Be Excellent To Each Other

Time for a final look back at the year.

Highlights for me included:

- Bentonville. Because sleeping in the open in a field, getting up before dawn, and marching 10 miles to stand in a sandy trench for three hours is 'fun'. A heck of an experience, and the cheers from the crowd at the battlefield as we approached the end of the march was very memorable and uplifting.

- Rugby World Cup. My first international game, and I got to see one of the home nations too. I owe Malia two tries though, as he was still queuing for beer at the start of the second half when the Scottish machine was switched on and the Eagles' defences were overran. Twice.

- FRANK TURNER CONCERT!

- Getting to the top of Ben Nevis so I could complete the national three peaks within one year. Also falling in love with Edinburgh (although not its bagpipers).

- NervousPete's photo exhibition

- My holiday in Provence. Lovely part of the world, filled with great Roman and medieval buildings and gorgeous Mediterranean coastlines.

- Meeting a whole new crowd of cool people and getting out more

- Whitewater rafting. We should do this.

- COTTAGE (but perhaps not that Mafia game)

- BEEXBEEQUE

- Going to the BFI to watch a Marx Brothers film in a crowded cinema.

Off up north later to see in the new year with friends. Thanks for being so excellent over the past year, and best wishes for 2016.

I love this post. I love reading about people's achievements and joy. I hope others add to this, and I shall try to find a moment to post mine once I am up and organised x

In rough chronological order:

- Boardgames at King's Cross
- First birthday party with NCT lot
- Solar eclipse
- Taking The Child to my favourite beach
- Jazzy's birthday
- Tour of Britain
- Derbyshire walk
- Three Yorkshire Peaks
- BBQ
- Brewing
- Rugby World Cup with Kern
- Finding out I'd sexed another kid into MrsA
- Cottage

2016 will have more beer, more bikes and should be pretty hectic

1st Jan - Spurs smashing Chelsea (when Chelsea were good).
2nd Jan - Got married at a lovely little olde hotel.
Early Feb - 29 day cruise to the Caribbean (hated every minute, it was like a prison sentence)
Summer - not quite as good as last year.
EDIT - FALLOUT FORE.
Christmas - very stressful as I had to keep lots of secrets (something that as an Aspie is terribly stressful) but as soon as Christmas Day hit and the secrets were out I relaxed a little more. Got to see both of my step daughters whom I adore and had a very nice time. Went to Mum's for Christmas Day itself which was rather nice too
New Year - watched Bryan Adams (yay) and welcomed in the new year peacefully.

So aside from the cruise 2015 has been a pretty good year TBH. I think we both just underestimated how being stuck on a ship for that long would feel, what with us both being Aspies and hating change etc. Still, it was an experience

Looking forward to 2016 now. It's unusual for me to have such a normal year really. I've been ill a couple of times but thankfully with the proper care in place that is usually dealt with long before it becomes a serious problem.

2015: mostly shit with a litte spot of good
2016: hopefully mostly good with a little spot of shit

Like the taijitu symbol basically.

2015 was extremely shit but could have been much worse.

Did loads of flying with Markg, printed my own tshirts and sold some paintings. That was awesome so I'll do more of those things.

quite an interesting year

workthings
- becoming chief bike at Rijkswaterstaat.. really a challenging assigment, and a place to make a difference
- our sustainable linking pin function within the government being valued..
- bad things: having not enoguh time (and a boss with a different set of priorities)

sport things
- rugby world cup, had an amazing weekend in manchester
- going to germansy to see my nephew, and go to eintracht bayern

game things.
- buying a ps4.. and playing gta 5 and rocket league wit you guys
- steam punk on the 3ds...

Chief... Bike?

err, what Dave said!

I've been trying to think of my highlights of 2015 but my memory is rubbish so you'll have to imagine me having a great time at Cbeebies land with the kids. I also bought an Xbox one which is ace.

The rest of the year is a bit of a blur to be honest. Maybe I should keep a diary?

Mine wasn't bad at all. No major disasters, plenty of nice days out and a couple of good holidays.
No real "Wow" experiences though, and it went buy pretty quickly.

Are Sarah & Duck there, yet?

That's a good question... I *think* I remember seeing them in some kind of play house, but I'm not sure.

I'll ask the wife later on. She'll know. I would ask the kids but they were sure they'd seen Mickey and Minnie Mouse there so I'm not sure they're that reliable.

They weren't there when I took the gremlins in early summer. 45 minute queue for the ocotonauts roller coaster though. Grumble grumble

We went after that tragic accident earlier in the year and the park was empty. The most we had to queue was for 10 minutes at the end of the day. Even the attendants were surprised at how quiet it was.

We were there the day before the accident. I even went on the Smiler!

Hmmmmmm.... First holiday abroad in around 25 years. Free accommodation in Tenerife = good. Host who doesn't understand the concept of, 'chill and go with the flow,' = bad.

Son still back living with us and still struggling with a messy divorce.

But in the inimitable words of Nanny Ogg, 'I aiten't dead' and neither is Mrs. W, which is nice.

That was Granny Weatherwax

2015 was a great year for me;

Highlights;

Moved in with a lady
Moved in with her two dogs also
Went to Berlin and drunk in the most amazing amount of history and ate amazing food
Went to Mexico and swam with sea turtles and in an underground cave and drove a speedboat and ate more amazing food
Booked New York for this year (March)
Became a full on proper board Director
Discovered so much about myself by living with a lady that challenges me and doesn't just accept my shit

Lowlights

Got fatter because of all the amazing food
Became 45

2015 - over all Meh

Lows
Split up with two girlfriends not ideal.
Suffered with depression - that was so much fun
Lodger ripped me off, being sorted now.

Highs
Became a triathlete. Learning how far I can push my body...
Discovered the joy of running,
Weight has dropped from over 16 stone to 14 stone 8
Diabetes is nearly in remission if that is the right world.
Went to Cardiff had beers with Pete
Went to Menorca (I think) Swam, ran and cycled round the island.
Discovered who my real friends are.
Beex BBQ of course.
Doing my house up..


Over all more highs than lows, I will call it a voyage of discovery.

Will see what 2016 will bring other than
3 half marathons, 2 x triathlons and few 10k races

And yet you still keep posting.

oh

Go on then, I'll give it a go:

Yeses:
Nürburgring
Man week pt. 2
Cottage
Several other parties (was Jazzy's last year? If so, that one too);
GTA Online
The night Cras and I met the crazy girl and her cousin's boyfried

(Oh) Noes:
Nothing of major note, to be honest.

Stupid developer fingers.

Oh shit man, that was epic

Properly epic.

"You drink like you fuck."

Last year's downsides:
work, where I was denied the reconition I deserved for making the best Christmas sales and availability ever, by a massive margin
because instead someone decided that it would be good to punish me for poor customer interest in an area I have NOTHING TO DO WITH DECIDING
which caused me to have a breakdown, which I managed to pull myself out of only because of...

Last year's upsides:
I found out I was pregnant on the 4th January, so frankly just played a tune in my head every time things got bag=d, because I had a secret to smile about. Unfortunately, soon another

Downside:
I kept fainting and stuff at work.
I had to take something like three months off of work because my blood pressure went through the floor (upside/downside? Difficult one - It got me both out of the breakdown place and gave me time to recuperate... not sure)
I spend about 8 and a half months fully aware of the fact that I might not be able to carry the baby to term, but at the end of it the massive

UPSIDE:
Lovely baby!

after a DOWNSIDE:
traumatic birth, which has left me with PTSD.

I'm managing it all, and I really think that I have managed particularly well and been lucky in that I did not suffer post natal depression, because it is so very common, but especially in people with depressive period in their past. I was given a little spark of brilliance from the universe in that regards, and I know not everyone is so fortunate.

The monkeys are bullet ponys. x

Shazbat! You're correct. I will be drummed out of the Seamstress's Guild for that schoolboy error.