Last Day of the Year

Here we are again, New Year's Eve, when we celebrate the passing of another year on an arbitrarily chosen date, (New Year was, until a couple of centuries ago, celebrated in March in the UK).  Still, I suppose the end of December is as good a time as any to mark the year's end.  So, how was 2012 for you?  For me, it was wet.  My abiding memory of this year will be rain.  Yeah, I know that lots of exciting stuff like the Jubilee and the Olympics took place here in the UK this year, but I didn't really experience them personally.  I did get soaking wet personally, though.  Indeed, there are times when I feel as if I spent a large part of the past year underwater.  Getting back to the aforementioned international events, although both were being staged here in the UK, from my perspective they might as well have been happening on the moon.  Whilst a lot was made of the fact that Jubilee-related events, like  street parties, would be happening at local level, the fact was that I didn't see any of these.  My experience of the Diamond Jubilee was watching that rain-sodden Thames regatta on TV.

The Olympics were the same.  Despite the fact that they were happening only forty miles or so up the road from me, (even closer in the case of the rowing events), I only experienced it via TV, just like people in the US, India and everywhere else in the world.  For most people in the UK the closest they got to experiencing the Olympics first hand was watching the Olympic torch being carried through their town.  (I even missed this, as I was working).  Of course, there's a pretty good chance that even if the Olympics had been happening in Crapchester, I would only have seen bits of it on TV, as I'm not really a sports fan.  That aside, maybe this all typifies what has been wrong with my life this past year - I've spent too much time on the sidelines, observing from a distance, rather than actually doing things.  So, will that change in 2013?  Probably not.  Increasingly these days, I just can't be arsed.  Which isn't to say I don't have New Year resolutions I intend acting on - I've detailed these in the latest editorial over at The Sleaze, if you are remotely interested.  All that remains now is to usher in the New Year with my customary plate of sausage rolls, beer, whiskey and some Italian exploitation movies on DVD.  Happy New Year.