Wednesday 31 December 2014

It cannot be left at 35!

Call it an emergency posting, or call it "doing a 2014 round-up like everyone else" - I just couldn't end the year with having thirty-five posts. It's my least-favourite number you see, so here you go...

Okay, bit of a mixed bag, this whole 2014 thing. Started out in the worst way possible, with the death of a friend only a couple of years older than me. Following that was a reduction in my working hours (and obviously, a reduction in the amount of money I get), a slight mental breakdown on what should have been a fun night out, my first ever panic attack (leaving work in an ambulance, something surely everyone does at least once in their lifetime), a bit of confidence-shattering from a certain quarter, and of course, the deaths of four of the most influential famous people that I've known of - a quadruple devastation of Harold Ramis, Rik Mayall, Sue Townsend and Jim Petrie. What a bugger.

Somewhere in the middle of the "good/bad" spectrum, I developed a love/knack for ten-pin bowling. Went plenty of times this year, and thought it'd be my "thing", but then all the enthusiasm for it was completely shattered by the rude staff at the local Megabowl, one day in October. Never mind.

On the other hand, as in, the "good" end of it all, there's been plenty. Two great weekends working for Replay Events, proper "family unit" stuff there. I'd drop anything and everything to work with them full time, but there we go. Had a fun week in that London as well, went to a wedding, saw a few bands (Space for the third time, the Australian Pink Floyd Show, Republica and Half Man Half Biscuit for the first time - all better than anything), had the strange realisation that some people actually like me, and made a good handful of new friends, whilst also keeping up with slightly older friends, using the power of the Internet. It's a small island, maybe we'll all get to meet up someday in 2015? That'd be fun. Not all at once, obviously, I'm aware that some of you don't exactly get along, but it could still be fun.

Erm, quick round-up of cultural artefacts enjoyed this year? The only albums I heard were by those bands I went to see, so we'll give "Album Of The Year" to Half Man Half Biscuit's Urge For Offal, with the runner-up prize going to Space for Attack of the Mutant 50 Ft Kebab. Three films were seen this year, and only one of them I'd happily watch again, so we'll give the prize to Guardians of the Galaxy. The prizes for "Best Book That You Can Buy In Waterstone's Or Similar" go to Where's Dennis? by Wilbur Dawbarn, and Comics Unmasked by Paul Gravett and John Harris Dunning, and the award for "Best Book That You Have To Order Specially From The Internet" goes to TATP: Talk About The Passion by Ben Baker et al. Mostly for the chapters on Viz and Earl Brutus. I enjoy comics too much to pick a favourite, and this year saw (possibly) the most "new" purchases on my behalf since... 2006? Favourites include Up Yours! by Lee Turnock, this year's output by Eyeball Comix, States of Mind by Nigel Maughan et al, and the endlessly interesting stuff put out by The Comix Company. All of this and more will be "looked at" properly in 2015, if all goes to plan.

At the end of it all, I'm still in more or less the same position as I was in at the start of it all, only I now share my flat with an overweight cat called Gus, so there's an improvement at least. Oh, and there's only a couple of hours left of this year - I'm staying in on my own for the tenth year running, it's more enjoyable this way, definitely. Still didn't get time to find an appropriate "thing to enjoy" to go with this post, so instead you can have the "new year themed" comic that was posted here at the START of the year. Again.

It's Zig & Zag's Zogmany Special, from 1995. Written and drawn (mostly) by Kev Sutherland (who's acquaintance was also made this year!):


(More by clicking and so on)


















Happy new year to all, and to all a good-night!

15 comments:

  1. Totally up for a meet up in 2015, if you happen to be able to make it up to Glasgow, or If I'm remotely Liverpool bound at any point - will let you know if the latter scenario looks likely.

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    1. Great stuff, Mr. Smith!

      I've never been to Scotland (or Bristol), and fully intend on fixing that at some point in 2015...

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  2. Happy |New Year to you, THB. Tell you what, that incident at the ten-pin bowling alley sounds like a tale worth the telling. (Hint!)

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    1. Happy New Year, Mr. Robson - it's not much of a story, certainly not one warranting a whole blog post, but it'll fit in here, no problem. It was myself and my very good friend (who we'll call "K" for reasons of anonymity), and back in February, we decided to go bowling. Had a great time, so invited a bunch more people and went again the next month. The Megabowl had a good deal on where if you booked online, it was £10 each for two games and a free drink. After doing this all year long, K decided it was my turn to book the lanes in October.

      No problem at all, so I did that - booked the lanes, paid my £10 online, and invited everyone along. They'd all just have to pay £10 on the actual day, as had been the case all year long. By the time "bowling day" came around, I was extra-excited because everyone was there due to my organisational skills, and that's when the Megabowl girl got snotty.

      "You've only booked for yourself, not all these other people"
      "They'll all have to pay £12 if they want to play"
      "You'll have to pay another £2 as well"

      This had never happened before! And because I have no spine, I went along with it and paid £2 anyway. That's when the staff got all stroppy again because we'd asked for bowling shoes.

      "Just use your own shoes" they said. Bowling shoes is part of the whole fun of bowling! Slow bar/food service, malfunctioning score machines (meaning we had to move lanes twice) and me throwing my back out all added up to a sour evening all round. I apologised to everyone for an insufferably shit evening, but they all said they enjoyed it, which was nice of them.

      By the end of the day, I'd told myself I never want to go bowling again, which is a shame. And if I DO go bowling again, it won't be at Megabowl (they ignored both of my emails-of-complaint).

      Not much of a story, but you asked for it!

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    2. An interesting tale, actually. It seems to suggest that they could be in financial trouble by chasing that extra £2 a head. I'd persist in my complaint and insist on a reply. Here's why: A couple of times I've paid extra for 'premier' seats at the cinema. Then people who haven't paid for them sit in them anyway. (I know because they didn't check their tickets to see their seat number and I heard them say "Just sit here!") After the movie, I complained to the manager, asking him why I should pay extra for a premier seat if anyone is going to be allowed to sit in them. On both occasions I got a pair of complimentary tickets as an apology.

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    3. I've sent two emails to the venue, and one to the "head" of Megabowl, and even filled in a questionnaire that promised it'd get in touch with me when I ticked all the negative boxes, but nothing!

      The place has been there since 1989, if it DOES shut down it'd be a deserved shut-down. There's another bowling place a train ride in the opposite direction from that one, could always try going there and rekindle the skittle-toppling passion, possibly.

      That cinema situation sounds infuriating, I wouldn't've had it in me to complain.

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  3. After. such a mixed year you're about due for a happy one this year then. 2013 was a really shit year for me.I was pleased to see the back of it! So Happy New Year from me, Ryan and thanks for Zig & Zag.

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    1. Ta, John - the "strange" thing is that 2013 started out great and ended miserably, then 2014 started out miserably and ended in an okay sort of way. Life's endless see-saw and all that.

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  4. Happy New Year to you sir from "new" ;) “It's a small island, maybe we'll all get to meet up someday in 2015? That'd be fun” You are quite right, put me down for that it would be great! We could try and find a place central to all of us on the map and see if they have a place for ten-pin bowling! (An all Blogger bowling team?) All the best for 2015 sir!

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    1. Now there's a fun idea :-D

      Lessee, I'm in Liverpool, you're in... North Wales? There's a couple of Glaswegians, a Yorkshire guy and a Leeds (?) guy and a Geordie. The most obviously central place to those would be... Cornwall?

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    2. Blimey! Hmmmm, there must be a location that can be reached (easily) by train… (A train station based bowling alleys in Britain?) It's very likely that we would be catching the same train at some point... Oh, and we will need retro Bowling Shirts!

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    3. A mobile, rail-based bowling alley could be just what this country needs to get it back on "track" (ha ha).

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    4. True, but imagine all the rail "strikes" you would have to endure (chortle). ;)

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    5. The good thing about it though, is not that many people would be up for a bowling train, so there's bound to be plenty of "spare" seats (guffaw).

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    6. Avoid the "Foul Line" (bwahaha!)

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