'There's a good chance I could not have been here' – Liam Clayton

On August 4, 2009, 23-year-old Liam Clayton was driving home to Leicestershire after visiting friends in Kingston Upon Thames, when he was involved in a car crash that almost killed him. Doctors were forced to put him into a coma for three weeks while he received specialist care. Here, Liam talks about the night that would put his life on hold for a year...

“When I didn’t get home, my mum was starting to worry. She was on the phone to the local police number, trying to find out if there’d been any hold-ups on the motorway, and they were telling her that there hadn’t. Then the girl on the phone tells her that there’s been this accident, and starts talking about what the car was. At that point, some lights start coming up the drive and my mum realises it’s the police…

So this is the new year... (ish)

It may seem like an age ago that you were drunkenly warbling along with that terrible English folk song that Cliff Richard kind of covered once, while doing the most impractical arm-shaking dance known to man, with people you don't like for ninety per cent of the year, just because a big clock chimed twelve times on a certain date, but believe it or not, it was only three weeks ago.

This may seem like a slightly late 'new year' blog then, but for me, tomorrow marks the real beginning for 2011 for me as I embark on the first day of my MA degree's second term, when I am told the work really starts. 

I do tend to despise those "top tips for 2011"-type features so do not fear, I will not be trying to tell you who will or who won't be hot or not this year, as I have very little authority in that field and my crystal ball isn't up to much these days anyway. It's been a been a while since my last post (*cough* BROKEN RECORD *cough*) so I thought I'd use this opportunity to give you all a rundown of what I've been up to during my blogging hiatus.