What a year. (Looking Back at 2008)

Member Name: oodlenoodle9

Product:	Looking Back at 2008
Date:	01/01/09 (95 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lots of good stuff happened to me

Disadvantages: Yet another year gone! Oh woe is me, I feel so old...

I guess that most people will probably not care in the slightest what I think about and did in 2008 but hey ho, it's fun so I'm doing the quiz anyway! So there!


1. What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before?

Starting at university I suppose was a fairly landmark event in my life...


2. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Umm, my cousin did. Her newborn son Tom is very cute, and looks worryingly intelligent...


3. Did anyone close to you die?

My Grandmother, yes. Alas, we were never all that close, and she left me a very generous amount of money in her will. Makes me feel I should have tried a bit harder to get to know her. As everyone feels I imagine. I used to write stories and send them to her to be edited, and then get a bit annoyed when she wrote back telling me the truth that I now realise, that back then my writing really was quite childish. Admittedly she was a bit more polite than that. It's getting better...slowly...I think...


4. What countries did you visit?

Phew...lots. I love travelling. In February I flew to Koln in Germany to see my friend who I met at interview in Oxford, and got very drunk and watched the Koln Karneval and had a lot of fun.

Then in the summer I went to France and stayed in a gite with some friends before taking the train to visit my friend in Germany again, sleeping rough mostly because I didn't have enough money, before heading back south and hiking across the Pyrenees again.

After that I went to Malaysia with my family and toured around and did touristy things.

Oh, and I went kayaking in Wales for a bit too with the university kayak club.

Think that's it...!


5. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?

The ability to run a marathon would be good. I tried in 2008 and had to pull out because I overtrained and got injured. I think a half marathon is a more realistic goal though actually for now!


6. What dates from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

14th of August, when I got my results and was rejected by Oxford is pretty memorable. A week later in Malaysia when I heard that my grade had been upped and I got in after all is also pretty well etched on.

About the 20th October when I started university is another day I'll have trouble forgetting.


7. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

I suppose getting into Oxford must be about the biggest. The whole thing seems pretty surreal when I think about it.


8. Did you suffer illness or injury?

Nope, despite my best efforts. I did almost manage to drown myself in a recirculating stopper in Wales whilst kayaking, but that doesn't really count.


9. What was the best thing you bought?

I don't buy things, I'm too poor.


10. Whose behaviour merited celebration?

There's a tricky question. Pretty ambiguous too. In a high minded sort of way I think Barack Obama's election-winning behaviour is about the best thing that has happened to the world in a long time.

On a simpler level when I was travelling in France a priest called Jordi found me outside the station in Limoges and offered me a free bed for the night, despite only just having met me and hardly speaking any English. Generosity like that is sadly rare.


11. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

What a depressing question. Going back to the election since it's all I can think of right now, Hillary Clinton's low blows apalled me somewhat. I think she's a very intelligent woman and such behaviour is pathetic. Every time people say climate change is b******s I get pretty angry too.


12. Where did most of your money go?

Beer. Frankly I can't afford much else these days once I've paid for everything else uni-wise.


13. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Going to uni. Of course.


14. What song will always remind you of 2008?

Oo, err... umm... Picking one of many, Let's Start A Band by Amy MacDonald is pretty memorable, reminding me of summer and that fantastic gig I went to a couple of weeks back.

Oh, can I have another one please? Viva la Vida by Coldplay. Musical masterpiece that is, and it reminds me of good times in France.


15. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this
time last year?

I am proud to say hatred is not something I have cause to feel.


16. What did you want and get?

Sorry to keep banging on about it, but my place at uni was fairly crucial to my continued happy existence. For the week that it was taken away I lived in a dreamworld thinking s**t! ad nauseam in a detached sort of way.


17. What did you want and not get?

The love of many beautiful girls. A new kayak (give me time though, I might buy one this weekend). My marathon in Edinburgh.


18. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

I was 19. It sounds stupid I know, but I'm starting to feel old, one of the many reasons why I have this overwhelming desire to see the world.

I was at uni for my birthday, friends from elsewhere came and visited, we drank quite a bit, cooked risotto (as you do) and went to a Red bop in aid of AIDS. Or rather, fighting AIDS.



Thats seems to be it! All in all, thinking about it, 2008 was a pretty incredible year for me. I feel quite lucky.

Summary: Smile :)