2005: A mentalist’s look back

This is a guest article by MG

How can I possibly follow-up Des' brilliant piece?! Here goes:

What a year! Life has changed so much on a personal level that I could be forgiven for forgetting everything else. The thing is, that the combination of things that have occurred externally can only be described as quite unbelievable.

Where do we start? Well, I’ve just been to Barrow shopping with my Mum, so I’ll begin there. I passed my driving theory and subsequently my practical in early January, progressing onto Danny Harrison’s accelerated Pass Plus course in February. 10 months down the line and I’m driving again! And I still despise it nearly as much as I did when I was learning. Stalled twice approaching Tesco roundabout due to being in 3rd instead of 1st… I won’t bore you with all of that. The car in question, a 1.0l Vauxhall Corsa 5dr Elegance is something that when its all going smoothly, is a joy to drive. Not that much joy can be had when navigating through heavy traffic!

Of course, the fact that I had a 10-month break from driving and could suddenly spend a few grand on a car means that I have also managed to secure a job. In the summer, myself and Rob did a whistle-stop tour of a number of employment agencies, including Simmonds, who firstly had me touring Ulverston’s housing estates asking people about the Council’s waste collection and recycling services before asking me to work in Furness College’s finance section mid-September. Both temporary lines of work, I certainly felt more at home helping out in finance! The crew (Rita, Carol, Jackie, Cheryl and Stuart) seemingly had to put up with a hell of a lot during the 2 months I was with them – not least the room change in the earlier stages that caused a multitude of problems! However, I thoroughly enjoyed this period and if any of the finance lot are reading this I give my upmost thanks for accommodating me so well.

In December, my temporary period in the finance office ended and I was switched over to IS prior to being interviewed for the post during the first week. As it transpired, only Jason Rattigan and myself were shortlisted for interview and with both of us iterating that it would be a small victory as long as one of us landed the post, the lack of other candidates made the affair a near-banker of a home win for both of us. Of course, my lack of experience of interviews alongside the fact that J is quite a skilled individual meant that I was naturally pessimistic about my chances of securing the position! Somehow, I was offered the job (hysterics) (Kate mentioned last week that I came across as a good communicator – I try!). One month down the line and I’m enjoying my work – as much as data input can be tedious (and at times, utterly frustrating!), factors such as office banter and numerous conflicts with other departments bring a more interesting dimension to proceedings. Indeed, as Sue T replied when I said ‘we’d be perfect fly-on-the-wall documentary fodder’: ‘the viewers would think it is too far fetched’ (hysterics).

Outside of paid work, my voluntary work with Feature Youth Club has provided more events than you can shake a stick at. 3 camps, numerous trips out and a near full Friday night programme incorporates quite a lot! You can read my reviews of various events if you track back through this website, or indeed, when the new FYC website is launched (imminently, I hope!). 2006 will likely prove to be another mad year on the voluntary front!

Outside of personal life, events which have been in the news haven’t really been positive. Natural disasters were absolutely massive in devastation, with the huge Tsunami disaster, numerous earthquakes and hurricanes leading to widespread homelessness and poverty. Furthermore, the passing of numerous figures including a number of people at the forefront of their fields, the London bombings (plus subsequent attempts), crises in many third world regions, the seemingly forthcoming bird-flu pandemic, rioting and hospital superbugs all came to the fore. BBC Newsround has a well-presented photographical round-up of these events. On the political front, well, Bush managed to retain presidency, whilst the Iraqi democracy attempted to find its feet – albeit on highly uneven and unstable ground. The forces out there are such heroes for trying to keep order in such volatile and often hostile conditions… Meanwhile on domestic soil, Labour managed to secure their first ever third term in the midst of only a small swing in votes. The Lib Dems did well, but still have a lot to do if they are to win power next time out (it turns out that their talisman, Charles Kennedy, has just resigned), whilst the Conservative leadership has changed once more – can David Cameron achieve where Hague (on the front bench once more), Duncan-Smith and Howard have failed and get the Tories back on top? Time will tell.

So what about another of my favourite hobbies to follow, sport? I could probably write a thesis… Here is an overview: Dame Ellen McArthur sailing around the globe in a world record time – how good is she? Staggering. Paula Radcliffe with another successful year winning 4 big races, Phil Taylor winning another world darts championship – 13 titles now his tally. Unbelievable when you consider how many people play darts / have the potential to play darts in this country alone! On the boxing front, Joe Calzaghe, Amir Khan and most impressively, Ricky Hatton were all undefeated, with the latter making giant strides towards becoming the best in his division. Kimi Raikonnen and Fernando Alonso were both awesome in F1, and once more, Valentino Rossi probably proved once more why he is the best on-track motorcycle rider the world has yet seen. The Six Nations and the Lions tour were both nearer to disappointing than successful – the same of which can be said for Manchester United’s season (especially the Glazer takeover – we won’t go there) despite all three having sizable highlights. Chelsea have raised the bar significantly… Tiger still rules the roost at golf, though in David Howell and Luke Donald we now have two very good new English representatives, though Mr Montgomerie is on the comeback on the tour, too. Andrew Murray made big strides forward in the tennis, whilst Bradford Bulls were very good in the Super League, with Wasps once more proving too strong in the Union format. Then there’s horse racing – what a year! Standout performances… Where to start? Hardy Eustace in the Champion Hurdle (hard ridden with Harchibald alongside & on the bridle – Paul Carberry asked the latter to go… No response!) Moscow Flyer in the Champion Chase, Inglis Drever in the World Hurdle and most notably, Kicking King in the Gold Cup made for a top Cheltenham meeting. The latter has just won the King George VI, the second biggest race of its type in the national hunt season. Kieran Fallon was on it this year, again! His ride on Virginia Waters in the 1,000 Guineas was brilliant, as was Ruby Walsh’s ride on Hedgehunter for the National. Top stuff. Then there was Dubawi and Shamardal for Godolphin winning big Group 1’s both on these shores and in France (unfortunately, both of whom are now retired), and of course Motivator with Johnny Murtagh on board winning the biggest domestic Group 1 the country has to offer in tremendous style for a highly deserved Michael Bell. Eswarah has to be mentioned here, too – terrific performance, but super-filly Ouija Board won a big Group 1 in Hong Kong nearer to the end of the year, which I would deem more impressive – Kieran on board once more. This wasn’t all for Kieran. The Arc meeting brought about a treble of huge proportions when he partnered Horatio Nelson and Rumplestiltskin for Ballydoyle and most notably, Hurricane Run for Andre Fabre and Michael Tabor to victory in the Arc itself, which is the biggest meeting Europe holds each year. Congratulations also go to Mr Fabre and Christophe Soumillon for their success in the Breeder’s Cup – the only team from Europe to land any of the substantial first-prizes on offer. My favourite race of the year, though, was the greyhound Derby final, where Westmead Hawk justified favouritism by carving his way through a top field from last position on the first bend. This made for quite a 30-seconds of drama. Awesome!

You’d think that’d be enough to remember. Well, it isn’t! Here are my top 3 sporting moments from 2005 in highly condensed format:

3) Winning the 2012 Olympic Bid: What an amazing effort from Lord Coe and his team. Considering how far we were behind at one stage just shows how much work must have been put in to actually win such a difficult vote. Huge kudos is deserved, and has been given by the Queen in the New Year’s honours list. When the IOC president announced that we’d won, it was difficult not to be overcome by elation, surprise and a distinct happy feeling. Top, top effort

2) Milan vs Liverpool, European Champion’s League Final: Football never ceases to amaze. 3-0 down at half-time and Liverpool still won the trophy? What happened in that game was quite unbelievable and something I will never forget. I mean, hell, Man United overturned a one-goal deficit in double-quick time against Bayern in 1999 in quite unbelievable fashion, but this has to rank, at the very least, alongside that achievement. ‘Captain fantastic’ Stevie G providing a glimmer of hope… Vladimir Smicer with a wonder strike from nowhere that got the Anfield fraternity who had travelled and paid a ton of dosh to see their heroes give it a shot into a huge frenzy of noise and support… That penalty – Alonso’s missed! But it’s in! And then to survive the onslaught in extra time – what about Dudek’s save from Shevchenko from point blank range?! Unbelievable. Then to win on penalties… As Paul Nolan quite rightly iterated afterwards: ‘Those Incredible Men’.

1) The Ashes: Compressing 35-40 days of sport at the level played by these two sides into a paragraph will be nigh-on impossible. Drama in sport can be overwhelming, and this, along with a lot of the aforementioned events, certainly reached that level. I would go through what every single England and Australia player contributed, but if I did then it could turn into a sprawling mass that would be incontrollable. I think anybody who even has the remotest interest in cricket was likely glued to the screen for at least one session during the summer, and for those who devote time and energy to viewing the game, what was on offer will not be forgotten. If the renewal in Australia is anywhere near as good this winter, we’re in for another hell of a series.

On the music front, I’ve been privileged to have once again experience a wide range of high quality beats and breaks this year and have made some cracking albums because of this. Some of the Anthemics I have put out in 2005 have been beyond expectation in quality levels and I hope to put together one more 2005 volume to represent last year’s sound in the coming month. Gig of the year is simple once more, with the Sankey’s trip in the summer being absolutely awesome with Infusion, James Zabiela and John Digweed assaulting the senses in ways only few can.

I’d usually end it here (indeed, I did so in 2004), but there’s one more thing I think I should add, as it played a significant part throughout the year – most-so in the second half. (Des has amazingly been through something similar and has put this part perfectly in this section of his review, so you should probably read that first if you haven’t already done so).

In the summer holidays, I asked out someone who I think is a wonderful woman – someone who I had got on with and admire just for who she is. Obviously, as the majority of the readership of this piece will know, this was something that I’d never attempted before, and thus something that caused a few brainstorming sessions and sleepless nights as to how I was to go about something that had the potential to trigger a great number of contrasting emotions on both sides! At the time of when I asked, I genuinely believed that whatever response was forthcoming would be something that I would be able to take into my stride and embrace, but obviously in hindsight, this was never going to be the case and the more I think about it now, the more I believe that I am a complete moron for previously thinking as such. In essence, what I did has seemingly blown apart the type of friendship we did have – something that can probably be deemed as totally inevitable with what I did. Its not fair on her at all, has left me with numerous questions about my conduct and has totally reaffirmed the scepticism I held about the whole area for a number of years. In the aftermath, its fucked with my feelings far too much. Ideally, I want to be friends with her as I was prior to all of that madness, but I’m not sure that she feels the same way and ultimately, I don’t deserve anything such as that for being a complete arse. I’ve made fewer mistakes in 2005 than a lot of previous years, but the ones at the top have had huge detrimental impact to where a whole load of others probably put me on their agendas. My behaviour here has been incomprehensible. Good effort…

As a result, I won’t be doing any of that again in a hurry and hope to restore what I deem as my sanity for what should be another brilliant year. Priority One: Germany. Everything could go wrong this year but I don’t think I’d care if Sven’s lads bring home the World Cup trophy. Jules Rimet always gleams, never fades…

That was way, way too bitty and brief, but still, it has to be! It'd be a huge piece if not. I wish the entire readership a successful 2006 and if Bekka is reading this, offer unreserved heartfelt apology for what I’ve done and hope your year goes as swimmingly as possible.

This is a guest article by MG, imported from Wordpress. Please ignore the 'author/contributor/posted-by' tag on this post, which is incorrect.