A year in the life of...

[britbox]

Just a bit of fun...

On the old tennis.com site we ran a thread called "Pass the Baton" where a poster asked another poster 10 questions. The poster answered and then asked another poster 10 questions... and so on...

This is a bit of a variation.

The Poster holding the baton picks a year (i.e. 1990), passes the baton to another poster who takes a nostalgia trip back to the year in question... What they remember, what significance it held for them, music, movies, tennis, world events, what they were doing etc.... You can keep as lengthy or as brief as you like. When done, nominate another poster (also PM them to let them know).

So I'll start the bidding with 1990 and pass the baton to Kieran

This might jog the memory as a kickstart....

You're back in 1990 McFly....

[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gpWUuEN09g[/video]

PS - if you get nominated on a year you were too young to remember, add 5 years on until you can remember a year (i.e. 1990 would become 1995,2000 etc..)

 

[Kieran]

Gosh, I'm too young to remember 1990. :blush:

Moved in with a girl on the South Circular Road, we split up 6 years later, still fast friends.

Was teaching tennis, but when we moved in had to tone that down to part-time, due to its seasonal nature, and took up a job in sales to pay the rent.

Held my serve in every doubles game in the Leinster leagues, and won all my singles matches. We won promotion that year.

I remember visiting a pal off Belgrave Square (Dublin) and missing the Wimbledon final. She'd just had a kid and I couldn't be rude, so I stayed. There was a gang of us there and I had no way of knowing who was winning - though there was a TV in the corner. Mammy reared me well and I resisted the urge to ask to watch the match. Was surprised Becker lost, to be honest, when he got back all square in the 5th.

Pete Sampras won the US Open and I remember thinking, who? I thought, tennis is gone like golf now, with nobodies winning the slams. Shows what I know, eh?

I went on holidays camping in Wexford, me and my gal, and we bought a litre of milk every day from the same shop because it tasted so gorgeous. We ate and drank other stuff too, but the milk became a ritual. It was September and the season was winding up but we had a great time, going for a few pints in town and occasionally strolling along the sea. I always liked Wexford town.

Films? I think that year Goodfellas came out and we saw it in the Savoy on O'Connell Street. Was looking over my shoulder for the rest of the night afterwards!

I pass the baton onto Murat - and the year is 2004.

Great idea for a thread! I'll pm Murat now...

 

[Murat Baslamisli]

I will have to keep this short because 2004 is definitely a year I don't want to remember that much but I cannot forget either. Way to pick a year Kieran!!! It started with the news that I had to come home because mom was not well, ended with her passing, and in between was rough times . Moving on...

Roger won 3 slams and I even watched some matches. Watching the US Election coverage was interesting in that no matter how much you know about the way politics work and how dirty it is, it was eye opening to see a group of people trying to basically say John Kerry did nothing to deserve his medals in Vietnam. Usually people do not touch military honors but there you go. George W won again.

That horrible excuse for a movie Notebook came out and my wife demanded that I take her. She cried like crazy and I was upset because of that. Later on I got even by demanding she take me to Shaun Of The Dead, which was a masterpiece! Also it was the year the first Saw movie came out...low budget, creepy, gory. Needles to say, I loved it.

Overall, a bad year but c'est la vie.

Maybe 1999 was a much better year for Moxie !!!!

 

[Kieran]

Sorry about that buddy, blind chance. Originally wanted to pick 2007, dunno why I changed. :nono

 

[Moxie]

You picked a good year for me, Murat. 1999 was stand-out, mostly involving work and travel. I produced a big millennium image piece for Ford, which we shot in Argentina (where I learned to tango - a little,) Australia (Sydney and Alice Springs - learned about negotiating with tribal elders for permission to shoot on sacred sights,) Japan (Tokyo, Kamakura and the coast - learned that the Japanese not liking to say "no" is a problem in filmmaking,) Beijing (shot members of the Beijing Opera, and stole a shot of the Red Army,) Hamburg, Rome (where I had my birthday, because I controlled the schedule, and I'm no dummy,) London and Cornwall (everyone told us that Cornwall really was like "Fawlty Towers," and sure enough…both of our B&Bs were run by complete eccentrics,) LA and Vancouver. 3 ½ months on the road. Exhausting and exhilarating. (I spent the next month at the beach, mostly staring catatonically at the sea.)

Also went to Rome to scout a millennial/Holy Year piece, where we had a meeting at the Vatican with a Cardinal, so we got into the Vatican offices. Even a glimpse reveals politics and intrigue. I ended the year in Rome again, to mark the year 2000. A very good place to contemplate 2000 years of A.D., and then some.

If I'd been paying attention to tennis, I would have seen Safin's breakout win over Sampras at the USO, but I hadn't come back to tennis, at that point.

I'll hand it off now…I'd like to pick JesusLooksLikeBorg, but he's had me on his ignore list. I'll PM him, and see if he's game. My year would be 1979. If that doesn't work out, I'll come back to you.

 

[JesuslookslikeBorg]

nemeth has informed me the year is 1979,

we had a 3wk holiday in Scotland going to different campsites for 3 or so days in each one, went up the cable car in the foggy cairngorms, john o groats, and had our photo by the sign (july 26th 1979), Gretna green there was a man in a bearskin fur hat and a kilt playing the bagpipes loudly, something I didn't usually see on the mean streets of Cheltenham.

we climbed ben nevis (britains tallest mountain) on a clear day, it took all day to get up and down and we started early, there was a load of snow near the top, a surprise to see on august 1st. my dad lifted me onto the triangulation stone on the summit and I decided I was now the tallest kid in Britain as I gawped at the view from 4'406ft (+whatever my height was).

skimming stones on lock ness made up for not seeing the the lock ness monster (so called), it is over 900ft deep despite not being very wide..dunnet head was foggy (most notherly point), as was john o groats the whole 3 days we were there,

in 1979..my gran died after long illness. on nov 28th, we went to visit alot so I missed school and had to pull out of joseph and technicolour dreamcoat ( i was joseph) I was the first in class to know the 12x table and I won some sweets.

I liked watching old films if I could back then which was considered odd, the hair bear bunch, topcat, the dukes of hazard, buck rogers, call my bluff, the adventure game, screentest, watership down, rentaghost, chips, the incredible hulk, swapshop, ivor the engine, blue peter, happy days, were fav programmes, Harold Lloyd As well,

I was beaten up a few times by telling some bigkids I liked boys so and I had to change my story to fit and and not get punched, school was a bit poor with too many thick kids holding things up and no one giving a toss.

pop music by m, are friends electric by tubeway army, walking on the moon by the police, boney m, bight eyes by art Garfunkel , abba, the bee gees were songs I remember from 1979,

I was sort of into tennis also..i remember I watched borg v tanner at Wimbledon, and billie jean king (mixed doubles record wimby title) on tv I think it was 1979. I was a borg n McEnroe fan and I didn't like buster mottram even though I was meant to be (i was told) as he was English, but I thought he was a stroppy oaf who kept hitting the ball into the net or something...

top deck shandy, flumps, cola bottles, chocolate mice, sherbert dip and a mouthful of pop to make your head explode..marks & spencers salt n vinegar crisps which were so sharp and strong tasting it was almost radioactive the tangy aftertaste was so strong. I had a train set and track for Christmas 1979 (cool) Bigtrak,,(cool) and a punchbag with a base to stand on, ANYONE REMEMBER SIMON (cool):idea:

we had a holiday also in Dawlish warren to try out the trailer tent, we had just put it up before a cloudburst turned the mainly mud/tarmac roads into rivers, luckily after that it was wall to wall hot sunshine for the week, the site dried out quickly after the initial quagmire roads, unbelievably my mum and dad said 'yes' to a party invite to see in newyear 1980 so I got to stay up really late for the first time.

**el dude, if you were around, for youit is also 1979..but from a usa slant? (dude soundsAmerican??)

 

[El Dude]

1979! I'm afraid mine would be rather boring as I was 5-6 years old (born in 1973).

Hmmm...let's see, I must have been in kindergarten, maybe first grade. I lived in Charlotte, Vermont - my mother had a home kindergarten which I attended before going to public school, and my father was a special ed teacher at a private school.

Other than, that...well, I had my first crush (I think) - I liked the fairest sex from an early age (wise even then!). Not much memories other than maples trees.

As for tennis, this was before my awareness of organized sports - but not long before. My first favorite player was Bjorn Borg, but that was a year or two later. I think my favoritism was solely aesthetic - the dude looked cool. I remember disliking Johnny Mac because he beat Borg.

That's all I've got. I'd gladly take the baton for a later year, but for now will pass it along to...

How about Nehmeth? Let's go with 1992 (totally random).
(Great thread idea, by the way)

 

[nehmeth]

Thanks E.D.

1992 was an incredible year. We had just moved into our first house, a little Arts n’ Crafts cottage with a big front porch, huge living room and a kitchen with with an alcove and benches that sat six comfortably. Two years prior, I’d been given oversight of a student organization at the university. There were only 10 kids at the time, but we worked together and grew together and in 92 we had 30 some that were involved. We were gaining momentum and felt as though we were on the cusp of some wonderful things.

That’s when the men’s coordinator and the student president (both juniors at the time) came to us with a proposition. I’d just renovated the basement into a two bedroom with a separate side entrance. We were going to rent it out to help cover the mortgage. They wanted it, wanted to spend their senior year gleaning as much as they could before they graduated. We talked it over as a young family (only a few years older than the students themselves at the time), and decided it was what we should do.

And from there, everything exploded. We became an extended family. The house was only a 15 minute walk from campus and became came the center for much activity. Saturday mornings, we’d have the electric griddle going - the menu would be either blueberry pancakes, chocolate chip pancakes, banana pancakes or French Toast (all with butter and pure maple syrup). The nook would sometimes have 8 piled in on the benches for breakfast. We’d have our leaders meetings there or in the living room with fireplace going and my son playing in the midst of all the discussion.

Sometimes, on a nice day, I’d take everyone up into the mountains and send them off by themselves for a half hour or more, just to hear the stillness, breath in the scent of the evergreens, and watch the chipmunks dart about chirping as they searched for food. It was amazing how that would recharge their batteries. To see the look of wonder and discovery in their eyes, to hear the excitement in their voices - there’s nothing like it. The great thing was that, for most of them, making time to slip away became part of their everyday lives, and something they would share with their own families later.

By the end of that year, we’d grown to over 200 young people, 2/3’s of them were on the Dean’s List and no one was in any academic trouble. It was that year we developed a mentoring model where anyone that struggled with a certain course had someone who understood the material working with them. It was also in 1992, through the insight and action of one of the student leaders, we saw over 30 organizations that had never worked together unite and build something that lasted for almost two decades. Best of all, we cherished the opportunity to create a safe place where people could be themselves, and where they could step out with their own ideas and vision - that was priceless.

It is a sacrifice to open your home and your heart, to share your life and your family, but it’s a choice I’ve always treasured. Twenty-two years later, the core group are all over the globe, with families of their own, happy and successful in diverse fields of work. We are in touch often and get together regularly with their children - many of whom are now teenagers.

I played A LOT of tennis that year. Three of the guys - including the student president living with us - were either the #1 or #2 singles player for their high school. One of them went on to win the intramural singles title at the university. I was still playing with the Dunlop Max200G (one of my favorites ever), and won more than I lost, I’m happy to say.

Passing the baton to Front - The year is 2003.

 

[Front242]

Great thread guys. 2003 was the start of my life changing in the romance department in a big way. Just 2 years before that I went on a trip in August 2001 with who was then my sister's ex boyfriend, his brother who sadly is no longer with us and another English guy called Paddy who I never met before but was a cool guy. An Englishman called Paddy?! Must have Irish roots or the parents must've been smoking something pretty strong!

I'm giving the background from 2001 first 'cos we went from Tallinn, Estonia to Helsinki, Finland and finally to Riga, Latvia. While in Tallinn, my sister's ex went out from the restaurant we were having lunch at to get some cash from the ATM and just started talking to this cute young Russian girl (Marina) who then proceeded to join us for lunch. I was pretty smitten with her and met up with her in Riga when we moved on to Latvia. Turned out that meeting Marina changed my life forever but not because of her, but her friend Karina who is now my wife since November 2012.

Yeah, sounds bad... liked the girl I met on holiday and then met her friend and fell for her, but thing is we were a much better match and I'd have never met Karina if not for meeting her friend in Tallinn. And actually nothing really ever happened with her friend I met in Tallinn anyway other than her thankfully introducing me to her friend when I went back to Riga in October 2001, 3 months later. I wasn't madly in love at first but this leads me to the year in question, 2003, when I started going back on my own to Riga multiple times just to see Karina. We were just friends initially but imo the best relationships often start that way and she was surprised how I felt for her since she thought I was still into her friend. But I was flying back time and time again to see Karina rather than her friend. Looking back I think I spent €23,000 or thereabouts on travel that year in 2003 but it was worth it! Clubbing nights were a laugh 'cos all Karina's friends' names end with a so I was out a lot with Marina, Karina, Irina, Diana, Julia, Nastya, lol. It got a bit confusing.

I used to work as an insurance credit claims specialist up until recently and got 2 promotions in 2003 so it was a very good year where I recall I got around a 30% payrise from going up 2 career path levels by passing numerous exams and other modules.

Celebrated New Year 2003 in Riga and it was freezing. I remember it was -32C (-25.6F) the day I flew home and -15-25C average the rest of the 10 days or so I was there. Used to love going to different nightclubs in Riga and haven't been to one anywhere in years now so I kinda miss that actually.

So yeah, 2003 was the year I started flying over and back to see Karina often, and while it was hard with her living in Riga at the time, she eventually moved over here a few years after that so it was all worthwhile

Passing the baton to Broken No, no, the baton isn't broken! Passing it to Broken!

Edit: and of course it was the start of big things for a certain Roger Federer who stopped breaking racquets and throwing tantrums, cleaned his act up and started winning slams.

2nd edit, forgot the year like a clown. Lets try 1999. Maybe some mad millennium celebration or something like that

 

[brokenshoelace]

Hmmm, 1999...

The year in which I picked up my first tennis racket. Back then, I was still a kid (well, adolescent) and spent most of my time in Lebanon (the country I'm originally from. Hadn't fully migrated to Canada yet). Soccer had always been my passion and that's the sport I spent my childhood practicing, but that year, my parents rented a summer house in the mountains, and there was a tennis court right next to it. My cousin and I would wake up every morning and clean the leafs off the court. We didn't have tennis rackets so we played with wooden beach tennis rackets. Then a week or so after that my father bought us a couple of rackets (a Prince and a Yonex). I remembered Marcelo Rios, who I liked as a kid, carry a racket with a similar logo to the Yonex one so I took it.

I remember going on a school trip to Paris, France that year, which remains one of my most memorable and cherished trips. It truly is an amazing place (I've since visited it 3 more times) and easily my favorite city in the world. I ended up hooking up with a school friend I had a crush on during that trip, and had my first kiss. We ended up dating for a year and a half after that. Had lots of firsts too The ending was a bit dramatic though, as you'd expect at that age. (Random thought: Her mother was a real bitch. Sorry, had to get that off my chest. Not that I'm still bitter after all these years!) On a side-note, I remember being close to tears when I got back home from that trip for whatever reason...probably because I had to go to school the next day.

It was also the year in which I truly fell in love with Boxing after watching Oscar De La Hoya and Felix Trinidad. Re-watching that fight years later, the action wasn't quite as good as I remembered it being, but back then I was so consumed by the pre-fight hype despite not knowing much about either man that I was just thrilled to see them square off. I remember being gutted for Oscar when the judges rendered their scorecards.

Sticking with sports, the Manchester United vs. Bayern Munich Champions League final comeback remains one of the most incredible things I've seen in my entire life. I was a bit bitter about Man Utd back then as they had taken out Juventus (my favorite team) in the semis (perhaps Alex Ferguson's greatest moment -- The Turin Masterclass), but found myself cheering as they scored the second injury time stoppage goal against Bayern.

My older brother started attending law school that year, which ended up influencing my decision to do the same years later, despite his original pleas not to follow suit. Luckily, I didn't listen and he and I plan to open our own law firm within the next few years.

Oddly, part of what stands out to me in 1999 was the fact that it was a great year on the big screen. American Beauty, The Matrix, Fight Club, the Sixth Sense (which I found really creepy at the time) and even Toy Story 2 were out that year. I remember walking into the theater to watch Fight Club with a couple of friends, and the man at the ticket counter advising us against it due to all the blood and violence, and recommending "The Blair Witch Project" instead (which had already been showing for months). For some reason, that story stuck with me due to how stupid that advice was. Random side note: Despite being a huge film buff, I actually haven't re-watched Fight Club since.

Unfortunately, it was also when it became clear that we needed to get out of Lebanon as far as living there full-time goes, after the Israelis bombarded a power station without any provocation and left us with no electricity for a month. Tensions arose once again in that area (though nothing major ended up happening that year, thankfully) and my parents realized that the country had no real future. A country I'll be visiting next month though, which I'm excited about.

Sorry for the uncoordinated thoughts and somewhat uneventful stories, but I was still young.

I am now passing the Baton to DarthFed. I'll choose a year he must really cherish: Two Thousand and Mono...erm, I mean 2008.

 

[DarthFed]

Thanks Broken! Despite the fact that mono clearly cost Fed the calendar slam in 2008 it was actually a great year for me

Starting with sports it was all around an up and down year. It started out with Favre's last game in Green Bay, a heart breaking overtime loss in -20 degree weather vs. the Giants in the NFC title game in January. I was not the biggest fan of Favre, especially in a state where everyone deified him. However, just like everyone my age who grew up a big Packer fan, watching Favre and the Packers every Sunday is a big part of what we will remember looking back on our childhood. And no one at the time knew what that clown would end up doing (coming out of retirement twice and going to our hated rivals).

For basketball it was a great year. One of my best friends was the translator for Yi Jianlian, a Chinese player the Milwaukee Bucks drafted in 2007. I went to a lot of games for free and met a couple former and current players. My friend of course got used to living an NBA lifestyle of never ending travel and partying until it came to a screeching halt when the Bucks traded Yi to New Jersey just before the start of the 2008 season (Starting late October). He immediately bolted to China where he runs his own sports agency today. Though it sucked all around it did set up a crazy trip out to Beijing in November 2009.

The Olympics in 2008 were also extremely exciting as I watched the basketball where USA redeemed itself for that disgusting debacle in 2004. Watching Phelps break the gold medal record in the swimming was also great but the overall highlight of the Olympics was watching Bolt run. It was just amazing. I did not see a second of tennis in 2008 (only watched the singles semifinals and final in 2012) as I don't really care for tennis in the Olympics. Part of it is due to the format of it being a weaker MS event that just happens to be more important than everything except majors.

Personally it was also a good year. I graduated from the 5 year program at my school. The graduate program was actually easier for me than the undergraduate classes and I think part of it is that they want the students to start studying for the CPA (certified public accountant) exam. I had tons of free time that year so I studied a lot for the smallest section since I didn't know what it'd be like going in. Other free time aside from nights at the bars was spent playing chess and watching movies. That was when I really started getting into the HBO, Showtime and other movie channel shows. It was Blockbuster Access, their last stand, and what a deal it was. Something like $15/month unlimited renting (up to 3 at a time) and it was mailed to boot. In that year I watched the Sopranos, Rome, The Tudors, and a lot of movies up until I graduated in May. That kind of led me down the path of really just watching the shows on HBO, Showtime, Starz, etc. Better television and no commercials.

Soon after graduation I won my 2nd decent sized chess tournament in Chicago for a nice $5,000 boost. Back at that age money went as quick as it came. The only decent thing I spent it on was visiting my brother who was in law school out in Boston. After graduation I had to move back home as I did not have a job lined up. Practically no one did as the huge economic downturn had already begun. Unlike the few week breaks during college and the 3 months for summer it was hard to move back home after graduating. The parents strangely didn't approve of me walking in at 3AM wreaking of booze and occasionally cheap stripper perfume (told you money went quick!!)

I was at least able to spend some of the time studying for more sections of the CPA exam and I also got a part-time job at a company that my college roommate's father owned. He knew I was looking for an accounting job and managed to get me an interview at the firm that he used for the Company's taxes and compilation. I got the job in July 2008 and am still there today somehow. As for the CPA exam I managed to screw up one of the 4 sections so I had to take 5 tests total. The pass rate is something like 30% for each individual section so I didn't feel as much pain as many.

After I got my job in July it was time to get out of Dodge and find an apartment. So I did what any sensible man does... in October that year I found a dirt cheap apartment on Craigslist that just happened to have 2 attractive girls living there. And as often is the case with attractive girls in their early 20's they had a crapload of problems. Between that living situation and winning a far bigger tournament in July, 2009 was the wildest year of my life and I feel that 2008 led into it. Full of highs (literally and figuratively) and ending with a bunch of lows. I actually wouldn't have traded 2009, just would change a couple things here and there.

I will get Cali in on this fun and select 2002, the year Daveeed made the Wimby final.

 

[britbox]

Cali's a bit slow off the mark (he can chip in later) so I asked Darth to pick out another poster in the interim.

He picked me and chose 1995 as the year to run with.... Thanks Darth... but not for the year!

1995 doesn't sound a long time ago when you are of a certain age. However, we're going back nearly 20 years ago... I guess it's like my parents talking about the 1950s in the 1970s. They could have been talking about an alien universe as far as I was concerned.

Looking back, 1995 doesn't tick the boxes of being a great year. It was one of self-indulgence, heavy drinking and various fun and frolics. Not a year that I look back on proudly or particularly fondly on in the great scheme of things.

I moved into a shared house with a couple of mates I'd grown up with. It was a bit of wild time... drinking, pubs, clubs. I'd like to add hot women, but thinking back, I'd be lying.

Sports-wise, things had slipped as a participator. I wasn't playing tennis any longer and exercise largely consisted of a walk to the pub. I still played football twice a week but even that was always rounded off with a trip to the watering hole after the match.

The only thing I did then that I miss now, was the habit of going to watch football (Liverpool FC) on a Saturday. Couple of beers and a pie before the match, watch the match, a couple of beers after and then take your woman out on the town. If you were single... it was a "copping off night" when you'd hit a club and try and pull a nice chick.

In hindsight, I'm amazed I held a job down and Unless you like pubs, clubs and booze... this was a pretty boring year.

Tennis-wise, I was a massive Steffi Graf fan, and although my interest in the sport had waned, I still always looked out for her results. Stefan Edberg was another but he was coasting to retirement. I do vividly recall watching an Edberg and Sampras match in a hotel room prior to a job interview. (Sampras won) at around 3am in the morning. More embarrasing was the receipt for the mini-bar and an adult movie to claim against expenses the following day.

Other than that, My maternal grandmother passed away in the October... a woman I had been close too and it was a sad time.

Generally speaking... a wild year and it's remembered personally as being "not good" although when I meet up with a couple of pals from the old country, we still laugh about it.

Tunes for the year...

[video=youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpqyC2ZHd8o[/video]

[video=youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6voHeEa3ig[/video]

[video=youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAi3VTSdTxU[/video]

Movies I remember....

[video=youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHFXthl5IJo[/video]

[video=youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbnGDeq40hI[/video]

Next up: Fiero425, The year 2000.

 

[Kieran]

Sounds like a great year! :grin:

 

[Fiero425]

Sorry, I'm a night owl! The year 2000 wasn't bad for me:

Started a new contract in Austin Texas so I had to fly back and forth from California for 5 months! I was preparing for trip to Europe; getting new passport, acquiring clothes and shoes, and enjoying the latest offerings from Whitney Houston after "The Stars Spangled Banner!" - 2000 Greatest Hits

[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ed0Cni6-UWg[/video]

 

[Kieran]

Good stuff, Fiero! Sounds like a busy time.

You have to pass it on to someone else now - and give them a year to reminisce over...

 

[Fiero425]

Good stuff, Fiero! Sounds like a busy time.

You have to pass it on to someone else now - and give them a year to reminisce over...

Sorry; not very many contacts! Had one, but deleted! Let's try this one just to get it off my plate:

- Passing the baton to JesuslookslikeBorg. - The year is 2006 (1 Martina trying a comeback and another leaving tour after 30+ years)

 

[JesuslookslikeBorg]

fiero says its 2006 time..
2006 was diabolical..i started off the year with two serious swollen knees (no idea how I got them), from the previous October 2005, some of the painkillers i was given (diclofenac) made my stomach go weird and before I knew it I was a vomiting bed ridden mess, I couldn't move without heavy painkillers and multiple tubigrip bandadges..a big journey was staggering to the doctors or the hospital or chemist or shop in between spells of vomiting as also I had developed a serious stomach problem which meant I could eat hardly anything exept cornflakes, and plain biscuits..and milk/water/weak tea.

I had to go to the hospital from feb 2006 onwards to try and find out what was wrong, the digestive disease consultant could not find out why I was so sick, all this time my knees were still wrecked, I was on my own also and sitting around wondering if I was dying of bowel cancer or whatever was not much fun..

finally after moaning a lot they did more tests some of which were the same ones for the 3rd time, :huh: I was told I did not have cancer but ulcerative colitis (similar to crohns disease), and gastric erosion, although I suppose it was good to tell my parents I was not going to be dead pretty soon the news that I would have this unpleasant condition for life was a bit of a shock..and my knees and legs were still feeble and the poor food and puking meant I lost over 4st in a short space of time,

I could go on but its so boring I don't want to (hello..anyone still reading ?. :snigger)

I cannot remember much else as i was so ill apart from trying to listen to the radio in bed and trying not to be sick or move too much which hurt my knees, but I remember watching some tennis on skysports like Wimbledon and the rome masters 5hr classic rafa v Federer, sitting down made me ill a few times but I made it through the 5hrs..then I had to lie down again. the world cup was on in 2006.

2006..i really thought I was going to die, but I did not. I still have to take a lot of daily medication to keep the disease in some sort of check and painkillers for my knees which although are stronger now are still sore..i don't feel dead all the time and I am not actually dead, otherwise I wouldn't be on here I suppose. :idea: I might as well have been in a coma in 2006 I think it would have been more fun. in fact I said that to my mum/dad...

the good news is I am still here. (huzzah and hurrah)...I think I am lucky.

umm, I won't do this again. I think a good year 1979 and a bad year 2006 will do, i don't want to worry about if i been nominated when I come on here..

Kieran can give us hopefully a slightly cheerier 2006 instead. :idea: >>>>>>>>>

 

[Kieran]

Sorry to read that, JLLB!

I already did a year, you want to choose again?

 

[JesuslookslikeBorg]

^^thanks. I have done 2 lol..umm someone who poasts..??, they all just lurk around.

did rose do one ?, no so its >> 2006 for rose.

 

[Moxie]

Has anyone checked in with Rose about this? I think we should keep it going. We've got plenty more people to hear from.