Post #100: Looking back on 2009

Some questions regarding my year, stolen from somewhere.

1. What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before?
Couchsurfing, take photos with an DSLR, See Regina Spektor live, See some awesome places in China, Get a tattoo.

2. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I can’t remember mine from last year.. probably to do with keeping fit, worrying less, keeping in touch with people.. ditto for this year really..

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
No… thankfully.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Nope :)

5. What countries did you visit?
China, Italy. Damn I need to get out of England more.

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
A nicer boday. More monies, a fucking PLACEMENT, a job, dwelling place in London, my own personal bar so I can make awesome cocktails all the time.

7. What date from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Is it sad that I can’t think of the exact date that anything happened… Apart from my birthday.. Oh, actually. July 7th, went to China on my travels on this day. Amazing experience.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Getting a 1st in my first year at university studying Economics. Bitch of a subject right there.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Not getting a placement by the end of the year, that was actually a small personal goal of mine and it really, really bums me out that I failed on all accounts at this. Especially since it will still be dwindling at the back of my mind during exams and other such times of stress. Boohooo :(

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
I have had a cough for about a month or so now, I swear. It’s still not gone. Stress kills my immune system.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
My DSLR! Though technically it was with money loaned from Bank of Mum and Dad..

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
Obama.. all this stuff about peace and stuff. Thumbs up.

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
Morgan Stanley. For rejecting me.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Alcohol, going out, clothes, food. In that order.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Going to China! And Italy spontaneously :)

16. What song will always remind you of 2009?
Black Eye Peas – I Gotta Feeling!

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? happier.. though this applied much more a few weeks ago before all this revision shit kicked in.
ii. thinner or fatter? fatter.. :(
iii. richer or poorer? poorer..probably.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Keeping in touch with friends, and putting more effort in keeping some other friends.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Eating.. Worrying.. and lounging around.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
Spent Christmas chilled out at home with family. It’s not a huge deal in my house.. Christmas Eve is more woo.

21. How will you be spending New Year’s Eve?
Ah, that is tonight! Going to a friend’s house for eats and drinkies :D I need to get at least slightly drunk.. I’ve decided I hate detoxing.

22. Did you fall in love in 2009?
Yes. It screwed me over. So I don’t really know what love is anymore. Back to square one.

23. How many one-night stands?
Let’s see. One Night Stands.

one night stand
Hooking up with someone for one night of sex with no strings attached and hoping to never see them again. It is important not to exchange any personal info with them so they can't track you down and stalk you later.

Zero.

24. What was your favourite TV program?
Ahh, I got into so many new shows this year. Probably How I Met Your Mother.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
Hmmm, hate is a strong word. Not hate, dislike slightly/annoyed by, yes.

26. What was the best book you read?
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson. Still yet to read the second and third.. after so long :/

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Really got into Jay-Z’s new album. And David Guetta, he was rocking the club scene. Also rediscovered Alicia Keys from aforementioned first musical discovery. Oh, Lady Gaga of course.

28. What did you want and get?
DSLR, new people/friends, new phone, ipod, holidays. Blahh, spoilt?

29. What did you want and not get?
………………………. a placement.

30. What was your favourite film of this year?
AVATAR. No question. Though I can’t really remember films from the beginning of this year.. lemme go check. Oh, The Hangover was also brilliant.. Avatar should’ve lasted longer at #1 in box office charts..

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 19.. It was very snowy that week so we were pretty much snowed in on campus as no buses were running.. so we drank but didn’t go out… That happened on later on in the week. I don’t remember it..

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Getting a placement…

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?
Um.. I wore more heels when going out and more dresses..?

34. What kept you sane?
Friends who know me well and talk to me often, telling me to get a grip.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Gahh, can’t think :|.. oh, Brandon Flowers, after seeing him again at Hyde Park in summer :)

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
Being an Economics student, I’d say the fact taxes have been raised so that now everyone is complaining.. but WHERE THE FUCK DO YOU EXPECT THE MONEY TO COME FROM?!

37. Who did you miss?
My best friend, who fucked off to Canada in September. Still missing her!

38. Who was the best new person you met?
Too many awesome people. Maybe Emma Wang, we have cool Wang bonding going on. Also, she actually reads my blog .. :)

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009:
Live for the present, stop worrying. I know I need to do this more but whether I do it in practice is debateable..

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
“It was so easy and the words so sweet. You can’t remember..” Eet – Regina Spektor

Stuff that made me a bit happy today.

These are pretty cool, right? Thinking about it now, pretty impractical and probably painful and very annoying and scratchy. Nonetheless, makes me curious. Maybe for halloween or something.

A poster for Skins being showed in America! The amazing first series no doubt.. :) Maxxie and Chris with hands in pants, standard. It actually really annoys me when guys do that. Just. urgh, no. Especially when they are standing there talking to you.. Bleh. Season 4 starts in January I think.. Perfect for post-exam chillaxing. But yeah, this reminded me of good times gone by.

It keeps coming up.. like money vomit.

Basically spending money for the third day in a row.. Eeeh don’t want to check my bank balance >.<
There is a picture of The Killers in the video for “Don’t Shoot me Santa”. Aren’t their jumpers uber awesome? I think so. Come to think of it, Brandon Flowers isn’t a very good frontman in terms of conversing and letting loose on stage, but there’s something about the awkward shyness of his actions when he performs that is just so charming (eg. him shaking maracas..). Even in interviews and stuff, he really isn’t very interesting.. but why be interesting when you are that pretty? Why? No need, no need.

On another note, booked my megabus journey to York and back for February.. which only cost me £5 :D I’m willing to endure 4-5 hours of thrills in order to save money. AND TO SEE VAMPIREWEEKEND….AGAIN….

WUT. Shirt and pink shorts.. can never be pulled off.. Unless you are that awesome!

They always remind me of The Inbetweeners, thanks to the much used insertion of A-Punk in the show. Which I will have to watch again soon, now that I have series 1 and 2 at my disposal. boom.
Revision is bore.

Boxing Day Retail Therapy

Therapy from what exactly I’m not sure, probably the fact that there’s this huge build up to Christmas, and it’s all over so quickly, just like that. And then all the stock that everyone has gathered (in body mass and otherwise..) is then unloaded on Boxing Day in the form of low prices and messy clothing rails. Didn’t go anywhere fancy, just into town with the mother. Ended up getting about £80 worth of stuff.. If shopping is to talking, then I just had a bloody good rant. I feel I need to venture back soon to buy some shoes.. as I got none today! Gonna sit in front of POTC: At World’s End tonight. Is this the third one in the trilogy..? I forget. I hope so because the second one was rather shitty. Dinner today was at 4.45.. I don’t understand..

Merry Christmas!

That is all.

Snowed in.

I have done crap all today. The snow is falling thick and heavy, even as we speak. It’s actually quite beautiful, though loads of people are getting pissed off at not being able to go anywhere.. haha. See the view outside my window? Pretty, eh? Winter Solstice today, it was dark by about 4pm.. amazing. I got out of bed at like noon, so I only really got about 4 hours of daylight.. Attempted to start revision today though that has epically failed as I did anything as an excuse to not do it. I have laid out my rainbow coloured pens so it’s like I’m getting in the revision mood.. haha. This morning, I found out that Simon Cowell offered a market job to the person who started the whole Rage Against the Machine for #1 campaign. Started by a fellow Xfm listener, actually. Just shows that even out of the most dire situation for him, Mr Cowell WILL find a way to make money out of it.. Today hasn’t been all wasteful. I dusted off another application to Morgan Stanley. This time in Operations, after getting rejected from Prime Brokerage on Friday. Rahhh, this placement stuff is seriously depressing the shit out of me. It feels hopeless. Aunt from France is coming tomorrow, it’ll be nice to see her again. There’s always a lack of family around here at Christmas time.. and with my best friend in Canada for the holidays it’s even more so.

And on a sadder note, Brittany Murphy’s death. 2009 isn’t a very good year to be a celebrity, eh.

I’m hopeful for a White Christmas

I’m back home from university. This first semester has been so hectic and busy that I haven’t really bothered writing much (or I am plain lazy). Whilst the rest of the UK has been blanketed with white, Bath has remained, dare I say, sunny and dry. Really such a disappointment as I wanted to take some photos of the beautiful city in snow. Hopefully when I go back in January that will be the case. The journey today was so horribly painful, especially on the tube.. I hate the staircases. I think my suitcase weighed more than me..

I would try and summarise my life since I last posted, but that involves actually remembering and possibly cringing at events that have occurred. I was kind of sad to leave Bath, I will miss my friends so dearly. Revision is also looming and I am dreading getting stuck in and realising just how much I do not understand. Main setbacks this semester is lack of placement offers. I had an assessment centre at Morgan Stanley that I was really, really hopeful for and they didn’t want me. It just makes me think what more can I do to get a placement?! I will get feedback from them this week so I eagerly await the results of that.

In the past few days, I have acquired a few mystery scratches on my body from nights out, and a bruised left ring finger which means typing was a bitch yesterday. Oh, shenanigans. I keep thinking of things I have on my mind but just seems long winded to put it on here and then remember things that happened before or are irrelevant.

Therefore I am metaphorically wiping the slate clean and starting off a new section of blog and pretend that I have been consistently writing since mid October… HAH.

Rage Against the Machine is Christmas #1. Facebook – 1. Simon Cowell – 0. Not sure what this shows but it seems like something to draw an interesting social conclusion from. But yes, a white Christmas hopefully this year :) I miss Bath already..