Good things that happened to you this decade

[PaulTMA]

Said "sweet" a lot in a Cartman-esque voice





that's about it really

[Dannyhood91]

But there is a need. Unless you think he should go prancing through life like Little Lord Fauntleroy, publishing a neverending embarrassment to himself.

I don't think I'm Mr Fantastic I have a lot of things I'm insecure about and know that I need to improve about myself. I've actually been dwelling on those things, probably too much so I thought and instead of wallowing in self pity and done nothing to fix them like I used to do all the time, I'm trying to be a bit more encouraging to myself. I thought it would be helpful for myself to publicly share some of the nice things that have happened in a moment of reflection on a forum of largely interesting people and see what they're proud of because it does good to hear about the happy things in peoples lives. There's nothing wrong with me feeling good about myself in the areas that I feel merit it. You might have had a bad decade but I would imagine you've had some good things happen to you to, which I think you should feel good about too and I encourage you to share them. If you don't want to thats fine also and again I do apologise if it looks like im gloating to you I don't think I'm better than you because I can assure you im probably not.

[Dannyhood91]

You didn't come off as smug, he was just being needlessly cunty. And your list made me smile a lot, I'm glad so many good things have happened to you.

Mine:
Finally got a job / career that I enjoy.
Had a five year relationship, most of which was a really happy time for me.
Tried my hand at stand up and did about 80-ish gigs, I wasn't that great but it was a fun time.
Started a blog which has led to seeing a fuck load of comedy for free.
Made several very, very strong friendships.
Now weed free for the first time in 20 odd years.
Wrote a novel which several people didn't like that much, but hey, hopefully when I do the next draft it'll be better.
I'm currently on the lowest amount of anti-depressants in about 13 years.

Excellent! I know what a fucker anti depressants can be and how good it feels to be published. Also it must have taken some balls to do stand up live. I'd probably have actively shit myself on stage amid a crushing apathetic silence if i got on stage.

[Barry Admin]

Don't let "Default to the negative" get to you, he's just being a dick, and has been posting transphobia and porn videos and stuff lately, so seems to want either a (permanent) ban, or is just tragically desperate for (negative) attention in general.

Keep your chin up man.

[flotemysost]

Aw, this is a nice idea for a thread, good on you Dannyhood91 for celebrating the positive stuff that's happened to you.

This is in part inspired by some of the points on your list...

1. Saw my alcoholic dad survive several self-inflicted near-death experiences, then get (and remain) sober.

2. Gave up self harm and bulimia. That's not to say that I don't sometimes still feel how I did when I was doing those things - I just don't feel like I need to do them any more.

2. After being fired/made redundant from several jobs (which I didn't like anyway) in a row, getting and keeping a job in an industry I love, and making some really close friends there.

3. Realising that despite being on the quieter side, I'm actually pretty independent and outgoing, and I can jump into situations that many of my 'louder' friends would find daunting - performing on stage, rocking up at a class/Meetup group/gig etc. where I don't know anyone, moving into a flatshare with randoms and becoming good friends with them, etc.

4. Traveled to some very cool places around the world (not so 'cool' for the environment, I know).

5. In part inspired by one of your points... becoming more conscious of my own mixed heritage, and less willing to just go along with most people's assumption that I'm white. Alongside this, being more aware of the inherent, everyday racism in our society, and becoming more passionate about stopping it.

6. Stopped wasting so much energy on loathing how I look.

7. Went to some amazing gigs, festivals etc.

[hamfist]

1. Started a company with 4 mates, grew it to 40 employees
2. Moved to the UK
3. Spaffed cum out of my angry cock on and around my wife's cervix and thus produced 2 smaller versions of me & her
4. Started another company for the next decade

[Ferris]

Married, had son, moved to Toronto, became a Canadian citizen, got promoted to Big Boss job making great money. Started posting my thought-turds onto CaB.

Start of this decade I was a complete mess. End of it, I'm actually doing ok.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

Saw a jolly good gig by Toy, and had a right good snogging from a top Rebecca Front lookalike. Happened tonight , and within this decade, so it counts. 
DefaultTo The Negative is welcome to have a go at me for this post if he likes. Indeed, I would welcome a drubbingfrom this fine fellow.

[Sherringford Hovis]

Found a peanut.

[Default to the negative]

Don't let "Default to the negative" get to you, he's just being a dick, and has been posting transphobia and porn videos and stuff lately, so seems to want either a (permanent) ban, or is just tragically desperate for (negative) attention in general.

I've learned my lesson and I won't post transphobia or pornography again. I hope I'm still allowed to be a dick.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

I would want someone with that username to be a dick in this thread.

Decade of ups and downs for me, but largely a transition from quiet directionless existence where I did a lot of writing and music but was unfulfilled in every other aspect to the inverse, which is more comfortable yet still vaguely unsatisfactory.

Focusing mainly on the good

- 2 long term relationships which transformed my confidence and helped me understand other people better
- Went bald which removed one thing I was unhappy and worried about
- Had a few albums on netlabel release, the latter of which did alright
- Explored Europe which is something I always wanted
- Stayed healthy throughout which I am grateful for
- Mainly discovered who I am, why that's okay, why that's sometimes not OK and needs working on
- Been lucky to develop new friendships and a wider social circle
- Until last week where my Grandma died aged 103, the benefit of having a kind, caring understanding Gran for nearly the entire decade despite her old age.
- Seen a good portion of my favourite bands live, attended events I wouldn't normally have gone to and enjoyed them as well
- Discovered the value of saying yes to things (easier when you have a paid job, admittedly)

[Gregory Torso]

It's been a lovely decade.

- Started it by releasing a book of short obscenities that was well recieved by friends and park benches and a bemused american colleague who had the good fortune to be my secret santa that christmas.

- Married my chinese sweetheart in a hong kong seafood palace and ganbei'd rice wine with a hundred red-faced, swole uncles that I'd never seen before and have never seen since. Gave a speech in Cantonese as suckling pigs with hearts in their eyes harmonised from whurlitzer table displays.

- Became a dad against everyone's expectations and advice and surprised myself by being pretty good at it, actually becoming a somewhat tender, loving and selfless person for once having found the one human on this interminable cot death planet that i would genuinely die for, a humbling feeling.

- Music continues to delight, move, inspire and ignite me. New music, new-old music, I'm so glad I still want to discover new bands and artists and haven't become one of those jaded old fucks that only listens to the things they liked in their twenties.

- Reconnected with friends I had left behind in bedrooms, lay-bys, stress dreams and Lincolnshire villages, and they forgave me for abandoning them.

- Drinking whiskey out of a tiny ceremonial cup sitting in a deckchair on the roof of my house as my neighbour regaled me with stories of his malfunctioning "beenis" and how his girlfriend had left him because "it couldn't stand up for long enough".

- Talked myself down off a bridge that I fully intended to jump from two years ago, ready to throw myself into the cold green pearl river, crying, managed to force myself down off the railings and go home to my wife.

- Replaced my horrifically undefined tits with a spice rack.

- Walked around naked in the Guangdong countryside at night feeling like I was the only person alive on the planet. Washed a buffalo in a river with a lathered broom. Shat in a communal pit standing on a plank of wood, like it was natural and allowed.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

Whenever I read Gregory Torso's posts , I am always moved to think if that thing what John Peel said after he'd first heard The Fall's versh of " Strychnine" from their session for him, circa April 1993 ;
" Well, I've long since run out of superlatives, but come on....

[ProvanFan]

It's been a lovely decade.

- Started it by releasing a book of short obscenities that was well recieved by friends and park benches and a bemused american colleague who had the good fortune to be my secret santa that christmas.

- Married my chinese sweetheart in a hong kong seafood palace and ganbei'd rice wine with a hundred red-faced, swole uncles that I'd never seen before and have never seen since. Gave a speech in Cantonese as suckling pigs with hearts in their eyes harmonised from whurlitzer table displays.

- Became a dad against everyone's expectations and advice and surprised myself by being pretty good at it, actually becoming a somewhat tender, loving and selfless person for once having found the one human on this interminable cot death planet that i would genuinely die for, a humbling feeling.

- Music continues to delight, move, inspire and ignite me. New music, new-old music, I'm so glad I still want to discover new bands and artists and haven't become one of those jaded old fucks that only listens to the things they liked in their twenties.

- Reconnected with friends I had left behind in bedrooms, lay-bys, stress dreams and Lincolnshire villages, and they forgave me for abandoning them.

- Drinking whiskey out of a tiny ceremonial cup sitting in a deckchair on the roof of my house as my neighbour regaled me with stories of his malfunctioning "beenis" and how his girlfriend had left him because "it couldn't stand up for long enough".

- Talked myself down off a bridge that I fully intended to jump from two years ago, ready to throw myself into the cold green pearl river, crying, managed to force myself down off the railings and go home to my wife.

- Replaced my horrifically undefined tits with a spice rack.

- Walked around naked in the Guangdong countryside at night feeling like I was the only person alive on the planet. Washed a buffalo in a river with a lathered broom. Shat in a communal pit standing on a plank of wood, like it was natural and allowed.

- Three world cups

[Icehaven]

2010 - 2014 Boring low paid job, stale relationship, often panic over how this seems to be my life now and can't see how or why it would change, so probably still acting as if I was 18 to pretend anything could happen.

Late 2014 - Got new interesting job somewhere I'd never have believed I'd work in a million years.

2015- Relationship ended and met the (get the sick bags) love of my life (took us a few more years to get together but so far so good.) Also joined a metal band, which I'd wanted to do for years but didn't for some reason, also still going well, just about.

2016 - Weirdest, loneliest year of my life.

2017 - Got together with the Big Love, unexpectedly got my boss's job by default when he was sort of sacked.

2018-2019 - Trying to stabilise life a bit, make a home and save, all that malarkey, limited success so far but it's an enormous relief to me to even want to, given for the first half of the decade I was in my early 30s and truly believed I was destined to become one of those 50 year olds out clubbing desperately trying to fit in with the kids.

So overall good, but I can virtually draw a line down the middle of the decade and call it before and after, as in 2015 - 2017 everything changed massively. Has taught me to never assume everything's set though, as it isn't, ever.

[Billy]

2010 - Had my first kiss with a girl on a club on Valentines Night, perfectly timed to the song "Love In This Club" by Usher.

2011 - Lived in Sheffield over the summer and got gloriously drunk each night on £1.50 Strongbows.

2012 - Finished my three-year drama course and graduated to the sound of Fun's 'We Are Young' and the London Olympics, briefly thinking the world was going to be ok from now on.

2013 - Wrote a load of short plays and had eight of them performed in various small theatres, leaving me utterly creatively burnt out by Christmas but with a nice portfolio sorted.

2014 - Went to Australia and fell in love with it, living/working there on and off for the next three years. Still missing the Cherry Ripes and Dare iced coffees.

2015 - Tried my hand at stand-up comedy and did mildly ok at it. Wrote & had my first full length play performed at the Camden Fringe, then buggered off back to Australia.

2016 - Travelled to many, many countries and essentially lived out of a small backpack for a year. Didn't find out who'd won the US election for a week as I was in Georgia and Armenia and couldn't read their alphabets.

2017 - Queued for about 11 hours to see Muse perform at the Shepherd's Bush Empire with a setlist voted for by the audience. Result was the best fucking gig I've ever seen.

2018 - Didn't die from the fractured skull I received in September when two guys late at night decided to attack and rob me. Saw a load of people at the hospital I hadn't seen in years and rekindled a few good friendships.

2019 - Had two amazing weeks in Brazil, backpacked around Asia, had a successful solo show performed, finally got my love life back on track and found the best job I've ever had. By far the best year of my life so far.

There's been a lot of shit too, but looking back at all that then yeah I'd say overall a success.

[bgmnts]

Made a really nice dauphinoise potato a few months ago.

[TheBrownBottle]

This thread is great.

Me:

2010 met my partner
2013 quit taking drugs (non-legal variety)
2014 finished my degree & got first job in an actual profession
2017 emigrated with partner to Australia
2018 bought dog no 1, quit drinking, quit smoking (had issues with both)
2019 bought dog no 2, first house

The decade looks pretty decent all things considered.  Better than the 2000s, which were spent in a drink & drug addled haze, punctured by successive failures.

[PlanktonSideburns]

very unimaginative dog names

[Blue Jam]

Got my shit together, basically:

Quit a career that was totally wrong for me and moved into one that was totally right.

Got the fuck out of London.

Did an MSc and a PhD

Lived in Japan for a bit

Finally got the travel bug and went to some interesting places, including Easter Island in the off-season when at one point Mr Jam and I had the whole of Ahu Tongariki to ourselves

Said goodbye to some crap friendships and made some much better and healthier new ones.

Cut off my toxic family and was welcomed into Mr Jam's nice, normal one

Became an aunt to two adorable nephews

Went snooker loopy

...and the best thing of all: met the love of my life and have spent seven and a half years of this decade with him now. Love you, Mr Jam xxx

The 2010s treated me well then, after the 2000s were a bit of a lost and lonely decade for me. I hope to fuck this isn't a trend...

[Neville Chamberlain]

very unimaginative dog names

Loved their Peel session!

[TheBrownBottle]

very unimaginative dog names

I wanted to call dog no. 1 'Dog', and was voted down in a two voter household.  As if 'Dog' is any sillier than any other name for a dog.

[Cerys]

The 2010s treated me well then, after the 2000s were a bit of a lost and lonely decade for me. I hope to fuck this isn't a trend...

Even if the trend involves the 2020s treating you even better than the 2010s?

[Blue Jam]

You know what Cerys, I hadn't thought of it like that. Cheers! I hope the 2020s treat you well too!

[Noonling]

Fell in love. Got a degree. Made some friends. Wrote some stories. Became a more moral person. Had a couple of jobs I didn't hate. Kept all my limbs. Remained housed, fed, relatively healthy and not subject to torture.

Didn't piss myself, didn't shit myself. Fingers crossed that remains true next decade.

[Jerzy Bondov]

Did a masters, got married, had two sons, finally asked for help with my depression/self-loathing and got it, left shite jobs for better ones, took a temporary cut in working hours to spend more time with family, voted for WTO No Deal Brexit.

[imitationleather]

Bestest thing to happen this decade would be Johnson getting booted out next month.

Plz God. I don't ask for much.

[Pink Gregory]

Got a job (that I didn't hate at the time and now do, because of the management)
Got a probably-life partner and two catties with her
Started listening to better music
Moved out of Ma and Pa's and up to the big city
Learned to drive, and did a lot of it
Got back on the misery pills (copyright madhair60) which smooths out some of the worse edges
Learned to cook at least 3 dinners
Went vegan
Discovered the thrill of dried pulses
Discovered better politics for myself
Started posting on a comedy forum where nobody asked for my deeply uninteresting posts
Read the entire Legend Gary thread

yis

[Buelligan]

Had the best motorbike that ever existed, we flew, just me and it, from the first turn of the key to the last gasp together on that wet January asphalt.  Found out how sweet and wonderful life can be.  Realised I was free.  Fell in love with everyone.  Forgave myself.  Know there's better to come.

[Cardenio I]

Finished secondary school, moved out of the house I grew up in, off to seek misfortune on London's golden tarmac. Lived in student accommodation in a postcode I will never be able to afford again. Slipped out of the brainspace of the adolescent romantic, slipped into the warm comfort of getting massively stoned and watching old BBC documentaries. Put the world to rights over a 20 bag, ate a lot of supermarket pizza. Had sex, moved to Shoreditch, took a lot of pills. Fell in love with my youth, fell in love with my friends, slid along technicolor druggy loops with gimlet-eyed glee. Fell in Love with a girl, moved to Spain and got fat for the first time on cheap booze, middling tapas and a surfeit of shawarma. Got sad, came home, sacked off Uni and got a job in a school. Let the weed turn sour, broke up with the girl, went back to Uni. Came off antidepressants, stopped smoking weed. Graduated and "Saw Europe", whatever that means.

Returned to the same job in the same school, met another girl, got back into pills, spent cozy nights in chilly living rooms doing coke and talking nonsense. Put the world to rights over a bottle of Malbec. Travelled to the Carribean, fell in love, did a Masters. Found new friends, lost some of the old. Lost the gimlet-eyed glee, gained a modicum of personal responsibility. Drank too much. Moved to London for a Proper Job, bellowed hangovers into a toilet. Got fat for the second time on expensive booze and shit pizza. Saw the void again, got back on anti-depressants, got off booze. Stayed in love. Felt lost. Went for a run on a bitter November morning, stopped in the park, and for a moment managed to divine something in my breathclouds. Watched a goose on the canal. Watched a duck on the canal. Got cold by the canal. Got a shower and went to work.

Still at work.