lexiphanic

2006 In Review


2006 had it's ups and downs, as all years do.
The world realised America had turned into some sort of uncontrollable monster, like Tetsuo in Akira. The public came to terms with the fact that they wouldn't get another Lord Of The Rings or Harry Potter this holiday season. World Of Warcraft continued its domination of the Internet. And I undertook a journey of my own.

There are always negatives, but I've always been a fairly optimistic individual. I'm able to put a positive spin on almost anything, and I think this is one of my my few good qualities that keeps me from going insane.

So I could go through this and detail things in a bad way: I was forced to end a relationship that didn't want to end; I don't know when (or even if!) I'll see the girl I love again; I've had to humble myself and live with my parents again; I am constantly crushed by my personal inability to be financially independent at the moment; ... this could go on forever that way and you'd all slit your wrists in sympathy.
I just don't think that way, thankfully.

Instead, here is what happened for me in 2006, in chronological order. Photo links included where possible! Apologies that some are remarkably long.

• January: I started out by having a great New Years Party with Shannon and friends. A great start to the year.


• February: it started off with the discovery that even in the most troubled recesses of her mind and at the worst times, Shannon loved me wholeheartedly. I also saw some great acts at The Luminaire: Daniel gust from Iceland and InfantJoy from the UK. Lastly, I had the opportunity to meet one of my heroes: Tom Coates (he works in the realms of social software and mass-amateurisation, currently at Yahoo).


• March: it commenced with a trip to Torino, Italy, where I learned to ski for the first time. Later in March I managed to get a photo & press pass as well as guestlist to see Sigur Rs + amiina, then joined their after-party and introduced Shannon to both bands. And this was just a couple of days before Shannon and I went to Paris (the first time for me).


• April: the weekend in Paris eventually came to an end, but pleasantly. I saw amiina play at London's Scala. A particularly big night for me as I was able to spend more time with the band and their manager and talk about what they're up to... I really admire the music they're making. I also visited the London Zine Symposium 2006, which helped develop my interest in alternative DIY culture. I even ran into someone I knew.


• May: By this stage I'm starting to organise my trip back to Australia. My visa runs out in July and I'm starting to panic, but only slightly. I'm optimistic and have the silly idea in my head that Shannon and I will be together again sooner than we both expect. This month I was lucky enough to see an 18 theremin orchestra perform, went to the local Bangla New Year festivities, and saw a local Icelandic musician, Biggi, performing his first solo work for the first time.


• June: oh crap, I leave England in a month! I tried to play it cool but I was starting to worry everything wouldn't be organised in time. I picked up a new Nokia N80 mobile phone and started actually using the camera in it. I visited Stoke Newington Cemetery. Shannon treated to me a really nice birthday in Notting Hill and gave me another of her amazing presents. We watched some of the World Cup at a local nightclub. I witnessed people protest China's new railway into Tibet.


• July: I finished work. I packed everything up. At the end of July, I left the UK. The last time I saw Shannon. She saw me off at the train station and it was like something out of a movie. I remember crying as the train pulled out of the station. But there was also a big adventure in front of me. Two months of travel seemed like a long time, but it would soon race by. Thankfully, I had managed to build a website to track all of it before I left. In the last week of July I rode the ferry from England to the Netherlands, I hung out in Amsterdam, I caught a train to a tiny seaside town called Domburg just to meet a friend I'd never met, I went to Belgium and travelled all over that country, I stayed with someone I didn't know but who was a wonderful host. And the broken old umbrella Shannon gave me finally died in Gent, Belgium. So I bought a newer bigger one for 10.


• August proved to be a rather big month (here are all the photos I took in August). I caught my first overnight train from Brussels, Belgium, to Berlin, Germany. I met wonderful people. Amazing people in Germany. Top of the pops goes to Eva, a Danish girl I stayed with who I found I could relate to so easily. I also ended up at someone's 21st birthday party in Potsdam, and discovered that there are still some people around who wish the Berlin Wall hadn't fallen. In Denmark I once again met wonderful people and fell in love with Copenhagen. Liv, a girl who takes photographs, and Janus, my gracious host, showed me the wonderful parts of their city in a brief couple of days. Next, a week in Sweden with my friend from London, Jimmy. We saw rural Sweden and had many adventures, which was then replaced by a wonderful evening with a Norwegian girl called Maren on the ferry from Stockholm to Helsinki, Finland. Finland was different, but amazing for its technology and the great people I stayed with there - Darren who runs the Sigur Rs website. We ate chocolate, we played Nintendo, and then I headed to St Petersburg, Russia. I spent so many hours in The Hermitage and was marveled by every room and then I was off to Moscow. Several failed attempts to meet my friend Dina meant I didn't get the opportunity to enjoy Moscow as much as I'd have liked, but we did get it together before I left. And I met a few crazy locals, too, as well as enjoy the harsh Soviet architecture. So soon, though, I was off on my Trans-Siberian train from Moscow to Beijing via Ulaanbataar.


• September: (here's the September photos, why not follow along with the story?) I delighted at the constantly changing landscape that the train rolled past. Past inland seas and giant mountains, through harsh deserts and dust-storms and into deep valleys. I met all kinds of interesting people on the train, saw the Great Wall Of China, tried new kinds of food and drink... and eventually we stopped in Beijing. The Forbidden Palace was staggering in its scale and design, as was Tian'anmen Square. A quick train to Shanghai popped me into the lap of luxury with some friends who now lived there and worked for the Australian Consulate. It was nice to hear an Australian accent again. And a native English speaker, for that matter. Shanghai's Art Museum amazed me and too soon again i was off to Hong Kong. I didn't know what to do here so I went up to the top of Victoria Peak where I met Sarah, an English backpacker who I befriended very quickly. We spent some time together checking out HK, including a ride on a junk in the harbour and just generally had a great time. She'll be off to Australia a month or so after me, so we planned to meet again. And then I caught a last-minute flight back to Australia and saw my family again, the first time in two years.


• October: The worst part was dealing with a settled life again, and one without Shannon in it -- something I was able to push to the back of my mind while trying to figure out how to get from A to B every day. I'd sworn not to do the job I did before -- selling computers -- and so I had to figure something out. Meanwhile, I had my 10-year high-school reunion, and travelled to Canberra to catch up with old friends. I stayed in touch with Shannon and we exchanged packages. I also made a whole lot of new friends, and started going ten-pin bowling with them. I've decided by this stage, however, that Australia isn't the place for me. I choose Denmark as my next port of call and go looking for a Danish course.


• November: While looking for a course in Danish, I come across a B.A (Internet Studies), which essentially focuses on internet sociology and virtual communities. Yes, I'd be studying World Of Warcraft and MySpace. I'd never undertaken a degree-level course before, and I had the opportunity, now living with my parents, to do so. So I enrolled. It starts in December. I also started spending a lot more time with my new friends: bowling and BBQs, mainly. I'm also developing a stronger interest in men's fashion and how to do something interesting and cool with it.


• December: Here we are. Over the past month I've been doing my course, as well as trying to develop my other websites a little further. I've developed a minor interest in making artistic tracings of friends in Adobe Illustrator. Xmas Day was the enormous family affair one can expect, a special one this year as it was the first in eight years where all family members were present (I've not been home for Xmas for the last six). I'm thankful for the new friends I have who keep me entertained all month, whether I like it or not.

And so that was 2006.
I'm thankful for the opportunities I had to see the world and meet some amazing people.
I've learned what love really is, and I'll have to learn to deal with its loss, too.
I developed a greater confidence in who I am and what I believe in.
I discovered that I can be more comfortable when I'm outside of my comfort zone.

What about 2007? Who knows. I hope to be better organised and manage my time better in 2007 than I did in 2006. I would like to make a bigger effort to look after my friends' interests and be more thoughtful, something I'm slowly managing to achieve but this takes time.
I want to see some of my personal projects completed next year, and hell, I wouldn't mind developing an extra source of income "under the table" -- mainly so I can get traveling again.

Tonight I'm headed to the beach to watch the fireworks burst over the Pacific Ocean. The last time I did this was for 1999/2000.

Happy New Year, everyone.


I'll be watching you closely.