I suppose now (now being 7am on Christmas Eve) would be a good time to look back over the past 12 months and look ahead to the looming mass that is 2010.
So – Christmas Eve is upon’t us – and here I am – stone cold awake since 7pm last night – sleeping patterns well and truly fecked.
Looks like the old home remedy of not going to bed at all – then going out on the lash with a few friends until I drink myself back to regular sleeping hours just in time to wake as normal on Christmas Day.
I suppose all this “looking to what the plans are for 2010″ has some input into no-sleep – got some interesting decisions to make over the next few weeks that could have a direct effect on the next four years.
The last 12 months have certainly been interesting – a brief flirtation with life in another country (which will be explained in full a bit later on), a return to some old proving grounds and some mental working situations have combined to make ’09 an unpredictable one.
March saw me move over to Oslo in Norway – mainly to take up the search for a job (prompted by an interesting phone call received in December previous) as well as to enter the Norwegian Refereeing System.
Ended up traveling back and forth between Norway and the UK – culminating in myself returning for the foreseeable due to personal reasons – thankfully all sorted now.
I managed to do the grand total of 7 matches in the various domestic Leagues in Norway. This included a cracking 8th Division match in a place called Holmlia – which ended up with a 5-4 win to the home team. Also ran a line on a Division 4 match in Heming – where a very good friend was in the middle – has to be probably the highlight of the season.
The annual visits to tournaments in Scotland and the Netherlands also were made – the Dutch trip culminating in myself managing to visit 4 separate countries in the space of some 8 hours. Scotland was a mixed bag – on the up side, a Canadian friend and myself indulged in a pub crawl of Glasgow – visiting 80% of the City Centre pubs listed in the 2009 Edition of the Good Beer Guide. On the downside – I managed to fall foul of a bout of food poisoning on the last night of the trip thanks to the awful food they served at the place we were staying.
Salzburg was visited in the summer for the Bohemians – Franchise Salzburg match in the Champions League. Cracking hotel on the northside (naturally) of the city which had a truly 24-hour bar and with a nice backdrop of some massive mountains, some good company and a superb 1-1 result gained. All in all one of the best Bohs trips to Europe I’ve been on.
I will NOT mention the return leg in Dublin – I was there and it ****ing hurt – still does to this day.
If it was July – then it’s the annual event of the Norway Cup. This was my 11th Tournament – and slightly different this year – I wasn’t there in the capacity of a referee – but I was actually working in the Refereeing Administration Department.
The week didn’t get off to a good start – as my transport back into Oslo from Sweden was delayed horrendously – putting me some 3 hours late getting back up to site. This saw me arrive up to the office at 1:30am – when I was due to be on duty some 6 hours later. Enough time to pick up a generously filled kit-bag containing a load of Umbro gear (including a nice new pair of black trainers) – try to get a computer system working and hammering several cups of coffee before collapsing into bed for as much sleep as I could get.
The duration of the tournament saw me getting up at 5am to be into the office by 6am. Then working through on a shift basis until 2am at the earliest before going back to bed until 5am. This was done for the duration of the tournament, which was some 9 days long.
On the upside – the financial remuneration was good, I came away with quite a bit of free gear, and whilst on duty, we had all the free coffee we could drink and all the free hot dogs and other stuff we could eat.
Back to England in mid-August – and a return to College to gain the necessary qualifications to allow me to enter University next year. This should give me an advantage for applying for a job in Norway in future as most positions demand a Degree be held. I’ve applied to various institutions within the local area – just have to see what comes about in the next few months.
The college course I’m on is full of a bunch of decent guys – a pleasure to study with every single one of you – as shown by the end of Semester night out we had in mid-December.
I hit the grand old age of 30 in September – so what better to celebrate than a trip to Dublin and some football. I had a friend travel over with me for his first visit to Dublin – and all in all – we both had a superb time – the Friday night was a decent night watching Bohs play Dundalk followed by a session in the Dalymount bars. Saturday night was a night on the town – ending up with several pints in Bruxelles. A return visit is planned for next year.
As for 2010? Nothing can really be predicted – I’ve applied for several courses at a couple of institutions – however if everything works out to the best case scenario – it could well be one of the best years for ages…
