Monday, January 02, 2006

Review of 2005

I just read a very interesting review of the year on my brother's blog, and thought I'd do one of my own in the same format. I'm having to use my old calendar as a prompt so will probably miss loads out, but it's better than nothing. Here goes...

January
Good
- Getting happily drunk at Raquel's birthday meal and having lots of random conversations

- Hosting a quite legendary Ann Summers party
- Singing through the Verdi for the first time and discovering just how fabulous it is

Bad
- Throwing up after the quite legendary Ann Summers party...
- The entire day after the quite legendary Ann Summers party

February
Good
- Getting £500 of tax back from the Inland Revenue! The stuff of dreams
- The Music Centre Ball
- Performing the Woolfenden octet in Stratford

Bad
- Some losers breaking into the MC office on Valentine's Day and nicking Owen's stuff
- The temperature of the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford where we performed the octet

March
Good
- Running to the Jug before, during and after the WO concert in Leam
- Performing the Verdi, getting shivers down the spine and making mum cry (because it was good, not because it was bad!)
- Eating a yummy roast dinner at Alicia's house on Easter Sunday, and having two bank holidays!

Bad
- Being embarrassing while drunk on at least two occasions...and saying things that maybe I shouldn't have. Error

April
Good
- Going to Prague
- Having a totally fabulous girly night in Old Orleans with 2-for-1 cocktails
- Joining the Birmingham Phil, even if only for a term
- Hannah and Anthony's engagement party

Bad
- Getting back late from Prague and getting up at 6.30 to go to a horrible rehearsal which lasted all day
- Getting up at 7.30 on Sundays to go to the Birmingham Phil!

May
Good
- Going to see Honk! and laughing all the way through
- Having a delicious meal at The Cross
- The annual Eurovision party
- Having no BPO rehearsal on bank holiday weekend and getting a lie-in!

Bad
- Not staying up to watch the election because I had to work the next day

June
Good
- Having lunch with Gemma in the Pitcher and Piano
- The usual comedy fun at the WO Memorial Park concert
- Going to Old Orleans again!
- Performing in a brilliant concert with the BPO in Leominster, and actually playing well!
- The Chaplaincy Ball, especially our legendary jazz recorder rendition of Blackadder
- The Gala Concert

Bad
- Performing in the Adrian Boult Hall on the hottest day of the year with broken air conditioning: sweat all over the keys before we even started
- Tour (apologies to those who organised, the actual tour was brilliant but the other stuff sucked!)

July
Good
- Discovering I have the best friends in the whole world
- Sam's birthday meal at ASK
- Drunken girly nights with Chelsea and Julia
- Getting very drunk at Baby B and phoning my brother ("I'm in a toilet!")

Bad
- Don't really need to spell it out...

August
Good
- Having a week off work!
- Simon coming to stay: curry and drunkenness
- Visiting Jo and Mike in Ely
- Having lots of meals out with other employed people (I still owe you all dinner!)
- More drunken girly nights with Chelsea and Julia
- Finding a flat!
- Warwick regatta

Bad
- Not much actually! Yay for August

September
Good
- Listening to an absolutely incredible performance of Sibelius 2 in Symphony Hall
- Moving into my flat, then eating gorgeous salmon pasta in ASK at 9.30pm
- Playing a blinder at interview...and getting the job!
- Fabulous girly night out in Bar 44 with Julia, Juicy and Lesley
- Eating sausage at the beer festival and then randomly going to Baby B...again
- My housewarming party!
- Eating tapas after work, getting very drunk, going home and cooking the contents of my fridge

Bad
- Almost freezing to death after Baby B
- Eating pasta with wine, cheese and Irish Cream Aero. Most definitely NOT recommended, even when drunk

October
Good
- Singing in the free concert, then drinking in Spoons for Juicy's birthday
- The awards dinner at work going to plan against all the odds
- Getting highly highly drunk at the awards dinner after realising it was going well, and ending the evening doing Living on a Prayer with my team on the dance floor
- My last day at work the day after the awards dinner - going to Zizzi with my colleagues and getting highly highly drunk...again
- Juicy's housewarming party the day after my last day at work - dressing up and spending a fab evening with all my friends. Surprisingly though I didn't get highly highly drunk!
- Starting my new job and meeting some great people who bought me birthday prezzies!
- Going to Spoons and Nando's for Lu's birthday - and getting highly highly highly drunk (the extra highly involved memory loss and inability to walk)
- My birthday!
- Going to a very swanky hotel for free on a work jolly
- Meeting my parents for dinner and a concert in Birmingham

Bad
- Being so hungover on my birthday that I couldn't drink and felt like crap - again, not recommended
- Working on two Saturdays out of four and losing all feeling in my feet

November
Good
- Sam's fireworks party complete with 1812 overture
- Girly pampering evening and cocktails with Juicy and Kel: "Drinking through cream - recommended!"
- Dressing up for School Days
- Meeting my parents in Birmingham for dinner and another concert
- Going to the NCBF with WO
- Drinking wine and being girly with Juicy before Andy's birthday do
- Watching mum perform in Britten's War Requiem
- Singing in the Chorus concert
- Enjoying the cheese at the WO Christmas concert

Bad
- Being too tired to properly enjoy Andy's birthday do
- Getting home far too late after the WO Christmas concert

December
Good
- Going for my first post-work drinks with my new colleagues
- Watching everyone play well in Leeds and then eating a yummy dinner and drinking at Raquel's
- Going to the greyhounds for our work Christmas party
- Having Buck's Fizz, Lambrini and party food at our work Secret Santa party (a highly tasteful event!)
- Singing as loud as I could at mum's legendary Christmas concert
- Going out for lunch in my last week at work before Christmas
- Eating pizza and icecream and drinking wine with Simon after my last day at work
- Driving home for Christmas singing our heads off to festive cheese!
- Going to see Harry Potter and eating at Little Venice afterwards with my family
- Christmas Eve dinner, wine and card games - hilarious
- Getting highly tipsy on Christmas Day with sparkling rose and champagne!
- Going to see Narnia and eating at Little Venice again
- Drinking a bottle of Tia Maria with Juicy and sending text messages/singing into wine bottles
- Dressing up for New Year at Raquel's

Bad
- Grandpa dying
- Being too hungover and knackered to properly enjoy New Year

Well, overall 2005 has been absolutely fabulous (a word I have used far too much this year). October and December in particular were legendary months...I seem to notice alcohol playing quite a starring role! Thankyou to all my friends for being brilliant in a crisis and hilarious on a night out: you are just the best. Bring on 2006 - let's hope it's even better!

(Ooh, I just copied this in case it doesn't publish, and it's 4 sides of A4! What a year.)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's nice to see you got rid of the 'night swimming' entry, it had me rather worried, I hope you got rid of it because you're feeling a bit better about stuff. Apart from the obvious bad stuff, it looks like 2005 wasn't too bad after all and I hope that all the fab stuff we did together made you smile, because that's always my aim! You're a fabulous person and you should never forget that and remember that I'm very proud of you and honoured to be your friend (cue kleenex). You can't half drink Tia Maria that's for sure!

Sarah said...

Juicy you officially rock! Thankyou for being a particularly brilliant friend this year - you definitely made me smile and often collapse in giggles as well! Here's to lots more opportunities to showcase our ability to drink, dance and generally be girly. xxx