31 December 2016

Blimey 2016 went by quick! Good thing really as the year wasn't that great for most of us. OK, the Brexit result in June was definitely cause for joy and celebration...until it became clear the road to restoration of sovereignty and end to vassalhood to the loonies at Brussels was going to be extremely rocky (Gina Miller, you are the dictionary definition of useful idiot!). But really, the rest of the year was so dreary, so bleak, so completely disheartening - I'm thrilled it's over and dare to hope 2017 is going to be a MUCH happier year for most of us - Remoaners can just suffer for all I care!

The end of the year has been especially harsh with the spate of deaths in both public and private life. I honestly got to the point last week I stopped opening the newspaper on/offline or watching the news for fear I'd see another beloved public figure or friend had passed away. I'm 60 now and people my age I actually know and love ARE dying off. OK, look, I knew at 17 people were going to start popping their clogs with regularity once I reached a certain age, so I've been expecting to hear/read/see people in my private sphere dying off. I had a dear friend once say to me I was born an old lady because I acknowledged the ageing process early on - got my 'mid-life crisis' done and dusted on my 21st birthday, for example. The saddest bit about that anecdote is we were 19 when he said that and three years later I was laying flowers on his grave - he was killed in the line of duty and yes, it still hurts all these years later.

And dying so are public figures I don't know personally but enjoy following (within reason, of course - I'm not into autographs or 'meet and greets' or stalking, eew!). HUGE shocker about Carrie Fisher AND Debbie Reynolds - I first saw Fisher in Shampoo and did think she scene-stole from Warren Beatty every frame, and I grew up on Debbie Reynolds' movies, from Singing in the Rain to her last film, I saw every piece she performed in. She had a voice like velvet, seemed such a decent person, and the way she forgave Elizabeth Taylor for home-wrecking was SUCH a beautiful thing to have done - Debbie Reynolds was something of a role model for me and her dying the way she did just knocked me for six.

I'm pretty much the anti-celeb but Carrie Fisher was my age - she was only two months younger than me and while I never had or wanted the celeb lifestyle that included drug abuse, I did think of her as a fellow traveller on this bizarre journey, especially when she was told she'd have to lose a lot of weight to reprise her role as Princess Leia - oh boy can I relate and now she's died of a heart attack rumoured to have been brought on by the rapid weight loss and effort to keep the weight off. Right up to the moment she suffered the heart attack on her long-haul flight back from Blighty to Los Angeles, I usually went to bed each night praying I'd wake up the next day miraculously 50lbs lighter...uhm, not any more. Slow and steady, I really want to live much, much longer!

So, it's New Years Eve. Yes, I've made my resolutions. No, I'm not going to list them here (or anywhere except my head and heart:) but I have made them. Update on the ones I made last year - job done, I'm happy to report!

2017 - BRING IT! Especially, please, bring Peace on Earth and Goodwill towards us all. FFS, can't we just all get along?!