I thought I'd best contribute to this thread now tonight, because the next few days will be busy.
I won't look back on 2010 with any great fondness, but then again, not with much regret either. I welcomed a niece into my world, and almost simultaneously shut a brother out. I gained an
extra qualification, but once again another year of my life passes not knowing my native language. I
expanded my palate, but still sang the same old shite on karaoke. I lost a stone and a half, then put it back on again.
Oh - and I supported
the only undefeated team at the football world cup, became slightly over-obsessed with
"Africa" by Toto, was introduced to
Never Surrender by Giant after hearing it on a certain
radio station, made my ingrowing toenail worse, turned into a
Guinness drinker overnight (a week in Ireland helped mind) and discovered a
pub that serves beer in two-pint glasses.
As I write this however, my boss is in a coma and future-Mrs-Alexia's recently-widowed grandfather will be spending the yuletide on ward C4 West of the local NHS outlet. The level of snow on the ground is still casting a questionable white haze over our Christmas travel plans (while others fathom how they will get out of Terminal 5, we are fathoming how to get 6 miles up a valley). But I have two arms, two legs, two eyes and the normal number of everything else. I'm not normally introspective, but these past seven days have been sobering in a manner I never though possible of my personality; one which is rarely genuinely low or pessimistic about things (sardonic commentary and occasional outbreaks of Grumpy-Old-Itis excepted).
To one and all on Metropol, the best forum on the internet and one which I recommend frequently to friends and colleagues, I wish you a happy, restful and enjoyable Christmas holiday and good health and best wishes for 2011. They may just be
numbers on a calendar, but hell we have little to enjoy in these short years we get trotting around this wretched planet so a good binge is as worthy a way to spend the solstice as any.
I would also like to take this opportunity to apologise to anyone I've offended on here or t'other place -- in particular I would like to extend a handshake to
Beep and Chie, two souls who I will never see eye to eye with but whose views and opinions I respect. In view of this, my sig will change in the new year once I return from
my annual sojourn to Nick Harvey's back yard.
You may think I'm a dreamer; but I'm not the only one... I hope someday you'll join us, and the world will be as one.
