2010

i suppose it is fitting that 2010 ended with a last minute emergency business trip, and a psuedo passport crisis.
my last trip of the year was both last minute and action packed. i had to do a presentation for a client that should have been done last week, but wasnt because the miniscule amount of snow we had in London closed Heathrow and cancelled my flight. but the presentation urgently had to be done before the close of 2010, and so in the last gasp of the year a colleague and i headed off to Berlin to wrap everything up, but as my colleague has small children and was technically on holiday, he wanted to do everything as a day trip, which given BA's reduced (business) flying schedule over the holiday period meant a long day starting at 4 am. it also meant flying back on Sleazy Jet, from Schonefeld airport. Schonefeld seems to exist only to handle low budget flights, and it is a pretty grim place. As unimpressed as i was with it, so it seems Schonefeld's guards were equally unimpressed with me. Unlike some countries, Germany insists you go through passport control as you leave, at least on flights to the UK. I got as far as the passport booth, handed over my document and the guard stared at it for an unusually long period of time before asking me if i had another ID. i didnt. he insisted that i produce an ID card or a drivers license, but Britain doesnt have ID cards and I cant drive, so that didnt work. at this stage the guard announced that the photo in my passport was not me, and went off to fetch another guard. i spent the next while answering questions about the photo, turning my head in different directions, lifting my eyebrows and making other odd facial expressions for two guards who kept looking at me suspiciously.
they finally let me board the plane (which i delayed, to the wrath of 100 people or so) but suggested i apply for a new passport. i showed the picture to my colleague and asked if he thought it looked like me, to which i received an emphatic "no."
my passport was issued in early January of this year. has the year been so tramatic that i have become unrecognizable in 12 months?
so it hasnt been the best year. 2009 ended on a high, i had just finished my Phd, quit the job i hated, and had all sorts of plans for the future. but reality soon caught up with me. broke, i returned to work in the city, albeit for a different company. i started that job in March, and the time since has essentially been one big blur. i have travelled in over 20 countries, many several times, and the months flew by without my feeling even conscious, never mind in control, of my life.
the fact that this week, for the first time, i have been forced to close this blog to public readership, having found myself continually stalked by someone i dont even know, also indicates that this year was one full of trials. i hope that i am still the same person i was in January 2010, and hopefully next year will be better.