2010 or two-thousand-and-ten or twenty-ten was a year. Here are some things I did in that year.

In January I paid a visit to sunny Gisborne, exploring both the town and larger region. Gisborne feels like a cross between small New Zealand town and a tropical South Seas port town. It manages to be both glam and dinky, along with a fistful of magnificent scenery.

Learning from last year’s awful Sevens weekend experience, I had planning in advance, escaping to Christchurch for the weekend. This led some to believe that I had a SECRET BOYFRIEND in Christchurch (because why would anyone willingly go there otherwise?)

In March I saw the Cribs play, along with their new guitarist who used to be in that band that is quite good. Despite the audience being filled with iPhone-toting dads who were intent on capturing a blurry, grainy photo of their rock hero, the Jarman brothers and Mr Marr put on a good serious show.

Again this year I was involved with the 48HOURS film competition. It’s always thrilling to see the fresh teams disappear off into the Newtown night, only to reappear two days later in a state of weary, sleep-deprivation, but clutching their disks of cinematic gold, or part thereof.

As a judge I went to all the heats, and sat through several rool out-of-it-as films, like the Dirty Bird film and that one about the pole-dancing Olympic committee. And then there was Simon Peter’s film The Legend of Simon Pederson (NSFW. There’s a hilltop penis in it.)

My absolute fave film was the runner-up, The Wake Up. It’s a lovely romantic comedy, but also manages to be really stylish and with a great soundtrack and cool urban vibe. Yeah.

I accidentally appeared in the Dominion Post as a local woman who doesn’t want public transport costs to increase. This experience made me realise that lots of people still read the paper in its printed form, and that also people get really excited when they see someone they know in the paper. Best thing about it though, I ended up with a really moody urban portrait from it.

I needed a winter project and I found one – I watched every Madonna video and wrote about them on my Tumblr blog. Despite Madonna’s reputation as a constant reinventor of personal style, I discovered that she actually sticks with a number of styles that she knows works on her, just updating them for whatever’s in fashion. It’s always corsets, power suits and 1940s floral dresses.

In August, bleak midwinter, I jumped on the Cook Strait ferry and sailed over to the South Island. I discovered that the Interislander is like a floating bus depot, and that people who take the ferry are rather unlike people who fly.

From Picton, I took the TranzCoastal train down to Christchurch and – it turned out – I was lucky to be able to explore the city a month before the September earthquake that smashed my SECRET BOYFRIEND up a bit.

I contributed to Heyday’s Down To The Wire project, a brilliant website that looks at New Zealand’s web history. I pop up in 1996 and 1997 talking about the olden days of personal websites, back when the webs ran on a coal-powered steam engine.

In October, I paid a visit to my bro in Brisbane and explored a bit of Queensland, including a visit to Dreamworld, which after seeing Inception was a bit of a disappointment. (I’m about halfway writing about my adventures here, so hold on, ok.)

November was real busy, as I had two presentations to foist upon Wellington creative groups. First I gave a five-minute talk at the mash-up-themed Webstock Mini. I talked about using the 1968 Shell Guide to New Zealand to take on my holidays.

Then later in the month, I gave a talk at the ninth Wellington Pecha Kucha Night expanding on the Shell Guide as a sort of anti-travel philosophy; that sometimes you’ve just got to put the travel guide down.

You know what’s weird? Despite living in this digital world where everyone seems to have a camera on them, I’ve yet to find a single photo of the event. Instead I’ll like to Tom Beard’s slides from his PKN presentation back in April. It was a good one.

I joined Morgan and Ben as a regular contributor on their podcast, the Discourse Weekly Show, offering cultural commentary from the luxurious Studio 3 (there are mohair throws).

The year ended with me deciding to not renew my work contract for 2011. After putting in a few good years in the world of morning telly (and meeting some massive celebrities), it just seemed like a good time to call it a day. And it gives me the added thrill of having the anything-could-happen potential for 2011.

I turned 36, and discovered that if you remove your birthday from Facebook and don’t tweet it, hardly anyone will actually know it’s your birthday. Maybe if I can make the few rememberers forget it too, I’ll stop having birthdays altogether and have discovered the secret of eternal youth. Wait – that would be so awful.

And as a nice bookend for the year, I saw the Trons and The Shrugs play at the Yot Club in Raglan. The Trons captivated the audience, causing one dude to exclaim to a friend, “I can’t believe that it’s actually robots playing to us, bro. With personalities.” The Shrugs remain one of my favourite bands, so it’s always ace to see them live, along with the usual suspects in the audience.

So let’s end 2010 with a Trons video, for the aptly titled song Time’s Up. And it was filmed at the old dairy factory just down the road from the house I grew up in.

I started the year by recreating the Cover Girl lipgloss ad task from “America’s Next Top Model”, thanks to Jo of Pretty Pretty Pretty. It is important for a modern girl to know how to work the camera.

I was lucky enough to go to Webstock, but due to the Current Economic Climate I had go there as a door-holding, clock-watching volunteer, but I possibly had more fun than I would have if I’d gone as a regular attendee. I got to see my long-time interweb heroes Derek Powazek and Heather Champ’s talk on online communities, which was inspiring.

Oh God – Sevens weekend, possibly the most miserable weekend of the year. Lots of my friends left town, leaving me to face a city full of drunken munters. This has left me determined to avoid the broken glass and vomit in 2010 by leaving town for the weekend.

But on the good side of sports, I made a vow to see live sports games. I went to a test cricket match, a Phoenix game, and the mighty All Whites World Cup qualifier. I’m still not ready to sell my soul to any particular sport, but at least I think I get football.

I went to Auckland for a few days for business and pleasure. I unexpectedly saw legendary Auckland punk band The Spelling Mistakes play “Feels So Good”, which was something I had never expected to see. I also realised that the Auckland of now is no longer the Auckland I left. At the time, I felt quite melancholic about it, but a later visit revealed Auckland to be all right, still.

Much fun was had on a panel at the Young Labour Conference, talking about blogs, online communities and politics along with Keith Ng and David Farrar. This is where I got to share my wisdom with the younger generation.

I saw De La Soul perform at the Opera House. The last time I saw them live was in 1991, was I was a huge De La fan. They were touring to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their debut album, “Three Feet High and Rising”. And that made me wonder what it would be like for me to revisit stuff I’d created when I was 19. No wonder De La were chopping up their old stuff, mixing it up to make something new.

I watched Too Many Films this year. Too Many Films going being entertainment and into a state of being. I initially watched Too Many Films from around 1993 to 2004, but somehow managed to get sober in the mid 2000s. I thought I was over it, but a combination of the 48Hours film competition, the Film Festival and seeing many new releases as Slevin’s plus-one dragged me right back into it. Therefore, I have no life; I watch films instead.

Speaking of 48Hours, one is still haunted by the splendid Wellington regional winner, “Otack Otack Otack Fall“.

I also went to many theatrical shows this year, and (re)learned the ancient art of writing reviews. It turns out there’s more to say than “It was nice. I liked it.” I especially enjoyed “Biography of my Skin” a collaboration between actress Miranda Harcourt and her husband Stuart McKenzie, all about marriage and being complicated. It gave me hope.

Heh, remember earlier in the year when everyone was freaking right out about swine flu and how everyone was going to die, etc? Those were fun times.

I ended up with a swine cold, the downside of which was not being able to go to Napier for a holiday (but there would have been awful weather had I gone), and the upside of which was getting prescribed coff-b-gone, a cough syrup containing morphine. Aw yeah, I said morphine. Though in the middle of that wobbly, blissed-out week, I saw “Bruno” and laughed even though I knew it wasn’t funny, so I was glad to eventually get well.

After being thrown around by June and July, I decided that August would be good. In fact, I gave August its own hashtag (#goodaugust) and indeed it was a good month. You should try this. It works.

I went to WordCamp, which was not about words nor a camp. Instead it was a two-day un-conference about WordPress (the thing my blog runs on). It was most interesting, but I ended up leaving early on the second day because the sun was shining and I needed to be outside and not be in a suburban bowling club.

The power supply for my laptop broke, and I had to wait over a week for the new one to come. I turned to “books”, with their “pages” and “ink”, reading Dan Brown’s thrilling piece of shit “The Lost Symbol” and my DCM Book Fair acquisition, “True Colours” – Dave Armstrong’s funny and insightful account of the lead up to the 1996 election campaign.

I finally got to have some holiday and travel, with an excursion to the South Island. I was based in Christchurch and then Dunedin, but also explored some surrounding parts of Canterbury, Otago and Southland. I also fulfilled my lifelong dream of going to Gore.

I also took many notes and wrote an epic 10-part account of my travels. “You should write a book,” the people said. “But I haven’t even got out of bed yet,” Robyn replied.

The year nicely ended(-ish) with the Fourth Annual Wellingtonista Awards, celebrating the best of Wellington. I presented a few awards, joined in the festivities, and ended up performing “Buffalo Stance” in the hipster karaoke that followed.

And I turned 35, which took ages to happen. I was somehow expecting a dull day, but it actually turned out to be splendid with sunshine and delicious food and spending time with lovely friends.

So, quite a good year. And while Twitter ate my 2008, I had more a harmonious relationship with it this year:

I just completed an awesome 100 piece jigsaw puzzle of some Barbies riding horses on a California beach.
4:30 PM Dec 18th from Tweetie

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