2000 Posts!!! TL;DR

Wow. Sure many blogs as old as mine reached 2000 posts many years ago. Many blogs much younger than mine have too. But that doesn't stop me being immensely happy at reaching this total! 2000 entries here and still going 7 and bit years after it all started. Thanks, Dear Constant Reader, for sticking with me through the ups and downs!

Ahhhh!! Uni Time!! was begun in August 2001. I was 18, living at home in the summer before university, and I saw an article in the Guardian's Tech supplement one Thursday about this nifty new phenomenon called blogging and as a seasoned diary writer I decided to start one for myself. It was garish and insignificant and I soon lost interested.

Then I went to university and I started writing about my block, and renamed the blog Block 33. By December my lack of money and poor mental health meant the posts started to drop. I don't think the posts there really even begin to show how dark my feelings were during those couple of months and how really close I came on several occasions to just ending it all. It sounds melodramatic and unnecessary to me know, but hey it's the truth! And then Steps split up. Tragedy. In retrospect those first few weeks at university with Cheesy Dave and all the glorious fun of Brighton turned out to be the last few truly happy times for a long while.

January 2002. I ran away. Stupid me. I sucked at running away too. But I did have some fun times and I still remember most of the trip like it was yesterday. The weirdness of exploring London, of knocking Boy George over outside Broadcasting House, of joining protests, then travelling to France and spending my first night alone in a foreign country, travelling without reason and finding the back streets, the dodgy hotels, the humourous characters, discovering the beautiful Valance, joining more protests, eating paninis on the cold wintery French rivera, returning to Italy, loving Florence all over again, discovering Rome was a shithole, watching young love blossom on the platforms of Gare Du Nord. It was all so lovely. But bittersweet. I went out to France a scaredy cat who'd never really learnt to communicate with others. I came back two weeks later a little braver and a little less messed up.

February 2002... I got myself a job at the Euro Millennium Hotel which would soon become... Faulty Towers Hotel. Hence the url for this blog now. From then until June that year I sort of started my recovery. It was funny how messed up I was, I even got booked in for a counsellor. But as the months past and the appointment got nearer (this is the NHS after all!) I stopped being so down. There were good times... the Hardc0re 3 (me, Pete and Laura) wrecked havoc upon the bars and pubs of Folkestone. And best of all I got more friendly with Zoe, and where would I be without her? Blockbuster video evenings and random trip were just around the corner. Love ya Zoe!

By June 2002 my life was getting back on track. Sort of. I mean, I was back going out with Stephen in our on again off again sort of way (did we ever break up properly? I don't think so. I think officially we're probably still going out together which is slightly disturbing). Eurotunnel, Ben (mmm... Ben...), all the cute Folkestonian boys, getting regular pay and enjoying myself. Random names pop to mind, Andy the barman who was only extremely attractive when wearing beer goggles. The Leas Club Bar Man. Carla, the lady at work I sat next to and thought was called Carla for months and called her that until it was pointed out to me that was just her phone name. Becky. Oh Becky. She made me feel normal. :D Stacey Lady!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Even in my head her name always has Lady and a million exclamation marks after it.

come back to what you know was finally born.



By February 2003 life changed again. I was the last temp out the door at Eurotunnel as it tightened it's belt (yeah bitches, I out lasted every last damn one of the others even super cool Stacey Lady!!xinfintity !) but started at TVW the next week which would be one of best things I ever did. And Stacey Lady!!xinfinity was there too. When she popped up in front of me as I sat at my desk I got the best feeling. But it was still a bit of a dark time, I wasn't totally mentally compus mentus... speaking of which...

May 2003. Gareth. Gareth. Gareth. There'd been Stephen. They'd been plenty of shags. But Gareth was my first proper relationship with washing up and all the trimmings. I met Gareth in April and by May we had entered lovey dovey territory. I should have know it wouldn't last. He was all the things I hated: obsessed with his work, with clothes, with cars, with looking good and with how people perceived him. And I was... well I'm me. ;) Messy, unkempt and lacking focus. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. But we had fun times, drinking and shagging and going to Canterbury and London. More Zoe activity. More Ben activity. It was all good. Bar 11 in Canterbury became my weekend home, Hollyoaks Sunday Omnibus my obsession.

Then November came. I should of been expecting it. Gareth never really understood me and his constant assertions that he did were annoying. But still when he dumped me it hurt me way more than it hurt him. Which hurt me even more as I had never wanted to let myself get into that situation.

2004 was, on reflection, the weirdest year of my life. I started dating, a new and unappealing concept to me. There was so many dates and many of them did not end in a shag! Amazing considering what a slapper I can be. Mark was a highlight. he really got me going. But most of that year is lost to you, Dear Constant Reader, for in my life funk I stopped writing on here (although for some of you LJ Constant Readers you know some of the details). But by the end of the year my life would be irrevocably changed for the better.

In January 2004 I began messaging with a guy named "Jim". We developed an online friendship and kept meaning to meet. But his travel and work commitments meant it took a long while to get around to it. By the time we did in August, I'd been on so many dates and in quite a few short term relationships that I was pretty jaded about the whole love thing. We met outside of G.A.Y. in Soho , and had a few drinks. We went out to the cinema and to Il Bordello and had a wonderfully time. But I think Jim was bitterly disappointed when I only ended our day by shaking his hand. I was just being careful. By October and after our first trip to Prague we were going out and I was in love.

Things went from there really and by the end of the year I was back blogging again. Jim and I spent many weekends together and he often came down to visit, including humourous lunch time visits where he'd race down from London just to see me for lunch.

In April 2005 I made a decision... I decided to leave TVW, move to London and live with Jim. By May, after some electioneering in Shepway with the Lib Dems, I was there and I "feverishly" began looking for jobs. Yes. Feverish indeed. Luckily Simon from EO contacted me thanks to my CV on Monster and soon enough, after a grilling in front of all three of the managers of the time, I got a job there. Thus began some of the good times. I can't begin to describe how many friends I made during my time at EO, how much fun I had on the work nights out and how good it was to be living with the man I love far from the parental units.

Also that year, San Francisco!!! My first, and so far only, trip to the United States of America. Northern California was awesome!

2006 I got on a podcast, got a featured column in the London Lite (it was this article), got mentioned in the Guardian thanks to this controversial article and generally had a good time of it with go out with work and "having a laugh" as Nick, a Wisconsinite of my acquaintance at the time, would have said. I had my first trip to Thailand and another trip to Prague, with added Warsaw. FUN!! Who knew Asian men were so damn good looking? Plus a trip to Lochgoilhead. oh and I lost my religion, Wicca, that year becoming a born again Athiest.

2007 was the year when things stopped being so much fun at EO. Sure I still had a deep crush on a certain somebody and there were new friends to replace the ever changing roster but somehow it lost a lot of it's glamour. But I did meet two fab Canadians that year... Vy, who was simply awesome and Arwen, equally awesome plus she kept me sane through the early months of 2008 and kept me company watching rubbish telly (Airport!) in our lunch break whilst plotting. Always plotting. More Lochgoilhead.

2008 and I finally got the courage up to hand in my resignation at EO, shortly after returning from a second trip to my beloved Thailand, with no plan for what was going to happen. Months of confusion followed with silly jobs that went no where and messy things. I finally grabbed hold of the nearest available lifejacket and ended up at Plan B. Not the best start to 2009 then. No, not the best start at all. No laptop either so as my finances went "Bang" my internet addiction has had to give way in a terrible period of cold turkey.

But hey! Things have been bad before and I survived. Onwards and upwards! Thanks for sticking with me, here's to another 2000 posts! Blogging might not be cool anymore, but it wasn't cool when I started so bugger off to all those cretins shouting "Blogging is dead". No mate, faddy blogging is dead. Get it right!

And here's to those constants of the blog: MT, The Sixth Former, Charles Dera, Brent Corrigan, Eurovision and Dear Constant Readers. I couldn't have done it without you!

This blogger works for nothing but the joy of writing but always appreciates things bought from his wishlist