Good old 2009!

It's 2010!! Shockingly, 2009 was not awful. I feel compelled to write a tribute to it as I feel that it was an improvement on 2008, in which, to be fair, bugger all happened - well, not to me anyway, so when it came to reviewing the year, there didn't seem to be much point.
2009, on the other hand, stuff happened! Not all good stuff, but stuff nonetheless and it is certainly true to say that we made it through to this end of the year in a better state than we started it. We started with a lot of problems, mostly financial ones related to the awful "building" we were renting. After eventually securing a bank loan and thinking that things would get better, they got worse when the sewer backed up in the shop and the landlord refused to help us get it sorted out. Needless to say, that was the last straw for us and we got out as quickly as we could. Not as quickly as we would have liked.

It took us a month to get moved out into a new flat and nearly another 2 before we could actually get the business moved, which, thanks to our kindly shareholders, we managed to do successfully at the end of April. Unfortunately, this move also heralded the death of my lovely cat Bran who was run over outside the new shop on 28th April. He was nearly 11 years old and I still miss him very much.

The business move went really smoothly and all of our customers seemed to find us with very few difficulties. The tattooing side of the business has gone from strength to strength, whilst the piercing side has struggled due to freebies going on up the road. We have also struggled financially due to the teaching agency not giving me the work they promised me.

Anyway, in June/July I became team leader for AQA and marked 1000 exam papers. This was more fun than it sounds and I am looking forward to possibly marking another paper this summer.

August saw Flint's 41st birthday and as he had failed to celebrate his 40th properly we managed to have a brilliant night out at the Wookey Hole Inn courtesy of the landlord Craig who is one of our customers and gave us a free room for the night!! We all had a lovely meal and a great time was had by all. Magda also turned 16.

In September, I went on a piercing course in Cheltenham, which gave me the opportunity to stay with Matt and Helen and catch up with them as well as the obvious new skills which I learned. Now being able to do microdermals and skin divers, which is great and a lot of fun too!

Magda pulled a blinder in October by stopping a bike with her face and spending rather a lot of time in A&E until they decided that she had no broken bones or concussion and sent her home.
I decided to separate my body piercing business from the tattooing business and Avalon Body Piercing was born on 1st Oct.
I was also involved with Glastonbury Town Players and the Victorian Music Hall production.. This was massively enjoyable and I got to sing two songs on stage - "Don't Dilly Dally" and "Tarara- Boom-De-Ay", which involved much knicker showing, as well as singing a verse of "Oompahpah". I was told that I was the best thing in the show, but this was somewhat dampened by the fact that I apparently made a good Victorian tart...

November, Tabitha's 13th birthday - where does the time go? Also the month we applied for housing benefit. Actually the first time I ever have! It's amazing we managed without it for so long really, but they have said that they will start paying us in Jan. Until receiving this confirmation though I seemed to spend every bloody week up at the library office and getting increasingly stressed that we would be evicted.

December brought the usual "fun" and "frolics", but with the addition of a "forum meal" in the G&P where I met Tom and Dave who post on the IYCSTH forum and did previously on the now defunct "ThisIs" forum. It was great to meet them and then I went to Vicki's Hollywood party which was also a lot of fun.
And then there was Christmas and New Year at the rooms for one of Carl's dress up nights, with a sci fi theme and much fun was had by all.

So now - 2010. I reckon it will be good. I have registered with a new agency and Flint and I will have been together 4 years on 13th Jan! My hormones have gone a bit mental, but hopefully that is good or indifferent news. Am also starting my body piercing training courses which I expect to do really well.
On the whole though, life's not so bad, We have a warm, dry place to live and a business which is on the up, 4 remaining cats and 2 daughters. I reckon that is a pretty good start.