I like to think of myself as a "glass half full" kinda guy, but 2011 has tried its damnedest to not only empty the glass, but send it crashing to the floor. Not necessarily on a personal level, although it has been a very poor year business-wise for me, as my income continues to shrink, but seeing close friends struggle with cut backs and redundancy while all around the Western World as we know it seemed to be heading down the plughole was enough to dent the cheeriness in adversity of even the most insanely optimistic loon, which I ain't.
Probably the low point of a thoroughly depressing year was the nationwide August riots, which still struggled to be explained in a cogent manner. Sure, the disenfranchised had every reason to take to the streets, but in search of a new pair of trainers or a flat screen telly while destroying their own backyard? England has a long history of riots, but they nearly always had an easily identifiable political objective. The only purpose of these uprisings seemed to be to acquire more tat that no-one actually needs.
The economic outlook here in Europe in 2012 does not really bare too much thinking about, as even the best case scenarios look pretty grim from where I'm standing. I can't recall a New Year's Eve where the future looks so uncertain, but let's hope we can make some success out of it!
If I expect my football teams to cheer me up, then I might as well give up now. Everton continue to struggle against the rising tide of avarice that is the Premier League, having been knocking on the door of top dining room only eighteen months ago, while even more worryingly the Cobblers end 2011 propping up the Football League. If they go down they could well go the way of Rushden & Diamonds....remember them? Ho-hum.
Going back to the personal if I may, my unpaid weird music scribbling has seen shelf loads of wilfully obscure CDs arriving chéz moi, much to B's disdain, and I commend her for putting up with what for her were some nigh on unlistenable rackets while I struggled to go beyond the usual five adjectives my shrinking grey matter usually comes up with when describing said noise. I also got my first "press pass" to a gig, which was quite a feather in my cap, albeit almost dislodged by the actions of some Neanderthals on the door of Camden Underworld. No doubt this is something I'll have to get used to!
I've also had two more operations on my gnarled digits this year, one successful, one less so. Hopefully no more calls will be made on the very wonderful NHS in 2012 in this respect, although I think it's probably time I availed myself of that licence to print money, the dentist. It has been fifteen years, possibly more, but I've always reckoned that teeth are like car engines - if they're working ok, leave them well alone. Yes, I know nothing about car engines I'll admit, and even less about teeth.
One thing I did in 2011 that I haven't done in decades is to sit down and write a letter - you know, pick up a pen and some paper and commit some strange hieroglyphics to parchment. A now ageing aunt always sends us a kind of personal year review with her Christmas card, hand written of course, so this year I thought I'd reciprocate. Like most folk I rarely actually write more than a couple of lines at a time, 99.99% of work and personal scribbling being done, as this is, on a keyboard sat in front of monitor.
By the time I had written about half a page of A4 I noticed two things. One, my handwriting now resembles that of drunk crab fighting a spider, and two, those twenty of so lines had given me writers' cramp! I persevered though, I hope she liked it.
Time passes like a runaway train, not that trains in the UK ever go that fast. My niece is well into her new working life and gets married in 2012, and my nephew is well into dissecting bodies or whatever it is that medical students get up to, all of which is kind of hard to believe when only yesterday they were knee high!
Whatever you do in 2012, I hope it brings you health wealth and happiness, and if you're lucky, all at once.
Keep on keepin' on.....
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