Tinman, Year Upon Year (Part 2)

The continuation of yesterday, in which Tinman gets older, though not noticeably any wiser:

• 1986: Each year the Amateur Drama Group that I was a member of would put on a Pantomime, and that year I wrote the script, Little Miss Muffet. I subsequently wrote the next four.
• 1987: My mum died, aged just 55. Not everything about this series is happy.
• 1988: I am self-employed, starting pretty well from scratch and we are quite staggeringly poor. Mrs Tin’s job keeps us afloat.
• 1989:
• 1990: Five years married! We celebrate by Mrs Tin being in Paris visiting her sister, who was working there.
• 1991: Birth of Tinson1, changing our lives in the best possible way forever.
• 1992: I get to watch an awful lot of kids’ movies.
  

  1995, 1996 and 1991

• 1993: And an awful lot of Power Rangers. 
• 1994: I mentioned 1984 yesterday, which of course George Orwell wrote in 1948. This is the book he would have written if he’d finished it a tear later. Nothing to do with my life, though it does tell you a lot about how my minds drifts occasionally.
• 1995: Birth of Tinson2, and proof that two children does not mean half the love each, it just means that the love is doubled.
• 1996: Birth of Tingirl, and proof love can in fact be trebled. We decide not to see how much further it stretches.
• 1997: In December I am 40. My party consists of a takeaway Chinese and a cake at home with the kids, then Mrs Tin and I walk to the pub for a couple of drinks together. Best party I’ve ever been at.
• 1998: It was on one day during this year, when three separate playtime accidents in the space of about thirty seconds left three crying Tinkids, that Mrs Tin and I realised how outnumbered we now were.
• 1999: First overseas family holiday, to Cabanas in Portugal.
• 2000: I gave up cigarettes, this time forever.
• 2001: I had what was basically a nervous breakdown, followed by a long bout of depression. Other people in other parts of the world, of course, had far bigger problems than I had that year.
• 2002: Got a new client in my then self-employed business. I now work for them full-time and it’s the best job I’ve ever had.
• 2003: I had decided that my depression was a one off. I was wrong.
• 2004: God, it was only seven years ago, you think I’d remember something interesting.
• 2005: Was Best Man for my Dad at his second wedding, a surreal and wonderful experience.
• 2006: Fell straight forward onto my face on the way home from the pub, permanently scarring my forehead. I believed then that I was pissed as a fart, but now realise that it was my first blackout.
  

  2007

• 2007: Blacked out 16 more times that year. Got a heart monitor put in to see if that was the cause. Blacked out on the operating table.

• 

  2010 (oh, and 2006)

  2008: Went to the hospital to get the monitor read. They took one look, kept me in and gave me a pacemaker. Created the persona Tinman, now such an important part of my life. Started a blog. Other than that, not much.

• 2009: During the blackouts I developed a symptom called derealisation, a coping mechanism apparently where everything happens in a bit of a daze. Two years later, there was no sign of the derealisation vanishing, so I was given a shrink to add to the medical team devoted to my care.
• 2010: Celebrated our 25th Wedding Anniversary, with a trip to New York. Time flies.

Which brings me up to now. I’m happier than I have been for ages, with good friends as both me and as Tinman. My health is good, my derealisation is still there but I haven’t had a bad bout of depression for about three years.

That’s my life to date, and it’s been pretty good.