Well, the year is just about done with. Even aside from the general madness of the world, it's been quite a pissy year, with an unaccustomed degree of legal fidgywidgyness for me. Earlier in the year I had a four-month-long arseache of trying to get a refund out of O2 that ended up with the Communications Ombudsman getting involved and me eventually getting 50 quid compensation on top of the refund. Good show from the Ombudswifey, but fuck O2: by far the worst customer service I've ever dealt with, and it's a relief now to no longer have owt to do with them. Alongside that, there was a lot of bullshit at work in the past few months over a disciplinary for clocking in a couple of minutes late a few times. All seems to be sorted now, but the whole thing pissed me off greatly.
I feel like I've been ill quite a bit this year - certainly I've had three bouts of flu in the past five weeks, which has been unutterably shit. I've missed several gigs throughout the year as well cos of bugs, including Menstrual Cramps in Sunderland and Lambrini Girls in Toon, as well as Il Complesso at The Vaults. Also had the family holiday at Lake Windermere hobbled somewhat by me being violently allergic to my sister's puppy.
Egads, is there anything else I'd like to whinge about? Months of cold showers throughout the summer due to the boiler breaking down...? Though really, that's on me for procrastinating about reporting it to the landlord.
Anyway, there has actually been some good stuff too. I did go to see The Levellers at the Fire Station, and we had a good night. Think it's about four times I've seen them now. Also got tickets to see The Prodigy in Newcastle again next year. Think I've been to the cinema about 5 times this year - maybe a record for me? - and the films I've seen (Nosferatu, Flow, The Monkey, 28 Years Later, Frankenstein) have all been decent to good.
As for creative stuff, I think that has definitely been a good year in that regard. While I haven't managed to finish any more Blender animation projects, I have gotten a couple of small things done (EP artwork mainly); I have also finally done the wallpaper design for the interior of the 29 Neibolt St project: as you can see, there's some dodgy bits where clothes are clipping into the elves in some places, but I don't think it should be noticeable when it's in situ. I should hopefully be able to get back to working on that project in earnest in the New Year - maybe even finish it....?
The best thing this year has been on the musical front, where I've written and released two solo EPs that I'm pretty happy with, and also finished a new Dem13 EP with Budd, which just needs the final mix and mastering and should hopefully be out around mid-January. It's a good few years since I wrote as much music as I have this year: the two solo EPs total 14 tracks, plus 6 songs on the Dem13 EP, a further 5 that didn't make the cut, plus maybe 3 beats that are likely to feature on a future mixtape...? Plus 1 or 2 beats that aren't likely to get released... so we're looking at summat like 28-30 tracks written this year. That's certainly been my biggest haul in over a decade. It might actually be the most I've done in a year since the hey-day of Rude Corps, back around 2007! So aye! I am pleased with that.
Hopefully I will be able to continue this streak in the New Year. I have some vague ideas. I'll be happy with another 12-15 tracks next year, if I can also manage to finish the Neibolt St Blender project. I just hope things improve politically; a pessimist like meself should never be as disappointed as I am in humanity. Anyway, fuck fascism, and AI, and this rotten status quo. Happy New Year!