end of year review

Another year of my life drawing to a close - funny how the time flies. When you're in the thick of things you pay no attention to it, and when you have nothing to do you collapse into rose-tinted introspection. I'm not sure if I like the latter state of mind; I'd much prefer having things to keep me occupied than sink into a depressive, vegetative state. This is why I always try to fill my time with badminton, Ceroc, open mic nights, and other things.

This year has not been without its plus points:

- Jamiemusic.co.uk website launched with portfolio samples, bio, blog, and more
- Made captain of the Mens Fours team at my badminton club, St Andrews (currently undefeated in 3 games!)
- Put £600 worth of CDs, music books etc. on Amazon
- Most economical Christmas yet?!
- Made quite a few new friends at Ceroc and open mic
- Moved out of shitty Manor Road and into a much nicer, friendlier houseshare in Mollison Drive
- Hit budget in 2/12 months at work, not bad considering the "economic climate" (hate that phrase!)

Only one really negative point:

- STILL NO GIRLFRIEND

Not a lot going wrong otherwise.

badminton match 9

St Andrews 5
New Malden 4

Hybrid Division 1

A light switch must have gone off in my head or something, because for the first time ever I was our top player in a match, winning all 3 of my rubbers with Conor, Scott and Claire, although I had to go through 3 games with the latter two to win them. A good result, particularly as New Malden are no slouches and fielded a team with Robin and Dennis in, who normally play mixed division 2 as well. We are now in a nice mid-table slot over Christmas.

badminton match 8

Chessington 0
St Andrews 6

Fours Division 3

The high point of my captaincy thus far and of our season, although it was a bit of a fake result as Chessington put out, by their own admission, a second-string team. Steve, Ron, Chris and myself all played and couldn't lose. Me and Steve tied on 'who could get the lowest scoring game off Chessington' with 21-6 each.

badminton match 7

Chaldon 7
St Andrews 2

Mens Division 3

Again, we came up against a very strong Chaldon team who made easy work of us. Top pair Steve and Conor impressed, winning 2 of their 3 rubbers, but nobody else came close. Me and Scott at least forced their 3rd pair to a 22-24 game, but Kaz and Ron struggled and didn't make them sweat enough.

badminton match 6

Dorking 3
St Andrews 6


Hybrid Division 1

Good away win, though King Steve struggled with sobriety after a boozy birthday night out on the town. I narrowly won just 1 rubber with the mistake-prone Paul 20-22 21-18 19-21 but lost badly with Sarah K after she decided to play mixed instead of the more normal level. I even lost with King Steve though we made a good fist of it 26-28 13-21. Two matches in two days, I'm exhausted!

badminton match 5

Ebbisham D 1
St Andrews 5

Fours Division 3

Good away win. This was the only time all season that the 'normal' team of myself, Chris, Ron and Paul was fielded, and we acquitted ourselves well. The only rubber dropped was the final one, by me and Ron, 21-17 15-21 21-19 - only a couple of points away from a whitewash result, but a convincing win nonetheless.

badminton match 4

St Andrews 7
Howard 2

Hybrid Division 1

A chaotic start to the season as this was my 4th match in a week! I shrugged it off to have a good opening rubber with Sarah K, narrowly losing 20-22, 14-21 before I lost my focus and the resulting rubber 16-21, 16-21 with mens 1 shoo-in Nick DC. I finally made amends by winning the last with King Steve (just!) 21-19, 21-19. Good overall team performance, and would've been 9-0 to us if I'd won the other two, doh!

badminton match 3

Dorking 2
St Andrews 4

Fours Division 3

A winning start to my captaincy of the Fours team, but probably only due to the withdrawal of president Hanson and the subsequent inclusion of King Steve. I won a good rubber with Ron 21-6, 21-17 but lost an easy one with Steve 19-21 19-21 and my final game of the night was with the perpetually irritating Tall Paul, losing 21-17, 15-21, 22-20 who lost concentration in the final 3 points of the last game after I broke my racket handle.

badminton match 2

Ebbisham B2 5
St Andrews 4

Mens Division 3

Interesting team performance - we were gifted 3 rubbers automatically as Ebbisham B2 only turned up with 2 pairs, which meant we still scored 1 out of 6 available. A mass exodus of available players meant I wound up playing with Nick Baumkotter, who must've been about 8th reserve. Still, top pair Steve and Kaz should've done so much better. This was the start of Kaz's "difficult phase".

badminton match 1

St Andrews 0
Chaldon 9

Hybrid Division 1

Awful start to the badminton year as we were well and truly thumped 0-9 at home by a powerful Chaldon team. I didn't even take any of my rubbers to the 3rd game. The only bright spot was that my losing scores of 19, 17 and 16 were among some of our team's best on the night.

new rant

Yeah I know, nobody likes a moaner. This does include the girl my landlord Ed has brought home, they’re fucking in the next room and she’s SO LOUD I can’t hear myself think straight. But to be exact, it’s probably that I’m not getting any and he is that’s pissing me off more than her noises. It’s almost like I’ve stepped into a time machine and gone back 8 years to the start of uni. A few more spaghetti stains on the walls, discarded condoms on the floors and the picture would be completed.

Ultimately my patience with my own ethics/morals etc. is being sorely tested. There’s no point in having standards if you can’t have any fun in life. So where does one draw the line before you descend into a hedonistic free-for-all? I honestly think I must’ve stepped in something last week though, because

1. this cute blonde girl eyed me up in the Harrow, an interesting development I foolishly squandered by ignoring her and her equally fine friend (although in fairness my sister was for some inexplicable reason at the next table over, so there could’ve been social repercussions if it’d fallen flat on its face)

2. the girl in the downstairs room, Laura, asked me out Saturday night, and was at pains to point out she would be going out with her girl mates (?)

3. I started chatting up a cute teen girl on Facebook called Becks. Holy fucking shit, that makes me sound awful doesn’t it? Well she’s 19, before you all get on your moral high horses. (Not that I really care about that, everyone seems to pretend to have morals these days and then pisses them up the wall at a convenient time in the future) She also has a 2 year old kid called Buster (yeah, I know right, too much daytime TV and cartoons) so in actual fact I would be doing the narrow-minded feckless teen ‘lads’ of Croydon a service by daring to lay fingers on someone they would easily pass over because she’s squirted a kid out. She was supposed to be coming over to mine today for a few drinks, films, cosying up etc. but my sneaking suspicions were confirmed when she didn’t show up.

It has now been nearly 4 years since I last had sex, so to anyone reading this who feels even slightly self-pitying or on edge because they’ve not gotten any for a couple months, I say a big, loud resounding FUCK OFF. There’s always someone worse off than you, in my case someone who is probably a Catholic nun or monk opting for a life of celibacy…not that it makes me feel any better. I’m sick and tired of having to feign a kitsch sense of social inadequacy to fit in with others and get anywhere near attractive women…..and there, yes, I said it. I don’t give a fucking shit if you think that’s shallow of me, you definitely have to have some attraction to a woman’s physicality, like it or not. It’s no good pretending you can ignore a girl who’s not shaved her armpits if she has the best personality in the world. Equally someone who looks great but is a total fucking dunce is appropriately worthless to me. Or put in blunt layman’s terms, it’s quite difficult to have a wank over a personality.

Why is this all so difficult? If procreation is meant to be enjoyable and crucial to mankind’s survival, why the fucking hell is it so hard?