End of year review - 2008

Well, I wasn't going to do one of these things at first. Probably because my memory is going, and I can barely remember what I did a week ago, never mind a whole year ago! But then I saw that everyone else was doing one, and I figured I may as well TRY and remember some of the good (and the not so good) things that happened in my world this year.

January - Well, if I could remember anything from this time of year, I would write about it. Sadly, my memory doesn't really stretch that far back. All I seem to have stored in the memory banks is spending the New Year at home with my parents and wishing I could be somewhere far far away. Preferably somewhere warm.

February - Roundabout this time, I was starting to get annoyed with uni and I just wanted the academic year to be over. I knew we only had about 2 months to go until we didn't have to go in any more and time seemed to drag on forever. Liverpool were doing rather well in the CL, beating Inter Milan 2-0 at home and pretty much securing a place in the quarter finals of the competition, where they would meet Arsenal. Valencia were in the middle of the worst season I remember them having since I started watching them play. Koeman was the shambles, they were regularly losing by a margin of 3/4 goals and things were looking pretty damn bad for them.

March - There was little change in terms of the football here, Liverpool were still doing well, Valencia still were not. As for me, well, with the Easter holidays and my birthday looming, I was just trying my best to block out all the shit that was happening with housemates and whatnot and just have a good time.

April - Surprisingly enough, I remember very little about April too. Sure, I turned 20 and that was like a milestone of sorts, but I don't think I did anything. I don't remember going out with friends, so I more than likely didn't. Actually, I think I was in Brighton at the time, so the chances of me having gone out are little to none. April also saw the trio of Liverpool-Arsenal games played around the time of my birthday. I had somehow convinced myself that it was going to end badly, even though I had faith in my boys. Of course, they won in the end, but not before giving me several heart attacks along the way, and they booked their place in the CL semi finals where they would once again meet Chelsea. Unfortunately, they didn't quite make it to the final this time out. Riise's own goal in the dying seconds on the first leg proved to be the difference, and after so much success in Europe in recent years, Liverpool would not be on their way to Moscow. Instead, it was to be a Chelsea-Man U final. Valencia had started pulling results out of the bag and were slowly on their way up the table. They weren't going to become champions, but they weren't going to get relegated either.

May - Finally, I was free from uni lectures. I only had my exams left to go, and once they were out of the way, I could start enjoying my summer. Of course, with the Euros coming up, that was pretty important. I didn't care that England hadn't qualified, it meant that for once in my life I could watch a competition without the blatant bias in favour of England. Anyway, by the end of this month, my exams were done, I was feeling pretty confident and all seemed well. I discovered a wonderful place on the internetz called Kickette, and even though I didn't pluck up the courage to join in properly until the following month, they provided me with laughs on the main page and some in the SBA too. Sadly, the CL final was the most boring thing I had ever had to sit through. I do hate when football is ruined by boring teams playing safe football. I wished and wished neither one would win, but my wishes were ignored.

June - After the tragedy of the football month that was May, I was looking forward to seeing the Spain boys tearing all the other teams a new one. I was so confident they'd do it, I even put money on it happening. Of course, the Euros brought many laughs and I had a whole new group of friends to enjoy it with. The SBA thread on Kickette became my second home, and I found some of the best friends I've ever had over the summer. We had parties, celebrations and lots of good times as Spain stormed their way through the competition and walked away with the trophy. Dahveed celebrated by proving to the world he had never been drunk.

July - More parties ensued on the SBA, including virtual weddings and all sorts. It was also roughly at this time I started staying up all night and changed my sleeping pattern completely. This was how my life would be all summer, and it was so much fun. I stopped going back to London most weekends, because I didn't want to leave Kickette and all the girls on there. The SBA summer really began here. The Orange Hoodies were born and we haven't looked back since. We'd have so many crazy chats online, discussing the blowability factors of football teams, we had an uggo tournament and of course, who could forget TIT and cowboy? Classic times. Much sleepless craziness followed on, and the days seemed to get shorter and shorter. Also, I had a personal change in my life - I quit smoking. Haven't looked back since, and I feel so much better now.

August - This was the time I left Brighton to move back home to London. It was a sad time, as my internet time was greatly reduced, and it seemed like the real world was soon going to take over again. I still had a whole two months until the start of my final year at uni, and I didn't want to go back. On the bright side, the football season was back and I was glad of this. After the excitement of the Euros, I just wanted the season to kick off right away, I missed seeing my boys. I felt so deprived. Thankfully, this season brought many more live games of my teams. After the shambles of last year, Valencia brought in a new manager - Unai Emery - who instantly transformed the team. They were winning games, and winning well, top of the table and full of confidence. Liverpool also got off to a good start.

September - I rediscovered my love of Vicente. He was back and playing for Valencia and I hadn't realised quite how much I missed seeing him play. Other than that, September was a very slow month, nothing particularly exciting happened to me. Liverpool were still unbeaten in the Prem and they were looking good. Better than ever in fact. Even without their star striker, they had already beaten Man U.

October - I started my blog. From here on, it's basically pretty easy to keep up with the major happenings in my life and the footballing world, so I won't write too much. I started uni again, and happened to realise what a bitch travelling is. Public transport is a total nightmare. It never does what you want it to. Also - first snowfall of the year! I thought maybe we'd end up with a white xmas.

November - Well, there's really not much to say about November, Liverpool topped the table and stayed joint first with Chelsea for a long time, until results finally went our way and then we were clear. Oh, the view is good from the top. I started working weekends, which meant that I could no longer watch Liverpool games, but Valencia were nice enough to play late evenings so I could get home on time to watch.

December - The highlight of December was the xmas party online. Also, we didn't get our white xmas, but I can't say I'm disappointed. It's not like I ever really believed it would snow on xmas day, that's not how England works. Work was crazy busy in the few weekends leading up to xmas, but then the weekend after, it was dead. Not that I'm complaining, getting paid for not having to work much sounds like my kind of deal.

Overall, 2008 was probably one of my favourite years in existance. Liverpool are still in the title race (and leading it!) at the start of the new year, Valencia are doing much better than they were lat year and I have found the best friends I could ever have wished for this year. I could have written so much more about the year, but I really don't remember too much of what happened before the Euros. Plus, I'm sure that this post would turn into a mammoth thing if I actually put every little thing in there. If I missed anything important, I'm sorry. It's been such a great year, I can't possibly remember all the good things. Still, here's hoping that 2009 is just as great!

I'm not going to bother posting resolutions or things I want to achieve, I know I'll never stick to them and I don't want to be here this time next year thinking how I failed certain things, so I'll just say that my #1 priority is finishing my degree. Anything else good that happens in 2009 will be a very pleasant and very welcome bonus.