OK rounding off the year end festivities let’s do the Afterword year end survey…
1.Best thing in 2016?
2. Worst thing in 2016?
3. Thing that made you laugh?
4. Thing that made you cry?
5. Hopes for the year ahead?
6. Fears for the year ahead?
7. One prediction for 2017?
These will be reviewed at the end of 2017 and prizes awarded.
1.Best thing in 2016?
Feelin’ Good album from Kaz Hawkins Band
2. Worst thing in 2016?
Death of David Bowie
3. Thing that made you laugh?
Satnav telling me to get out of car and walk to destination
4. Thing that made you cry?
2016 – too many deaths
5. Hopes for the year ahead?
Hoping that my online radio shows will continue to get new listeners and some great music to play
6. Fears for the year ahead?
Life – who knows what will happen
7. One prediction for 2017?
Kaz Hawkins Band (can you tell I am a big fan) are going to be massive
1. Mrs Moose’s naked body.
2. David Bowie died.
3. The Afterword.
4. See 2.
5. See 1.
6. That my iPod classic will cark it.
7. Shit be gettin real.
1. Best – Birth of nephew on new year’s day.
2. Worst – That his twin sis didn’t make it.
3. Laugh – You lot, mostly, and Mr B.
4. Cry – Nearly everything these days. Must be my age.
5. Hopes – Stability, solvency, vinyl going out of fashion.
6. Fears – Lack of no. 6, Armageddon.
7. Prediction – Armageddon, probably.
6 should have read “lack of no. 5”, obvs.
1. Best – Leicester City winning the league.
2. Worst – The E.U. Referendum….oh, jolly well done Cameron, great legacy.
3. Laugh – Leicester City winning the league.
4. Cry – I can’t think that anything made me really cry.
5. Hopes – To 100% avoid anything to do with the answer to no. 6…
6. Fears – The fall out from the E.U. Referendum and the U.S. Election.
7. Prediction – Arsenal will finish third, and celebrate like crazy when they do.
1. Best – Personally, having happy kids. Musically, Mandolin Orange’s album Wildfire
2. Worst – My lovely old Dad being poorly
3. Laugh – Donald (before he won)
4. Cry – Donald (after he won)
5. Hopes – A cure for crohn’s disease would be nice
6. Fears – See 2
7. Prediction – President Pence
1. Best – EU referendum result.
2. Worst – the never ending grievance building of the SNP.
3. Laugh – the collective horror of the BBC and commentariat at the rejection of the EU.
4. Cry – my kids, soppy movies, life occasionally.
5. Hopes – finalising and launching creative project.
6. Fears – the middle East and North Africa. Obama’s AWOL foreign policy legacy.
7. Predictions – a snap election. And a messy end to Trump’s Putin worship.
Must have that beer/jam Bart!
Yes please!
1. Best – GLW got a new job just before Christmas
2. Worst – lot of personal issues, and Brexit. And Trump. And May. And Philip Davies MP. And….
3. Laugh – that’s a toughy. Lucifer and the Lego Batman trailer.
4. Cry – Samko (friend’s baby son) playing with my teenage son
5. Hopes – 2017 is better than 2016, and that I am wrong about politics and economics
6. Fears – my resurgent labyrinthitis is not a passing phase
7. Prediction – Brexiters houling about betrayal and treason whatever happens
All the very best to everyone
Great thing about the AW – Bartleby and me can diagree hugely on politics, posting seconds apart, and yet we are here wittering about music. AW is not the best thing, but it is a very good thing!
Ha! Very Happiest of New Years to you PW! Fairly sure our principles and priorities will be pretty similar. We probably just disagree about how you get there. Which definitely isn’t worth falling out about.
1. Best – everyone basically healthy and happy, and good year work wise
2. Worst – away from home a lot working. Life on hold etc.
3. Laugh – not much this year. I’m a gloomy git. The widespread and absurd horror at the referendum result of the “I have woken up in a racist country” variety made me laugh (and I was a reluctant remainder)
4. Cry – Twang Jr’s school carol concert. All in their uniforms, singing like angels. Dusty places, churches.
5. Hopes – Brexit situation resolved satisfactorily
6. Fears – Trump White House
7. Prediction – General election in Autumn. Tories win big.
Best: my kids. Always.
Worst: my marriage. The final conversation is on its way imminently.
Laugh: not enough. See above. I mean, I’ve laughed but it just hasn’t been an easy year.
Cry: That bit in Stranger Things with the invitation to the school dance.
Hopes: that my wife will become my ex-wife as unrancourously as possible. We’re not dramatic or grudgey people so I hope so. And that my kids will be OK.
Fears: the unknown. Going it alone in my 40s.
Prediction: Trump gets impeached before the end of the year. Fox, Johnson and Davis all get sacked. Total chaos.
Good luck Friar. If you do go down the divorce route, the best thing my ex and I did was draw up a schedule of all the contentious stuff and agree it all before we approached lawyers. Saved us a fortune. Final lawyers’ bills in the hundreds not the thousands. Despite their best efforts to persuade each of us that if we just did x, we’d get £x more.
Thanks Bartleby. My preference is to separate without divorcing just yet, purely because I don’t want her and the children to have to move out of the house. She earns more than me so for me the ideal is to split the savings and then for me to pay half the mortgage while renting my own place. She’d be financially fine. I’d be tight but manageable. But then I’ve no idea if I’m living in a dream world.
In which case, it just might be worth your while learning a little more about likely outcomes and divorce law in general. An hour with a divorce lawyer or spent reading other people’s experience – and a look at mediation based divorce outcomes – may help steer you in the right direction if and when one of you decided to push the D button.
Is that a nice way of saying it doesn’t work like that? 🙂
Ha! No, not at all. Every parting is different. But boy do the mistakes seem common! You can end up putting a lot of energy into an outcome or expectation that just isn’t ever going to be possible. A waste of bargaining chips and emotional effort. Knowledge is power. What you choose to do with it is entirely up to you.
Thanks man. We’ve been together for some time and have kids, but we’re financially independent. It could be worse. And I’m not interested in getting a pound of flesh at all.
No, I get that. I didn’t either. I just wanted out.
All I can say here is get decent legal advice. Me and Mrs Wrongness No1 divorced amicably and we both tried desperately to be financially “fair”. No fault on either side but we got it horribly wrong and Mrs W 2 will eventually suffer as a result
Yeah, for sure.
🙂
1.Best – With all the crap in the world and the pressures of work etc at the moment, just remembering that I actually have it good – happy, healthy, wonderful family life, kids happy and doing well.
2. Worst – would be easy to go down the Brexit / Trump path here, but in reality the worst was that its been a tough year business wise and having to let go half a dozen or so staff this year – these are folks that haver worked for me for 10 top 15 years and have been instrumental in the success of our group. It was extremely difficult having to choose who to let go. On the positive side, all were okay with it and got pretty decent severance packages and last count, most had found alternate employment.
3. Laugh – many things – from the kids to Bill Bailey (live here in Singapore at the beginning of Dec) and everything in between. Its the laughter that keeps me going.
4. Cry – never been an emotional person and cannot really remember the last time I cried.
5. Hopes – that the world will realise we are going down a hole if we continue as is. I do have hopes that the whole crowdsourcing, etc etc way of life will move people into a more communal / helpful mentality – I’m probably being naive.
6. Fears – that the polarisation of the world created by terrorism, Brexit, Trump etc will continue and get worse. Surely someone can figure out a solution ?
7. Prediction – that life will go on. People will continue to be worried about the little things in life and the “bigger picture” will pass them by. Aside from that, we will lurch from terror crisis to comic crisis with no one in power having a clue what to do. I’ll take comfort in the new Big Big Train album.
Best: Something good must’ve happened? Can’t think what – too much of a curmudgeonly doom-ridden cynic probably
Worst: My continuing professional descent into uselessness, and the feeling that my brain may explode (and the dreaded cross-over into my personal life)
Laugh: Ian Curtis on a Rollercoaster
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvPIvoJkmGs
Cry: (see worst)
Hopes: That I find a ladder and get out of this hole! (I’m getting there, but still a way to go methinks).
Inspired by an earlier posting today, I am going to re-start my stream-of-bollockyness blog
Fears: That some b*stard has nicked my ladder
Prediction: 2017 will follow the pattern of 2016 being a trail of sh*te with (hopefully more) moments of enjoyment and satisfaction.
And on the positive side …
I’m still here and not been caught out yet – I can still make a number of people groan with my pointless “witty” (this is a subjective opinion) statements on Facebook, and the feeling of satisfaction posting fatuous comments all over the internet (but mostly here)
Chin up old stick. Sometimes we have the binoculars the wrong way round. 2016 a great year if you look at things from a medical, life expectancy, absolute poverty, ebola conquering, Giant Panda rarity, maternal death rate, malaria death and other metric way.
Yes. Take a look at astronaut Chris Hadfield’s Twitter feed from last night, where he listed 40-odd really positive things about planet Earth in 2016. https://mobile.twitter.com/Cmdr_Hadfield/status/815294057102667778
Yup, there is a lot of positive and good stuff going on out there.
I just need to stop wallowing in my own existence to fully appreciate it (I should do, I know it’s there, and I try … I do try to see positives in all things (honest).
I like the binocular analogy – I certainly am looking through the wrong end, and I’ve forgotten to take one lens cap off.
Note to self: Cheer up ya miserable bugger!
Well, I’m the last one to say “cheer up, ya daft sod” in all honesty. The personal is always much more affecting than the objective and rational. It’s just that we’ve been guided into this terrible funk of imagining that political change will obviously be bad and that 100 celebrity deaths is somehow a harbinger of doom. Just don’t let the outside stuff add to any bad stuff in your own life – there’s always plenty of positive stuff to counter it. That way, at least it’s possible to try and put personal grimness into some kind of perspective, not see it as part of an all-encompassing gloom.
(how do I put in one of those thumbs-up, cheers, emogi thingies?)
You just sort of did 😂
1. Best – Travel. Finally seeing the Northern Lights, up in the Arctic Circle. Insane snowy treks in Switzerland with friends. Returning to where I used to live in Tuscany. A spontaneous and stupendously cheap solo weekend in Sofia, Bulgaria. Visiting India for the first time. Actually having a holiday in England and tackling the highest point in the Peak District.
Climbing a mountain in Bhutan and looking across at the Tiger’s Nest monastery. I’d dreamed for decades of standing in that spot and gazing at that view. I spent 2016 trying to make sure I was fit enough to do it, while worrying the whole year that I’d travel all that way and not be fit enough to manage it, or would be unlucky enough to suffer from altitude sickness.
But I was there, in that spot, on my birthday.
2. Worst – Starting and ending the year in the same way-less-than-ideal work and living situations. It’s incredibly frustrating.
3. Laugh – Standing by a stone circle in Derbyshire, about to get into the car to start the long drive home after a week of being soaked through with rain at the top of every peak we’d climbed, and wetter than I’ve ever been on dry land at the top of Kinder Scout, the sun peeked out from behind a cloud for the first time that week. I was doubled over laughing at deep delicious irony of the situation.
Then headed to Bakewell for some pudding.
4. Cry – I shed a tear when I heard the news about Leonard Cohen
5. Hopes – To get my home and work situation sorted out. To have a better social life.
6. Fears – That the horrors of Brexit and Trump end up less dire than they presently appear. I voted for neither (not that I had an American vote) and yet both will have a potentially profound and dreadful effect on my life.
7. Prediction – That I will canoe the Colorado River, hike in the Grand Canyon, cycle over the Golden Gate Bridge and drive a Mustang down the Pacific Coast Highway (yes, my next travel is already booked…)
Great travel achievement in Bhutan. Tell us more! Piccies?
Not sure if your number 6 is correctly expressed?
Oh good grief, @vulpes_vulpes you’re absolutely right!
Clearly the prospect of the incoming Trump administration fills me with such horror that I am unable to express myself correctly.
I meant to say ‘as dire’ not ‘less dire’.
I’ve always struggled with uploading pics to various forums but I’ll have a look into it. Always worry it’d seem a bit show-offy as well.
Show-offy? No way – I’ve always wanted to see the Tiger’s Nest; if you can confirm to me that the view is possible for a mere mortal, I’ll be chuffed to bits!
The Bakewell muffins in The Original Bakewell Pudding Shop are a wonder to behold.
I think that’s the one we went into but there were so many places all claiming to be the original and the best that it’s hard to be absolutely sure 🙂
1. Best thing – New car (one with a little screen showing the artwork for the track being played).
2. Worst thing – Having my wisdom teeth removed! At my age! Tooth extraction is nowhere near as much fun as it sounds.
3. Made me laugh – Spliff.
4. Made me cry – Aleppo.
5. Hopes – A long hot summer.
6. Fears – Going bald .
7. Prediction – Loads more celebrity deaths.
1. Best thing – My family and home.
2. Worst thing – A significant percentage of the rest of the human race.
3. Made me laugh – Trump.
4. Made me cry – The bottomless well of stupidity that is humankind.
5. Hopes – Islam gets its act together (fat chance).
6. Fears – American Civil War 2
7. Prediction – Many of the fears expressed in the posts above prove groundless.
1. My daughter
2. Syria
3. See 1
4. See 1
5 maybe a job change, run an official 10km race
6 bad health
7 King Charles
7. You’re getting a dog?
1.Best thing in 2016?
Seeing Bruce Springsteen live for the first time. Life affirming.
2. Worst thing in 2016?
My work life balance has taken a turn for the worse. It needs fixing.
3. Thing that made you laugh?
Last night when my 8 year daughter called out to my brother in law that he should put his glasses on and come in to his lounge and watch the TV when Robbie William’s skimpily clad dancers appeared.
4. Thing that made you cry?
Too many things to be honest.
5. Hopes for the year ahead?
This is the year of my 50th birthday. My wife and I have decided it should be a year of doing lots of interesting things.
6. Fears for the year ahead?
That the work life balance thing doesn’t get fixed.
7. One prediction for 2017?
Leeds in the Prem. MOT.
1. Best – Mrs Bungliemutt
2. Worst – (a) Work; it just gets worse and worse. Rather like (b) the state of the world.
3. Laugh – Not enough.
4. Cry – Rather too much.
5. Hopes – Neil Young will release a decent album.
6. Fears – See 2(b).
7. Prediction – Neil Young will release another crap album.
You’re right. How many years is it now since Ragged Glory, FFS?
Best: Getting our first cat, Morrissey. She has brought so much love & affection to our family.
Worst: The relentlessness of the horrible news- deaths, war, political wank made flesh.
Laugh: Our cat. Weed. Catastrophe & Fleabag.
Cry: PMS. Family bereavement.
Hopes: That our daughter smashes her GCSEs & gets in to her college of choice. A magic wand would be lovely.
Fears: That this is the beginning of a Bosch-style dystopian nightmare of a future for us all.
Prediction: I predict a riot.
“has brought so much love & affection to our family”…. I think you may have misnamed your cat. Unless she has a quiff.
I thought they had named the cat Weed, Catastrophe and Fleabag, which is bit long but otherwise a great cat name
We were told she was a male cat so our daughter named “him” Morrissey Chandler. She suits it- she’s gender fluid dontchaknow- & wears a camouflage collar with a pink bow attached.
All cats have secrets and here is mine, so let it be known…
How wonderful, Moosey! 😄
1.Best thing in 2016?
The league 1 play-off final, from bottom of league 1 in November to being promoted after thrashing Millwall was bloody ace. You reds!
2. Worst thing in 2016?
The brexit fiasco
3. Thing that made you laugh?
My dogs
4. Thing that made you cry?
The death of Leonard Cohen
5. Hopes for the year ahead?
New house renovation goes well and my old house sells.
6. Fears for the year ahead?
That Trump will not be assassinated before taking office
7. One prediction for 2017?
At least one royal funeral
Your 6 being the spark for my 6.
Bottled water, canned food, and ammunition. It’s not the first time I’ve said it here.
1.Best thing in 2016? – The safe arrival of my stepdaughters twins – she is a virtual chain smoker & had to be rushed to hospital suffering massive internal bleeding. They were delivered by emergency caesarean seven weeks premature, but the two of them hung on, then just got bigger, better & stronger – my happiest news of the year.
2. Worst thing in 2016?
Death of David Bowie – TMWSTW/ Hunky Dory/ Ziggy Stardust/ Aladinsane & pin ups were the albums soundtracking my early teens.
3. Thing that made you laugh?
Watching Despicable me with my grandsons – never tire of watching the minions films with my Mancubs.
4. Thing that made you cry?
I don’t think I have cried since my wife died in 2001. This year the nearest I came was on my 60th birthday. I shared my birthday with my dearly missed Dad, so since 2004, every year on May 24th, sadness is just under the surface.
5. Hopes for the year ahead?
Corny & predictable, but good health for my family & friends.
6. Fears for the year ahead?
Who knows what is around the corner? – TBPH, I do have concerns about what a Trump presidency will bring. (Not long until we find out)
7. One prediction for 2017?
It will not be boring.
Best thing – after winning the JPT at Wembley only weeks before, Barnsley FC returning to beat Millwall (and their ruddy horrible fans that attacked families on the top tier, something that seems to have been brushed under the carpet) to complete the journey from bottom of League One to promotion. Winning at Wembley (twice) alongside my wife and Reds-supporting kids and surrounded by my mates was a dream come true. Who’s to say we won’t do it again…
Worst thing – besides Brexit/Trump and loads of heroes dying, probably my deteriorating health, along with the lack of support from the DWP
Thing that made me laugh – my 6 year old boy makes me laugh daily, as do our new baby guinea pigs
Thing that made me cry – Bowie’s death (although I liked him a lot and have all his albums I was never obsessed or anything like that, so when I went to bed and cried that night it was as much to do with my mortality and uselessness following my downturn in health as it was Bowie dying), and I also shed a tear during the minute’s applause at the beginning of the Barnsley v Birmingham City game yesterday in honour of an ex-player (Norman Rimmington) who had been at the club since the war and had worked in a number of capacities at the club into his 90s, after he died a few days ago, just after he had been informed he had been awarded the BEM in the New Year’s Honours List
Hopes for 2017 – to find some way to slow down my deterioration in health and get on top of the several new symptoms that have surfaced
Fears for 2017 – continuing deterioration in health
Prediction for 2017 – with the outcome of the two major decisions of 2016 about to come into action I cannot foresee anything but increased turmoil, both home and abroad. President Trump is like a punchline in a bad movie.
1. The love and kindness of friends and strangers.
2. Death of my son.
3. Jerry Sadowitz, Derek and Clive.
4. See 2.
5. Adjustment to 2.
6. My other children becoming as troubled as my son became.
7. Even more baby-boom celebrities dying.
Sending good vibes as best I can by the bucket-full Vincent.
1a My children, particularly my daughter’s visit.
b My continuing joy in my strange and unexpected new life
c Reading The Sympathiser by Viet Thanh Nguyen
d Joining a choir.
2a The deaths, of the people who were part of my life, and the millions who weren’t.
b Brexit
c The fact that old-fashioned liberalism as I used to understand it is now a dirty word and a term of abuse.
3 Lots. The Detectorists, Black Mirror, Flowers, Fleabag, Rosehaven (Oz comedy). And quite a lot of The Crown.
4 I get weepy a lot at the movies, but most of my crying in 2016 was metaphorical.
5a That the collection of chancers and losers presiding over the clusterfuck that is Brexit get their collective act together and convince me (and a lot of other people who can’t simply be written off as whingeing remoaners) that they have a plan.
b That the Gurning Twat gets his come-uppance (no idea what that will be, but I’ll know it when I see it).
c That all the pain and sadness I’ve been reading about in this thread is alleviated.
6a That 5a and b will turn out to be stupid fantasies.
b That I’ll die before I hold a grandchild.
7a It’s going to be a bumpy ride.
b But my daughter’s wedding will be wonderful.
1.Best thing in 2016? Getting engaged and Sharon generally.
2. Worst thing in 2016? Travails with my much loved son
3. Thing that made you laugh? Not in a good way, Trump election
4. Thing that made you cry? See #3
5. Hopes for the year ahead? That my fears aren’t realized. And Chris is happy.
6. Fears for the year ahead? My home could end up getting fucked over, and badly by the new administration. Scary.
7. One prediction for 2017? Robert Redford will die
1.Best thing in 2016? Birth of baby daughter – obviously
2. Worst thing in 2016? Election of Donald Trump – obviously
3. Thing that made you laugh? My three year old is endlessly amusing. Everyone else may well disagree though
4. Thing that made you cry? One week after she was born, my daughter took ill and spent a week in hospital. That first night was difficult.
5. Hopes for the year ahead? Continued wellbeing of family. After last year my hopes are staying local
6. Fears for the year ahead? That Donald Trump will spark off World War 3
7. One prediction for 2017? Donald Trump will be the single worst thing in my lifetime, starting immediately. Lest we forget, George W Bush began his presidency with 9-11, continued to an illegal war, the effects of which are still reverberating and ended with the biggest financial disaster since the 1929. Trump is going to be far worse.
Yebbut, hysteria aside, how do you feel about Donald Trump?
At least Trump takes your mind off U2 😎 (Special smiley emoticon wearing Bono’s shades.)
He doesn’t you know. He’s just worse.
1.Best thing in 2016? Getting my marriage sorted out
2. Worst thing in 2016? Mother in Law’s descent into dementia hell
3. Thing that made you laugh? Shit joke I made up to amuse the kids
4. Thing that made you cry? Talking about my mum who died 34 years ago when I was 17. Still some work to do there
5. Hopes for the year ahead? Continuing to feel better about myself and life in general
6. Fears for the year ahead? That my health will become an issue. There’s nothing wrong AFAIK but being unable to work would be a major problem.
7. One prediction for 2017? I’m not a fan but Trump won’t be as bad as feared (he couldn’t be, could he?)
All of those: yeah, stuff happens, some shit, lots not. We cope, we get on, we manage. We have to.
2017? More of that. Glass half full, uncertain of what.
1.Best thing – Family life with my two little girls.
2. Worst thing – The everyday horrors of the world.
3. Thing that made you laugh? My first born’s antics and conversation.
4. Thing that made you cry? My friend dying.
5. Hopes for the year ahead? That our upcoming moving house works out well.
6. Fears for the year ahead? Losing the work/life balance I have now.
7. One prediction for 2017? More terrorism on a larger scale sadly.
1.Best thing in 2016?
Turning 50 and having a brilliant reunion weekend in Woking, England.
2. Worst thing in 2016?
That the people that caused the GFC are still very much in control and are actually dancing in front of us.
3. Thing that made you laugh?
The photo of the Queen and Teresa May at a Buck House sitting room, where the small family portraits on the mantelpieces and occasional tables were revealed to be of Rod Hull and Emu.
4. Thing that made you cry?
Refugees. Beach. You know the one.
5. Hopes for the year ahead?
Revolution!
6. Fears for the year ahead?
That I am found out and publicly exposed. I haven’t yet done anything to warrant this but it is a constant fear. That and being homeless.
7. One prediction for 2017?
Trump will rescind and peg back his promised measures and tell the people that lying to get elected “makes me smart”. He will remain popular.
1
Best – meeting Garth Hudson
Worst – Bowie, Emerson et al
Laugh – Lots
Cry – Syria, Manus Island and Nauru
Hopes – actually release a couple of projects
Fears – Trump
Phew!
Best: Realising every day how lucky I am and how my life has moved on and changed beyond recognition. My sons have survived my divorce and seem to be flourishing. My new partner, dog and house all seem to be going well
Worst: My partners nan passing away in the same year as my partners best friend was diagnosed with cancer. The poor girl couldn’t even attend her daughters 3rd birthday party for fear of picking up an infection
Laugh: Those “moments” in Coronation Street that separate it from the rest. Michael McIntyre (still). Our dog, the stupid, lovely, loyal, funny thing she is
Cry: Some of the stories on Channel 4’s “Stand Up To Cancer
Hopes: Continued health and happiness
Fears: The overall state of the planet and the people who inhabit it
1.Best thing in 2016?
The progress our daughter has made this year – she’s in a whole different place mentally to where she was last Christmas
2. Worst thing in 2016?
The polarised simplification, intolerance bile, abuse and stupidity which passed for political discourse across the left and right, both with the general public and with politicians. Question Time was a weekly fuckfest of horror.
3. Thing that made you laugh?
Our dog chasing squirrels, cats, rabbits and anything else that moved – the blind optimism that just one day she’ll catch one when truth is she never ever will is hilarious
4. Thing that made you cry?
Our daughters, frequently – in a good way. And any scene in a film or TV programme which involves Dads and daughters. I mean, that scene in the Bronte drama when the three of them tell their father they’re all successful published novelists, and the dawning pride on his face….
5. Hopes for the year ahead?
That I’m wrong about 6 and 7
6. Fears for the year ahead?
That the intolerant wing of the right will continue to prosper, and le Pen, Putin, Trump, Farage et al will sow more hate and destruction
7. One prediction for 2017?
Trump ain’t going anywhere despite the wishful thinking of much of the liberal commentariat, and nor will he change his whole MO.
1. Best.
Great reading year – The Sympathiser and Waking Lions, take a bow.
My nephew graduating with a good degree.
Maps in the 20th century at the British Library – it’s still on.
2. Worst.
Friend and cousin diagnosed with cancer. They’re fighting it but fear for them this year.
3. Laugh.
The England football team and the media circus that surrounds them. The defeat to Iceland was priceless and the anger & angst that followed was both predictable and hilarious.
4. Cry.
More anger really – the terrorist outrages wherever they’ve occurred, the largely dignified response of decent citizens and the largely moronic response of the authorities and the halfwits who seek to excuse them.
5. Hopes.
That Trump is a pragmatist. My niece graduates well this year (I think she will), and Leeds United continue to improve
6. Fears.
Far too many to mention, and most have been outlined before. On a personal level, I fear my job is going to get a lot more difficult.
The Smash Hits survey also had the hotly contested Most Fanciable Male/Female. If memory serves, John Taylor from Duran Duran and Kim Wilde would be the regular winners.
Always felt sorry for Spandau drummer Steve Keeble and Duran’s Andy Taylor because they were never considered dreamy or swoonsome.
Now we are in 2017 and given the demogz goin’ on here at the AW, it may be a little creepy but when has that ever stopped us? My regular vote was for Keren out of Bananarama and I see no reason to change that now. Andrew Ridgley is no doubt a bit distracted by grief at the moment, so this might be the perfect time to make my move.
What?
I concur with Karen out of Bananarama, but stick an alternative vote (if the polls were working that way?) for Tracie Young (or possibly Toyah Wilcox)?
Lady Miss Kier for me.
Sir! Sir! Somebody’s voting for someone outside of the early 80s!
My thread, my rules.