limp to a ten minute lunchbreak

[The Lurker]

I signed up to CaB.

[PlanktonSideburns]

Welcome lurker!

[another Mr. Lizard]

Derby's 'Paracinema' cult film festival for me - I interviewed Toyah Willcox in front of a live audience, and she was one of the nicest celeb guests I've ever encountered. Two days later at the same event, a movie co-written by me received its big-screen premiere (recently heard that we've got an American company interested in expanding its availability/release next year).
Also worked on some interesting book projects as writer, editor, or proofreader, and was commissioned to write the programme notes for the 'Anim18' national animation festival.

[Buelligan]

Could I just echo and empathise with thatMichaelDouglascunt and Howj's BPD observations?  When I finally bucked mine off, I felt euphoric for about eighteen months and then I realised I just felt normal but it was such a huge relief, I thought I was in paradise.  I now avoid humans, just to be on the safe side.

My best stuff has been the night skies in their infinite variety.  And walking home one night in a terrible storm pretending to be a pirate and the fire still burning when I got in and my clean warm bed waiting for me.  Wild orchids in the spring.  Kittens, fuck me, I like them a lot.  Getting my fucking ceiling finished, can't stop looking at it, I am in LOVE. 

[H-O-W-L]

I don't really know. Maybe just the knowledge that I'm progressing, at the least.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

I honestly don't think I'm ever going to have a better wank than that one from Mid-May.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I honestly don't think I'm ever going to have a better wank than that one from Mid-May.

Just wait until I lose more weight, my next appearance will be astonishing.

Kittens, fuck me, I like them a lot.

He's a great poster but don't inflate his ego anymore, it's crazily big as it is!

And sorry to hear about your woes QDRPHNC but I'm glad you're in the place you are right now. And sorry to hear it's been such a shit for you too Sheepy, I truly hope next year is a much much better one.

[Shit Good Nose]

It's been quite a tough year all in all (although many of you have had it MUCH tougher, so I won't go into all that), but the two best things that have happened to me happened on the same day, last Friday - I was on leave and in a cafe with a mate when I had a Whatsapp message from my boss saying that we're taking on the management of some contracts worth about £4million a year which, after being on the redundancy precipice for the last three or four years, is great news and means that we're a bit more secure, even if it doesn't mean our jobs are now 100% safe.  The other, and best one, happened a few hours later when one of my closest friends phoned me to say that she's moving back down here permanently next February, after her husband decided four years ago that a move up to Northampton was a sensible thing to do.  I was like a pig in shit the whole weekend, and we've now got the chrimbo decs up in the office and I've got some good festivities on the horizon over the next couple of weeks, so I'm pretty happy at the mo.

[Norton Canes]

I think it has to be between the two weeks in America - Arizona, Nevada, Phoenix, Vegas, Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, Area 51, Route 66, Sedona - and getting an epilator.

[H-O-W-L]

My lowest point of the year was waking up in a pile of broken glass with scotch all over me. 2017 was my worse alcoholic phase but that was a real low. Spent the rest of the morning sat with my back against my speaker listening to Love Will Tear Us Apart over and over for some reason. I think the whiny synth line just felt pleasing to me.

EDIT:

On the plus side 2018 is the year I finally got my act together and have stayed mostly sober. I've spent more months sober now than drunk this year which is fucking staggering considering I was getting close to a liter a night.

[Gulftastic]

Losing 5 stone in weight.

Also possibly the worst as it meant I was fit for work so I had to get a job for the first time in 13 years.

[Neville Chamberlain]

Finally getting round to watching Breaking Bad - fuck me, that was so fucking good. Best three weeks of my life!

[Blue Jam]

Got an electronic blanket - seriously, this is fucking brilliant

Bought a spaetzle maker and used it at least once a week. Changed my food life for a tenner.

getting an epilator.

...and I got a blender! One of those Nutribullet-type things. I don't usually like shop-bought smoothies as they all seem to contain banana, now I can put whatever I want in them and have a nice smoothie on the cheap. Been going to Farmfoods (bleak, I know) to take advantage of their "three bags of frozen fruit for a fiver" offer, got a bag of porridge oats from Lidl for 75p, no bananas, jobs a good 'un. I use it several times a week and I feel a bit healthier. I think...

Also got a copper IUD. Coming off hormonal contraception was properly life-changing. For six years I had recurring depressive phases and times when I've had to take Prozac for a few months, it was only when I got my third Nexplanon implant back in March and I started getting brain fog and headaches, having suicidal thoughts and wanting to cry in meetings that I thought "Hey, maybe this isn't my natural state after all, maybe I shouldn't be getting pumped full of hormones like livestock". The doctor was great and installation was almost painless, and now I can't believe how much my mood has lifted and how much more awake and energetic I feel. Also it'll keep the babies away for ten years, after which time my eggs will probably all have rolled out anyway, woo-hoo!

What device has improved your life in 2018, in your ladyparts or kitchen or otherwise?

[bgmnts]

Think i've met girl of my dreams. Late in the year.

[Neville Chamberlain]

I bought a citrus juicer - so now I, too, can experience in the comfort of my own home the joy of explosive diarrhoea after consuming the juice of three grapefruits and six oranges in 30 seconds.

[drummersaredeaf]

Don't tease. Where's she from?

The best bit of my year has been living my love life vicariously through BGMNTS.

[SteveDave]

I released an LP (still available in all good record shops and Norman Records)

The continuing greatness of my son- his recent foray into interpretative dance is a highlight of every dinner time

I saw Arctic Monkeys and Swamp Dogg live

My wife hasn't divorced me yet

I don't have cancer of the balls, they just ache and doctors are baffled

[bgmnts]

Don't tease. Where's she from?

The best bit of my year has been living my love life vicariously through BGMNTS.

Originally Surrey but lives in Soufampton.

[Jockice]

Repairing and resetting my knackered old laptop. All by myself. This was yesterday. The sheer relief when I was able to log on again and discovered I hadn't lost everything is a feeling i very rarely get.

[Head Gardener]

pros

getting a really expensive mattress & topper and some decent fucking glasses - I can now see proper!
finding some great records at the car boot and meeting some interesting folks along the way,
a great holiday in Spain with my son, we had a right laugh,
seeing Rickie Lee Jones and TC&I play live

cons

dog got her leg broken in an argument with a cow
step son re-admitted to psych-hospital
The Chase still never got in touch, fuckers... I passed the audition in May 2017
put on a stone

[kittens]

i lost a lot of weight and am now under 12 stone which has not happened since i was about 14
i went to a spa w/ rooftop pool on mine and my girlfriend's anniversary
saw hamilton
won £20 on a scratcher
red dead redemption 2
that london cab meet was great
saw my second favourite podcast live
end of the road festival
cycled to tintern abbey
went kayaking with my friends in the sun
finished shooting and editing a dumb hour long movie and showed it to my friends
godspeed you black emperor live was Great
cycled to wells saw cathedral bought girlfriend a little bear in a t shirt who is now our son
went on some cool drives with my friend lee
had a moustache
cycled to cheddar gorge with chris burger
relistened to all the sparks nevada episodes of thrilling adventure hour
watched a car just totally burn up like two metres in front of me

who cares

[massive bereavement]

Somebody left 4p in change in the self service checkout machine I went to last month, which wasn't the one I normally go to.