First off, a very merry Christmas to all reading and I hope that you’ve had a fantastic few days with all your loved ones in the festive celebrations. My apologies for not being so active in this past month with blog entries on here, it’s been a very hectic combination of being at work with the Christmas food rush and doing university work and the avalanche of assignments I had thrown at me. so with this break of worries and woes I do wish you all the best with your festivities and a happy new year!

2009 has been a remarkable year for myself, and a very special year at that. There have been events that have changed my life without a doubt, and there have been events that have inspired me, moved me and just made me feel much happier about who I am and what my course of action in life is to be. It’s quite odd looking back at the past 12 months and recollecting the memories in a blog format as I do worry that it seems slightly self obsessive to be bringing up a wonderful 12 months for myself, but for me I just wanted to share with you why I’m sad to see the end 2009 going out.

There are a few major events that have occurred this year that have definitely been a huge positive boost; as of writing I’ve found myself part of a relationship with my wonderful girlfriend going on 8 months on the 28th and it’s ridiculous how much it’s improved my self esteem and confidence about life in general. I’m quite a shy person and, in comparison to some friends, I much prefer to keep my personal life ‘personal’ as such the term suggests. At the same time, I could happily scream out the delight and happiness being with Lou this year has made me feel, and there’s a good possibility she’ll be reading this later (*waves*), so I can’t thank her enough for actually finding some sanity in putting up with me, the fact that she’s the most wonderful person to have found in my life and for making things work because it’s been incredible, really incredible. At least that makes me look forward to 2010!

Away from the more personal feelings of life, as a Formula 1 fan it has been an incredible year of emotions and unexpected twists and turns. Coming into 2009 the team I supported found themselves struggles on life support after the pullout of Honda. Yet, by the end of October, they found themselves having a world championship driver and a constructors championship to be proud of. To go from drowning in worry to the sheer elation of victory was quite a turnaround and it’s been more than an emotional rollercoaster, to say the least! As if it’s not obvious now, I do love my Formula 1 and I get into the sport quite dedicatedly. The battle between my two favourite drivers at my favourite team was just sheer madness in controlling all the various emotions as the season went on but it was just amazing to see Brawn doing so well after the past few years of horrid performances from the cars Button and Barrichello were driving. Furthermore, the past 12 months have seen the world of Sidepodcast and it’s wonderful community become a big part of my life and to know there are F1 fans out there as completely mad as myself about the sport and unbelievably funny people at the same time is really fantastic and, going back to Lou, if it wasn’t for her re-introducing me to the wonderful world of Sidepodcast it’s quite staggering how different my year could have been. I also had the fantastic experience of visiting the Goodwood Festival in early July and it absolutely blew me away, as you can see in the link. It was a wonderful few days and a must for all motorsport fans of course. Will I be there in 2010? Oh without a doubt!

In general, 2009 had been an odd year in some ways. There have been a lot of deaths reported in the mainstream media, whether they be in sport, in general showbiz or other areas that the media have brought up over the past 12 months. One of the saddest and biggest losses in 2009, for me at least, was the passing of Sir Bobby Robson. The man was a footballing legend and much loved personality of ‘the beautiful game’ and it would definitely be an agreed statement that part of British football died with the passing of this legend. Other people who have passed away in the last year include Henry Surtees, who was involved a freak accident that ultimately cost his life, Michael Jackson, Heath Ledger and many others, and of course the many brave soldiers and individuals fighting abroad in various countries for us. To everyone affected in 2009 by the deaths in whatever way, I can only offer my condolences.

To move onto a more positive note, there has been much change over the past year. The popularity of the social networking service Twitter has exploded into the big time, with now millions upon millions of users using the service, it has without a doubt become a big feature of people lives over 2009. It made controversial changes at times, it attracted big celebrities names, it became a source of real time news and instant updates when necessary. Every year we seem to have a big fad grow into major popularity and it can be hard to argue that Twitter was 2009’s ‘big thing’. Onto a more personal level, 2009 saw Muse release their fifth studio album in The Resistance, a grand journey of music that for me took Muse to a whole new level with some of the ideas produced on the album such as the Exogenesis Symphony. I’m still undecided if it’s my favourite Muse album; it is brilliant to me but it feels wrong to place it over the sheer genius that is Origin of Symmetry or Absolution! Nevertheless it was new material from the band and a huge year for them, building upon a big album that was much waited for and with such events as the Eurasia treasure hunt it made the build up even more exciting. I know I definitely wasn’t disappointed with the eventual outcome.

Oh, and of course, a pigeon stole my ideas in the summer. Worrying times.

So what else can I say? It’s a shame that 2009 has to end because I’ve had an absolute ball of a time. But I can only look forward to 2010 with much anticipation and hope that it will be as brilliant as the twelve months have been. Of course, 2009 saw the introduction of this very blog as well as the recent creation of my Formula 1 blog over at Gridwalk Talk so I hope you continue to visit over the next 12 months, hope that I can continue to entertain you if that’s the case and that you all have an absolutely wonderful 2010!