You have to resist the urge to be all self-indulgent about Life, The Universe and Everything on January 1st as you can come across as a bit of a pillock. If you haven't gleaned yet, I am about to be self-indulgent and look back at last year and forward to next year just like Janus.
Last year was pretty amazing. My New Year's Resolution was to try to see people that I wouldn't otherwise see every month of the year. This worked out really well as I saw a whole host of friends over the year and got to visit people in cities as far apart as Exeter, Bathgate, Manchester, Newcastle, Watford, Stratford on Avon and Hatfield. There are still some friends from school, university and my previous career on the railway that I haven't seen in a really long time and I am going to make the effort to see them. One of my trips this year is definitely going to be to Glasgow to see a friend who I haven't seen in far too long.
As far as friendships go I also made a load of new and really important friends via Twitter. My family tease me about my iphone addiction but I truly find Twitter and the group I interact with to be amazingly funny, supportive, intelligent, hilarious and people whose friendship I genuinely treasure. There are plans afoot for a few tweet ups this year and I am looking forward to the moment that the avi comes alive. Who would have thought that so much can be expressed in 140 characters or fewer? Additionally, on a couple of occasions I have been contacted by my actual heroes: Andrew McCarthy, Nick Knowles and Evan Davis so far. I'm working on Duran Duran.
Then, this blog. I really enjoy the opportunity to see and remember all the great places I go with my son. My son is my life partner, my best mate, my conscience, my playmate and my guardian all rolled into one. I love going on adventures with him and we have had such a year. If I look back through the posts I can see all the great stuff we've done: hunting for crabs in Dorset; watching Take That in Sunderland; visiting loads of museums, galleries and historic buildings; attending the filming of TV programmes; watching different plays in lots of different theatres; being part of Dr Who at Salford; travelling to Venice and Rome. It's been brilliant. I'm very privileged to have such a life where I can do all this great stuff but it is going to these places with my son that makes it extra special.
In September I had scores of friends travel miles up a mountain to come to Eskdale for my 40th birthday party. All of them must have been strangers to me at one time but they are so dear to me now and I never have a moment of being tongue-tied or stupid with them. Then in October I went to a school reunion and talked to everyone and absolutely adored seeing old school friends, even though 20 years had passed as I was far less shy and self-conscious than I was at school. Maybe I might learn to be less tongue-tied.
Now I am looking forward to this year. I have some adventures planned already: London in March to see My Life Story; Manchester in April to see McFly; London in June to see Springsteen and then a trip to the Olympics to see the basketball and 800m and 1500m. I'm also investigating the cost of a trip to Greece to visit some of the great sites of antiquity: the Parthenon, Olympia, Delphi and Mycenae. At some point I am going to Glasgow and Cambridge. Additionally, I need to go to Canterbury and Hastings for both medieval history and friendship reasons.
I really believe that the way I see New Year in sets the tone for the following year. The most eventful Hogmanay ever was when I met the love of my life. This year I went to a truly lovely wedding, stylish and thoughtful and full of laughter and joy. Then one of my dearest friends came over with her 2 sons and my god-daughter and we had tapas, and played Trivial Pursuits, and drank and had fireworks at midnight. On New Year's Day we went to the Royal Armouries and then for an amazing lunch at Mumtaz. It was the best New Year in a long time and set the tone, I hope, for 2012: making my son really happy and me being with the friend that I love.
My New Year's resolutions are to see friends every month and to keep up with http://www.herlifestoryonepic.blogspot.com/ by posting one picture every day, all year.
Happy New Year and thank you for letting me be a self-indulgent pillock.
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