Robyn Gallagher

I was going to go a year-in-review post, but I couldn’t remember what I’d done all year. So I consulted Twitter and then I realised: Twitter ate my 2008.

I joined Twitter in 2007, but it wasn’t until 2008 that I started tweeting a lot. Now it’s just one of those things I do that’s both part of my internet life and part of my life-life. But it’s given me fewer reasons to write stuff here. Why bang out 500 words when 140 characters will do?

I’m sure I’ll soon get some blog-Twitter interaction, but until then, I’ve picked out 12 tweets to use as a starting point to look back at 2008, accompanied by some photos which may or may not related to the words.

OMG! Simon Le Bones has run away!
1:37 PM Jan 18th, 2008

I’d just arrived at the Big Day Out, when I realised that my boyfriend Simon Le Bones, the slender gentleman, had left me. As a result, BDO was kind of bittersweet and I didn’t have a great time. Maybe I’m getting too old for it (even though there’s no such thing as being too old for BDO). The last I heard, Simon had crossed the Ditch and is now working as a roadie for John Farnham.

I resigned! A new job in a new city awaits.
11:41 AM Mar 13th, 2008

Last year, when I went to Wellington for the 2007 Wellingtonista Awards, I decided that Wellington was quite a cool place and I’d quite like to live there. I was surprised at how easy it all was. Not only did I get a job in Wellington, but it was also a really enjoyable one.

I thought I saw Santa walking down K Road, but it turned out to be a guy wearing a baggy red tracksuit and holding up his glue bag.
2:06 PM Mar 17th, 2008

This really is one of the highlights of ’08 for me. People who accidentally dress like Santa Claus are funny enough as it is, but the beard being a glue bag is a bonus. The only way this could be funnier is if a small child thought it was Santa. Also, solvent abuse is not funny.

It was a surprising relief to throw out the horrible old wine glasses I never used.
10:21 AM Apr 10th

I had been living in my Mt Eden flat for over six years (I know, how did that happen?), and had a bit of kipple to sort through. The wine glasses had come free from Levene’s when my parents bought me a dinner set when I first moved to Auckland back in ’97. I never used the wine glasses (I drink straight out of the cask) and they’d got a greasy film of Mt Eden Roadness on them. So rather than lug them with me to Wellington, I threw them out. Liberation!

I love this sort of cold weather, even in the morning. Also, I am grappling with the trains.
9:02 AM May 5th, 2008

I moaned a bit about the weather in Auckland. Summers were always a bit too much for me. In fact, I hardly ever went out just because the heat was so unpleasant. So when I moved to Wellington, I was utterly delighted to discover how bloody freezing it was. For the first time in my life, I needed a winter coat. It was lovely!

Watching films, again. Debating merits. Quacking.
7:15 PM Jun 1st, 2008

I was a volunteer and one of the judges in the Wellington 48Hours film competition. As well as lending a hand on filming weekend, I also sat through all the heats. It was hard work (and I went about five days without washing my hair, eeeeee!) but hugely enjoyable. The final judging session was more hard work/fun times. The quacking is a secret part of the judging system.

I just met Betty-Ann Monga and I was all “I was a huge Ardijah fan when I was 12!!!!!!!111tahi”
12:16 PM Jul 25th, 2008

As part of my job in the exciting, fast-paced world of television, occasionally I meet famous (and famous-ish) people. Initially I was all “Waagh! You’re famous!”, but I quickly got over that. But it’s the people that I genuinely admire that make me go back into that mental fangirl state.

I just checked my email on my phone. I can see this will be nothing but trouble… in the best way.
8:59 AM Aug 14th, 2008

I got a fancy new phone with internet access and now I can’t work out how I lived without it. It’s not this all-consuming, life-sucking thing; it just adds little bonuses to everyday life.

J’ai un mini big-bang dans mon pantalon.
1:36 PM Sep 11th, 2008

I went to New Caledonia. I love it so much. If I could speak French, I’d seriously consider living there. At the time, there were a lot of news reports of the large hadron collidor, and what the French new reporters called “le mini Big Bang” (pronounced “meenee beeg bohng”) So I started composing a French rap, but I ran out of vocab.

I have labyrinthitis, which is worse than The Man Who Fell To Earthitis, but much better than Absolute Beginnersitis.
2:12 PM Oct 21st, 2008

I woke up one morning and everything was spinning but also not. It was labyrinthitis, inflammation of the inner ear. It more or less went away after a couple of weeks, but having it was the strangest experience ever. Talking to other people who’ve had it, the funniest thing is when you first get it and you’re trying to figure out what it is. I thought I was anaemic, but a co-worker said the only logical explanation she had was that one of her flatmates had slipped her some LSD.

Posing with cardboard Obama, as are many people here.
5:44 PM Nov 5th, 2008

So 2008 was one of those special years where lots of stuff happens on a world scale. That nice Mr Obama is present-elect, but all that credit crunch stuff happened. 2009 is going to be even crunchier.

The Kanye concert was like making out with a hot guy, only for him to burst into tears mid-snog.
8:36 AM Dec 3rd, 2008

I got free tickets to the Kanye West concert. It was a bit emo. He didn’t interact with the audience at all, be played the hits, but he had a few songs where he went off on a half spoken, half rapped rant about how everyone else sucks and maybe he’ll never make another rap album ever again, blah blah blah. Man, I was only there because I saw those renders of his apartment and thought he was cool…

And in conclusion:

I ain’t got no style, I ain’t got no class. I blog about my bus pass.
8:38 AM Jul 30th, 2008