A quite good end to a rubbish year.
Christmas was good as it usually is; quiet time at home with my folks, brother and sister. Good company, plenty of tasty food, some quality presents and this year the snow was a rare treat.
On my birthday I became 31. Now I have to grow up and take myself seriously. I had a quite good night out in Manchester with some friends who all get ten points because it's hard to get people in England (as opposed to Scotland) out on the 30th. We started in the Sand Bar with Lloyd (who only stayed for one), Gary, Nick and Chris, and then went up to Chinatown with Rhys and Sarah and enjoyed sushi from a conveyor belt at Wasabi. Then a couple of pints at the Lass O' Gowrie, where we were joined by Simon, Gareth and Sweep, then one more at the Sand minus some of our number, ending up with just myself, Simon and Gareth in the Deaf Institute drinking too much. It was surprisingly busy and loud and we got some kind of electro house when I was expecting indie rock.
It was Simon's clever idea to buy shots of sambuca which I'll blame for how bad I felt the next day, mostly in a feeling but not being sick area. Pub lunch with Chris helped a bit and then he let me hang around recovering in his flat while he went off to Leeds. In the evening I decided I'd drive to my first party, in Burnage, and then drive back to Hulme to ditch the car and walk into town for the second party. But by the time I'd got Simon and we'd taken the silly route to Toni and Matt's in Burnage it would have left me only an hour and a half at their house and the party looked very promising. Also they said I could stay the night. And it turned out to be a very good party and I had a lovely time, although it took four bottles of ale to feel normal, and then four more to feel sufficiently drunk, but it was after 6am by then and enough fun had been had. I chatted with a good selection of people, ate a lot of buffet snacks and cheese, played a bit of pinball, tried on Marc's glittery jacket, went outside on my own just after midnight and generally enjoyed myself in a civilised manner. That is all.
I will write a few lines on 2009 here and then do a separate post with that meme, which for some reason has tempted me this year. Mostly it was a terrible year, but plenty of good things happened to keep my spirits up as well as having comfortable circumstances to help things. Losing girlfriend, job, flat, record label and also getting disabled in the space of three months was awful, and the only one of those things which has redeemed itself is my twisted knee got better. But with my kind parents to live with for free I haven't had to worry about money too much and have been able to enjoy the free time provided by unemployment and have the company and support needed to stop me sliding into some kind of horrible despair. I did get extra depressed during December, for a number of reasons, but I have plans for sorting myself out, in particular with January's events I've arranged as the first steps to becoming a teacher. So if that works out then a major part of my life will be sorted and maybe other things will work out and my self-esteem will improve greatly and help further. Oh, I'm so positive and optimistic today!
Here are my Top Ten Albums of 2009:
Morrissey - “Years Of Refusal”
Depeche Mode - “Sounds Of The Universe”
My Dying Bride - “For Lies I Sire”
Editors - “In This Light And On This Evening”
Isis - “Wavering Radiant”
Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio - “ONANI [Practice Makes Perfect]”
Inade - “The Incarnation Of The Solar Architects”
Russian Circles - “Geneva”
White Lies - “To Lose My Life”
Troum - “Eald-Ge-Streon”