My farewell to the year that was 2008

Just like every other year, 2008 seemed to have flown by pretty fast. If I was asked casually if I had achieved or completed much this year, my typical answer would be “I don’t really think so”. After many one-on-one meeting with my team leader at work, I have learnt that I never really notice the little things, and only pay attention to the big picture. So to help me keep a record of the year that has been 2008, I will see how much of it I can remember. It may be difficult to keep in a understandable order, but I’ll see how I go.

I started 2008 in a drunken mess (the effect of the New Years Eve party), and if that was any indication of how I was going to party this year, then it was fairly accurate. Any social occasion this year that involved alcohol usually ended up with me being the token drunk guy. Unfortunately actions and words cannot be taken back, so all I can do is look back over it all and laugh. On the plus side, I have become a beer drinker again. I used to like beer, then I hated it and after taking a break from it, I now like it again. It’s kind of good as well because I’m starting to dislike spirits now. Maybe I just need a break from it.

So speaking of drinking and partying, 2008 was the year of 21^st birthdays. Being born in 1987 meant that a lot of my friends were born in the same year. As a result, there were countless 21^st birthdays to attend this year. Now this is a good thing because it gives more than enough reason to party hard. The one thing about all of this that got difficult after a while was the fact that there were so many different gifts to buy and unfortunately, creativity slowly decreased over the year and presents got more and more simple. As well, most of these parties occurred on a Saturday night. For the majority of people who had already finished study at the end of last year, this wasn’t a problem. I on the other hand was still at TAFE which meant I could only work at the end of the week and on the weekend. Ever since March, I had worked every weekend which meant dreadful hangovers on most of my Sundays.

This then takes me onto the topic of work. Since I had quite Woolworths in September 2007, I had been working with Maginet in the meantime. Unfortunately, the job required a lot of travel and since 2008 was going to be a busier year at TAFE, I couldn’t afford the time off. So I looked elsewhere for a job that could fit in nicely with my education, and the GE Money call centre happened to be the place. I started training there in February which I then completed at the start of March. Ever since then, I have been working a cycle of Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday (afternoon/evening); with minimal variation in my shifts. One thing always remained the same though; I never got a weekend off. As a result of all that, I burnt out of the job fairly quick because those are the busiest days there, so I hope to move on to a new job in 2009 as I have graduated from TAFE.

On the topic of education, that was pretty much where the other half of my year disappeared to. Being a similar style to school, TAFE consisted of full ten hour days on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Despite the fact that it meant that I was mostly unavailable at the same times each day, it actually felt good having a consistent schedule throughout the year. But after many long days, my course had come to an end in December and now the long road ahead awaits.

In keeping with my little tradition, I always aim to watch at least one new release movie every week. Since 2003, I have kept all my ticket stubs to enable me to keep track of what I have seen. 2008 was a busy year with movies, and this year I managed to watch a total of 71 new movies at the cinema with four of those being watched twice. This equals to 75 trips to the cinema over a 52 week year. Not too bad I say. Luckily I have a student discount, so all up I only spent about $487.50 on the movies alone, and probably another $300 on drinks and snacks. Still quite a bit now that I think about it. For record keeping, I have a list of the movies I’ve watched in 2008 located here.

So that was pretty much the construction of 2008... the events that occurred frequently enough to consume a majority of the year. Now onto some of the little events that happened in between that are worth noting. Not too many events come to mind so I had to go through my photos taken during the year to give a bit of a refresher. Some photos are included at the end of this post.

To start things off, the first major change I had for 2008 was that I started a course of Roaccutane. Prior to this, I had a persisting acne issue and after numerous topical and oral antibiotic treatments did not work, I was just about to give up. I finally got around to getting a dermatologist referral and then was prescribed the one medication that has been known to give great results. After only a month of treatment, results were starting to be seen and you could really see why many people call it a miracle drug. To reduce the side effects (dry skin being the worst), we had decided to continue with a moderate dose for a longer period. Twelve months later and my course of Roaccutane is just about to come to an end (only three days left). I could not be any more pleased with the outcome. My face is clearer, and I feel more confident when going out. I have felt pretty lethargic over the duration of the year and it is hard to determine whether this treatment was a cause or not. If it was, then at least 2009 can start of fresh and I might gain some energy back in the process.

I guess next up would be the opening of Krispy Kreme in Brisbane (Photo 1). This was good news as it meant that you no longer had to travel to Sydney or Melbourne (or find someone coming back from there) just o enjoy them. This also had its disadvantages though.

On the topic of consumables, there are two new things that I tried in 2008 that I am now addicted to, the first being EasyWay Tea. Now I’ve had bubble tea before and prior to this I would only buy from Tea Bar. Once I discovered EasyWay though, I was instantly addicted and have purchased quite a bit of it since. There is just something unique with the flavour. The other thing I am addicted to is Hanaichi. For the weeks that I had TAFE (which was nearly the whole year) we would go to Indooroopilly for lunch and Hanaichi would be the meal of choice. Now that TAFE is over though, I am having some serious withdrawal symptoms.

Next on the list would have to be my new Toyota Aurion (Photo 2). Originally back in 2007, I was seriously planning to get a Nissan 200SX S15. After a trip to the drags at Willowbank, my whole preference for cars changed quite a bit. As well, I realised that I should aim for something more practical and get a car with more usable space. Despite the fact that I like the aggressiveness of a Holden or Ford, I just wasn’t a fan of them as they are just too common on the road. After some searching around, I found the Toyota Aurion. It had the reliability of a Toyota (which I was already aware of with my Camry), yet it had quite a lot of power for a locally made car by them. I was immediately hooked, and after a little bit of waiting, my Dad found one for me and I have been attached to it since.

Speaking of Toyota, I also joined the Toyota Owners Club – Australia forum. This has allowed me to share my experiences together with others and seek advice as well. In addition to that, I had joined in on the weekly Thursday night meets for the Brisbane Toyota owners. It has been a great opportunity to meet new people and I have gained some new friends in the process.

Now as TAFE days grew longer and longer, my mind had a good tendency to wonder. The photos shown for number 3 give a perfect example of how much time was spent bumming around.

I guess next up on the list was the opening of Fitness First at Jindalee (Photo 4). I was looking forward to this not due to the fact that it would only take a third of the time to get there compared to Indooroopilly, but more due to the fact that there the equipment would be newer. Overall, I am fairly impressed with the gym and the mornings still remain fairly quiet which is just how I like it.

This now brings us to about mid-year... my birthday. My birthday always happens to fall on a day when something is going on. During my teens, this happened to be school. For the last few years (including this year), I happened to be working. This year, I not only had to go to TAFE, but then work as well. So much for a relaxing 21^st birthday. My team mates were very kind though and decorated my desk for me (Photo 5).

A few months or so down the track, some female driver (just setting the scene; not criticising) thought it would be fantastic to t-bone me at an intersection (Photo 6). Being such a new car, you could imagine just how annoyed I was. I had to go without my car for two whole weeks, which was so excruciating. In the end though, all was resolved and now I have my car back to enjoy more than ever.

A couple of months later, December kicked off with a smile; in quite an interesting way. Venus and Jupiter just happened to line up nicely with a crescent moon, and Photo 7 shows how it looked. Just looking up at the sky, one couldn’t help but smile back. It was certainly a cheerful way to start the month.

A couple of weeks later once I finished TAFE, I realised that I now had quite a bit of free time available to myself. After listening to Amy at work talk non-stop about the book ‘Twilight’, I thought I would once again try to give reading another go. Luckily for me, Twilight was written in first-person which I find much easier to read. I was hooked immediately and now am going to continue reading the entire series. I’m about half-way through all of it right now, but haven’t had too much opportunity to read much in the last week due to other commitments.

This then takes up to Christmas time which I believe was not really like Christmas used to be. It seems like the Christmas spirit is starting to fade away as each year goes on. It is kind of a disappointment actually. One thing that still hasn’t changed (and probably getting worse) is the shopping centres around that time. It is just way too impossible to go to a shopping centre over the November/December/January period. I guess maybe next time if I sorted my shopping earlier, this wouldn’t be a problem. Though, how many times have I told myself this?

Fast forward a week later and here I am now. Writing my last blog entry for 2008 and getting ready for yet another year. As per normal, 2009 is going to start off with me in a drunken mess but hey; what can you do?

Here are the photos that I was referring to earlier:

1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7)

If anyone out there has read through this, or even just skipped right to the end here, I would like to wish you a Happy New Year and may 2009 be full of fun and experiences. My year had it's up's and its down's, and it's usually the down's that one remembers the most. I am hoping that 2009 is a happier year for myself and that it is full of many up's and barely and down's. But I guess a balance is required right? Anyways, if your 2008 didn’t turn out the way you wanted it to, I hope 2009 brings you more enjoyment. I will see you again next year.