Right - time for a long blog to catch up on a bunch of things:
1) Doing some general tidying up around the site last week, I had a really good go through the traffic logs, and realised, upon back-tracking some of the referrers, that more people than I realised have this site in their list of 'recommended blogs' or 'daily reading' or whatever. I'm going to update my people page to reflect these, in a spirit of mutal support/one good turn, some time in the next day or two, but I may have missed some, so if anyone is linking, and would like to be reciprocated, drop me a line.
2) I was heart-broken to read of the death of Nigel Hawthorne, a fine actor, a talented speaker, and based on one extremely brief meeting with him many years ago, a charming and intelligent person.
3) Some general holiday season stuff - thanks to one and all for emails, e-cards and general messages of goodwill. All are much appreciated and returned with best wishes. It's been a generally very quiet week or so at my house - I haven't seen many people, and I've spoken to only a few more, so apologies if you were expecting to hear from me - I've been in 100% personal space mode.
4) So that was 2001 then. Seems to have gone by very swiftly, and considering I was in a completely different situation this time last year - different job, etc - a lot seems to have happened in a pretty short space of time. It's been a good year, generally. I think I've calmed down a little, done some things I haven't done before, and probably generally been happy more than not. There are regrets, of course, I wish I'd been better at being the kind of partner Chris needs, and I'd like to have done more things that 'counted' for want of a better word - I used to do all sorts of voluntary things and stuff, and I've got right out of the habit.
5) For the first time in years, I have more than one New Year thing I've been invited to. My last couple of New Years have been a mixed bag. Last year I was in bed and asleep by 10pm....though my extenuating circumstance was that I'd been on a 9 hour flight to the Caribbean and been eating and drinking fairly substantially since I got there. The year before, Chris and I had a 99/2000 party at his, as it's near the river, and we all went out to watch fireworks and drink champagne at Stave Hill then back for the first breakfast of 2000. This year I'm heading down to Lewisham. Ailsa is planning on selling her flat down here in the new year and moving to Sheffield full time, so she wants to have a last New Year party down here.
6) Resolutions: I don't usually bother with them as I'm completely rubbish about sticking to them. That said, I used to be crap at keeping a diary, and I'm not doing too badly now, so maybe I should at least set out a few aims: I aim to keep in touch with people directly rather better than I've been in the last year or two. And I'll aim to eat rather more healthily than I have been.
7) I'm writing this watching the first episode of Smallville on Channel 4 - It's an interesting take on the Superman/Superboy story - no costume, no use of the name Superboy, certainly no Krypto the SuperDog, not even any actual flying ('for a long time' according to the producers). Apparently it's a huge rating hit in the US - will be interesting to see how it develops.
Poor Dillon - I've had her to the vet's today to deal with what might politely be called 'Women's Trouble'. She seems a bit perkier this evening anyway.
That's it for now - Happy New Year festivities to one and all.