2009: Review of the Year Thread thread thread thread

[Kishi the Bad Lampshade]

Perhaps it's too soon, with a twelfth of 2009 still to go, but I do love a good Review of the Year. All the focus is on the end of the decade at the moment, which is all very well and good, but what about the YEAR? The year is a very good measurement of time. Long but not too long. Tell me about 2009. An outlay of important political and cultural moments. Also add a review of your own personal 2009 if you must, but not too much of that because your lives are all boring.

Spoiler alert

disclaimer: your lives may not be boring

[close]

[purlieu]

I had fuck all money this year, but luckily so did everybody else, so I felt richer.


edit: I moved to Manchester, realised finding friends, a job and a life when you're in a massive city during a recession and the only people you know don't go out is actually incredibly hard, so moved away again.  And I got back with a girl I should never have split up with.  And made the first music I'm completely 100% proud of.  Lots of good music, bog all good telly.  All in all an ok year I suppose. 

[Kishi the Bad Lampshade]

No-one loves my thread.

[Gradual Decline]

Too soon love, December may offer up all kinds of hilarious goings-on. A celebrity death for example, that's always fun.

[biggytitbo]

Too soon love, December may offer up all kinds of hilarious goings-on. A celebrity death for example, that's always fun.

Yeah, Bamber Gascoinge's hideous decapitation will shock the nation during Christmas week.

[rudi]

Well, it won't now, will it...?

[biggytitbo]

Well, it won't now, will it...?

You haven't seen it yet, it'll make you shit yourself!

[Small Man Big Horse]

No-one loves my thread.

But we love quite like tolerate you, and that's the main thing. :)

The cultural thing seems to be covered in other threads elsewhere on the board, but on the personal front it's been a fairly mixed year for me, though better than the last few. January and February saw me briefly in a relationship again, which made me smile a lot, though the fact that she was fun in real life but a whiney moany son of a gun online annoyed. Especially as it was a semi-long distance relationship and so we chatted far too often on msn.

March is a bit of a dull blur, but April saw me finally finish my therapy sessions, and they sent me a "You're officially no longer mad" letter. I mean, it's a lie, I'm still on a fuck load of meds, but at least I have written proof that I'm not a danger to myself or others. So Yay! on that front. May was a bit of a pisser when I was diagnosed with arthritis, but bar that it and June were reasonably normal "Aww, I feel quite happy" times. Of course it didn't last long, July saw me turn 35 and get all moody on people's arses, but I got over it in a fortnight or so, thankfully. August was lovely, the CaB meet was a superb night (even if you did purposefully avoid me Kishi) and my first week long holiday in 19 years to Edinburgh during the festival was downright fantastic.

The rest of the year's fallen in to the "Just Okay" category, but hey, I've no complaints with that, and I've a feeling December should be a good one, especially with the CaB meet, Christmas, and a NYE party that I'm hosting which will no doubt be all kinds of amazing.

So, erm, there you go then. You asked for it, and now you've got it. I hope you're happy.*




_{*That sounded sarcastic, but I genuinely do.}

[hpmons]

January came first, then Febuary, I think March was after that, but beyond that it's a bit of a blur.  As far as I remember, July trotted along before April wandered in, and September turned into a midget just behind May which was really fat.  August turned out to be an alien and vaporised June into oblivion so this year had 30 days less than usual.  November is snoring now, and December hasn't rung the doorbell.

Wait, what was the question?

[confettiinmyhair]

January - October: Unemployed

Then I got a job.

The End.

[Serge]

Met Jah Wobble and the Slits, saw Caroline Catz, made my 4 year old niece laugh by doing an Arthur Atkinson impression, watched all three series of 'Deadwood', saw 'Moon', discovered The Units, saw Blur playing one of their secret warm up gigs, bought 'Is It Love Or Desire' by Betty Davis on vinyl, discovered Roedelius' 'Jardin Au Fou' album, read 'Moondust', googled Karen Gillan, ate at the Standard Balti House on Brick Lane several times, listened to the Beatles and Kraftwerk remasters a lot.

The highlights of my year, there.

[the midnight watch baboon]

I sat next to Simon Day.

I kayaked past an alligator.

I tried to pick up a needlefish off of Miami beach.

I explained by 'pick up' I meant physically try to hold and restrain, rather than try to pull a needlefish, but realised this sounded little better.

I won £0.

I watched 17 episodes of The Sopranos.

I twice re-sealed the lining stuff in the shower.

I did 412 keepy-uppys. In one go!

I accidentally killed 3 fish.

I watched 6 operations at the hospital.

[vrailaine]

January-August: Realised I wasted my fresh-start, half-knew everyone, panic attacks. Increasing levels of nothing, an incredibly big void of anything remotely substantial, maybe people regularly have periods like this but I don't think I have before. Bought ticket for Stewart Lee. Looked forward to Stewart Lee.

September: Started getting help for my doing nothing. Looked forward to Stewart Lee.
October: Stopped worrying about my doing nothing and started doing more nothing. Went to Stewart Lee.
November: Got more serious help for my doing nothing, semester was winding up so there wasn't much to do, started doing bits of comedy again.
December: Exams, dreading going back working in supermarket, back working in supermarket and getting next semester's timetable so I can book plane tickets.


Pretty optimistic for the near future, we even had the first piece of good news in years at home recently, very good news too not just some old c*nt of a relative dieing(dying?).

[An tSaoi]

Worst year of my life. Even worse than 2008. The whole twelve months has been a right cunt.

[Danger Man]

Oh come on! You've made loads of new friends on CaB!

[vrailaine]

Worst year of my life. Even worse than 2008. The whole twelve months has been a right cunt.

Are you still in college or what?

Perhaps you don't get disgusted by yourself enough, that's always a great motivator.

[An tSaoi]

Not at the minute.

[vrailaine]

So you're heading back next year? Have you a job now then? Like, what d'you do with your time?

[hpmons]

I...really don't remember that much of the year.  So it's about the same as all the other years!

Work wise: absolutely nothing til the end of April, charity shop til mid August, supermarket til the end of time.
Love wise: Pretty boy (sorry, SORRY!)
Friend wise: Met up with people for the Harry Potter film, and briefly for a party in August. Met up with my friend last in September, and she has gone from ordinary to pretty to god damn gorgeous.
Emotion wise: Fairly...happy? I think? Miserable in April, a little panicky in August, but mostly goooood.

Video wise: Lost yay! Dexter yay! Stewart Lee yay! TTOI yay!
Book wise: Didnt read any til June, then read five books in six days.  None which were out this year though. Eighteen books in total (I like lists).  I'm not sure which was my favourite, perhaps Down and Out in Paris and London.
Game wise: I'm not sure I've played any released this year, my computer isnt good enough...I enjoyed playing The Witcher, The Longest Journey 2 and Vampire: The Masquerade (which I...havent finished...), I replayed Planescape as well.  Oh! I played Mirror's Edge, that was cool.  I'm looking forward to: Diablo 3 and Age of Decadence.

Miscellaneous achievements:
- Went north of London for the first time
- Went to the DENTIST for the first time in 5+ years! She said my teeth were fine!
- Got a job...Which is alright I guess...Would be nicer if the supermarket wasn't so incredibly poorly run.
- Got past the first screen of I Wanna Be The Guy.  Got bored at...the fourth screen I think though...

[An tSaoi]

So you're heading back next year? Have you a job now then? Like, what d'you do with your time?

Probably, and no.

[Lookalike Mark Chapman]

What subject this time, Ants?

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

January- May- Temping after leaving my job at the solicitors. Was poor and being hassled for rent money. March I got very worked up about my ex, something I still can't explain.
May- Got a permanent job but that ended after a month to my dismay after moving
May-Now- No job and ended up having to move back in with my parents in November. But I have a permanent job starting in the New Year, and will be moving back to Leeds.

Good- wrote easily the best script yet, completed lots of music, stayed in good health, started performing live again, had some good nights out and an enjoyable summer, played loads of tennis and did some cab radio!

bad- aw no girlyfriend, no job has made my self esteem plummet and im back to not knowing what i want to do, stuck in nowhere-ville, simply not been able to buy/do what i want, oh and slightly less hair

So yeah a fucking write-off in many ways but some hope for the future.

[sirhenry]

200 hours of radio, didn't die (again).
That's about it so far.

[Kishi the Bad Lampshade]

Shoulders, you've stopped soliciting? May I ask why? (in a serious way, prozzy jokes aside)

[biggytitbo]

Jan-Dec
Went progressively balder, couldn't poo properly all year, multifarious other physical ailments wear me out.  Less friends, family steadily more depressing. Still, at least the cunts gone from upstairs now.

Everything else exactly the same as every other year!

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Shoulders, you've stopped soliciting? May I ask why? (in a serious way, prozzy jokes aside)

The company was dysfunctional due to my boss' gambling problem which started eating into the company finances (or should that be overdraft). This required us to make more money to plug that gap and that was too much for me to cope with. The workload was getting me down, and even though I wanted to carry on I came down with flu at the exact wrong moment, had to take time off work and an even bigger pile of stuff was waiting when I got back. Rather than fob my clients off as I was increasingly having to do, I just left. As it turns out, my year with the business after I finished university was about as long as anyone except the boss and his long-time colleague lasted there without having to quit through stress.

Another problem was it being such a small firm and coming in on a low-level admin role, once I started doing legal work, the admin didn't get done, and once the admin didn't get done the whole firn's at risk. Instead of hiring in someone he just gave a succession of his young relatives a chance, and they were all without fail idiots with a bad attitude who didn't want to learn and plain didn't want to work anyway. With all that going on when you're trying to actually in some cases save peoples lives, it can be a stressful job.

Still, it's something I'm thinking about returning to in the future, whether it's law or immigration. I'd be very wary about joining a small firm in future though, it was the epitome of dysfunction. Oh and they owe me £400.

[Ginyard]

My year's just come to a crap end after myself and a few others found out that something we've been working on has been cancelled, and we'd put a couple of month's worth of hard work into it. Even if it had been a lovely end to the year, I'd still say a lot of it has been pretty bland. Not enough excitement, a lot of routine, mundanity and 'same-old' that I haven't quite managed to defeat, despite promising to myself I'd set myself some new goals after summer. Family time and social life's been nice though so every cloud and all that.

[mook]

Two affairs.

Two car crashes.

Two companies went tits up on me.

Stopped smoking.

Father died.

Started smoking.

Punched a man riding a moped. (I was provoked)

Had a mammogram!

Started drinking insane amounts.

Got all clear letter from specialist.

Went back to drinking almost sane amounts.

Put an egg in a chip.

[Ginyard]

Sorry to hear about your dad. I was about to congratulate you on the mammogram until I realised its not an eager stripper with big tits.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Two affairs.

Two car crashes.

Two companies went tits up on me.

You're seeing double, mook. Just relax. In a few years you'll be able to come back and beat Nicklaus' record.