Here's mine...

1. Managing to ignore the crowds and have a profoundly spiritual experience at the Anish Kapoor exhibition at the Royal Academy.

2. Being deeply moved by the painted wooden sculptures made in Spain in the 17th Century at the exhibition The Sacred Made Real at the National Gallery.

3. Watching the series Civilisation and The Ascent of Man. They are both masterpieces.

4. Becoming good friends with my Italian teacher and having some wonderful conversations that usually start with us complaining about how awful the coffee served in England is!

5. Reading some wonderful books including Francis Wheen's Strange Days Indeed, David Kynaston's Austerity Britain and Harold Evans' My Paper Chase: True Stories of Vanished Times.

6. Having my dear friend Paola from Italy staying with me for a week in the summer. I'm so happy when I see her.

1)Is the Jamie Oliver restaurant worth going, i'm presuming it's his latest Italian venture you went to?
2)You mention stopping the gaspers for 6 months, are you still free, or did you cave into the craving?

Personally my highlight was passing my Driving test, something i never thought i'd achieve, also a few others;

- Latitude festival.
- Couple of lovely holidays in the med.
- Still in gainful employment
- Plenty of great new music

I travel a fair amount for my work and I try to catch some live music while I am on the road. This year I dipped into the Festival of Latin music at the Green Note in Camden Town, saw two of our guitar greats duetting at the Albert Hall and played some impromptu funk with a bunch of fellow ‘Dads’ on an island off the coast of Auckland, New Zealand.

Here are some of the highlights of my musical year:

1) John McLaughlin and Chick Corea’s Five Peace Band in Auckland (a feast of fusion)
2) Tower of Power at the Blue Note, Tokyo (still funktified)
3) Jeff Beck and David Gilmour play 'Hi Ho Silver Lining' (and Jeff sings) at the Royal Albert Hall
4) Eddi Reader is the standout performance at the Cornbury Festival (wot, not the Love Trousers?)
5) Kevin Eubanks at the Blue Note, New York City (he was so good I went back the following night)
6) Robben Ford at BB King’s, NYC (playing a ’57 Les Paul beautifully, just a few days after the death of the man himself)
7) Dream Theater at the Civic in Auckland (heavy prog)

You can check out all of these gigs for yourself as I have posted clips on youtube (just search nickduvet). Here's Eddi Reader at Cornbury:

Cheers, Happy New Year

Highs

Travelling to USA twice, once to Bonnaroo Festival where I met Elvis Perkins, the other time a weekend in NYC where I saw Steve Miller trying out a guitar in a shop in Manhattan.

Chris Difford about 6 times!

New flat in Camden.

Only one real low but the death of my mother overshadowed all the above, God bless Ma!

New Year's Day - pregnant partner in hospital with infection - out the Mid Jan - Ofsted inspect my department - stressful but good/outstanding report
Day after Osted guy leaves partner's waters break
First - born (Victor) makes appearance, Jan 19th - 7 weeks early
4 weeks later get to bring him home
rest of the year - bit of a blur really - got married, bought a house,had root canal for Christmas.
Culture?
Does Igglepiggle count?

Mine are fairly mundane

1. Driving from Newcastle to Berkshire in a little Peugeot 106 with a knacked driveshaft without shitting myself.
2. Soon after, purchasing the first brand new car I've ever bought trading in said 106 (worth approx £4.50) for two grand thanks to the scrappage deal.
3. That new car smell! It's gone now of course.
4. Having a thread of mine discussed on the 100th podcast. My name was read out in the confines of Abbey Road studios. That meant a lot to me, it being the closest I'll get to the place.
5. My little daughter had her long toddler hair cut off and shaped into a big girl bob. She's growing up and she's beautiful.
6. Being told by someone I work with they think I'm good at what I do. Hasn't happened in years! Such a fillip.
7. My wife and I deciding to move back to Northumberland at some sensible point soon.

Plus, all the good books and good music absorbed. A good proportion of which were prompted by this site. Good.

The Damned at Cornbury
Getting a new Imac
Brook Benton's greatest hits for 50p at a car boot sale (then playing it on the Interstate heading to Madison City, Georgia)
Madison City, Georgia, O'Hara's Bar, Main Street getting drunk with the barmaid, Terri on Terrapin Rye Pale Ale.
A nice treble at The Cheltenham Gold Cup. £500 in the back pocket courtesy of Fearless Freddie.
A plate of oysters and a decent house white in a seafood restaurant in Montpellier South of France in the scorching sun! (getting there and back for £1 each way and not giving Mr Ryan another penny.)
A week off work in February because of the snow and spending most of it watching The Wire.
Getting a ticket for Glastonbury for the first time.

are a bit of a mix.

1. Our daughters haemangioma (on the inside of her eye) has almost shrunk to nothing thanks to the good people at GOSH. Her eyesite seems largely unaffected and this is the single best thing this year. Her twin brother remains in rude health.

2. Leeds appear to have turned a corner. I took my 11 year old son to Elland Road twice this season and he seems to have bitten the bug. Good lad.

3. Managed to get the U10's football team I manage to U11 and 11 a side football successfully. Now to start winning more games.

4. Saw Sigur Ros with my wife. Social life is returning (slowly) after the birth of the twins. More gigs next year.

5. This website. Fray Bentos pies, Mr Crowther's musical partnerships and Chris G's topp tips for my day out in London being great examples of why this place is a good place. Hats off to Mr Lewry as well for being polite and appropriate. Always.

6. Albums by Mumford & Sons, Phoenix, Madness and The Duckworth Lewis Method. The ever reliable Christopher Brookmyre, Up (Pixar are perfect) and discovering Outnumbered.

1 - Creep, fawn, etc but when I won the Word competition to meet Tinariwen and watch their Roundhouse gig from the side of the stage. I have to say, that was an absolute musical highlight: they're one of my favourite bands, and I'd never watched anyone from that privileged vantage point before. And because it all happened so fast - win one day, gig the next - the whole experience had that 'can't quite believe this is happening' feeling throughout.
2 - Trio Mediaeval (female choral group) at the Wigmore Hall.
3 - Straight in at no.48 in one of Amateur Photographer's monthly competitions!
4 - Mrs Specs_Beard and I enjoying our anniversary meal at the J Sheekey Oyster Bar: one of the most amazing fish restaurants I've ever been to, at a relatively affordable price (the Bar is like the main restaurant, but cheaper and you can get in).
5 - Taking photos of a friend to give to her mother for her birthday, and the pictures being a success! Yay, etc.
6 - Ultravox reunion gig. Wasn't dancing, but almost had tears in my eyes.
7 - Handsome Family at the Bush Hall. Amazing gig. Rennie signing my Songbook.
8 - The retrospective of Jane Bown's portrait
photography, 'Exposures', at King's Place.
9 - Holiday in Northumberland, possibly the place where I relax the most, even managing (much to Mrs Specs_Beard's 'delight') to take in some of the Gateshead Jazz Festival (ECM double bill, so not too scary).
10 - Clutch at Koko.

after an appalling 2008.
Holiday in Newquay in a tent taking my boys to a new skatepark every day.
Taking the wife to see Take That at Wembley
Kasabian at Wembley Arena
A peaceful, happy, fight free Christmas
Discovering The Word Blog

Probably the finest was taking the plunge and joining this board. More happy hours than I care to mention shooting the breeze with everyone.

Buying a notebook and going wireless at home and work.

Buying a Sonos, ditching the CD collection, knocking down a wall and reconfigureing the living spaces of my home.

Buying a "Nifty Fifty" lens and seeing just what it can do to my hamfisted photographic efforts.

Making a few very satisfying changes at work. Not worth recounting to others but, in their small way, highly significant to me.

Having one of my posts read out on the Christmas Podcast. It was about sprouts and bogies. ***proud***

This is the kind of thread I like:

1. My son was born in June, my first child, he brings delight to his daddy every single day (ok, the vomiting period and the sleepless nights were tough, but seeing him change every day is fantastic)

2. Celebrated my first wedding anniversary to the most wonderful woman in the world

3. I finished my 2nd marathon, and beat my personal best.

4. Decided on a big move that will happen in Jan 2010.

5. Had a great weekend in San Diego.

6. Discovered bacon flavoured chocolate. Trust me its good
http://www.vosgeschocolate.com/category/bacon_candy_bars

7. Discovered my new favourite wine - Albarino

8. Continued to discover the delights of The Office (US)

Overall, 2009 has been a shit year - possibly the worst ever. But in amongst the bad (redundancy, family illness, pet death) there have still been many highlights:

1. Attending my older son's graduation ceremony in Portsmouth

2. Wembley twice - the joy at the semi when Phil Jagielka's penalty went in at the end of the shootout

3. Glastonbury - with my younger son and his mates for the second year

4. Having one of my blog posts referred to as 'genius' by Andrew Collins on the podcast(!)

5. Discovering the joy of blogging during my time of enforced leisure

6. Latitude with a mate who'd been made redundant that week - plenty of time for us to put the world to rights

7. A reconciliation (of sorts) with my first wife, after ten years of bitterness and ill-feeling

8. But mostly - seeing my younger son awake and talking after eight hours of surgery to remove Bad Things from his neck.

And there's the message - however bad things get, there will still be enough Good Stuff to make this long strange trip worthwhile.

Musically the year was dominated by The Soundtrack of Our Lives.
Little Steven introducing The Soundtrack of Our Lives at one of their New York shows - a true legend for being Silvio in the Sopranos and his superb Underground Garage radio show and label.
Soundtrack playing in the grounds of a ruined castle Kungälv Bohus Fästning just outside Gothenburg - a wonderful setting for a gig.
And finally the band getting back to the UK for two amazing shows at Bush Hall and the Scala - I was hoping 2009 would be the year that everyone discovered (or re-discovered at least) this amazing band!

Otherwise, as mentioned on previous threads 2009, has been pretty bad for me musically but I saw Sparks again which is always a huge highlight of any year. Other good gigs included Seasick Steve and the wonderful return of That Petrol Emotion. Best named band of the year was Ogre You Asshole, saw them at the Club Quattro in Tokyo - pretty good band too.

Got a new car so I can finally get rid of all my old cassettes as the old one contained the last remaining cassette player in my life.
The new one was sold as soon as the guy said "you can plug your iPod straight in here..." I didn't give a monkeys about anything else after that.

Had probably the best Xmas of my adult years starting off with a very seasonal tour round Belgium, Holland and Germany (where I discovered the delights of Kölsch beer in Cologne). The Xmas markets and atmosphere along with gallons of mulled wine were a delight.

Low points were mainly the fall from grace of Reading FC - I think we are finally finding our true level after the brief brush with Premier League fame but it appears we will be doing a "Leeds".

Of course another highlight is the Word Blog and it's various related off-shots such as a magazine and podcast.

An early Happy New Year to everyone! I hope 2010 brings us all some better music.

Having had more than my fair share of stinking years over the past decade, (long story but I've been rather unlucky) I'm thrilled to have had a really lovely 2009.

I've been on maternity leave for most of it, enjoying my time with my charming younger bubsy. Elder daughter continues to be delightful and endearingly spirited.

Actually, I enjoyed my maternity leave so much I've quit my old job after 12 years. Had wonderful send-off from old job, very touching.
Started new job teaching music classes to little kids. Adore it. Hoping to start teaching piano in the new year too.

Finally moved house. Getting there was entirely stressful but now we've moved, it's just glorious and worth every bit of hassle.

Got new car. Vroooooooooom. I can plug my ipod into it. HURRAH.

And I've lost over two and a half stone this year (through the obvious stuff, eating less, exercising more) so feel rather proud of myself.

Overall, feel just happy and lucky to have gorgeous kids, splendid husband, and a lovely life.

Sorry, this is an entirely self-obsessed post, probably of very limited interest to anyone else. But the question was asked, and that's my 2009. Here's to 2010...

Oh, let's see:

The Wire on BBC - ok, you all know the hype, but watching it unfold was mesmerising and fully lived up to the hype. Miss it badly now.

Two great gigs right at the tail end of the year: Pet Shop Boys showing how to do visual stage shows, wonderful, colourful, ecstatic stuff; and the return of John Lydon - PiL were simply awesome, John in his element, taking the music seriously, giving it some real vocal power, confrontationial, committed, cathartic. Great to have him back.

Anthony and the Johnsons - maybe not for everyone, but Scott Walker fans will love him

Anish Kapoor - fully agree was fantastic, beautiful, funny, moving, inspirational

Sleep Furiously, Let The Right One In, and Fishtank - all tremendous films

David Byrne at the Barbican - musical calisthetnics

Ornette Coleman's Meltdown - 80 odd year's old, and still searching for new ways of playing

The highlight was finding out that Mrs blindstagger pregnant. She's not due till July, and our first scan is next week, but I can hardly contain my excitment at times.

Going from thinking about buying a house to definitely buying a house to deciding to build instead to finding a plot of land, picking a design, making some changes to it, arranging the mortgage to becoming landowners in the space of 8 weeks.

Seeing the house take shape, from the slab going down, then the walls going up, the roof going on, and the insides starting to go in.

Getting a Macbook... how I spent so long without the wonders of a multi-touch trackpad I'll never know.

Realising that cricket might not be as bad as I thought if it can inspire the Duckworth Lewis Method (although I'm still refusing to watch the bloody game).

Watching all five seasons of The Wire in the space of nine days. Some phenomenal TV in there.

Getting a promotion at work. Been working my arse off since, but hopefully it's all going in the right direction.

with the blog but hey ho. Have I entered the twighlight zone? My 2009 was mixed:-

Highlights were a family holiday in Japan - wonderful people, wonderful country with the word Quirky perfectly describing it. Fantastic steak at the Grill Miyaki in Kyoto with a little Japanese man resembling Fu Manchu telling us in very good English at the start of the meal that his Beef was the best in Kyoto. After a couple of glasses of his Sake it was the best beef in Japan and after another couple of glasses it was the best in the World. The reason apparently is that his Cows were fed on alcohol and listened to Mozart all day!! I kid you not.

First visit to Northumberland. Utterly sublime and will not be last visit.

Teitur at Summer Sundae festival.

Chris Difford at a Cafe in Birmingham. His slide projector broke during 'Tempted' and the audience expertly sang the rest of the song while he fixed the problem.

Resurgent Birmingham City - clever manager with a lot of dignity - something rare in the profession.

Taking my daughter to London for visit to Ripleys.As much as she enjoyed this she loved Portobello road - at 10 years old she is becoming something of a fashionista and it was the perfect place for her to find her feet and shop for bargains. Watch out mum.

Finally, the year ended on a bum note as my dear father in law passed away 2 days before xmas. He was a lovely kind and caring man and a proud Scot. We will miss you George, hope you have the peace now that you so richly deserve.

(in no particular order)

1.Getting children's health sorted out and both being happy at school (not a moment I know but who can enjoy the little things when the big things are stressful).

2. Surviving the housing market and moving - finally from a two up two down perfect for two to a family house for four. With a garden!

3. Growing runner beans - turning into my dad...

4. Doves and Flaming Lips at old and new Brum Academies.

5. Moseley Folk Festival in the sun - and blesss the lovely lady on the door who believed us when I'd managed to lose our tickets between the car and the entrance...

6. Re-connecting with my aunt and uncle.

7. Spotify.

8. The Ashes, and just this morning hearing England wrap up in S Africa was pretty good.

9. Starting an MA

10. Getting a blog entry into the magazine proper.

After the first one, they’re in no particular order…

Watching my daughter go from 4 to 16 months old. So much change, but it’s amazing to me how much talk she now has and how funny she is, e.g. walking around this morning holding my camera up to her face and repeatedly saying “cheese!” Where did she learn that?

Holidays in Spain and Ireland

Winning tickets to Glastonbury via Adam & Joe, A&J reading my thank you mail and laughing at/with it, going to Glastonbury, being at Glastonbury, talking about Glastonbury to anyone who’ll listen… wondering why I’d never been before, registering for 2010…

After years of slog, becoming a hospital consultant – no more in-house nightshifts, get most of my weekends back…

Finding out baby number 2 was on the way on the same day as my graduation ceremony

Getting the new iPhone after 6 months in the wilderness after the theft of iPhone #1

Spotify

Twitter

The Wire series 3 & 4 (5 is a bit rubbish, isn’t it?)

The Duckworth Lewis Method

The wife asking me about my Christmas present: did I want the mono or stereo one?

Staying in good health (I`ve got MS), your health really is the most important thing in life.
A new baby boy (first for 24 years) in the family.
Being unaffected (directly) by the recession, phew.
Watching `The Wire` from start to finish. All good.
Going to York for the first time on a short break. St. Andrews was nice as well though.
Trying monkfish for the first time, beautiful.
Reading `The Amateurs` by John Niven.
Resuming going to college after 25 years. 5 year plan to gain some decent qualifications now underway.
Losing a stone in 3 months. Another stone off and I`ll be happy.
Spotify. It is rather good isn`t it.

Nothing really happened which reading the stories above is a good thing ...

1) News that I will be a father again, no 2 in April, this time a boy
2) Seeing child 1 grow up so much, bilingual and not even 4
3) The Ashes, though not as exciting as 2005
4) Musically, The Unthanks, Duckworth Lewis and Madness but so many good recommendations and threads from this site to keep me entertained and in touch with the UK (even if I can't get Spotify).
5) Cruising on the Med, never realised how child friendly and fun it could be if you are under 40.
6) Getting a word subscription for Xmas (though would have bought it myself otherwise)

heres a few of my highlights of 2009:

1. meetimg the legendary and thoroughly nice Kevin Cummins at saltaire in bradford at his photo exhibition, signed book and handshake from the man who got me into photography.

2. getting drunk the first night in Las Vegas, winning $800 somehow on a slot machine and then meeting elvis on the strip singing guitar man... only in vegas!

3. being adopted by a stray 4 month boy kitten that had been dumped on my street and discovering a great little bundle of fun who i called Elvis and has made me discover a soft side to appreciative rescued animals i thought i never had... aaaw!

4. old friends doing the move of their dreams to Holy Island and us looking forward to staying there in the new year!

5. discovering the delights of making you own curries from scratch - man its akbars delight in my house now!

6. working my ass off to finally get debt free this year, after 10 years of stupid monetary mistakes... i owe no-one nothing now and it feels very cool!

7. finally getting to see radiohead live at leeds festival, another band ticked off the list... then larging it to orbital at leeds academy and reliving the early 90's life again for two hours... quality!

8. finally getting a dishwasher! sad i know but it takes the stess out of whos turn is it to wash up nonsense that was prevailing in our house!

9. having a colonscopy and watching a trip through my entire bowels on miniature camera tv in hospital - talk about gripping TV, i just wished they could have given me a recording of it... oh and getting the all clear as a result of said proceedure, although my newly diagnosed irritable bowel syndrome has been painfull sometimes!

10. finding out that my family tree was a lot bigger than any of us imagined, and being able to visit the house where my grandmother and great grandfather lived in the late 1800's - especially for my dad who loved every bit of the trip and discovered he had uncles, aunts and cousins he never knew he had - all very 'who do you think you are'!

Having said that:

1. Being asked (along with Mrs Phil) by long distance friends to be Godparents to their daughter certainly moistened my tear ducts

2. Completing the fourth year of my OU degree with higher marks than I could ever have hoped when I started

3. A clear diagnosis and getting my driving licence back after a 12 month medical lay-off were a great relief

4. Elbow at the V Festival - rubbish festival but the Oasis no-show gave Guy Garvey et al the prime sunset spot and boy did they rise to it - marvellous!

5. The Decemberists at the Forum in November - I don't think I breathed for the duration of Hazards of Love

6. Getting a text message halfway through Starsailor that a colleague who had been knocked over on a pedestrian crossing earlier that day was seriously hurt but conscious and likely to survive (he did)

7. Staying employed albeit with reduced hours and remuneration