Well I’ll be damned if this wasn’t the year of Meh and Blah. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll take Meh and Blah
over high drama any day of the week but god almighty if it isn’t the most mind-numbing
tedium. I’m wracking my brain for
highlights. One is clear I suppose: landing
the new job. That wasn’t blah at all,
that was a real joy to secure and continues to be a source of wonder. I’m learning, at once and on a daily basis, how
to and how not to do things. It will
stand me in good stead. On a personal
level, I can only keep thanking the universe for another year watching my
daughter mature and develop. She’s
healthy and for the most part happy though she is as big a beastie as ever.
I also continue to be with my beau – the chef. That has to make the list too. Outside of that, I can’t say it’s been anything
but a totally dishevelled anorak of a year.
Including having the most pernicious of allegations made against me by a
neighbour that landed me in trouble with the police. I’ve since developed deep misgivings about The
Force who has itself displayed terrifying levels of incompetence throughout.
The fight for justice continues and is a story for another day.
It has felt almost as if society has given up on itself this
year too. Between the constant bickering
over Brexit to a general lack of enthusiasm all round for seasonal events, I have
to say, I’m not going to miss this year at all.
And yet, I can imagine the moment things get tough again, I’ll be
harking back to the days of bore.
Look we can’t complain about Summer – we had a bewildering run
of luck there. For that first month
people were giddy, but London isn’t built for hot weather and if you weren’t on
an endless break or living in a mansion with a pool and aircon, by the time June
rolled around, the heat had started feeling more like an endurance. Public
transport was pestilent and the simple act of sitting at home was pure torment. When the temperatures finally dropped, we entered
monsoon mode overnight.
Then there was the Football World Cup. Whatevs.
Halloween comes along like a teenager turning up for an
early shift at McDonalds. I don’t
remember a year where it took so long for the high street to catch up, with
most shops only putting up their decks about 3 to 4 days in advance. And don’t mention Bonfire Night. Where have all the ‘Penny for the Guys” gone? I didn’t see a single one. Then a week later the UK Government passes regulation
banning sales of fireworks to teenagers and the sad thing is, that it doesn’t
faze me. This is what we have become. We
cannot be trusted anymore.
So I wasn’t holding out for huge spikes in levels of enthusiasm
around Christmas. My local high street hasn’t
even bothered putting lights up. So
there’s that. The Lish and I got it into
our heads that it would make a welcome change this year to deviate from the
traditional green tree and instead planned for an Edward Scissorhands look.
Like this:
Here’s our one.
We
hated it.
Already a year that feels like
Christmas came by default, we couldn’t justify aiding and abetting with a tree
we both loathed. So we took it down and
it’s back to green.
It’s better, but it
still doesn’t feel like Christmases past.
So I’ll put it down to Brexit – why not? Everything else that
missed the mark this year has been attributed to it.
Look, 2018 was a damp squib, 2019 only has to get out of bed
to make it a better year…so here goes: Merry Christmas one and all and a HAPPY
NEW YEAR!!!
