Blog: A Farewell To 2003
On New Year's Eve I posted the FINAL entry in my year long series of "Old Blogs", where I re-posted blogs from 22 years ago on The Socials and then added some commentary to explain what was going on. The idea of doing it was nicked from Mr Bob Fischer who did a wonderful year's worth of blogs a while ago revisiting his old school diaries, and as he packed that in after 12 months I thought it was only fair to complete the ripping off by ending mine at a similar point!
The original thought process behind it, apart from "This'll force me to actually POST something on an almost daily basis", was that I'd be able to shed light on some of the things that happened back then which I couldn't really talk about at the time. As it turns out, pretty much the opposite was the case, not least because back then I was A LOT more willing to say stuff on the blog that I definitely would not do now. These days I usually pause and THINK before slagging somebody off who could very easily GOOGLE themselves and see it, but back then I was not so considerate. I have been Quite Surprised at times to see my younger self being so indiscreet!
Another problem with the "shedding light" aspect was that I don't actually REMEMBER a huge pile of stuff that happened, so that when Younger Me dropped GNOMIC HINTS of things he was up to Modern Me usually had absolutely no idea what he was on about. The plus side to this, however, was that there were also many occassions when I was suddenly reminded of fun things that I hadn't thought about for over two decades!
The main lovely thing about it though was all the PALS who popped up along the way, the vast majority of whom (possibly ALL of whom actually) I am still in touch with, even if not quite so often in THE PUB with. I watched "It's A Wonderful Life Again" over Christmas, because of course I did, and one of the bits that really stuck out for me was at the very end where (SPOILERS) he gets a book from Clarence with the inscription "Remember, no man is a failure who has friends." There are certainly times when I inwardly BEMOAN my inexplicable failure to accrue fathomless RICHES through my ART, but when I get into one of them moods I am always reminded of the krazy adventures I've had and the krazy PEOPLE I've met along the way. That has very much been the case with the Old Blogs - there were certainly ADVENTURES in 2003, and there were definitely PALS too!
So thanks to all the pals who appeared in them, and thanks to all the pals who READ about them. If you wish to continue the journey into 2004 and beyond then all the old blogs are extremely available in the archives, but for my part I am hoping that 2026 is going to be a year when some NEW stuff happens. Tune in next time, or possibly in 2048, to find out what they might be!
posted 5/1/2026 by MJ Hibbett