2011 Year In Review

2011 Has been a pretty crazy year, ending entirely differently than how it started. At the start of the year I was living in shared accommodation with really nice people, I mainly hung around with the 'omglan' guys, I was going out with Melissa, I worked at Switch, but most of all I didn't really have that much direction, or knowledge of what I really wanted.

Last Year's 'unwritten' story:

The previous year I had been talking to Brandi quite often. We were just friends, but very much alike. I really, really liked her, but I am not much of an Internet warrior, so I never really thought anything would happen. Around July last year I realised I genuinely liked her, though obviously had to carry on with my life (you don't wait around for a celebrity you like to like you back..). I got back with Melissa, which may or may not have been a mistake. When I got back with Melissa, I did really like her, but as time went on I realised my feelings for Brandi were too strong.

During a brief time apart from Melissa I did some thinking and realised I can't just obsess over a girl on the Internet, there is a good chance I would never see her, and maybe my feelings are unfounded, how well can you know someone you've never met? Melissa treated me really good (much better than I had treated her lately), and I felt like I was at crossroads, one side being entirely right, and the other side would have me always thinking "what if", but I didn't know which side was which. Initially I went the wrong way. I got back with Melissa and me and Brandi attempted to not speak anymore. This was fine for a couple of hours, but the feelings weren't going. I still really liked Melissa, but not in the same way. I couldn't see myself being with her forever. And I couldn't stop myself talking to Brandi. These were all signs that I shouldn't be in a relationship. It would just be leading her on.

So, 2011...

In January I broke up with Melissa. It was really difficult, but deep down I knew it was the right decision. I felt I needed to get my focus back.

I really enjoyed working at Switch. They are some of the nicest people I have worked with, but I felt I needed to move on from there. With the financial 'climate' how it is, the only way I could keep progressing would be to move jobs, so I made that decision at the start of the month. Much like the previous job search, I had one single interview which turned out to be a really good job and was offered it right after. This time I had more knowledge of my value, so I initially turned down the job due to them offering me, what I consider, much less than what I should get. They very slightly raised this, and I weighed up the potential opportunity against the initial low wages and accepted.

Only the first month and two big life changes. I was quite unsettled, to say the least!

February was going to be a bit of damage control from January. I was aiming to get everything sorted and try and get back to normal. I was still talking to Brandi every day, and one of us mentioned us meeting properly. I quickly suggested she should come over and offered her a place to stay. I couldn't go over there as I was still working, and I was trying to save for Brazil the following month.

She had suggested coming over for a couple of weeks, but possibly spending some of that time in Bristol or visiting other people. I convinced her to come over for 3 weeks, and secretly wanted to spend every second with her. She agreed to this (wooo) and I set about spending every second of the next few weeks planning what we could do.

On the 13th of February I drove to the airport to pick her up. It is possibly the most excited I had ever felt. I stood nervously in the airport. I had one song on loop on my mp3 player. It was a 7 min song, and I kept guessing how many repeats it would have before she walked out of the arrivals. I started getting worried when it got to about 6. At one point the airport was full of Asian people, but by 8 plays I was one of the few people left standing there. I didn't write down her mobile number, I had no way to contact her.

When it had gotten to about 10 plays I went and asked the airport people. They radioed through to see if anyone was there, and told me there were no "white Caucasians". I was very worried. If I had missed her it would be terrible. I couldn't leave there, just in case. I'd end up being like Tom Hanks in The Terminal. And then she walked out.

I am normally a confident guy, but after a hug I had no idea what to say. You could even see I was nervous by my walk. I pretty much forgot how to drive, and forgot how to get home. But it was so nice having her there. She was beautiful.

The next three weeks were amazing. Mostly. My day plans went off without a hitch. We did loads of things. Later on when people asked how long I had been with her they were very surprised at 3 weeks since it seems like we had been together ages from the pictures. After the initial nervousness I felt so comfortable with her. It felt like we had been together forever. She met my friends and they really liked her too, a few even added her on Facebook.

As I said, things were only 'mostly' good. For two reasons. Since it hadn't been long since I broke up with Melissa, I asked my friends to keep it quiet from her. I wasn't being dishonest, when I broke up I told her that it was because I wanted to find someone else. Regardless, I knew she wouldn't take it well. One of the evenings I made the mistake of replying to loads of posts on my Facebook wall, but accidentally logged in her Brandi. Melissa instantly saw this and sent many nasty messages. I tried to ignore these and carry on with my week.

A few days later I found out that Melissa had kept asking my friends about it, and one of them told her everything about it. He had previously added Brandi on Facebook, and had pasted Melissa her status about me buying her flowers. He told her that we had invited him for a meal, and told her he said no because he thought I had been to bad to Melissa. There was more, but its not worth a bigger paragraph. I instantly broke connections with this person, letting the other few people in my group know why. When I did it I clearly stated my reasons, with proof, to ensure it wasn't twisted and I wasn't called a liar. I didn't say anything offencive, just that I didn't want to hang around any more.

My friends didn't exactly back me up with this. My best friend who I had known for ages told me he had cancelled his BBQ, just because the other guy said he wouldn't go if I did. He had told people I was lying about it, and my friends chose not to bother even reading the proof I said with the message. I was feeling pretty down.

On top of this, my mom wasn't exactly loving the situation. She had made it very clear that she didn't like me dating a girl I had just met off the Internet. And I felt more betrayed when I found out she had told Melissa that I brought Brandi to meet the family.

I felt pretty alone, the only person I had was Brandi. I felt like the friendships I thought I had were possibly non-existent, and that most people wouldn't bother to see me if I didn't arrange to see them first. I ended up not really seeing a lot of my friends for a while.

March can be seen as the 'rock bottom'. Something like the Sun between the 21st December and the 25th. I was probably at my lowest, but then towards the end there was a 1 degree rise.

It was coming to the end of Brandi's trip to England. It was really sad because I didn't know when I was going to see her again. We had such a good time, but there was so much uncertainty. All I knew is that I wanted to be with her forever.

A couple of days after she left I started my new job. I was nervous about this, as in the interview they kept saying how it is a really hard job, and that I have to be a really good programmer, etc. I was very honest and told them I am still learning and progressing quickly, but I am far from 'the best'. When I started it was reminiscent to being at my first programming job. The systems were huge, and it felt like I would never learn them all, but I think I fit in really well and became useful almost instantly.

Starting the job wasn't ideal, as later in the month I had a trip to Brazil. I asked them if I could start after, as I didn't want to lose 2 weeks holiday, especially after starting part way through the year. I needed holiday left because I planned to go to Canada and visit Brandi. They wouldn't let me, but told me if I start they could look at letting me have time off unpaid.

I had neglected boxing training the last two months. I either didn't have time, or felt too down to go. Normally this would be fine, but I had a fight coming up on the 18th. It was a fight against a guy that is widely seen as the best in my weight at the gym. I didn't have many private sessions because of the new job, so I didn't have much of a game plan. My fitness wasn't really there, and my confidence was even less.

I had kept almost everything off my blog. All I had written on everything was this post.

The night of the fight came and I wasn't feeling confident. I forgot to eat before the fight, I didn't even really do pads. I just sat there waiting. The fight went quite well, but it ended in a draw. In the final round I was up by a few points but let it slip. I felt like I let myself down somewhat.

The good thing about the fight is that I didn't break any ribs, which meant I could go to Brazil still the following week. I was going with Andy, my ex girlfriend's (Tara) old best friend's (Freya) ex boyfriend. We hadn't seen a lot of each other over the years past, but he seemed to have the 'traveller spirit', and thought he'd be a good person to go on holiday with.

Brazil was really fun, and beautiful. I was able to build a card tower using every card (something I thought I'd never do!) . It gave me a lot of time to think about what I want (while I was jogging along Copacabana Beach). And what I wanted was Brandi. But she lives in Canada, and I have no money. I really, really have no money. I had just spent 3 weeks taking her to all these places to impress her. I had just under a month unemployed, then I had to wait another month to get paid from the new places, and in that time I was in Brazil, that I hadn't saved for). I needed money.

When I got back in April I decided to move out of my place and back to my parents. I felt like my life was changing, and I needed to be able to afford the changes. Brandi had discussed moving over here, but it's difficult. She can't work as a nurse here without having a years experience there (of which she had 1 month), so if she did I would have to support her.

I had looked at getting flights to Canada. I had hardly any days holiday left. I could manage about 1 week, but it would mean having no further days off. I emailed the work people about getting unpaid holiday mentioned previously by the recruitment consultant. They told me they don't allow that, and that I could possibly take 1 day unpaid. I was screwed. It was so annoying, as it was stopping me doing what I valued over everything else, seeing Brandi. I had even considered leaving just so I could have more time to see her. And then... a huge strike of luck, they changed the working year, effectively giving everyone 5 days extra holiday.

I also had a nice trip to London, where I met my favourite blog friend and eat noodles, stayed with Neil, and caught up with Australian Kellie.

Thankfully, because of being extremely frugal in Brazil I had some money left, but I still eagerly awaited pay day, got a credit card on top, and bought an engagement ring.

In May I got to cross two things off my list, in what was a really memorable weekend. I went to Scotland (for the first time) with my mom and dad, to try and drive all the way to John O Groats, the furthest north-east you can go in UK. Along the way I saw the Lake District for the first time, and later on I managed to convince my parents to try and climb Ben Nevis, and we are all really glad we did. They impressed me a lot, and we all bonded because of it. We then went on to John O Groats, and saw some amazing sites along the way. We ended up having an argument, mainly because of how things had built up over the last few months, but that is less memorable than the rest of the weekend.

The engagement ring arrived part way through the month. I was excited, and thought it was beautiful. Though it was also another reminder that I needed to start saving money, so I first downgraded my car (petrol, tax and insurance on it was crazy!).

More importantly I booked my flights to Canada, with all my plans to propose in place.

At the start of June I went to Vancouver. It was an amazing two weeks spent in a beautiful part of the world. On the second week we went to a picturesque island and went for a walk, and I looked for a scenic area to propose, and nervously got down on one knee. I was most nervous about being with her when she told her parents, but I really liked her family so hoped it would all be okay.

Writing all this reminds me of a post I made quite a while back, over a year to be precise. In the post I said about how happy I was, and I was nervous that at any point things would crash down harder, and although it did at the start of the year, it shot right back up after Brandi said "yes" in June.

When July came I pretty much hadn't done any training in a while. I had maybe sparred a few times, but nothing big. That would be fine, and stuff, but I had a boxing fight to go to. I also had no support there, as the tickets were £100. I had no fitness, but I was still confident that my technique would win it. I was wrong.

It had been 4 months since I had started my new job, and I felt like I was settling in quite well. I got on with Dave Jr and Dave Sr well, and they were good to talk to. The work I was doing was manageable, and actually quite fun in parts, so that side of my life was going good.

Me and Brandi still talked every day, and planned when she would come over. We decided she would come over either early September or late June. I pushed for the latter, and looked around to a house we could rent while she was here. I found a nice Tudor-style house in Moseley, a really nice part of Birmingham.

I spent the first half of August trying to make the house look presentable for Brandi's arrival. It was pretty messy at the start, but my dad helped me paint some walls and I cleaned lots. Though while I was trying to clean the house, idiots around the UK were trying to destroy everything in a week of riots. This was a nice way to welcome Brandi to England for her 3 and a half month visit.

When she arrived it was so exciting. Aside from the fact that I actually slept in and was a bit late picking her up from the airport (I felt so, so bad). It was my first time living with a girlfriend, and anyone that complains about it is crazy.

September, October and November are all a blur. I enjoyed every single second (maybe apart from getting stung by a wasp, during the night, for the first time in 20 years). I was excited to come back from work every day, and would have fun just watching TV programs together (Always Sunny, Community, The Office, Gavin and Stacey, Dexter, Amazing Race, Coupling), and playing computer games together. We also painted paintings! An activity I haven't done probably since I was last stung by a wasp, but enjoyed a lot. Her mom and brother stayed with us while they were travelling Europe, but I'm not sure we made England look as good as we could have. We went to Estonia, our first mini holiday together, and had a really good time (apart from the stupid border control woman being a bitch). And after trying to come up with an idea, the night before we managed to come up with Halloween costumes we were happy with. So happy I blue everywhere. We went on double dates with Lee and Gemma, and I introduced Brandi to my friends that she hadn't met. We planned our wedding, which we had originally decided to be in Canada, but changed to be Mexico. The future was looking bright, and if it's like this forever I will be pretty damn happy.

All in all they were 3 amazing months.

December was sad. We knew it had to come to an end, but the time was going by so fast. We couldn't spend Christmas this year together, but my family put on a nice mock-Christmas. We also made an awesome gingerbread house. But alas, our baking activities wouldn't mean she didn't have to leave, and on the 8th of December she was gone.

I started moving all my things back to my parents from our house in Moseley, as it suddenly felt really, really empty without her. Although now I won't be seeing her until the wedding it doesn't feel as sad as when she went home in March. Now I know that I will see her again, there is no uncertainty, and for anyone wondering... I have absolutely no doubts about getting married.

Christmas came extremely quickly. It is possibly one of the best Christmases I have had (though it's hard to remember the ones from when I was younger, aside from a few small but vivid memories). I got to spend time with my family, drinking whisky and playing board games. Playing computer games with my nephews, and seeing friends. Ellie and Savannah seem much older now, and have got to the age where I can have little tea parties with them.

Tonight I will be going to Joe's house for new years, but I am not going to bother waiting to write about it. I used to attach a lot of importance to New Years Eve, as being the first day of the year, it sets the standard for how your year will be. I don't as much now, as looking back it hasn't really ever been any sort of indication. April is usually the month that you know.

2010 Year In Review

A follow up to my '2009 Year In Review' post, which was actually my second ever post! This may be heavy with links, as it means I have to write less about each event.


In January I decided to blog. In the past I have had unsuccessful attempts at writing diaries, but decided a blog could solve my problems. It could be a place for my 100 Things To Do List, and courage me to keep doing fun things to have something to write about. I bought my Birth Whisky, a drink that will only be drank at key times in my life. My Swedish friends came to stay with me which was fun. One of the funniest moments of the year happened, when a crazy guy latched on to me and Neil in the pub. Omglan played another dodgeball game in Leicester. FFFF was born, a much loved weekly work-place game, which quickly became the most viewed thing on the blog. One of the most important things was that The Shelf was built. January was a pretty epic month, and usually Januaries are quite boring, and depressing after Christmas. The year had started off very well!


February started off slightly quieter, and on a bit of a downer after I left £10 in a cash point (that money could really come in handy now), but picked up when Melissa made me a painting for valentines day. Later in the month I had a busy Saturday which included photoshoot (which in retrospect turned out to be my last due to my sudden dislike for modelling), and then ice-skating and conquering the biggest web thing ever. One of the most important thing to happen in the month is that I joined the boxing gym, something which has pretty much occupied me all year round.


March started off a pretty exciting month, with me losing my tyres and brakes on the motorway, and getting a behaviour warning from Sony. I got on Google Street View, went to Prague, and crossed two things off my list. 

March was a bit of a turning point one way or another, in that I broke up with Melissa. I have purposely kept almost everything about my relationships off my blog. Not that I am bothered about writing personal things about myself, but that it could seem hurtful to other people. All I will say about it is that since before me and Tara split up, I had wanted to be single. When I met Melissa, I still wanted to be single. She was the first person I had seen after Tara, and it was too soon for me to start dating again. Regardless, things got serious and we ended up together, though I still knew that I wanted to be single, and couldn't be happy in a relationship until I had been single for a decent time.


April saw my decline in blogging. I was feeling negative, and didn't really want to keep writing whining things on my blog, so I decided just to mostly keep off it. It was a month of getting used to being single, which meant being able to meet up with some friends that I hadn't before (not in 'that' way, but sometimes having a girl over may seem weird to a girlfriend). Aside from going camping in Newquay, and starting sparring in boxing, not all that much happened.


May picked up a lot. I did more fun things, such as going to see Infected Mushroom with Della (crossing that off my list - Infected Mushroom, not Della, obviously). Kellie, my Australian friend, stayed over and we went out - which was really fun. Me and Dan braved a 2 mile, pitch black tunnel on our bikes, and a house very close to me found bombs in their garden. Also, Melissa told me she was going to be living in France for the Summer. Although we were apart, this made me sad.

Towards the end of May I had a sudden impulse to move out of home. I viewed a few places, and settled on the one I liked most (obviously). My mom took this as an insult, and that I am moving out to get more freedom, but that really wasn't the reason. I had a lot of freedom at home, and my parents did a lot for me, though I thought it would be nice to have my own place, and to have more people my age around to go out with, and be able to have house parties, and be able to have people.. stop over.


June was another month with very few blog posts. I spent a lot of the month going out and meeting the people in the area. I had continued boxing, and was starting to improve in sparring. I proved my manliness by building a BBQ with Neil, reminiscent to when we built the shelf. I also had my very first house party! On the nights I was meeting up with a lot of friends, like Belinda, Della, Emily, Amy, and Charlotte. And most days I was watching the world cup (which turned out to be terrible).


In July Neil moved away - the bastard. This made me quite sad too. I was made happier when I booked flights to Brazil with Andy. It was quite a good month. It was fairly quiet at first, but I had an amazing birthday, which included paintballing and a house party. At the end of the month I went to Paris to meet up with Melissa, which, although I was a bit worried about, turned out to be a really nice time.


I always love the Summer, and August was no exception. Spending the first few days still in Paris, I got back and had one of the more memorable holidays in Malia with the lads. It was memorable for good and bad reasons. Part way through, it became obvious that me and my friends were expecting very different things, which meant I spent a lot of time on my own. That was fine though, it's quite easy to make friends there. Though I still have a swollen finger and scars on my hand from smashing the glasses, but Dave's arm has mostly healed. 

Also, Melissa returned from France early, and we started seeing each other more. Including finding my first geocache!


In September, my housemate Amy, who I spent lots of nights talking to about everything, was moving out to go travelling. I was sad. We threw a big party to say bye which was fun. Shortly after, it was announced that I would be having my first boxing fight. I was a little nervous, as it was going to be in Bhams biggest night club, in front of over 600 people. September was fairly uneventful due to the none stop boxing training. I agreed to build the gym a database system in exchange for private sessions with Neil, an ex professional boxer - my first proper freelancing. Later in the month the guy who I was meant to be fighting broke his ribs, and the opponent changed to one of my friends, Ed. 

September also saw the return of OMGLAN: Dodgeball, with an entire new team, kit, and most importantly - video.


October was arguably the best month of the year. This was partly due to having, and winning my first boxing fight. It was an amazing rush. The adrenalin was crazy. It made me not even that bothered about getting my first parking ticket. A couple of days after the fight I was off to Lithuania, for an amazing well-deserved piss-up after all the training.

October wasn't without its problems. Although things with Melissa were good, I still didn't feel like I wanted to be in a relationship, and she found out, and we split up again. To save having to write about it in the next month too, this was quite short-lived, and I decided that I should just take it as it goes and not think I have to be looking to settle down with someone.


November started out well. I dressed up twice for Halloween. I do enjoy a good fancy dress, even though it is a bit of an effort. Interested, but entirely not bothered, about what I actually consume, I decided to keep a diary of my eating habits, and found I had nearly double the calories, and 5 times the sugar I should be having. This was another fairly quiet month, of growing a moustache and going to Morocco. I will make the joke one more time... it was for 'Mo-Rocco' (which was amazing in many, many ways).
Oh, and my second boxing match was announced for December (I was a last week replacement), which I was excited about as I felt like I had got noticeably better than the last one, after sparring for 6 months. Oh, and and Melissa got in a fight with a guy at an acapella gig.


The December boxing match sadly didn't go ahead. That was fine, as I was having too much fun playing in the snow anyway! I had blogged quite a lot more in November, and thankfully I was able to maintain it in December, thanks to things such as stupid Police Men, dressing as a zombie-nerd-slut, and the further use of my Phileas Fogg sentence.

Most of December was quite stressful, as I was late buying Christmas presents, and didn't have any idea what to get. I also realised that over the last few months I had spent far too much money, which suddenly kicked me into a frugal state. Nonetheless, Christmas this year was amazing. I stayed at home almost every night between the 23rd and New Years. I had lots of nice presents, including a steel drum from Melissa, games, aftershave and other Christmassy things from my family.

New Years, as always, was fairly quiet, but I still really enjoyed it. We played Articulate, and then charades, which Leigh made amazing.


All in all, it was a good year and I crossed 6 things off my To-Do list! If I had to summarise the year, it will be  that it was a year of not being single, learning to be single, enjoying being single, not being single, boxing, and moving out of my home.

2009 Year In Review

I really thought 2009 would be a huge disappointment based on how good 2008 was. 2008 was a year of working at Birmingham Midshires, where I met loads of great people, had my first photo shoot, started having my hair curly, became a lot more confident and a lot more independent. It was the year I had my first random flight (to Billund, Denmark). So, as you can see, it would be quite hard to compete. 2009 would be my final year of University, which means a stupid amount of work, which eventually leads to no more lie-ins when getting a full time job. I'm not a negative person, but it was looking bleak.

As it turns out, 2009 was a very good year... though it did have its very low points. To review the year.. I'll to it chronologically.

January, as usual was a fairly quiet month. Aside from going to see Most Haunted Live, the only interesting thing was being in our second Dodgeball tournament. The reason this was important was because... omglan became 13th in the UK!!! Don't let that fool you into thinking we were good, by any means. The rest of the time was really spent doing the ridiculously hard Uni work, including the dissertation.

February stayed quite quiet. I was happy that I was able to continue the trend of random Ryanair flights, going to Malaga, in Spain, with Tara. It was fun, but it kind of felt like going back to the 90s. On the last day we decided not to get a taxi to the airport, and try and walk. This led us past what we later found out to be a nudist beach, which, of course, was only used by old men. Got home to more Uni work and more dissertation.

March was when the year really took shape. It started off with a flight to Gdansk, Poland with the guys. A very nice country, and it was great fun. I was finally able to convince Neil to let me go to his Uni in Aberystwyth, after 4 years. The main thing this month was breaking up with Tara after over 4 years of going out. The arguments about drinking, going out with friends, etc etc finally became too much and we mutually ended it. The fact that we were together since we were quite young, meaning neither of us had a proper single life was a massive factor. It was a really difficult time. I didn't doubt the decision at all, it really had to happen. This didn't make it hurt any less.. but for some reason I didn't cry once throughout it.

The main thing that came out of breaking up with Tara was the new relationships I made around this time, through people being there for me, etc. The most notable was starting to talk to Amy again. We worked together a long time ago, but had hardly spoke since. Amy is lovely, and I would call her my best female friend. Della was also there for me a lot, which was good, as she had also fairly recently gone through a big break up. I hadn't seen her as much as I had liked to, so it was good to start going out with her again.

Most of April was spent finishing off the looming dissertation hand in date, and I would be lieing if I said I wasn't thinking of Tara and the break up all through it. As a celebration of finishing my dissertation (which ended as something like 13,000+ words), I went to Stockholm, Sweden with my friends. This was to see Stoff and Niklas, who I met 9 months earlier in Thailand. I love Sweden.

In May I had finally finished University. I was actually really sad about this. I didn't tell anyone, but I saw it as me 'growing up' more, and those who know me may realise I have quite a complex with aging. It is one of the main things that can get to me. However much I hated the final year, the love for lie-ins and doing what I'd like, and being able to book random flights will be missed. The main thing that happened in May was meeting Melissa. She added me on MSN, and we started to speak. We went for a 'date' to see Patrick Wolf. A gig is quite an interesting first date. At this point I was enjoying the single life, and didn't want anything serious. I also had no idea if she liked me, since she wouldn't let me even hug her at first... but it ended with a kiss, which can hopefully only mean good news..?

I carried on seeing Melissa throughout June, aiming to keep it casual, but really started to like her. I was in a bit of a predicament, as one of the main things that stopped me and Tara was that we needed to be single, but it was getting more serious with Melissa. I still wanted to try and keep it casual, and just be 'seeing' each other. A word which was losing meaning.

Part way through June I went to Norway with my friends again. We decided to camp, trying to be more adventurous. This holiday was the birth of Captain Vestman. A superhero which everybody has grown to love. I got back home to receive my results from University. I passed with a 2:1, I was really pleased, as there were times years earlier I doubted whether I could do it. However happy with a result you can be, it is always dampened when you see just how close to the grade above you were.

On the 30th June I had my first proper photoshoot! This was for Centro, advertising student passes. I was amazed at how much they paid, which worked out more than a months wages at the place I was at. Speaking of which, it was shortly after this I 'parted ways' with Elf Software. I won't go much more in to this, but I do think my boss was a great guy, but the reason given for 'ending my contract' by the other person in charge was weak... but most definitely the best move for both me and the company.

In July I was putting off applying for a job. I saw it as my last month of freedom, and didn't want to cut it short. I loved being able to get up when I want. Arrange to see people whenever I want. It was great.

My birthday was great as usual! It was also the birth of my alcohol collection, which is now pretty massive.

I went for a second trip to Stockholm, Sweden (as I said, I love the place). This time it was a more 'authentic' experience. I was greeted by Mike and Stoff, both legends. I spent the week staying on Stoffs sofa, and going to clubs, and house parties. I love Swedish people. They are very friendly and welcoming. I met a lot of great people I still speak to.

When I got home it was time to look for a job. This turned out to be the biggest confidence boost I have had. I applied to 5 or so jobs by way of sending off a CV. I then put the CV on two websites. The following day I received somewhere in the area of 14 phone calls, and 5 emails. This continued over the next few days, until I attended my first interview at Switch Design, where the offered me the job the same day. I took it. The guys that interviewed me were really nice, the company was the sort that seemed well run, and would appreciate ideas. It was perfect! I was hesitant of taking my first offer, but it was the right move. And money isn't the most important thing, it was more money than I originally expected to get, but less than I was later offered (which shocked me, a lot).

August was spent trying to get into the working spirit. I felt really busy all month. I had loads of people I was meant to be meeting, trying to see them after work when I was really tired, it was difficult! Switch was a great place to work though. It was also next door to a gym, which meant I could finally get in shape (about 7 years after I wanted to start).

I was still seeing Melissa, and by now it had became serious and I was calling her my 'girlfriend'. This was quite difficult, as I knew she was leaving to go to University the next month. I have always said a long distance relationship wouldn't work for me.

On the 3rd of September, during my University graduation, my first niece, Eloise, was born. She was really cute.. and the first baby in our family for 4 years! The month on the whole wasn't great. Melissa had moved away to London to live at her University. We were going to try and make it work, but deep down I knew it wouldn't. I thought it was wrong not to give it a try though.

I managed to go on another flight to Dusseldorf, Germany. We went out clubbing for the first time abroad. One of the places refused me because my hair - how humorously offensive!

Melissa had been living away for a week, and I think we probably both realised in that week that we loved each other, and it wasn't going to work. For this reason, joined with her missing her family, and not enjoying the University, she moved back. Coincidently, on the date of our third dodgeball tournament.

Savannah, my second niece, was born on the 1st October. Like Eloise, she was tiny and cute. The rest of the month went past quickly, with me still working full time and seeing Melissa. I was still trying to maintain a friendship with Tara, which has been going quite well. At times I had felt sad that we weren't as close as we used to be, which obviously would happen, but I am glad we could still see each other, without it being weird.

In November I got my first ever proper injury! I will be honest, it was all my fault. I tried a dirty tackle on someone, which ended in me cracking my meniscus, and tearing my medial ligament. Nice. Later in the month me and Melissa went on holiday to Rome. It had many nice historical sites to limp around and see, but I found the Italians to be less than friendly.

The main thing in November is my first (well second, but first proper) front cover photo shoot for a magazine. It was great. I had antlers for it, and scary makeup. It was for SixtyNine magazine. A fashion/style magazine I hadn't heard of before, but since I have seen it everywhere, which is really weird!

December is always a good month. I always get excited about Christmas. It is also a chance to review the year. My friendship with Amy had continued to improve, I was seeing Melissa almost every day, I still saw Tara regularly, went out with Della whenever I could, work was great... all was good.

Christmas was great. I was a bit sad that we didn't manage to play a proper family game, we managed to play for a short time on Christmas eve, but I will make sure we will at some point soon. Melissa got me an amazing clay model of me in my trademark vest! New Years was spent at a house party at Leighs. I made cocktails.

That is about it for the year! I hope next year continues to improve.