And Top 15 High Points Of 2012..!
Like last year, most of the Top 10 could have been number one in other years, 2012 was a vintage year for so many reasons, here a few of them..!
1. Getting Married! - A beautiful venue, a wonderful holiday leading up to it, a week of fun afterwards and marrying the best person I’ve ever met afterwards, it doesn’t get any better :)!
2.Honeymoon/dream holiday - The honeymoon was as you’d expect, if you want some kind of voyeuristic insight, fuck right off!
To get the chance to experience my dream holiday made me feel so privileged and lucky, the locals were lovely and friendly, the weather was sporadic and unpredictable and the island itself quirky, a gate about the size of a Toddler to protect an airport, for example!
Getting to visit islands that have been left largely as they have been for hundreds of years, to see ones seemingly untouched by human hands and to walk casually around giant tortoises was unbelievable!
3. Getting a flat! - It took a fair bit of finding, partially helped by the Estate Agents’ website not mentioning which area it’s in! Now we’re settled, I genuinely love the place, the neighbours are lovely and it’s a real community, they look after our cats when we’re at Festivals and in Summer the communal garden is wonderful!
4.Losing 2 stone/improved bowels! - Toni encouraged me to slim down for the wedding and despite my cynicism, we undertook the Weightwatchers Diet combined with exercise, 2 milkshakes and a full meal a day... and it worked! I dropped 2 stone and now wear medium, not large t-shirts!
A nice by-product of this was passing excrement considerably less, from 4 guaranteed poos a day to 2-3 at most, was a huge change for the better!
5. Toni getting a Masters - It was a great day and a fitting tribute, as Toni deservedly claimed a Distinction for all her efforts, in spite of her harshest critic being herself, she really made some great films and I firmly believe she will be extremely successful in making documentaries. Plus we got to eat a lot of meat afterwards, nom!
6. Stag Weekend - Three gigs, two clubs, one meal, driving some mad buggies and shooting stuff, it was a fantastic weekend of very drunken antics! Plus I threw up into a pint glass at 8.30 in the evening in an upmarket Manchester bar, at which point my Best Man Neil calmly went “It’s his Stag!”, at which point the Bouncers shrugged “Alright!” Classic stuff!
7. Maintaining a full time job! - Against the odds, in a recession, I’ve managed to hold on to a full time job, not snap and scream obscenities at some numbnut and actually be good at it!
Personally, I reckon I’m one of the nicest people you can get if you phone up our Council about Council Tax (unless you are rude, in which case, it’s hard not to go through the motions, isn’t it?)
8. Nude swim to island! - Cracking last night of freedom, with Ed and Stevo on The Seychelles. As it was very hard to drink more than 5 beers, we just had a couple and were going to swim naked to the nearest island (about half a mile out.)
As the tide was out, we ended up walking waist deep to the island, in very visible sunlight and sat bollock naked on the beach having a Heineken (of all things!)
When we heard dogs walking back, we assumed that we’d need bailing out in the morning but instead it was local dogs and we continued into one of the hotel pools where a perplexed German bloke who looked like Paul Worthington spotted us!
9. Getting asked to be an Godfather/Best Man - I can’t really put into words quite what it means to be asked to do one or either of these roles, that’s what I suppose I’ve got to do over the coming weeks, when I put together the plans I’ve got into a Best Man speech!
And no, I wasn’t trying to be one by having three Best Men myself!
10. Hundred Reasons/HIFH ‘Final Show’ - This could easily be perceived as a negative, two bands who were the first proper ‘rock’ bands I struck out from my childhood group of friends and decided to like even though they didn’t, a final tour.
It felt appropriate though, rather than fading away into obscurity, five or six of their favourite songs, then ‘Ideas Above Our Station’ in full, oh and ‘Remmus’ to boot, marvellous!
Hell Is For Heroes also played the sterling ‘Neon Handshake’ in order followed up by ‘Folded Paper Figures’. In truth, the sound quality wasn’t great but I think Fran enjoyed it, at least!
Oh and did I mention, Toni agreed to re-arrange the wedding so we flew out to get married the night after they played Manchester, I don’t think I’ll ever find a way to thank for that, especially since it meant missing a Pulp gig booked shortly afterwards while we were away...
11. Olympics/Paralympics - Despite my initial cynicism, I rapidly became drawn in to sports like rowing, archery and canoeing. Canoeing in particular, I wish was on TV more regularly!
Then came The Paralympics and with Channel 4 doing a superb job of mass promotion of the entire fortnight. Even the intro song didn’t get tiresome, it was a tremendous time for British sport and the nation.
That’s before we get to Danny Boyle’s marvellous tribute to the NHS in the Opening Ceremony for the Olympics and George Osborne getting a stadium-full of booing for presenting medals at the Paralympics after his savaging of disability Benefits.
12. Marriages and childbirths everywhere! - In the space of what felt like days, we got invited to Neil & Katie, Paul & Kerry, Paul & Anna and Jane & Damien’s weddings and associated parties, it’s good to be around so many happy people doing this.
Maybe it’s our age but there seems to be kids everywhere, besides Neil and Katie’s Imogen, Hannah has given birth and Pam & Colin, Cara & Gethin and Katie Royle (a second time) are on their way!
13. Festivals - There was the ‘Beachball Incident’, during a band called Pure Love, they released several giant white balloons. They predictably got smacked and bounced around down the front before one of them headed to the side, Stevo did try to warn Toni but she thought we were taking the piss.
When she finally did turn round, it was timed perfectly to hit her square in the face, cue hysterics from me, Stevo, Jim and Dan H, marvellous!
After perhaps feeling overawed by doing 4 festivals in 2012, the 1 Leeds Festival in 2012 was great and with decent weather and fantastic company, it reminded me what I love about festivals!
14. New friends! - Perfectly wholesome activities like making murder documentaries in our flat has meant spending more time with Nine Lives folks like Ali and Jonny, our new neighbours Ralph and Nicole who are happy to look after the cats mean we are living in a proper community and folks like Dan Heaton, who we’ve got to know gradually have all been lovely additions to our groups of friends!
15. Obama in for term two, most importantly, none of those Neo-Conservative, gun-toting, 1% Millionaires such as Mitt Romney, managed to get in for the Republicans, thank you, America!
And here was 2011's tasty prawns and pizza! - http://jeffthelion.livejournal.com/223023.html
1. Getting Married! - A beautiful venue, a wonderful holiday leading up to it, a week of fun afterwards and marrying the best person I’ve ever met afterwards, it doesn’t get any better :)!
2.Honeymoon/dream holiday - The honeymoon was as you’d expect, if you want some kind of voyeuristic insight, fuck right off!
To get the chance to experience my dream holiday made me feel so privileged and lucky, the locals were lovely and friendly, the weather was sporadic and unpredictable and the island itself quirky, a gate about the size of a Toddler to protect an airport, for example!
Getting to visit islands that have been left largely as they have been for hundreds of years, to see ones seemingly untouched by human hands and to walk casually around giant tortoises was unbelievable!
3. Getting a flat! - It took a fair bit of finding, partially helped by the Estate Agents’ website not mentioning which area it’s in! Now we’re settled, I genuinely love the place, the neighbours are lovely and it’s a real community, they look after our cats when we’re at Festivals and in Summer the communal garden is wonderful!
4.Losing 2 stone/improved bowels! - Toni encouraged me to slim down for the wedding and despite my cynicism, we undertook the Weightwatchers Diet combined with exercise, 2 milkshakes and a full meal a day... and it worked! I dropped 2 stone and now wear medium, not large t-shirts!
A nice by-product of this was passing excrement considerably less, from 4 guaranteed poos a day to 2-3 at most, was a huge change for the better!
5. Toni getting a Masters - It was a great day and a fitting tribute, as Toni deservedly claimed a Distinction for all her efforts, in spite of her harshest critic being herself, she really made some great films and I firmly believe she will be extremely successful in making documentaries. Plus we got to eat a lot of meat afterwards, nom!
6. Stag Weekend - Three gigs, two clubs, one meal, driving some mad buggies and shooting stuff, it was a fantastic weekend of very drunken antics! Plus I threw up into a pint glass at 8.30 in the evening in an upmarket Manchester bar, at which point my Best Man Neil calmly went “It’s his Stag!”, at which point the Bouncers shrugged “Alright!” Classic stuff!
7. Maintaining a full time job! - Against the odds, in a recession, I’ve managed to hold on to a full time job, not snap and scream obscenities at some numbnut and actually be good at it!
Personally, I reckon I’m one of the nicest people you can get if you phone up our Council about Council Tax (unless you are rude, in which case, it’s hard not to go through the motions, isn’t it?)
8. Nude swim to island! - Cracking last night of freedom, with Ed and Stevo on The Seychelles. As it was very hard to drink more than 5 beers, we just had a couple and were going to swim naked to the nearest island (about half a mile out.)
As the tide was out, we ended up walking waist deep to the island, in very visible sunlight and sat bollock naked on the beach having a Heineken (of all things!)
When we heard dogs walking back, we assumed that we’d need bailing out in the morning but instead it was local dogs and we continued into one of the hotel pools where a perplexed German bloke who looked like Paul Worthington spotted us!
9. Getting asked to be an Godfather/Best Man - I can’t really put into words quite what it means to be asked to do one or either of these roles, that’s what I suppose I’ve got to do over the coming weeks, when I put together the plans I’ve got into a Best Man speech!
And no, I wasn’t trying to be one by having three Best Men myself!
10. Hundred Reasons/HIFH ‘Final Show’ - This could easily be perceived as a negative, two bands who were the first proper ‘rock’ bands I struck out from my childhood group of friends and decided to like even though they didn’t, a final tour.
It felt appropriate though, rather than fading away into obscurity, five or six of their favourite songs, then ‘Ideas Above Our Station’ in full, oh and ‘Remmus’ to boot, marvellous!
Hell Is For Heroes also played the sterling ‘Neon Handshake’ in order followed up by ‘Folded Paper Figures’. In truth, the sound quality wasn’t great but I think Fran enjoyed it, at least!
Oh and did I mention, Toni agreed to re-arrange the wedding so we flew out to get married the night after they played Manchester, I don’t think I’ll ever find a way to thank for that, especially since it meant missing a Pulp gig booked shortly afterwards while we were away...
11. Olympics/Paralympics - Despite my initial cynicism, I rapidly became drawn in to sports like rowing, archery and canoeing. Canoeing in particular, I wish was on TV more regularly!
Then came The Paralympics and with Channel 4 doing a superb job of mass promotion of the entire fortnight. Even the intro song didn’t get tiresome, it was a tremendous time for British sport and the nation.
That’s before we get to Danny Boyle’s marvellous tribute to the NHS in the Opening Ceremony for the Olympics and George Osborne getting a stadium-full of booing for presenting medals at the Paralympics after his savaging of disability Benefits.
12. Marriages and childbirths everywhere! - In the space of what felt like days, we got invited to Neil & Katie, Paul & Kerry, Paul & Anna and Jane & Damien’s weddings and associated parties, it’s good to be around so many happy people doing this.
Maybe it’s our age but there seems to be kids everywhere, besides Neil and Katie’s Imogen, Hannah has given birth and Pam & Colin, Cara & Gethin and Katie Royle (a second time) are on their way!
13. Festivals - There was the ‘Beachball Incident’, during a band called Pure Love, they released several giant white balloons. They predictably got smacked and bounced around down the front before one of them headed to the side, Stevo did try to warn Toni but she thought we were taking the piss.
When she finally did turn round, it was timed perfectly to hit her square in the face, cue hysterics from me, Stevo, Jim and Dan H, marvellous!
After perhaps feeling overawed by doing 4 festivals in 2012, the 1 Leeds Festival in 2012 was great and with decent weather and fantastic company, it reminded me what I love about festivals!
14. New friends! - Perfectly wholesome activities like making murder documentaries in our flat has meant spending more time with Nine Lives folks like Ali and Jonny, our new neighbours Ralph and Nicole who are happy to look after the cats mean we are living in a proper community and folks like Dan Heaton, who we’ve got to know gradually have all been lovely additions to our groups of friends!
15. Obama in for term two, most importantly, none of those Neo-Conservative, gun-toting, 1% Millionaires such as Mitt Romney, managed to get in for the Republicans, thank you, America!
And here was 2011's tasty prawns and pizza! - http://jeffthelion.livejournal.com/223023.html