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Review Of 2003

January
The year got off to a good start as late in 2002 I was given back my full time job at work and came into the New Year with a renewed outlook on life, not that I had a great deal of time to think about such things as we were so busy in work at first with the sale and then with the stock take. The shop was also going to be having a refit with a new dedicated bedroom department and I can remember the area manager asking if anyone wanted to apply for the position of running that department, the store manager told me that if I wanted the job I would have to go away for a week on a course and depending how I got on would depend on if I got the job, so I was a little nervous about all of this but. Last January was also the last event that the Action Group organised with the pantomime, I had been hoping to get more events organised during the year but the meetings were put on hold until a decision was made about permission to build a community hall in the local park. I also said goodbye to my ill-fated GK-Quiz, which was my attempt to get more interactive contents added to the site.

February
This was the month that the shop was closing for three weeks to have a major refit and at the start of the month looked like it was going to turn in to one hectic month as I had already been given information that I would be going to Strood but had still not been told if I was going to be getting the job of bedroom manager. There were all sorts of rumour flying around the shop and I was actually told that Christine had gotten the job that did make me wonder why I had to go on the course. I did however go on the course and was lucky to get a room to myself as a few people had dropped out and there were only eight of us staying at the hotel with a few others who were local travelling each day. I would like to think that I made friends with the others, especially the ones staying at the hotel but I do regret that I did not maintain contact with them.
It was at the start of February that the C.S.I. Fanlisting which I run was recognised as being official by the Fanlistings
I also decided to organise a weekend away with some of my friends, it was always something that we had planned to do after we got out of school before we all went our separate ways but back them we had planned to go abroad for a week and nothing ever materialised so this time it was a weekend in New Quay which was planned after I saw an offer they had in a daily newspaper. Valentines Day came and went and there was no �special person� in my life to send me a card or for me to send a card to but I am used to that now and can only hope that chances soon. My computer also started playing up and finally broke down almost 12 months to the day when I had bought it so I was not happy when I was told that it was not covered by a guarantee and I would have to foot the bill myself, the shop could not even tell me what was wrong or how much it would cost to fix.

March
Arriving back from the course after passing with 100 percent I was pretty happy after we had been told that anyone getting under 70 percent would not be allowed to work in the bedroom department. The new area manager finally told me that I was the bedroom manager, which really made my day, and things were looking up. A new member of staff was also employed to help me and I will admit that my insecurity about doing the job got me thinking that the new employee (Kelly) who was female and more outgoing than myself would take my job off me within a few weeks - how wrong could I have been! Within two weeks of starting she had already taken her first day off sick and this is what I had to say about it �Kelly (the new member of staff) had phoned in sick. She had been complaining most of last week about not feeling too well, my gut instinct however has been telling me that maybe she had something planned and needed the day off and did not feel that she could ask� Regular visitors to my site over the past year will know the trouble we had with Kelly and I am sure she will come up again in this review.
I was told that my power unit had blown and that had caused some of the other components to get fried and many of them would need to be replaced. I decided to have the work carried out rather than buy a new base unit but I did ask them to upgrade the CPU.

April
I went out car shopping and got myself a Ford Escort after being off the road since 1998 when my last car got written off in an accident. I also got my computer back after having it repaired and it is only when you don�t have something that you realise how much of your life is taken up with it The weekend down in New Quay was a little fraught and maybe that was because it was just the three of us and as we all have different ideas of what fun is that friction quickly developed between David and myself as we both have strong personalities. I did spend a bit of time thinking how we manage to be friends as we are nothing alike but then again if we were things would be a little boring! (Would I go again, of course I would)

May
My parents were away for a week so I began the month online at there house and used the time to update my computer, this was helped by the fact that I had collected my car so it was easier to move things about. The local library added more computers which made it a lot easier for me to get access to the internet and combined with driving to work I get to go online most weekday morning now. I was still waiting for my pay to be sorted out at work the area manager had told me a figure and said that it would go up again after three months if I was doing a good job. I also thought that the new bloke that had started working in the linen department would get Kelly�s job after her constant sickness during May and her three month probationary period coming up.

June
The month of my birthday and always a very bleak start to the month as I normally get very angry and this year was no exception, the reason for my anger is that it turns out to be just another day nothing special, very few greetings from my friends both online and offline. I was overjoyed that one of my Australian friends called me on my birthday to wish me a Happy Birthday that was really nice of her. The day after my birthday I was up early to go to Coventry for a bed-training course. Kelly went on the same bedroom-training course as I attended in February and I was relieved that she did not get 100 percent. June also saw the release of the fifth Harry Potter book and looking back I really don�t know what all the fuss was about I had a choice of a few shops to get the book, no queues no problem. At work I had still not received my pay rise or back pay and had been caught by a �Mystery Shopper� The town held its first Merlin, Magic and Mystery festival and there were various events in the town to celebrate the towns� historic links with Merlin the advisor to King Arthur, this is supposed to be an annual event - we shall see.

July
Still had not received my pay rise which was getting rather annoying by now especially after finding out that Kelly was getting a higher rate of pay than I was, she also told us that she was pregnant which meant no ~~heavy~~ lifting for her. I had been experiencing some problems with the site as it was still being hosted at Flaming-monk.org and there were concerns that the domain would not be renewed so I started thinking of getting my own domain. I did in fact register this domain at the end of July and that was also the time when the library installed some new filter software on there computers and I did fear that I would be unable to access hotmail and other sites. Oh yes my brother also told my mother that I was gay! So I guess that if you are single you are automatically gay now it was lucky my brother was not around or I would have lost it with him - I am not gay and never have been.

August
I finally moved my site to this domain and opened it up for everyone to see how little things had changed and maybe I had hoped to change myself in some little way but the truth always comes out. Pay at work still had not been sorted out which was more than a little tiring by this time as I had the car but no money and had been planning on going away for a few days during September.
Kelly pulled off her greatest scam to date when she phoned in telling us that she had suffered a miscarriage and returned three weeks later. I say it was a scam but the truth is we don�t really know if she was ever pregnant or if it was some elaborate story she told to get the August bank holiday off. What she said afterwards about what had happened at the hospital some of the old female staff said was not realistic and that you would not need to go through labour if you had suffered a miscarriage so early during the pregnancy so it does look like she was one sick person.

September
I took some of my holiday not that I could go anywhere as my pay had still not been sorted out and I really did expect to return to work after my holiday to find that Kelly had left.

October
Returned to work to discover that instead of leaving Kelly asked for her hours to be reduced which for all intensive purposes left me alone to work in the bed department. I was also told some news which would effect my long-term future which brought back memories of this time of year back in 2001. I did not dwell on these thoughts for too long.

November/December
Funnily as I near the end of this review I find that the final two months events escape me, or rather seem just like every other month so I have decided to omit them.
And so my review of the last twelve months draws to an end and I ask myself has it been worth it and is my life better now that it was this time last year?
2003 has seen me lose contact with more �online friends� than ever before, of course this is not helped by my lack of emails so I suppose I have to accept some of the responsibility for letting the friendships slip. It is the people who I would class as close friends whose silence hurts me the most, people have offline lives to live so am I being selfish?

Aims for 2003
~~1.Get passport again!~~
I did finally get my passport this was something I had aimed to do but failed for 2002 but in February this 2003 I finally received my passport.

2.Loose Weight.
I also wanted to loose weight and after a few months of going to weigh myself every week to see no difference I lost heart and decided that it would be better for me to cut back on the number of times I actually went to weigh myself to once a month, importantly I soon forgot about this and have not weighed myself in about eight months. This is something I have not achieved.

3.Get more active.
I also aimed to get more active and I know when I created this aim it was my attention to join a gym, that did not happen and for various reasons my weekly visit to go swimming stopped during the summer so not sure how active I have been during the last twelve months as since getting my car I don�t walk as often as I used to.

4.Visit more places
I also wanted to visit more places not necessary abroad but in this country and I am not sure how successful I have been. I did visit New Quay and have been to various places as part of my job for training sessions. Getting the car should have made it easier to travel a little further a field but problems with my pay has meant that I did not have the money to travel so I don�t think this had been achieved.

Future
I have no idea what the future holds for me but I am sure that 2004 will see changes to my work status whether this will be for the better remains to be seen and I am sure to be talking more about this in the months leading up to Easter.

Aims for 2004
1. Complete a list of things I want to do before I die
2. Travel
3. Exercise more often
4. Write/email friends more often/regular
5. Have a more positive outlook on life.

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