h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've just been compiling a montage of photos from throughout 2010, and I think I can say that it's been the toughest year of my life. It's probably also been one of the best.

Life is a roller coaster, and I used to tell myself during the worst parts of the year that there are some up bits and some down bits and some sideways bits as well.

I went to The Gambia - twice. At the start of the year to raise funds to build a road, and at the end of the year to officially open the road. That was tinged with sadness as it was dedicated to one one of the bikers involved in the fund-raising who was tragically killed in an accident in October.

I moved out of the house I shared with Dai, rented an apartment for a while, we offically split up, I bought a house in Belfast, we kept talking, we realised our feelings for each other, and got engaged!

I danced naked on stage, shared a dancefloor with Chris Hollins (fully clothed and ballgowned! Me, not Chris), went to the Edinburgh fringe, got a phoenix tattoo, and learned a bit of Irish.

I drank several pangalacticgargleblasters on 101010.

I got trapped in London by the Icelandic volcano - twice! And the severe weather caused travel plans to be disrupted at either end of the year.

I'm kinda hoping that 2011 will be a wee bit less hectic...

Funny about the "Life is a roller coaster" thing. That song which continually bugs me on the radio with its chorus of "Up, Down, Up, Down" .... have a look at the lyrics. It's exactly about that. About holding out through the Downs because there's always an Up.

My year wasn't as earth-moving as Bea's. The only big event was the marriage of my eldest son which, although the wedding itself was a blast, didn't really change any of our lives much, because they shan't actually be moving in together in a place of their own until they've finished flat-sharing.

Next year may be a bit more adventurous. My youngest announced at Christmas that he's dropped out of Uni and going to Mexico in February. You have to make things happen yourself, really.

I've already blogged on this but 2010 turned out to be a good one. Mind you I'll probably end up paying for it in 2011.

I managed to visit a real life meteor crater for the first time in my life and I had my account of it turned into a podcast for the 365 days of astronomy. I also visited a wonderful little island off the coast of Wexford where you were able to come up close and personal to the most elusive and elegant of seabirds. Another real highlight for me was a walk with my six year old twins to the summit of a mountain in Tipperary. They got to the summit before me and instantly announced that they were the first in the family to reach the top. Another time, I took my boys to Cape Clear where, as we looked out on the Fastnet, they delighted themselves by touching an electric fence when I was not watching.

The low points were shared with my girlfriend, where everything that could go wrong with her body went wrong, often in the most horrible and unexpected way. She experienced many miserable days this year and the medication she was on took every ounce of confidence from her.

Despite the doom and gloom, there was a lot of beauty and vibrancy in the year. After the trials of the previous few years, I have found new energy and optimism. There are many unanswered issues, but here's to 2011.

It's not been the best for many of the people around me, but if I'm being entirely self-centred, I can say that 2010 was great.

In February, I got an e-mail telling me "I have a job for you but I don't know what it is yet, can you be here in three weeks?" so I closed my eyes, jumped in, and landed in Northern Ireland, in what turned into the first proper job I've had, and based solely on the merits of my CV rather than on who I knew. And that was the start of what was essentially one long confidence-building exercise. (I may pretend otherwise, but I'm really a bit of a coward and not very self-confident at all!)

I made lots of new friends, which has never been easy for me, I finally bought a car and learned to drive, I was forced to make lots of phone calls through work so that bothers me less now, I've acquired several other part-time jobs, I took the initiative on dealing with a difficult work situation and got good results, I jumped a horse over a short course for the first time, I learned to row a longship... And best of all, shortly before Christmas, one of the guys I went to school with (where I was perpetually bullied) contacted me via Facebook and said he'd been talking to some of the others and they all regretted not having had more to do with me then.

So while my plans for a Master's course fell through, my job is poorly paid and isn't something I'd really want to make a career of, and I haven't gained much in the way of new qualifications on paper, the fresh start has definitely helped. I feel surprisingly ready to take on the world in 2011.