Christmas 2000

These images were shared here in hindsight, on 25 May 2019.

Postcards to Grandma

The postcards pictured below, among others, were given to me by my grandmother, pre-stamped, when I started university in September 1999, to encourage me to let me know how I was getting along. Originally privately posted to my gran, I posted pictures on them online elsewhere in 2006, having recovered them from her house after her death. The place they were posted is long-gone, so on 25 May 2019 I retroactively posted them here, back-dated to their original authorship.

Postcard reading: Gran, Hi! I didn't know that you didn't have my address down here in Wales until my mum sent me an e-mail and told me, so I thought I'd send you a card and tell you what it is, so that when the money runs out and I end up in the eating-cold-baked-beans-straight-from-the-tin stage, I can phone you and you can send a food parcel... Only kidding. Course is great; freedom is better; ladies are gorgeous. Lovely place here. All my love, Dan
A postcard sent by Dan to his grandmother, October 1999

Transcription:

Gran,

Hi! I didn’t know that you didn’t have my address down here in Wales until my mum sent me an e-mail and told me, so I thought I’d send you a card and tell you what it is, so that when the money runs out and I end up in the eating-cold-baked-beans-straight-from-the-tin stage, I can phone you and you can send a food parcel… Only kidding. Course is great; freedom is better; ladies are gorgeous. Lovely place here.

All my love, Dan

Postcard reading: Gran, No money. No time. Suicidally depressed. Knife-wound isn't healing... Only joking! Having a great time, really! All the fun of the fair! Aberystwyth remains typically rainy, but spirits are high and beer prices are low, so that doesn't matter! Having a Christmas Dinner with the Computer Society on Wednesday, and coming back to Preston on Saturday (18th Dec). Been a busy week, between Final Deadlines, Getting Stood Up, Living A Party Life and Sleeping. Think I'll have a long lie-in, tomorrow, and Honey Loops for breakfast! Yeh! Fond regards; Dan

Transcription:

Gran,

No money. No time. Suicidally depressed. Knife-wound isn’t healing…

Only joking! Having a great time, really! All the fun of the fair! Aberystwyth remains typically rainy, but spirits are high and beer prices are low, so that doesn’t matter!

Having a Christmas Dinner with the Computer Society on Wednesday, and coming back to Preston on Saturday (18th Dec). Been a busy week, between Final Deadlines, Getting Stood Up, Living A Party Life and Sleeping. Think I’ll have a long lie-in, tomorrow, and Honey Loops for breakfast! Yeh!

Fond regards; Dan

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Aberystwyth Admission

This photo was originally published to a closed group and republished to this blog on 25 May 2019.

Dan shows off his certificate of admission to the University of Wales, Aberystwyth

Swimathon 1999

This image was shared here in hindsight, on 25 May 2019.

Dan tries on his swim cap in advance of the BT Swimathon 1999.

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Avatar Diary – Birthday Aftermath

These photos, originally published in the Avatar Diary during January 1999, were recovered and republished here on 25 May 2019 on a post dated the day they were taken, 9 January 1999 – the day after my 18th birthday party. They were originally accompanied by a blog post mocking everybody who’d participated in (drunken) silliness the night before. In particular, I laid-into Gary and Faye, who ended up sharing a bed on the night, but in actuality I was hiding the fact that I was heartbroken: at the time, I had an intense infatuation with Faye which wouldn’t completely abate until a year or so later.

Mother’s Day

This image was shared here in hindsight, on 25 May 2019. I didn’t actually start blogging until around August 1998. I’m the guy in the top right, in the Independence Day t-shirt. Anticlockwise from me are my cousins Stephen and Thomas, my Uncle Tom (my mother’s brother), my sister Becky, my Auntie Anne, my sister Sarah, my maternal grandmother, and a woman – whose name I forget – that one of my cousins was dating at the time.

Dan with his Uncle Tom, Aunt Anne, cousins Thomas and Stephen, sisters, grandmother, and a woman who's probably the girlfriend of one of his cousins

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“Daniel nearly 22 months”

This photo, taken 2 October 1982 and showing me at just 22 months old, might be the oldest picture of myself that I own on which I can pin a specific date. (Obviously) I didn’t start blogging until much later: my first real “blog” began in late 1998; this photo was posted here retroactively on 25 May 2019.

Dan, ~22 months old, in a photo booth

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