Top 15 Low Points Of 2012..!
I tempted fate in the 2011 High and Low Points by saying that it was possibly "the least punctual review of the year ever!" - that was posted in June 2012, this is September 2013 for the 2012 one now, oops!
In a year of positivity and joy, here are the rare poisonous bits:
1. Laura incident - A downside of the Stag was how it ended, a mate (at the time) joined us at the Sunday night Sonic Boom Six afterwards. As the night ended in the early hours in Big Hands, she got upset and I tried to drop her off home in a taxi and head home myself, she wouldn’t go and ended up in our flat waking up Toni and causing a massive fucking scene and row.
Not how I wanted my Stag to end at all, but it’s dead and gone and so is she from my life.
2. Cameron’s treatment of Benefits - As I work in a job that is directly related to the distribution of Benefits, his shocking decision to force the poorest to shoulder the financial burden has not only made my life trickier but also forced many into Food Banks, starvation and stealing.
This is all caused by the fact that the Countries of the World can’t get their act together and make businesses with billions of pounds of profit pay their damn taxes into public purses, not private bank accounts. If everyone paid the correct tax to the correct countries, you wouldn’t need to have an ‘age of austerity.’
3. Leaving shared living - The downside of moving in with Toni was giving up shared houses, I really did love living with mates (it’s also much cheaper than living by yourself Ben!) Aside from Jonny’s awful laziness and living with Sarah G*****d and her horrible habits, it’s been a good ride! But with getting married, the cord needed to be cut!
4. My Dad ‘ending holidays’! - My Dad’s controlling nature was demonstrated by being asked where he would be holidaying next, by saying that he didn’t want to go anywhere ever again! This is a decision not due to money, just that he doesn’t like the hassle.
This is despite the holiday for our wedding seeming to energise my Mum (who suffers from depression), so much, yet what he says goes in their relationship. I have since given them a UK Hotel break as a present for their 70th birthdays, ha!
5. My Dad’s whinging about holiday - While me, Toni, our mutual friends and Toni’s family were having the time of our lives on The Seychelles, my Dad and Sister seemed to be trying their best not to!
See point 14 about my sister but my Dad said he had a horrible second week where they stayed in the same hotel as the first, minus the rest of the group, I hope he was just missing us...
It turns out that he was unhappy that there was a ten minute power cut (in a Third World Country, who’d have thought it?!) He was even upgraded to a villa from a room after an issue arose and complained about the villa being too big! It beggared belief!
6. Toni’s Mum’s continuing legal fight - Toni’s Mum got harassed in her job essentially for being disabled and because her boss was an inconsiderate arse, she spoke up, got the day in a tribunal and it dragged out horrifically for all concerned.
7. Seeing Amanda’s treatment at work - I watched as someone I was close to in work get royally fucked over, she trained with us, yet wasn’t kept on as she worked for a different temp company than the Council one, only offered temp contracts.
Inferior people inside the Council were then trained by her but were clearly not as good then took her job.
Even though she really liked it (and was liked by most of the floor), she chose the security of a job she hated over being screwed by a job she enjoyed, nonsense.
8. Mrs Brown’s Boys - It’s as funny as kittens on power lines, it’s as funny as Alzheimer’s Disease in your family, it’s as funny as the Holocaust... and it may go on longer!
It’s a bloke in a dress being a Mother who is an utter cunt, it seems to have been made thirty years ago and yet it hasn’t. It’s not a case of not ‘getting it’, the jokes can’t be not got, it’s just disappointing that other people relate to it. Absolutely fucking awful but I suppose even the BBC has to pay the rent, eh?!
9. Not getting to drive as much as I could - This is a major problem, as Toni or my Mum show, if you don’t practice, your skills tend to dissipate into piss fairly quickly.
So, it’s been a relief to (so far) this year make up for this and get plenty of driving in.
10. Rejection from Social Work MA - Manchester City Council offered the chance to complete a MA in Social Work (paid for by the Council) as long as you stay in their employment 3 years after the course finished.
It was a great opportunity and something I was very much interested in, from the sounds of someone on the inside, they went for experience over anything, 1 person under 30 got in, it’s not the end of the world and there will be other opportunities.
11. Toni missing Pulp gig - See the Hundred Reasons entry in my Top 15, why, oh why did they have to clash? Grrrr!
12. Having to go in goal! - With Ste Ross retiring, Ste Porter playing basketball, Rob, Fella permanently skint, Beeb crippling himself and Mike Richardson invariably doing other things, it was left to me to don the ‘Keeper gloves... with varying degrees of success!
My tactic of ‘playing like a defender’ i.e. blocking everything with my legs, as I was essentially a defender playing in goal, worked with some teams but was hopelessly exploited by others, bah!
13. City winning the title - It all seems such a long time ago, with the title now back on the correct Red side of Manchester but yes, they did win the league, so down came the banner in the Stretford End! Not won the Champions League yet, have you though?! You blue bastards!
14. My Sister’s behaviour on Honeymoon (that sounds odd! I wasn’t on honeymoon ‘with’ her..!) - While we were having a ‘gay old time’ at the beach, Toni’s final night of freedom was spent with my sister, who spent the night ignoring her on the computer and switching on the air conditioning when told not to when she thought Toni was asleep.
This was compounded when asked at the end of the holiday (which she didn’t pay for and didn’t buy others drinks on!) what her favourite part was, she replied: “The flight home!” - charming!
15. Celebrity paedophiles - It’s really sad to think that pretty much half of your childhood heroes on TV were a bunch of kiddyfiddlers, that’s what happened if you’re aged 25-35 in the UK this year.
Here were 2011's piss and poo pies: http://jeffthelion.livejournal.com/222777.html
Saddest of all, was my favourite football commentator and wordsmith extraordinaire Stuart Hall, one of the people who inspired me to want to go into Sports Journalism, being convicted of sex crimes, while in his eighties.
In a year of positivity and joy, here are the rare poisonous bits:
1. Laura incident - A downside of the Stag was how it ended, a mate (at the time) joined us at the Sunday night Sonic Boom Six afterwards. As the night ended in the early hours in Big Hands, she got upset and I tried to drop her off home in a taxi and head home myself, she wouldn’t go and ended up in our flat waking up Toni and causing a massive fucking scene and row.
Not how I wanted my Stag to end at all, but it’s dead and gone and so is she from my life.
2. Cameron’s treatment of Benefits - As I work in a job that is directly related to the distribution of Benefits, his shocking decision to force the poorest to shoulder the financial burden has not only made my life trickier but also forced many into Food Banks, starvation and stealing.
This is all caused by the fact that the Countries of the World can’t get their act together and make businesses with billions of pounds of profit pay their damn taxes into public purses, not private bank accounts. If everyone paid the correct tax to the correct countries, you wouldn’t need to have an ‘age of austerity.’
3. Leaving shared living - The downside of moving in with Toni was giving up shared houses, I really did love living with mates (it’s also much cheaper than living by yourself Ben!) Aside from Jonny’s awful laziness and living with Sarah G*****d and her horrible habits, it’s been a good ride! But with getting married, the cord needed to be cut!
4. My Dad ‘ending holidays’! - My Dad’s controlling nature was demonstrated by being asked where he would be holidaying next, by saying that he didn’t want to go anywhere ever again! This is a decision not due to money, just that he doesn’t like the hassle.
This is despite the holiday for our wedding seeming to energise my Mum (who suffers from depression), so much, yet what he says goes in their relationship. I have since given them a UK Hotel break as a present for their 70th birthdays, ha!
5. My Dad’s whinging about holiday - While me, Toni, our mutual friends and Toni’s family were having the time of our lives on The Seychelles, my Dad and Sister seemed to be trying their best not to!
See point 14 about my sister but my Dad said he had a horrible second week where they stayed in the same hotel as the first, minus the rest of the group, I hope he was just missing us...
It turns out that he was unhappy that there was a ten minute power cut (in a Third World Country, who’d have thought it?!) He was even upgraded to a villa from a room after an issue arose and complained about the villa being too big! It beggared belief!
6. Toni’s Mum’s continuing legal fight - Toni’s Mum got harassed in her job essentially for being disabled and because her boss was an inconsiderate arse, she spoke up, got the day in a tribunal and it dragged out horrifically for all concerned.
7. Seeing Amanda’s treatment at work - I watched as someone I was close to in work get royally fucked over, she trained with us, yet wasn’t kept on as she worked for a different temp company than the Council one, only offered temp contracts.
Inferior people inside the Council were then trained by her but were clearly not as good then took her job.
Even though she really liked it (and was liked by most of the floor), she chose the security of a job she hated over being screwed by a job she enjoyed, nonsense.
8. Mrs Brown’s Boys - It’s as funny as kittens on power lines, it’s as funny as Alzheimer’s Disease in your family, it’s as funny as the Holocaust... and it may go on longer!
It’s a bloke in a dress being a Mother who is an utter cunt, it seems to have been made thirty years ago and yet it hasn’t. It’s not a case of not ‘getting it’, the jokes can’t be not got, it’s just disappointing that other people relate to it. Absolutely fucking awful but I suppose even the BBC has to pay the rent, eh?!
9. Not getting to drive as much as I could - This is a major problem, as Toni or my Mum show, if you don’t practice, your skills tend to dissipate into piss fairly quickly.
So, it’s been a relief to (so far) this year make up for this and get plenty of driving in.
10. Rejection from Social Work MA - Manchester City Council offered the chance to complete a MA in Social Work (paid for by the Council) as long as you stay in their employment 3 years after the course finished.
It was a great opportunity and something I was very much interested in, from the sounds of someone on the inside, they went for experience over anything, 1 person under 30 got in, it’s not the end of the world and there will be other opportunities.
11. Toni missing Pulp gig - See the Hundred Reasons entry in my Top 15, why, oh why did they have to clash? Grrrr!
12. Having to go in goal! - With Ste Ross retiring, Ste Porter playing basketball, Rob, Fella permanently skint, Beeb crippling himself and Mike Richardson invariably doing other things, it was left to me to don the ‘Keeper gloves... with varying degrees of success!
My tactic of ‘playing like a defender’ i.e. blocking everything with my legs, as I was essentially a defender playing in goal, worked with some teams but was hopelessly exploited by others, bah!
13. City winning the title - It all seems such a long time ago, with the title now back on the correct Red side of Manchester but yes, they did win the league, so down came the banner in the Stretford End! Not won the Champions League yet, have you though?! You blue bastards!
14. My Sister’s behaviour on Honeymoon (that sounds odd! I wasn’t on honeymoon ‘with’ her..!) - While we were having a ‘gay old time’ at the beach, Toni’s final night of freedom was spent with my sister, who spent the night ignoring her on the computer and switching on the air conditioning when told not to when she thought Toni was asleep.
This was compounded when asked at the end of the holiday (which she didn’t pay for and didn’t buy others drinks on!) what her favourite part was, she replied: “The flight home!” - charming!
15. Celebrity paedophiles - It’s really sad to think that pretty much half of your childhood heroes on TV were a bunch of kiddyfiddlers, that’s what happened if you’re aged 25-35 in the UK this year.
Here were 2011's piss and poo pies: http://jeffthelion.livejournal.com/222777.html
Saddest of all, was my favourite football commentator and wordsmith extraordinaire Stuart Hall, one of the people who inspired me to want to go into Sports Journalism, being convicted of sex crimes, while in his eighties.