That was (another) year that was...

 

...and frankly I'm bloody glad to see the back of it.

I've been racking my brains to say anything good at all about 2024, anything even vaguely positive, and have come up with very little. So let's try listing my thoughts, in no particular order, good and bad.

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Good Stuff.

Well, the Tories were voted out of office.  Finally.  After 14 years of ruining the country, incompetence and lying. In a landslide. Their demise also got rid of no-marks like Hancock, and Truss, and Johnson, and a whole list of other crooks, chancers and dead-weights who no-one (apart from their families, probably) cares about.  Good riddance to them all.

In came Keir Starmer and Labour, full of plans to improve the lot of the ordinary man in the street (rather than fleece them like the Nasty Party did). Hurrah.

I am still alive, and healthy. Cancer free (with the caveat that I am due a further check up in January).  

I'm reading more than since the Pandemic faded into memory (though the virus itself remains active, despite what the nay-sayers would have you believe) and trying to write too. It's tough, though.

My Beloved and my kids are well, and healthy too. As are my dog and cat, and the rest of my family, scattered throughout the world (at least, to the best of my knowledge). I thank my god for that. 

After four years of solid stress, struggle and spending we finally moved into our new flat, meaning I now sleep on a bed rather than on the settee, and soon will have a proper desk and workspace of my own in the corner of our room, overlooking the kids playground beside the block.  I should be able to focus and produce more....

 Bad Stuff.

Starmer's Honeymoon Period in office lasted about a week before the gutter press, led by GB News, the Daily Mail and Talk TV, aided by a bunch of keyboard warriors and wannabe celebrities, started the rumour mill rolling with totally undefined and unsubstantiated claims about him and other members of the government, that have turned a large minority of the electorate against the government.   Already.  After 5 months.

Brexiteer-in-Chief, serial liar and failed commodity trader, loser of seven previous attempts at being elected to Parliament, finally got in.  Representing Clacton, one of the most rampantly anti-European parts of the UK.  Nigel Farage (for it is he) has since spent as much time in the US trying to help his mate Donald J. Trump (another serial liar....) with his Presidential bid.

And against all odds he succeeded.  Dear old Joe Biden finally admitted defeat 12 weeks or so prior to voting and stepped aside in favour of VP Kamala Harris.  The problem was the US of A is still unable to bring itself to elect a woman to the Office, never mind a black California prosecutor who has never given birth.  The MAGA Republicans, led by the Orange Oaf, rallied round and elected the convicted felon (not no mention a known sex offender and loser of a civil case for rape).  Yes, Trump is the next President of the US.  Insanity or foolishness - you be the judge.

The slaughter in Gaza has shown little sign of ending, and indeed spread to Lebanon and Syria as Bibi the Butcher continues his single handed efforts to wipe out the entire Arab population in the Middle East.  The ICJ arrest warrants issued against him for violating international law, suspected war crimes and genocide mean no more to him than the multiple UN Resolutions about the Palestinian conflict that have been ignored by the Israeli government since 1948.  He is aided, abetted and financed by the US government (and to a lesser extent those of the UK and EU, amongst others).  Madness and murder most foul.

Vlad the Impaler's Special Military Operation (AKA the Invasion of Ukraine) is still grinding on, approaching its third anniversary.  Ukraine fights on, with strong support from the EU, the UK and NATO - but that may all soon change: Trump is widely expected to pull US support for both Ukraine and NATO soon after taking office (which will please his mate Vlad no end), and support is waning in a number of European countries that now have strong nationalist parties in government (or largest in opposition) like Hungary, Serbia, Czechia, and even Italy and Germany.  Putin has also threatened a nuclear response if any NATO ally takes direct action in support of Ukraine or allows the weaponry it has provided to be used to attack targets on Russian soil, including that seized in the invasion. Scary and shameful stuff.

Anti-Islamic sentiment and anti-immigration parties and supporters are gaining even more traction across Europe, leading to increased racial tensions and public unrest.  And it will get worse, because...

...all the promises made by governments to tackle climate change at past COP Summits have been broken, abandoned or watered down. We are rushing headlong towards a global catastrophe, including producing a massive increase in climate refugees looking for shelter and aid,  that I didn't expect to see but am increasingly likely to.

My football club, the mighty Ebbsfleet United, spent the entire year battling relegation from the National League.  We stayed up on the final day of last season, after changing managers, but the new gaffer turned out to be worse than the bloke he replaced. He was sacked a month into to the new season with the club bottom of the league, and replaced by a well-respected young coach with excellent coaching qualifications and experience at senior clubs in both England and Scotland.  He turned out to be even worse and was sacked after two months, with the club rooted to the bottom and totally devoid of any confidence or quality.  The club captain stepped up, retired from playing and vowed to keep us up.  He has presided over four games (at time of writing) and four (more) defeats.  We are doomed.

I've been suffering from writer's block most of the year: my 2024 target of a weekly blog post has been closer to one a month or less.  I'm also stuck on my books, still unfinished and unpublished, and not had a new or original idea for a story this year.  But I soldier on....

Finally, my beloved elder sister passed away in the summer.  She was approaching 84, and had been living with an inoperable heart defect for several years, so it was not unexpected, and indeed a relief.  But it's still losing my closest relative, and came less than a year since my other sister passed away after a struggle against undiagnosed dementia for three years or more.  It leaves me the last man standing in my family.  It's a sobering thought.

You see, I'm getting older, nearly 72.  Sure, I'm well and cancer free, but I can't hide that my health is failing.  The back and knee and hip pains, when they bite, take longer to recover from.  My eye-sight and reflexes aren't as good and I've given up driving as I no longer feel safe doing so.  My beloved bike has been in storage for 18 months on doctor's orders (because of my cancer) and is likely to remain there - if I can't walk a straight line, trying to do so on a bike is probably not a good idea.  I get tired quicker and more frequently, often dozing off in front of the tv mid-evening. And I'm not as strong, can't do so much lifting or other physical work at home.  It comes to us all, I know, sooner or later, but I find it very hard to accept it's now happening to me.....  Reality bites.

So you can see why I look forward to 2025 - it can't be any worse.  Can it?

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So let's look forward now.  Forget all the big stuff I mentioned above, there is bugger all I can do to influence any of it.  What can I do to make it a good year?  For me and my family?  Me first.

I MUST exercise more. I let it slip this year, didn't do as much as I should, largely because so much time was spent with the move to the new place, fretting about all the big bad stuff, and mourning my sisters.  For Christmas I had a set of Nordic Walking poles, and I intend to make use of them a lot.  I tried them out a day or so ago with a 4km stroll, and found them helpful, once I'd found my rhythm.  They're supposed to help with balance and promote full-body movement that in turn helps build strength and muscle tone, lose weight and improve co-ordination, all of which will do me the power of good.  I need to keep it up, a similar yomp every other day at least.

I also need to focus on my mental health - I've been all over the place this year, with the good days and bad pretty much in balance.  I read a book recently about meditation and training yourself in positivity and better rest, and I need to do more of that.  It may be easier with my own space: I tried some meditation and mindfulness exercises from the book but with all the distractions in a family home I lacked focus and felt no benefit.  That needs to change.  Recently I've also come very close to sliding back into the depression that plagued me post-Covid and frankly that scared me.  It was not a good place to be and I do NOT want to relapse - if I do, it will I'm sure be worse and harder to pull through.

If I succeed in both those objectives, then I will be happier and better able to get back to my writing.  I also intend to embark on some self-improvement, learn some new things. I would love to take a degree course, History and Politics, perhaps. or English Literature, something of that nature, but I know I won't be able to afford the Open University course fees.  Yet, anyway - perhaps in the future.  But I can start small, use the Coursera platform that has a wide range of free courses - not all of them degrees needing months of solid work, but short certification courses: there are some there that appeal to me.

If I can make progress on all of those objectives, then I'm sure I will feel better about myself, and fitter, which in turn will mean I'm more balanced and patient and just....happier.  Less likely to argue and complain and mope around feeling sorry for myself (way too much of that going on this year) - which should in turn make things much easier and more pleasant for My Beloved and my kids.

They deserve that, after all the nonsense this year.

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Happy New Year, all.  I hope 2025 is a good one,