What a fantastic year 2008 was! Keeping up with the tradition started by Bender, here’s a look back on the year that was.

Life

Life seems to get busier by the day. Here’s the big ticket items from 2008:

• We farewelled our good friends Ben and Michelle as they travelled their way back home to Australia in February.
• Stacey and Wes got engaged! And then moved to Aberdeen, harsh!
• Lisa popped over from New York for a few days in April, and kept us laughing the whole time she was here.
• In August, we moved out of our Chiswick flat, and joined up with Julian and Shelley to become Team Barbeque Chicken of Putney.
• My brother popped the question to his beautiful girlfriend Susan, and now they too are engaged!
• Jason and Louise visited again! Their friend Craig came along as well, and we took a day trip out to Windsor Castle.
• I joined the 30 club, and we celebrated with a day at the pub.

Travel

We can never get enough travel! Looks like we did a pretty good job of spreading things out over the year though, with a few local trips and lots of international ones too:

• In January, I took a three day boys weekend to Malta with Ben and John.
• We had a few days in New York at the start of our Easter vacation. It was good to be back on the old stomping ground!
• We recovered from New York in Florida: our home away from home.
• Costa Rica with the Cookes! We saw the volcano in Arenal, went zip lining in Monte Verde, and learned to surf in Playa Grande.
• We went to Amsterdam in April to celebrate Aubain and Ingrid’s wedding.
• Kristy and I enjoyed a long weekend in Paris in May.
• In June, we had a weekend in the Cotswolds, and a day trip to Brighton with Julian and Shelley.
• Matt drove us to Seven Sisters in July. Our intention was to go camping, but we ended up coming back home instead.
• We flew up to Scotland to surprise Stacey for her birthday, and we climbed Ben Nevis while we were there.
• We spent three hot summer days in Rome.
• Todd and Shannon, Julian and Shelley, and the two of us spent a glorious week sailing around Croatia.
• I joined the lads from work for Oktoberfest (in Munich, Germany), which I really want to go to again this year!
• Kristy and I had two lovely days in Bath before my 30th Birthday
• We spent a weekend in Wales with a group of Todd and Shannon’s friends, as a surprise for Todd’s 30th birthday.
• Christmas was in Eschborn, Germany, with the entire clan of Zeebs.

Music

Lots of concerts in 2008!

• Kicking the year off right with two concerts in one week in February! Linkin Park and Paramore played at O2 and Brixton, respectively.
• I saw Coheed and Cambria play at Brixton touring off the No World for Tomorrow album.
• Jimmy Eat World also played at Brixton in February.
• KT Tunstall hit up the Hammersmith Apollo in April.
• Nick and I saw The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus play up at Angel in May.
• We saw The Goo Goo Dolls, Powderfinger, Ben Harper, and The Counting Crows at the O2 wireless festival.
• I saw Coheed and Cambria play their Neverender tour in the first week of December – four glorious times in one glorious week!

Miscellaneous

• We hosted two raging parties at our Chiswick house; one for New Year’s, and one for Australia Day.
• Kristy got to drive a bendy bus
• We volunteered to be test dummies for Terminal 5 (which seemingly didn’t help them all that much!)
• I got to play soccer at the Chelsea football stadium, and decided that soccer really isn’t my thing
• I participated in my first ever outdoor running event

Yep, it really was a fantastic year. Here’s to an even better 2009!