So we started off today in bed watching ‘Splash’ which is this new ITV show thing about Z list celebrities learning to dive. The good thing it has Tom Daley with speedo’s on. The bad it’s far too long and just a little bit shite.

We then had to go out and get Christmas presents for Jamie’s Dad and Grandad as it was time for the next Christmas dinner. So off we went to Cribb’s and got various booze related gifts and a photo hastily printed off at Asda. Got back home just in time to let the dog out for a piss and go out again.

It was okay I guess, even if the conversation was somewhat laboured at times. It’s quite difficult to hold a conversation with someone you have nothing at all in common with, you only see about once a year and don’t really care too much about what they are doing anyway. Always nice to see Jim though (Jamie’s grandad), have a lot of time for him, very interesting and amusing bloke, especially after he’s had a few.

So came back from there and stuck all the Christmas stuff back into the loft. That’s finally all that over for another year. Then did the accounts. I was hoping to do my wine kit, but if all goes according to plan with gym/running/dog walking that should be a job for Tuesday evening.

Still, guess what time it is…I’ll pour the wine.

This morning I actually got up fairly early, well for me anyway. As I drank less last night than I probably would on a school night. Had a coffee and then started on the clean up operation. That took about an hour, considering the amount of food I got, we did get through a hell of a lot of it. All I was left with was some mini scotch eggs and cocktail sausages, or a cock and balls, first shit gag of the year.

Had another coffee. Took the dog out, she escaped out of her harness trying to attack another dog but was saved by her emergency collar attachment. She still needs some work.

Came back and got hold of one of the home checks on my list. Quite a long way away past Thornbury (out of my usual area). A lucky dog though, big old farm house with masses of land.

So then came back and did the yearly filing, this is the chore of going through the entire filing cabinet and removing everything from 2010 and sticking it in a box in the loft that will never be opened. I have boxes dating back to 1998 in my loft. Correction I have boxes dating back to 1998 in my mothers loft. She could go up there and open them and look at my bank statements, then weep.

After that I logged into the on-line HMRC portal and filed my tax return. It took about ten minutes. They owe me thirty-seven quid. I’m pleased with the way the tax system works with gift aid. Even though on the outside I appear to be a complete tight miserable bastard (99.9% true) I do however donate a huge amount to charity. Actually only animal charities, everyone else has pissed me off in one way or another, I could rant for hours about spending two pounds a month saving children in Southmead from becoming Chavs…Anyway I give about three grand away, it actually costs me about eighteen hundred and the charity can then claim the lower rate tax back on that as well. The great thing about is that the only person who gets fucked is the government and I get this warm feeling that I’ve saved the lives of probably a dozen dogs this year. I may have been bitten by one as a kid, but I’ve never been thrown across the room by one, hit by one or raped by one, so they actually rate quite highly on my scale.

Changed the wall planner, oddly on the wall. It’s a boring Ryman one these days, used to be a karting one, but that’s all gone tits. Then that was it well almost…

Went down stairs and watched some telly, Jamie was at home by this stage, asleep on the bed, as he’d got up for a 9AM shift at about 9:30, had a hard day doing nothing. Apparently he didn’t have much sleep, not sure why, we were in bed by 1AM, which is a hell of a lot earlier than he usually manages. He’s still asleep now.

Had a bath. Drank some wine. Then did a very odd ceremonious thing, I took the year 2008 from my old Filofax. This is the one I kept since the age of 16. I took the pages out and put them in a labelled envelope with ‘2008’ on it. And put them in the drawer together with all the other envelopes from 1988 onwards. Before I sealed it, I did have a quick read through…I couldn’t make out a single fucking word of it, the handwriting was absolutely appalling. Still at least this on-line version may stand the test of time, unless I change languages or lose the ability to type. I wouldn’t actually put that past me, I’ve certainly lost the ability to write a long long time ago. I will continue to do the Filofax filing ritual every year until it’s empty, I will then take a photo of it, publish it in this blog and then bin it. I think that will be an apt end for one part of my life. Anyway, that’s the first day over with, and to be honest, it was fairly shit.

So here we go again, what I find the most depressing day of the year by far. If ever there was a reason to keep 4Kg of Fluoxetine in reserve it’s for today.

I’m sure its started how it’s meant to continue, pissing down. I was hoping to go out for a nice long walk with the dog and clear my mind a bit. But like the whole of Christmas it’s just continuous rain. It’s made the whole week very boring to be honest, normally during this week it’s a bit of DIY then some nice long walks, it’s normally chilly but dry. This year it’s been wet beyond belief. It’s really got me down.

So one good thing, my new Wine Making book turned up, so spent a couple of hours this morning with a nice coffee, my book and the farting dog. Jamie was working.

Got up and looked at the weather, still raining. So it was time to do a few house keeping computery things. Installed new virus software, updated various machines and things, a lot more of that to do tomorrow.

Then turned the lounge into a late 80’s rave scene, complete with lasers and a selection of tripe from I-Tunes.

Had lunch, by this time the rain had eased. Took dog for a walk, within three minutes it was torrential again but thankfully it didn’t last. We managed to get a good hour in.

So here I am, five to five. Listening to Paul O’Grady’s Christmas show on iPlayer. Oh, quick shout out to dad, he died I think nine years ago last night. He was another one who hated new year, and by dying just before it made sure everyone else would hate it forever more as well.

Let’s go then, what’s happened this year, what’s been good, what’s been shit, what did I care about and quite frankly what didn’t I care less about. I guess the major thing this year was the Civil Partnership. That came about last years new years eve. When we decided that wouldn’t it be a great idea to do it. So we did. To be honest the decision to do it seems like 10 minutes ago, but the actual ceremony itself seems like it was 10 years ago. It was a good day, it really was. Oddly it’s one of those things that really I would have not changed a thing, well if anything maybe I would have come up with a list of photos to take as I’m sure we are missing a few. The Honeymoon was great. LA was fantastic, San Francisco was hilly. All those coasters were great fun. Route 1 was one of those bucket list things, now ticked off. The deer incident was a shame, but it’s all life affirming….but not for the deer.

The weather this year has been basically shit. I think I’ve managed one semi disappointing walk and been on the bike about twice.

Karting wise, I’ve done one race. It had some fun bits, but some awful bits as well. Oddly not down to the kart or the team, but other peoples attitudes. When after practise you have to have a two hour meeting discussing engines between all the teams you know it’s just gone too far. It’s a great shame, I used to really enjoy it. But now it really is all about money. The more you are prepared to spend the faster you will go. When I first started, engines were tuned in your own garage. We didn’t have dyno’s or anything fancy, we just listened. You knew when your engine was on song or not. Now you turn up to a race meeting and would look out of place unless you had a 50,000sqft awning and at least 20 engines to choose from. It’s no longer a sport for small teams of wanabee formula one drivers, It’s a sport for people with really bad attitudes, no sportsmanship and formula one budgets. There was talk back in the summer of Paul and I investing in a new chassis and taking it round the Northern circuits. I haven’t heard any more since, quite frankly I don’t really mind. If anything happens it will happen, if it doesn’t I don’t think I’ll miss ever sitting in a kart again. Certainly my ribs won’t.

Okay, other highlights. Well other than the wedding to be honest it’s been a bit of a dull year. Proms in the Park was fun. That was actually a really great weekend other than the shit hotel. I discovered I liked ‘The Average White Band’. Kylie was shit, much better in Orlando.

Turkey this year was okay but nothing special. Jamie announced he no longer likes that type of holiday. Well he can pay for the next one. It will be shit.

I’ve learnt a few things. Mainly about boilers and heating systems. My belief in plumbers has been asserted….they are all shit. DIY, really haven’t done bugger all. Dug a bush out of the front garden. Did quite a lot of clearing up work in the back garden. Again this has mostly been down to the weather. Internally I haven’t really done much at all. I think I’m going to give up on the dinning room, after over two years on one wall I really do think it’s time to give up and get someone else in.

I bought a wine fridge. I bought a beer fridge. I gave up my paper diary in the middle of the year and started this blog. Oddly I’ve kept this going, I kind of enjoy it. Knowing that I’m getting a thousand hits a week from people who never comment but do hang around the pages long enough to read….yes I can tell that. I learnt an awful lot about Linux, especially Ubuntu 12.04LTS. I had a hell of a lot of fun with it. Proxy has been retired and the new server installed. Then after I found it cost more to power that than a small town I built a new lot of hardware, both for that and the pfSense box. Ah, pfSense, there was another bunch of fun. All conquered since, but gave me many an evening of grief but in the end a whole lot of enjoyment.

I stopped anti-depressants. To be honest I wish I was still on them. Even after the dog, which helps a lot, I still get some very very low days. I tend to just get spaced out and let it ride over me. Those are the days I avoid the wine, otherwise I’d never wake up again.

The dog has been great. She’s certainly improved after going to ‘Doggy Daycare’. Her social skills are a lot better. She still needs some work though and this year I’m committed to getting some good training in for her. Then may be then we can go on long and exciting walks together off her lead and I won’t have to worry about if she’s going to eat the next dog she comes across.

So I now have a bit of a new hobby right at the end of this year, Wine Making. It’s a hobby for old bores so should suit me right down to the ground. Actually it’s very involved, but does require waiting around a lot. I’ve bought the gear and got some for Christmas. The smell of the Strawberry Wine is wafting down the stairs now. Won’t be ready for a couple of months.

So karting is pretty much out of the window as I said. It’s very expensive and to be honest I’m just not as young as I was when I started. I have the fitness, but the bruises just hurt that little bit more. I haven’t down climbing in a couple of years since Gary moved to London. That is something I do really miss. I want to get back into that again this year for sure, need to get a new climbing partner. Top rope was fine, but leading to be honest I always found a bit too scary, plus I saw far too many people breaking their legs. If I wanted to break bones I’d do it driving at 120mph into a barrier on a tea tray, not falling six foot off a wall.

Need to do a bit more DIY as well. Certainly I’ll get someone in to do the dinning room. I’m still threatening to get someone in to do the on-suite as well, but as yet no one can really be arsed to give me a quote. People say there isn’t any work around, well there is, you just need to get off your fucking asses.

Work wise, well that’s been interesting. This year has been a mixture of being very slow and uncertain and being uncertain and very slow. Thankfully at the end of the year many of the issues have seemed to have been resolved, I even got paid some money I was owed which was nice. I got to work on game that I really enjoyed, was quite proud of and it even got rave reviews. There’s more of that game to come I think in future which will be good. Also I’m now working on something completely different for a bit, but I now have the confidence it will have the budget and the man power required so I can plough on with it in the new year…well Wednesday anyway. So that’s ending on a high, I’m sure it will all go shit again, it usually does.

Jamie and I are still ignoring each other so nothing changes there. One day, on his day off I would really love for him to turn round and say “Is there anything that needs doing?”. It will never happen, but I live in hope. Also may be he would tidy up once in a while. Again, I won’t keep my hopes up. I love him dearly (there I said it), but sometimes he does make it a little hard when I can’t get to the bathroom as it’s waist high in clothes, or I run out of plates as they are all stacked up in various states of mouldiness in his room.

I failed once again to shag Dillon Samuels. Although I did have quite a deep conversation with his partner Kyros Christian….about red wine.

So there we go. The end of the year. It’s new years eve. It’s now twenty five to six, so a full half hour of waffling. Andy and Lisa are coming round tonight. I’m sure it will be fun but somehow I always feel I’m missing out somewhere. Really I want to be out in some club dancing to late 80’s trance rather than drinking Foster’s and trying to be the life and soul of the party over a snack sausage roll. No offence to anybody, you may think it’s me but really it isn’t. I think it’s all down to the new years eve depression thing again. Either that or a misspent youth, or in my case not so much misspent youth. But that really is a story for another day.

I’m going to wrap up now and save off the draft as I do have all those sausage rolls to prepare. I’ll finish this off later, probably in a more intoxicated state.

Well, all over now. A bit of a damp squib really. We drank various things, talked about Tesco’s. Sat around staring out of the window. Jamie cooked more hot food, we had enough to feed about fifty people. I did full on rave dancing to some heavy trance with the dog. I had two cans of lager and a couple of glasses of wine. Lisa had about two bottles. The Cava was oxygenated a bit too much. Next year I vow to do something different as it really was just a little bit dull with everyone working in the morning.

We decided to do a couple of activities this year, thankfully no civil partnerships. Let’s see if we can pull them off. Meanwhile there’s all the tidying up to do. Oh yeah, and the tax return. Roll on 2013.