2012 – year in review

I wanted to write this post before the end of 2012 but having a stomach bug but a damper on that idea, so I’m writing it now (this post was also going to be my goals for 2013 but the post got too long – that post will follow. 🙂 )

I’ve seen a few of my friends blogs review their past year categorised by month and decided to steal that idea. I’ve decided to focus on the main points that happened in each month.

January
I started off January by joining weight watchers. I didn’t set out to loose weight, but to eat healthier and be more active. I was inspired to join weight watchers by my mum who is a fellow weight watchers member and also by following Carolynne of Just-Like-Magic’s story of her weight loss.

This was also the month I “met” Artur – I’d actually met him when I started my current job in May 2010 but didn’t get to know him until now. Meeting Artur brought a lot of changes to my life. Thanks to Artur I tried Salsa dancing and had my first ride on a motorcycle this month!

February
As always February is the month of Massive Events 3 day unofficial Twilight convention: Eternal Twilight 7. This event was held from Friday 17th – Sunday 19th of February 2012 and as always was a great event, I got to meet some new cast members I hadn’t before as well as some I’d met a few times (but am always happy to see again). It was also my friend Ali’s second Twilight convention 🙂 – we had a lot of fun planning party outfits (there is a themed party each night).

March
This was the month Artur and I took our first trip together – we went to Cardiff for the weekend and stayed in the Hilton there. We visited Cardiff castle, shopped, went sight seeing, went swimming and had lunch in Hooters! – Did I mention we took the trip by motorbike(?).

We also took another trip on the bike (day trip) to Cheddar Gorge & Weston-Super-Mare and saw this beautiful sunset:

April
In April, Artur and I moved in together! – we moved into a 2 bedroom maisonette (rented property) in the town we both work in: Cirencester. It’s taken us months and months later to finally get the placed sorted and everything organised.

We also took another day trip on the bike to The Forest of Dean and had a picnic/barbecue.

April was also my friend Sarah’s birthday (I met her through the Hallowhedon conventions I went to) and we spent it (with two other friends) visiting London and most importantly the WB Harry Potter Set Tour. Honestly, if you’ve not been and obviously like Harry Potter then I highly recommend it! I won’t give any secrets away but Diagon Alley – WOW!

May
A lot happened in May:

First it was my birthday, it started off with breakfast in bed (McDonald’s breakfast!) and my parents and sister visited with presents and cake (Yoda (Star Wars) cake). Then later on Artur and I went to Cheltenham (local town) and met with my friend Ali for a bit of shopping (very short shopping), cinema and food.

We saw to films: Marvel’s Avengers Assemble and American Pie: Reunion – we had food at Frankie and Benny’s in between. After dropping Ali off at home in Gloucester, it was probably nearing 1am when we got home – with both of us needing to be up for work at 5am and 7am respectively!

The week after was also Artur’s birthday! – He wanted a quiet day at home with little fuss, so that’s what he had. I cooked for him and baked him a cake.

Between my birthday and Artur’s, my parents and I took Artur to his first convention experience: “The Greatest Show in the Galaxy” – I met a lot of the Torchwood cast and Artur had fun looking at the classic film cars they had on display.

Towards the end of May I took my first trip ALONE on a plane alone to Poland! – Artur was already there taken a course. We spent a week their seeing his family, sight seeing etc. It was a beautiful trip.

Once we got back from Poland we went to Collectormania Milton Keynes (a signing event) where I met the lovely Sean Astin (Samwise in Lord of the Rings among other things).

June
June had a lot of firsts for me: My first convention without a family member, my first convention abroad, my first plane trip with friends. 🙂

The convention itself was a bit of a disaster to be honest, it was the worst organised I’ve been too and I was also ill for the entire trip! I wanted nothing more than to curl up and sleep!

Despite the few bad points: It was a good experience, the guests were fantastic and overall I had fun.

July
Since 2009, my parents and I have attended London Film and Comic Con (a huge signing event) and 2012 was no different. We were there for two days (Saturday and Sunday), though the event itself is on for three.

We met lots of guests (Firefly, Star Trek, Game of Thrones, sci fi etc etc), bought a lot of merchandise and took loads of photographs.

We also took two camping trips in July (both on the bike): One was to Snowdonia & Llandudno in Wales and the other two Cornwall, where we visited Newquay and Lands End

August
A lot happened in August – Artur and I went to various festivals (most on the bike). Most were VW shows, including ‘Van Fest’ and ‘VW Action’, a biker festival known as ‘Bull Dog Bash’, a local steam rally (which we went to with my parents) etc – all were a lot of fun and we have some great memories and photos from all.

August was also my mum’s birthday – one of the big ones! As I’ve said before, I took her to Bitten 3 (True Blood convention) to celebrate. It has to be one of my favourite convention experiences of the year!

I think August was probably the busiest month of this year – I also installed WordPress and created the theme you see today.

September
I can’t remember a lot happening in September – It was spent mostly planning for two conventions the following month (more on those soon) and of course reaching my goal weight at Weight Watchers. 🙂

October
As always a huge convention month for me: Eternal Twilight 8 and Hallowhedon 4 were this month.

Eternal Twilight 8 (ET8) was supposed to be Massive Events final Twilight convention but by popular demand and a lot of ‘woo-ing’ at ET8 they agreed to hold another one in February! – Happy! The first Eternal Twilight was my first ever weekend convention and was the one that got me hooked.

As always my mum came a long with me and we also dragged along Ali 🙂 – who was kind enough to make me a dress for the Friday night party.

Hallowhedon 4 – Is always my favourite convention of the year and this was no different. I met 3 guests from Buffy/Angel Nicholas Brendon “Xander Harris”, J August Richards “Charles Gunn”, Kristine Sutherland “Joyce Summers” and all were fantastic. Sean Maher “Simon Tam” (from Firefly and the film Serenity) unfortunately cancelled days before the convention, or possibly a week before so I didn’t get to meet him though. 🙁

It was announced at Hallowhedon 4 that the next Hallowhedon event would become more generalised and not be solely related to Joss Whedon shows, thus I have yet to buy a ticket for Hallowhedon 5. It will now depend on what other guests they get for the event – they have said it will be a minimum of three “Whedon guests” though.

November
I met David Hasselhoff! – That is all… OK, maybe not all but probably the highlight of November for me.

Money was tight this month (Christmas being a major factor) so although there were lots of other guests besides ‘The Hoff’ I also wanted to meet at ‘The Memorabilia Show‘ I couldn’t. 🙁

December
Christmas tree and inside the house decorated the week before Christmas, sisters birthday the weekend before Christmas, Artur’s sisters birthday the weekend before that – December was a busy month, with a lot of people to see and a lot of food to be eaten.

We went out food-wise (including Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day which we spent at my parents) about 7/8 times over December! No wonder I didn’t stick to my goal weight! Haha.

For Artur’s sisters birthday we took them shopping, that’s what they wanted to do and it was a great to spend time with them, 🙂 we then took my sister bowling and to Pizza Hut for her birthday and after that – more shopping. I’ve never “shopped” so much in one month but think I may have been to some kind of town a least once every weekend of December – I didn’t buy anything (again no money!) but had a good window shop/browse.

We also went to Cheltenham Horse Races – my first time at the races ever and I found it to be very enjoyable. 🙂

So a lot of things happened this year. I think I had a great year overall and I sure hope 2013 is just as good.