2009: Win

...Just finished reading 2008. Why did I big that up so much? I could top 2008 with my hands tied! I laugh at 2008! Here's what happened in 2009:

2009 Travel Map:

	Swansea: Kift's birthday party!
	Bristol/Cardiff: home(s)—including my super-cool new flat!
	Longleat: Centre Parcs holiday!
	Southampton/Poole: Visit to Lucy's parents and Splashdown water park!
	Birmingham: January road trip with Speed & Hobday! Including a trip to Cadbury's World!
	London: Group of friends trip to see Brand New gig
	Tignes: Amazing ski holiday!

Gigs:

• Twin Atlantic, Flood of Red (met them), Me My Head—Amazing. I felt a world away here.
• Flood of Red (met the band)
• Feeder at the Summer Ball
• Brand New in London
• Taking Back Sunday/Twin Atlantic
• Biffy Clyro (for the 5th time!)
• Tommy & The Weeks comedy gig, did I tell you about this?! Tommy threw a manky orange into the crowed and it landed on Lucy's lap! (With a scream!)
• Monsters of Folk—Incredible 3 hour set of pure talent

Highlights:

• Finishing my degree! Hooray for no more exams!
• Getting a cool summer job
• Getting on the PhD course
• Getting a lovely flat in Cardiff Bay
• Having an amazing girlfriend for almost a year!
• A second visit from my bestest eFriend: Sarah Maree
• Great parties, including my 21st, the Summer Ball, silent discos and my graduation
• Pretty fun volunteering trips

Lowlights:

Just one: hideous, nasty anxiety/stress! I got a little crazy coming to the end of my degree, with coursework, exams, job interviews, first girlfriend, being good enough for a PhD, finding a place to live. Did I mention panic attacks and spending days ill in bed? Reading my 2009 blog posts reminds me of how horrible it was. I sound so burned-out in them all! So glad I'm all fixed now, I don't think I'll ever have that problem again.

So 2009 was a brilliant year, so much so that it's got me worried about next year! 2010 will be a total downer compared to 2009, right? Well, not if I can help it. I've got a few little plans to make sure:

2010 Aims:

• Get into a good band an actually play some gigs!
• Get back into lucid dreaming, meditation, psychology, painting—I miss that stuff!
• Step-foot out of Europe, for once. 

2009: what a good time! See you again next year!

Skiing Holiday!

Skiing holiday! Hooray! The week before last, I went on holiday to a place called Tignes (pronounced Teen—it's French!) on the French/Italian border. I went with my buddies Nat, Dan, Phil and Ria, and it was really fun!

But first we had to get there! The journey was crazy, we were on a coach all the way (apart from the ferry crossing) and it took me a total of 28 hours to get there from Cardiff! That was such a tough journey. It's so hard to sleep on coaches, especially on the rubbish coach we had. It didn't even have a TV!

The accommodation was terrible! We arrived late and there wasn't any hot water for us to shower after our journey! We had a nice meal out then went to bed, ready to have a full day tomorrow.

We didn't have any lessons the next day, so we tried some skiing on our own. Started off with little slopes, then, stupidly, Phil and I went up a chair lift! The slope didn't look very big, but when we got to the top it looked totally different. Soo steep! We knew there was only one way down, Phil went first, he started off steady and picked up speed, faster and faster, I thought he would take off! Then suddenly he exploded into a ball of dust and tumbled head-over-heals for the majority of the rest of the slope! It was quite a spectacle! It was hilarious (once he stood up and we knew he was safe). Now it was my turn! My run was pretty similar to Phils but not quite as impressive. My legs were in angles I didn't even know were possible! The others watched in hysterics from the bottom!

The skiing lessons were great. I can't believe how good we all became at skiing! It was me & Dan for the win. We went off together and hit some crazy-steep slopes! It was such a rush! It felt like we were on top of the world when we were the only ones stood at the top of a huge mountain. The chair lifts were so big you could see for miles! And the scenery was beautiful. Everything covered in snow, no cars, no computers, no worries, we were a world away!

I met some really lovely people there. Most people on  my trip were from Oxford/Cambridge University (there were 2,500 of us in total!), so some people were total stuck-up rahs, but most people I met were great. So great that I was sad to leave them when I came home!

The evening entertainment was alright... Drinks were way too expensive, and there just wasn't much going on in general. But that didn't stop us getting our groove on!

I learned a little bit of French while I was there! I looked so silly talking to waitresses out of my little French book, but it helped! And we laughed!

Skiing was incredible. I can't wait to go again. Tignes was stunning, the people were great, let's go again!