THE YEAR BEHIND ME...

January
- I spend New Years Eve and day with the Toovey family down the coast, one of my favourite New Years ever.
- Mum and Dad take off on a trip to Vietnam and Thailand
- I lead on a Crusaders camp, and have an accident whilst canoeing, which results in me snapping my already vulnerable anterior cruciate ligament in my right knee (I'd already had it 'repaired' a year or two before!), however I continue walking on it a few days later, unaware of the damage done (silly doctor at Camden Hospital thought nothin was wrong :p).
- I start to become very close to a friend of mine from orchestra, and we connect very well, becoming best friends.
- I'm heart-broken as I discover my ex-girlfriend (from three months prior) has run off with a teacher from her past highschool. I was worried for a while, that it had happened towards the end of our relationship. That's a whole other story, tho :p
- Help my mate through his separation from his wife. That was hard to see.

February
- I start working as a trumpet tutor at Broughton Anglican College, with five trumpet students
- I organise various social activities for any friends of ours who are bored in the holidays. One successful trip to Stanwell Tops to see the sunrise, among others.
- I see a knee specialist in North Sydney, who informs me that I have torn my anterior cruciate ligament, and need a knee reconstruction. Yipee :p
- Carla, Lachy, Megs, Jerry and I head into the city for a day of fun. It was so great :)
- I attend the Young Adults summer retreat, organised by our church. I am blessed.
- I help my dear friend Ann move to her new place in Westmead.
- Planning begins for the fundraising creative arts concert event at church, named 'Tremor'. 2008 would be the 5th year of running.
- I go into St. George Private Hospital, to have surgery done on my neck, to remove a thiroglossal cyst from my neck area. This is the third operation I've had done for the same problem.

March
- Bleeding complications occur, during the time I wake up in Recovery after the neck operation. I am taken back into surgery twice more, to try and stop the bleeding over two attempts. Due to swelling in the neck area, doctors are worried my airways may be blocked. They put me in a drug-induced coma for 5 days, while the swelling in my neck goes down.
- After spending ten long days in hospital, I am discharged. I spend the next weeks recuperating at Mum and Dad's home and at various friends' places.
- After a few weeks of recovery, I return back to the shared house I'm renting in, in Elderslie. I continue teaching trumpet at Broughton, and get back into playing trumpet at Fisher's Ghost Youth Orchestra, as my neck heals more.
- I spend some considerable money, the start of this year, on music technology and recording gear. A new custom-built PC, a new firewire audio interface and new Tascam S8 studio monitors. Booya!!


April
- I move back home with Mum n Dad.
-My friends Daniel and Joanne get married. I play at the wedding. The reception is at an amazing bar and restaurant down in Wollongong near North Beach. Amazing place! Great fun wedding :)
- Our youth orchestra (www.fgyo.com) has their annual orchestra camp, up in nothern Sydney. I grow very close to my best friend, who plays violin in the orchestra. Her parents are less than happy, and tell me to stay away from their daughter. Hmmm....
-Some of the musos at our church have a fundraiser gig, raising money for organisations we support in South Africa. I helped working on a CD we've been producing as a church, with an EP of songs about South Africa and issues they face over there. We perform the songs at the gig.
- We go to Karnivool live. They are AMAZING :)

May
- I enter the final few months of my studies, in the Master of Teaching (Secondary) course. Having already completed a Bachelor of Music, completion of this course will allow me to teach music in a high school.
- Carla, Megs, Lachy and I head to Queensland for three days, and stay at their relatives' place. While we're there, we go to Dreamworld and Movieworld. We had an absolute BALL!! And we didn't kill each other during the two 11-hour car trips :p
- My final Professional Experience prac teaching block begins at Broughton Anglican.
- My housemate has his bucks weekend on a house boat! Great fun :)

June
- My final prac teaching block at Broughton ends! Yay!
- My good friends Tim (housemate) and Jen (almost living there by that point! heh heh :p) get married! I play at their wedding with a good friend of mine.
- Our church and a cooperating church nearby put on a Youth Outreach event, named 'Ignite', a live concert with a christian message. Leading up to the event, we took different bands from our churches, to different local high schools, to reach out to them and promote the event on the following weekend. On the night of the event, the place was packed with 700-800 young people! Praise God! Many people heard the Good News that night :)
- The youth orchestra has a concert at Elizabeth Macarthur High School hall. The theme is different works from favourite musicals.
- I go into Castlecrag Private Hospital, and have a knee reconstruction. I spend the following few weeks on crutches.

July
- My good mate Warren has his bucks weekend down the coast, including a whole morning of deep sea fishing. It was awesome! And I just happened to catch one of the biggest fishes of the weekend, on my first official fishing experience ;)
- My close mate Lachy leaves for Vienna, to perform as part of classical music festival over there. He's an amazing pianist. We missed him :(

August
- I get off my crutches and begin walking again.
- Lachy has his 19th birthday and farewell party, as he prepares to leave for New York, to study piano over there.
- My good friends Warren and Sharelle get married. I'm a groomsmen, and have a lot of fun doing it!
- Lachlan has his final fundraising concert before leaving for New York.
- I graduate from university!

September
- I start work as a casual teacher, in some of the local high schools.
- I do a two week block of teaching at Wollondilly Anglican College, teaching all kinds of classes there.

October
- I tell myself I'll get serious about losing weight, and start eating better and exercising every night or morning. I put on and off one or two kilos, nothing drastic.
- My friend Jono enters one of his musical compositions into a local eisteddfod. After a few rehearsals, we perform the piece at the eisteddfod, and Jono wins the category he enters in!
- My birthday 'occurs' on the 12th. I am overcome with frustration and annoyance, and try to avoid my birthday from occurring at all. The night before, I impulsively and stupidly travel into the city, in an attempt to escape people's 'well-wishing' and sentiments. Silly, silly boy :p

November
- I begin a two week block of teaching at Quakers Hill High. Somewhat enjoyable, it is a rough school with some good kids here and there.
- My good mate Rob and I plan to go on a week-long holiday to Queensland, at the end of school term!
- I continue casual teaching at local high schools, but not getting as much work as I would like.
- I move back out of home, to a townhouse in Campbelltown. I move in with my friend Dave from church, and a new friend from Campbelltown, named Jono.
- I get used to paying bills again :p I start realising how little money I will have left for the holidays, after all of this...

December
- We settle into the brand new townhouse, and organise everything. We have a couple of regular visitors, including my sister Row, Matt and Tom, and my dear friend Megs and Carla.
- I do a couple of days' work for my mates Will n Dennis, for their IT business, maintaining and cleaning, a bit of construction too.
- I take off to Queensland with Rob! We BLITZ the theme parks, and go on all the cool rides at ALL of them! We hire an old convertible Ford Capri, and have a ball, tearing it up around the Gold Coast!
- I spend Christmas with Mum and Dad and extended family in Sydney. I love my family :) They're awesome.
- I spend New Years Eve, with my good friends, the Glens :) Carla and I have a good contemplative reflection on 2008, and we quietly welcome the New Year.

.... And now it's January, as I continue to battle the fight of finances, through this holiday season.
The pressure is off a little more this week, as I am housesitting Mum and Dad's place, so I can eat for free! Yay :p

Anyway, I think it's intriguing that through all that happened in the last year, it's unfortunately usually the negative stuff that sticks out the most. How sad!
And I mean, there are many more negative personal experiences not included in there, in order to protect certain people's identities. Loss of friends, heartbreak, forbidden love, disappointment, unfulfilled promises, fights and disagreements, etc.

But I'm going to try to make this year different from the last. Please help and encourage me to do that, as I do the same for all of you :)

Love you all very much :)