2016: not a totally bad year

I’ve set a precedent with reviews of the year in 2013, 2014 1nd 2015 so here’s 2016. To some extent it’s been a year like the others: some sadness but so far not too much, some successes and some enjoyment. Here goes for 2016.

It’s been a sad year but not too sad. Just two friends have died:

• One I heard about from the Churchill Review and that was Mike (MDC) Moles. Mike was in the same year as me at Churchill and he shared a house with Ed Libbey and me during my abortive PhD year. He was a character, a big chap and a rugby player but he was into flowery shirts. During that last year in Cambridge he drove his father’s ‘old’ Merc which he decorated with flower stickers. Mike became an academic but I haven’t seen or been in communication with him since those days in Cambridge.
• The second was Stan Wolford who lived in Pease Way until about 2005. He worked for the US government in some sort of intelligence role, I joked that he was a trained killer working for the CIA. He was married to Jan and we had a note with her Xmas card telling us he’d died of cancer some months ago. I guess he died before the Trump election which would have angered him greatly.

Others have died: the great (Bowie, Castro, Wogan etc) and the less so (Steve Wilkinson former chair of Histon Parish Council). It’s remarkable that I’m in my late 60s and so many of my contemporaries continue.

I’ve stayed healthy through the year (touch wood). My weight has stated in the 68-70kg range and although I did have a bout of viral enteritis I really didn’t have any days in which illness slowed me down. The Addenbrookes specialist this year who told me that my hip was still OK and not deteriorating but nonetheless I have scaled back my running and just do 2-3 km sessions on the treadmill at the gym and maybe once a week 6 km outdoors. Clare persuaded me to do a Park Run mid year (click here for that story) and I’ve since done a couple more with my PB at 28 minutes which makes me pretty chuffed. And finally, for this item, I do track my exercise and have done more this year than I did in either of the two preceding years.

It’s been a good year for travel etc. It would be difficult to beat 2015 but in absolute terms 2016 was pretty good. We had trips to Italy, first to Puglia (flic.kr/s/aHskxRBfPh) and later to Sicily (flic.kr/s/aHskFmKBiq). Both were excellent and the company on the first one was exceptional. We also grabbed a quick break in Bruges in December (flic.kr/s/aHskJthaCe) which was a real bonus. I took a UK break in Durham (flic.kr/s/aHsky84deH), Charles and I went to Cromer via Norwich, and Juni and I went to South Wales (we came back via the Cotswolds) for David Norbury’s 40th birthday celebration. And along the way we stayed in some excellent hotels, especially the Risorgimento in Lecce and the Seagrave Arms in Chipping Camden in the Cotswolds. I also gave 5 stars on TripAdvisor to several restaurants: the San Carlo Flying Pizza in Roundhay (Leeds), Gli Ulivi in Alberobello (Bari), la Torre di Merlino in Lecce, the Last Wine Bar in Norwich, the Packhorse Inn in Moulton (Suffolk), the Seagrave Arms again, the Ristorante Manna in Noto (Sicily) and the Duc de Bourgogne in Bruges, and, at the last minute on Boxing Day, The Crown at Roecliffe (Yorkshire).

I’ve done much less paid work this year for two reasons. One is I don’t need to because my income from other sources including work and state pensions and my CCC allowance are almost enough and two is that EHT/Tribune has gone belly up. The latter is a longish story but involves money laundering, corporate greed and some fraudulent behaviour. However the basic proposition is sound and there are some prospects for 2017. Otherwise I’ve done a little work with Macsa, I’m involved again with Sensotec and I’ve continued to work with MDU. I continue to coach Grace Systems and have picked up similar roles with Harvey Medical and maybe Layer One. That’s enough.

If you thought last year was bad politically it was nothing compared with 2016 with first the Brexit vote (click here for my reaction at the time) and then Donald Trump. The deep down bad thing about the former is that it’s irreversible and says so many negative things about the UK I don’t really know where to start. However if it’s possible there is a silver lining with a string of positive Lib Dem by-election results including an excellent win at Richmond Park, lots of new members and renewed grass roots enthusiasm. Locally I’ve continued to enjoy my role chairing the Health Com. I presented a policy motion at the Local Government Association Assembly and secured a role for Public Health in Cambridgeshire & Peterborough’s Devo 2. I’m up for re-election in 2017 and my prospects are much improved by a redrawing of the electoral map so that it will be just a single member Histon & Impington division.

And finally … this is how I signed off 2015.

‘It has been a very good year and I feel blessed. With so much trouble and uncertainty in the world I seem to have found a place which is especially rewarding. I can but hope that my life continues that way’

Don’t see any reason to say anything different this year.