NEEDLESSLY GUSHING END OF YEAR REVIEW

Well, there have been some dips, but on balance... I've had a bloody good year. I got married, worked harder than I ever have done before - both in my day job and with the website and show - but to be my age and say you've had one of the best years of your life (admittedly, for a long time, that wasn't difficult) is overwhelming.

When I returned to Mr Biffo after six years away, I was pretty certain that I'd stay under the radar and remain out of the spotlight, but in 2018 I found myself in front of an audience at no less than three retro games events, fannied around on stage for two Cheapshow live specials, and recently ended up on a panel at BAFTA to launch Almost Never, the new kids show I have starting in January. For which I was sat next to Kimberley Wyatt from Pussycat Dolls and interviewed by Vernon Kay! Sadly, two of the other members of the cast - Emily Atak and Fleur East - were in the Australian jungle at the time, and couldn't make it...!

On top of that, I wrote things this year which starred Bill Bailey and the legendary Steve Guttenberg, so in anyone's book it would've been a banner year. And now I am running out of exclamation marks. But it was all a bit surreal to say the least.

And yet... Digitiser has come to mean more to me than any of the things I've mentioned above. If I could afford to just do Digi-related things, I would. I've written plenty about Digitiser The Show, but the reception it received - after an admittedly shaky first episode response - has rewarded me more than anything I've ever done. 

The freelance fatalist in me is always, even if it's on a subconscious level, worried that my career will come to a grinding halt, and I won't be able to pay the bills. Yet, even if that did happen, your support means I have a trajectory now, if that makes sense, rather than years of feeling like I was running from one job to another, trying to keep the wolf from the door, floundering for actual solid ground. 

Plus, being able to get up and do that stuff on stage - to put myself out there, as me - is, in part, down to feeling accepted by so many of you. 

To those of you who've recently joined the Patreon, and those who have stuck with me since I launched it, your foundation is the biggest gift anyone could receive. You're the bedrock of what I do. I remain humbled by it, and don't ever take it for granted. I'd say I didn't deserve it, but I'd had enough shitty years that I was due some karmic rebalancing. 

So, I just wanted to say - as we come to the end of 2018 - thank you. Again. 

I've no idea what 2019 will bring, but right now it feels like anything is possible.

Paul

x