Rate Your Year 2018

[Foe]

Well chaps, how's your year been?

Previous revisions below with older years linked within. Interesting to read back.

Hope you've all had a decent year (soz MJ).

2017: https://www.thethirdhalf.co.uk/showt...ur-Year-(2017)


2016: https://www.thethirdhalf.co.uk/showt...ight=Rate+year

Foe:

Positives:

1. Financially very stable. Got plenty of savings, my mortgage is down and I've got a load of shares I can liquidate if needs be. I don't worry about money and that's something I'm very fortunate about.
2. Parents are happy and healthy in retirement.
3. Sisters cat is really, really cute and good fun to be around. Enjoyed having him around whenever I've gone home to visit family.
4. Work isn't awful. My job is pretty dull but ive gotten good at not letting it get me down.
5. Enjoying lifting weights a lot and getting a bit stronger again.
6. Had a couple of pals weddings / stag dos and it was great fun. It's nice seeing my friends happy in life with their partners.

Negatives:

1. Gran 1 is really past it and dementia has taken away anything that resembled the Gran I remember. Not pleasant to see, but it really is going to destroy my mum when she passes. My other Gran is still relatively healthy but there's definitely warning signs of dementia too, which is sad.
2. I'm still stronger on one side. Seems as though it's a long term problem which is slightly concerning.
3. Work did another re organisation which is a pain. I'm staying in the same job and if I get trapped there for another two years I'll be pissed.
4. My flat is worth way less than I paid for it. It's a sunk cost now, but it's still a bit annoying. All the political stuff going on, the oil price and energy circle means I'm a bit hesitant to upgrade to a new house.

Should've given this a rating. Solid year for me, give it a 7/10. Would be nice to meet a nice girl with similar interests. Unfortunately doesn't seem to be on the radar, so pumping the occasional fat chick will have to suffice.

How's your year been? Highs and lows?

2017:
+ves

1. Financially doing really pretty well. I don't worry about money whilst some of my friends stress out about it and seem to struggle month to month. I live a simple lifestyle, but since having my flat c. 3 years, I've knocked 40% of the capital off. Pretty satisfying.
2. Got a promotion at work again which has also contributed to point 1 above.
3. Actually did some decorating to my flat which makes me feel a bit better about it. It's by no means perfect, but it's more like a home now.
4. Dad retired so my parents can actually enjoy life a bit.
5. Enjoy the simple things in life - watching sports, film, TV and going to the gym.

-ves
1. Joey the cat got a mouth tumour and had to be put down. Wasn't easy or pleasant coming home and seeing him wanting unable to eat. He was 16, but it's still tough since he'd been around so much of my mature life.
2.Both gran parents health is deteriorating. My mum's mum has really bad dementia/alzheimers to the point where she doesn't recognise us anymore until we explain who we are, repeatedly. Fear my dad's mum is going the same way as her memory is starting to falter.
3. New job is something I have zero interest in doing long term. I need to make sure I'm there for as little time as possible.
4. Work has been torrid - so much going wrong. That's not unusual, seemingly.
5. I'm too independent. I can satisfy myself in my own company far too easily which means I don't go out of my way to make plans with friends. Not being particularly fond of alcohol doesn't help with that.
6. Some slut crashed into me at a roundabout and spoiled a week of leave I had as my car was being repaired and I had to get physiotherapy so I could actually rotate my head/neck properly. Physiotherapy is bloody sore.
7. Zero interest in a relationship. Met a few girls over the course of the year but the thought of being in a relationship and all that goes with it does not appeal. Also realised I don't particularly want kids.
8. Definitely a bit fatter than I was and not as strong. Also seem to be significantly weaker on one side. Just ignoring that and assuming it's a trapped nerve or something rather than something more sinister. SCHMART.

Meh, not a great year but definitely not as bad as the two before. 2018 will probably be a year of shit work, but a good opportunity to build some wealth. I'd like to get to a point where I can rent my flat out and buy house in 4 or 5 years time so want my mortgage down about another £30-40K before I do that.

:

[Giggles]

5

[Jimmy Floyd]

Overall I think it's been my best year for a long time, possibly even the best this decade. Do I end it feeling great? Not sure. Not really. Still, because of some of the below +s and -s, the future is now more exciting than it had been for pretty much the whole of my twenties.

+
Work - finally knobbed off the Koreans in February and moved to engine world, where I'm really enjoying the work and already had a good little salary bump. Also getting a chance to rediscover my languages which had been dormant for some time. I switch in and out of French/Spanish all day every day which is an important USP for me to develop.

+
Cricket - went really well this year, I'm still director of cricket at my club, where we won the league most unexpectedly and I played a pretty important role in it by recruiting a new captain and coach in the off season to set it on its way. We're now up to a league that is almost semi-pro and so we are massively up against it for next year, and the challenge of trying to compete up there with zero budget is fun. Cricket is genuinely the best thing in the world.

+
Interests - I've read a lot more books, written a lot more in my spare time, listened to a lot more varied music and podcasts etc. My brain needs to process and create masses of information each day for me to survive, and I've been quite successful at that.

+
Finally done something about facing up to the beastie locked in the attic, and stared it down. It's taken a while.

-
Still live at home although I think in the next 1-2 months, thanks to my pay bump, that will finally change.

-
Had a few low and frustrated moments in the making of the above +s, and lonely moments - I'm not really built to be around people 24/7 and that has its downsides as well as its upsides.

[Shindig]

Positives:

Financially sound and earning £2.5k more than I was last year. Thinking about actually taking some proper holidays and I've seen more of the family without having to go to funerals or owt. My parents are thinking about holidays as well so it'd be nice to see them get further afield. Reviewing work was mad this year but I've managed not to get too jaded by the hobby. Still pissed off the preview events we get offered don't line up with time off work.

Negatives:

Still single and kinda done with it. I'm not likely to move up the ladder at work because ... well, it's a shit ladder. And my health is going sideways. I have proper old man joints.

[Lewis]

+ My job is really good. You do have to wonder what planet some of the management operate on, since they seem to spend most of their time creating problems for themselves to solve (or not solve, thereby creating more problems), but my colleagues are sound, and it should hopefully provide [indirect] opportunities to progress whilst getting me around various interesting places in the meantime.
+ I finally live on my own and it is the best thing ever.
+ I have money. Not a lot (see below), but enough to do stuff and eat well without having to think about it.
+ The old man lives down there these days, so I see him a lot.

- My salary is lol. As in it actually is relative to what I need to know/what gets done, rather than me just being all entitled.
- The reason I live on my own and have money is that I live in a house that my brother is trying to sell. He has claimed not to care about rent or anything both times I have asked him, and I think he quite likes the idea of something being there looking after it; but he is nothing if not a mood-swinging tart, and I have heard him throw the situation up in conversation with my mother a few times, so who knows how long this will last. I mention this not as something that bothers me directly, but everything to do with my brother makes my mother anxious, so she keeps whinging about it and offering crap 'solutions', which I can do without.
- I wanted to do some sort of writing project this year, but it is hard to motivate myself to write about broadly the same sort of wank I read all day at work, so I tend to waste a lot of time not doing that.
- The sports I like have been a bit dull this year.
- Is this is mate forty years of fucking work?

[mugbull]

@Jimmy Floyd explain this “beastie” you’ve got in your attic

[Lewis]

He means he shaved his head.

[Boydy]

I think I know what it is.

My year:
+ Finally got a 'proper' job. I enjoy it and I'm pretty good at it. The feedback from my managers has been very good and one of the other guys who's been there a while told me in the pub the other night that the manager had been praising me and one of the other new starts to him so that's nice. They're all pretty sound people too.

- Everything else. Well, maybe not everything but there are plenty of negatives:
- Probably in the worst physical shape I've ever been in.
- No relationships.
- Still house-sharing. Although tbh, I'm not sure I could cope with being alone all the time. I'd probably end up being a hermit.
- I don't really have any proper hobbies.
- Would like to be paid a bit more but it should hopefully go up a fair amount in the next year or two.

[Jimmy Floyd]

@Jimmy Floyd explain this “beastie” you’ve got in your attic

I think I've dropped enough hints by now. Making a big thing of it is counterproductive, but at the same time it is a damn big thing.

[igor_balis]

Pretty shit/holding pattern year.

+

No One Died
Didn't regain all the weight I lost the previous year despite eating a lot more shite
Week at Edinburgh Fringe the most fun holiday I've ever had
Didn't get into anymore debt
Got back into watching films, and seen loads of gooduns

-

Didn't pay off any of my preexisting debts
A few mental health wobbles, looking into actually getting therapy in the new year for anxiety/feeling sad stuff
After the most incredible year of sex in 2017 I barely shagged anyone (hopefully a blip rather than reverting to type)
Same shit job
General feeling of ennui and boredom with life in general
Developing a bit of a coke habit


4/10. At least nothing really awful happened, and it's pretty obvious what the solution is - figure out what I want from life, where I want to live, what career to pursue etc, which would give me the requisite drive and ambition to sort myself out. Easier said than done when you've sorta staggered aimlessly through life for the previous 27 years.

A girlfriend would help as well, I think.

[Spikey M]

I'd say Jimmy is being odd but that could see my 9/10 year become a 7/10 year real quick.

Jimmy, I am ridiculously poor at picking up on hints. Ask my wife. What's gwarnin?

[Boydy]

I forgot to heartily agree with this sentiment in mine:

- Is this is mate forty years of fucking work?

[Jimmy Floyd]

I'd say Jimmy is being odd but that could see my 9/10 year become a 7/10 year real quick.

Jimmy, I am ridiculously poor at picking up on hints. Ask my wife. What's gwarnin?

I tend in the other direction to most of you.

God I hate this. Let us never speak of it again.

[Spikey M]

You like tick tings too? Fair play.

[Shindig]

Of course he does. He loves big African booty.

[phonics]

His sister is preggo.

[Shindig]

I was chuffed when I found out I was in Uncle town, to be fair. The little shit's awesome.

[Foe]

This place is wonderful.

[Baz]

This place is wonderful.

Why?

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

+
Had another course of CBT earlier this year and it helped a lot and my medication seems to be right.

+
After struggling to complete my Uni work again this year I realised that it was a major cause of my depression. I was going to request a year off but they decided to kick me out and that has helped my mental health.

+
I feel like I'm able to communicate more/better with family these days and I'm a lot more open about things.

+
I got a banging new car.

-
I was kicked out of University. On the flip side, I've failed Uni for the second time of asking and my qualifications are pretty shit. I'm also missing out on doing a dissertation about racial stereotypes in 40's comics books that I was looking forward to.

-
The job hunt is scary. I got an interview but I backed out as I felt too nervous as I felt they were asking too much of me.

-
I'm so bad at interviews that I even fucked up the interview for ESA as they deemed me not mental enough for their support.

-
I miss my half brothers and sisters. The sisters (and I think my older brother, though he has never voiced it) are annoyed at me for asking them not to bad mouth my Mum after the will was sorted. I had hoped that they would be more understanding and forgiving but are still avoiding me. Younger brother is being kept away by his Mum.

-
I have money in my account but not as much as I'd like as I'm still woeful at money management.

-
I didn't put any effort into losing weight and I really don't want to be a fat bastard all my life. I need to make changes soon.

-
Still single and still a quivering wreck regarding the ladies.

-
Grandma's dementia is worsening. I don't think it's at a seriously bad level but then I don't see her that often.

Overall a better year for me, not great but I feel more positive on the whole (even though I've listed more negatives) and I think I've made a lot of progress surrounding my mental health.

[Shindig]

Job hunt? Dive into that shit. The mistake I made is it took 2-3 years to finally get it. Carpet bomb everything you think you might be qualified for and take everything with your CV as a learning experience. If interviews give you the shits, go in for agency work. At the end of the day, you need a foothold. Once you have that, and the experience to go with it, you'll have the confidence to go further.

Shy bairns get nowt. Gan for it.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Yeah, I was thinking of signing up to an agency in January.

[igor_balis]

Is Jimmy gay?

[Waffdon]

My thoughts too.

rip zink

[Jimmy Floyd]

Exactly so. That I need to spell it out like this is the curse of it.

Sign up not only to an agency, Mahow, but to every one you can find. After a few times it'll become natural.

[mugbull]

Fair play Jimmy, I thought you were actually keeping a creature in your attic and it had gone feral

[Byron]

+ The new job means I've never been in a better position financially, as I'm earning considerably above the average for my age and we are now in the position where I could support the Byron household off one wage when we decide to have kids.

+ Apart from the recent few weeks, I've managed to keep up with my running.

+ Finally learnt how to drive, I've spent the last 10 odd years severly underestimating how useful it is to have a household where both people can drive.

- Weight is still an issue, and something I need to solve next year as despite the running I'm now the heaviest I have ever been (17st 4)

[Byron]

Fair play Jimmy, I thought you were actually keeping a creature in your attic and it had gone feral

Where do you suppose Hammer has been all this time?

[Bam]

No wonder Jimmy was so into African football.

[Spikey M]

Exactly so. That I need to spell it out like this is the curse of it.

Sign up not only to an agency, Mahow, but to every one you can find. After a few times it'll become natural.

Nah, I got it, I was just letting things lay, as you wished.

If you wish to not speak of it, fair enough, but it's 2018 and if you feel like sharing experiences in the Relationship Thread it would be cool. GS is gone. You're safe.

[Shindig]

Exactly so. That I need to spell it out like this is the curse of it.

Sign up not only to an agency, Mahow, but to every one you can find. After a few times it'll become natural.

Yep. That's how I got rolling. Every job I've had has been agency until I finally went permanent in 2015. Sometimes they'll spring jobs on you without really, really looking at you so it's a good way to land some experience.

[Spikey M]

I stumbled my way into my new job off the back of temping. I entered as an Admin assistant in the lowest pay band, stepped up a band into an offender management / debt recovery role, got made permanent, and the debt recovery part of it has equipped me with enough knowledge of the system to enter into a role that a) pays a lot more, and b) allows me to help people in shit positions, rather than trying to bleed a stone dry.

[Foe]

Have you shaved your head too Jim?

We need more baldies in the squad.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Nah, I got it, I was just letting things lay, as you wished.

If you wish to not speak of it, fair enough, but it's 2018 and if you feel like sharing experiences in the Relationship Thread it would be cool. GS is gone. You're safe.

I don't wish not to speak of it, it's just that the crossing the rubicon thing is very uncomfortable. Has to be done though.

Have you shaved your head too Jim?

We need more baldies in the squad.

Nope, still clinging on. I need to lose a couple of stone before I have a shaving ready head.

[igor_balis]

Ah fair play, @Jimmy Floyd. I apologise for bluntly asking like that while you were trying to just hint at it. Also in hindsight asking you directly would have been less rude than "is Jimmy gay", I feel like one of those wanky tabloid journalists who out celebrities.

Either way, fair fucks for sharing. Merry Christmas.

[Giggles]

Nah, I got it, I was just letting things lay, as you wished.

If you wish to not speak of it, fair enough, but it's 2018 and if you feel like sharing experiences in the Relationship Thread it would be cool. GS is gone. You're safe.

I'd always thought GS is as well anyway. Just with buckets of self loathing on top.

[Lewis]

He's far too boring to be bent. He shaved his head.

[Foe]

It's the fa cup ears you need to worry about when head shaving.

Hope the end of 2018 treats everyone well.

How's your brother Dino? You sounded quite concerned last year.

[Kikó]

Year was good in general.Changed job half way through to go back to my old place and I've had a great six months there - good work exposure to very senior people (including those on the board).

Personal life again - another happy year of marriage. We managed to go to the world cup and see a few games. Maybe Euro 18 we can get a few tickets. Going on our belated honeymoon tomorrow to Argentina which should be mega. Managed to also do my best man speech without making a twat of myself.

Negative in a professional sense that maybe I'm a bit delayed on getting a promotion - think if I hadn't moved it would have happened but so be it. Personal wise, all good, family and friends are generally healthy.

[-james-]

It's the fa cup ears you need to worry about when head shaving.

Hope the end of 2018 treats everyone well.

How's your brother Dino? You sounded quite concerned last year.

He seems alright, but nobody ever sees him so it's hard to know. He's done pretty well on the job front this year but I think he still spends all his money on doing drugs all weekend. He'll never be remotely "normal" and I'm not sure he'll ever live in a house but he's definitely slightly more sensible than in the past.

[Giggles]

Year was good in general.Changed job half way through to go back to my old place and I've had a great six months there - good work exposure to very senior people (including those on the board).

Personal life again - another happy year of marriage. We managed to go to the world cup and see a few games. Maybe Euro 18 we can get a few tickets. Going on our belated honeymoon tomorrow to Argentina which should be mega. Managed to also do my best man speech without making a twat of myself.

Negative in a professional sense that maybe I'm a bit delayed on getting a promotion - think if I hadn't moved it would have happened but so be it. Personal wise, all good, family and friends are generally healthy.

What's Euro 18?

[Kikó]

Ha yeah. What year are we in again? Euro20.

[Queenslander]

+ Still mental but Im much better at managing all that comes with it.

+Entering into my 4th year of a pretty serious relationship which is some kind of miracle considering Im mental. We are a good match and balance each other out well.

-Not having a dog is really starting to feel like a hole in the heart atm. Ill never have kids so yeah pets fill that space.

-I hate working with social justice type plebs now. Im keen to stay in social services but fuck me it attracts a type of wanker.

[Bam]

Why are you 'mental'?

[Lewis]

Year was good in general.... Personal wise, all good, family and friends are generally healthy.

What's Euro 18?

Ha yeah. What year are we in again? Euro20.

lol at that complacency. You smug cunt.

[Queenslander]

Why are you 'mental'?

Just a self deprecating way to say I have bi polar 2.

[Bam]

Oh right, fair enough.

[Kikó]

lol at that complacency. You smug cunt.

Lay off. It's Christmas.

[Spikey M]

Of what year?

[Kikó]

2000.