xmas news etc.

I haven't really been writing much on here recently as I just joined Tumblr which is a little bit more interesting, you can do stuff like upload pics/audio a lot better than on here. It seems appropriate to run through how the year has gone and see what (if anything) I can remember of it....

January/February: Also freezing bloody cold, since we had lots of snow and ice that took ages to thaw out. I remember getting docked a day's pay at Coral even though I was ready to go to work (but got snowed in, no trains, buses etc.) which pissed me off.

March/April: Nothing eventful. A new guy called Will Kendall joined the staff in our shop at Coral. Caffe Nero opened up 2 doors down from our shop, which resulted in everyone suddenly buying paninis and coffee for lunch. Even Grand National seemed tame this year.

May: Went to Leeds, overspent on a night out and had several simultaneous interesting situations to resolve, like (1) Ben comparing himself to a hairy vagina, (2) getting suspended at work for failing a Mystery Bettor underage test, (3) learning that on my last shift, the till was £260 down, (4) chatted up a Chinese bird called Anna-Lisa at the gig Ben had got us tickets for, only for Sean to lunge in there at Reform bar and piss all over the last 3 hours work I had done; (5) getting hung, drawn and quartered for gambling again. Can't complain, bloody stupid thing to do. Resigned at Coral's. Had hypnotherapy to stop the gambling bug. Started working with my dad & Catherine at the family-run estate agency in South Norwood.

June/July: Possibly the most low-key birthday of my life on Jul 7th.

August: "Holiday" in Chania, Crete and get put up for free at Casa Ginger Pubes. (aka my mum's main residence when not touring around the UK) Everyone seems to have had a fun-ectomy out there. Nothing interesting at all for anyone under 35 to participate in. If you fancy a holiday in which the main highlight is staring at goat's arses, Chania is where you would choose to go. Even for a "free" holiday, by the time I've ordered a new pair of prescription sunglasses, collected some spending money and invested in an iPod touch, I have no change out of £600.

September: Don't remember much about this month at all, except that Nic, Jeremey and I went out to Pizza Express in Caterham for my mum's birthday, who had come back to the UK specially. The night went dismally; she mostly asked how the job-searching was going, so I duly informed her of the progress I had made at Penta's open day (IT consultancy based in Wallington) - at which point she randomly burst into this self-righteous tirade of "don't go around thinking you can just earn £50k a year like that, darling, it doesn't just happen" - is this some kind of clever read-between-the-lines thing or is my own mother actually requesting me to not have any aspirations??

October/November: Badminton season resumed in September but really got going in these couple of months...played a couple of games for Hybrid and Mens 2 but nothing special ....still yet to win a rubber. In the Hybrid, I got dropped for the season-opening game away to Sutton Adults (strong side) but the team still lost 3-6. Then I was in Leeds for Halloween, so couldn't play the 2nd game anyway. The 3rd game was away to Dorking (new team to the division) who played with ridiculously slow shuttles in a multi-purpose gym based at a high school, we ended up losing 2-7. In Mens 2, I played the season-opening game at home to New Malden but we still lost 2-7. I got dropped for the 2nd game at home to Woodcote and we managed to lose 4-5, which had club captain Martin incensed with the team captain Paul - mostly because Paul had dropped me and Anushka whilst pairing up Chris H and Ron (slow, old, neither having upper body strength). Game 3 was a third consecutive home match to South London Harriers, but got snowed off due to the shit weather. Game 4 was away to Bookham a fortnight later on 18/12/10. Paul really excelled himself this time. He didn't pick his team until the night before. I volunteered my services, and he said there was a good chance I could play, because another player, Scott, had not responded to his communications. On Monday, he confirmed I would be playing, so I deliberately moved my plans away from the following night. By Tuesday morning, I got a text at 11am saying Scott had finally responded to him, so I was dropped. Was very mad at Paul. Poetic justice though, they lost 3-6. This leaves Hybrid with 1/3 wins and Mens 2 with 0/3 wins - but I've only managed to play one match for either team so cannot be blamed entirely! Leeds at Halloween was excellent - really good to catch up with several friends who hadn't been seen for a long, long time. Ben and Naylor in particular had gone to painstaking lengths to prepare their Halloween costumes, which turned out to be Venkman and Spengler from Ghostbusters respectively. They should blatantly have won 1st prize at the fancy dress contest at Fab Cafe but the idiot DJ decided to award the coveted prize to Lego Man.... I mean.... how is that even Halloween themed for fuck's sake? Ben & Becca booked a room at a hotel for 2 nights but I preferred to save nearly £120 and spent the entire weekend sofa surfing at Dave & Steph's, just like in the good old student days. Wasn't at all smug I'd saved a little bit of money either :)

December: Bleh....cold temperatures, long commutes to work because of dickheaded drivers not knowing how to drive in the snow/ice, and buying Xmas presents for family. Not much else to say really.

I will try and get some New Year resolutions out the way now:

1. Eat healthier, particularly at work as South Norwood is chock full of fucking burger, kebab, chip type places. There isn't an M&S, Waitrose, or any half-decent supermarket around for ages. There's a Co-Op but the food looks poo. May end up making my own sandwiches and bringing in Cup a Soups!
2. Win more points/rubbers in badminton matches I do get picked for.
3. Try and enjoy life more... we're not gonna be around forever so it seems dumb to spend my time being a little pessimistic and cynical about the future.
4. Find a bird. Hahahaha, I do crack myself up. If I don't look for someone, I'll never find anyone anyway. And if I do look, people always tell me to stop. I can't win. Will be big kudos if I can pull off this resolution.