That was the year that was

So, 2014 was a mad year.

Up and down professionally. Year ended a helluva lot better than the mean, which fluctuated between unpleasant and intolerable for the majority of the time. Not sure I want to go through that again, but overall I come away with my head held high, even if some don't appreciate me. And as Forest Gump would say, that's all I have to say about that.

The middle of the year went absolutely bonkers when I stood for office in May and unexpectedly won - thanks largely to my wife and sons who worked their asses off getting leaflets out for me. It's genuinely surreal when the returning officer announces you - it's something you see on TV that happens to other people. Doing my first radio interview with BBC Radio Essex in the car park 20 minutes later was *definitely* the scariest moment of the year. Didn't exactly cover myself in glory, but wasn't enough of a car crash to make the national news either, so I'd call that acceptable for a beginner.

The following months were an absolute blur - as well as holding down a demanding full-time job in The City, I was in and out of training courses in Epping, working out what I was legally obliged, allowed and forbidden to do, joining new committees, trying to help my residents where they had problems - my word. I can honestly say I have never been so all over the place in my entire life. Finally settled down to a routine by about September/October.

Have created a whole new blog devoted to that job, but it's not quite ready to be published yet - more on that story later.

Family wise it was good, as we all stayed healthy for once. Nick made the change from primary to high school - it was tough for him leaving all his friends and starting somewhere where he knew nobody but his big brother. He seems to have done okay though. Chris is gearing up for GCSEs in the summer - mocks and college interviews on the immediate horizon for him. Lex will shepherd him through it as always, although as IT becomes more and more of a focus, I am having to get more involved than I have been.

Exchange rates recovered to the point that we could go back to Cyprus to see the in-laws for the first time in 3 years, and we got a great villa for a song, so that was a good holiday.

Social event of the year was the Andy/Lone Curtis wedding. I don't think he'll mind me saying this, but being an "unconventional" sort of chap, I never thought I'd see the day, and therefore I was so pleased for him. It was a fantastic day out, with a bunch of old friends it was great to spend time with again, our boys conducted themselves so well, and I never realised Andy was such a dab hand at public speaking.

Sporting wise, not a lot going on. The annual football tour was to Dortmund - I am too old and broken to play now, so I'm just a drinking tourist, but it was still fun. Stick to what you're good at, that's what I say. Quiet year spectator wise, but still managed days out at Lord's, Twickenham, Oval and Wembley, so can't complain.

And that was 2014. Or as much of it as I'm prepared to reveal. A look forward to 2015 will be coming shortly.

Wild Cards - Saturday

Running Total : 11/15

Cincinatti Bengals @ Houston Texans

My Patriots would dearly love for the Bengals to stage an upset here, so we avoid Pittsburgh. And as it's a bit boring to pick all home teams, I'm going to tip them to get one.

Detroit Lions @ New Orleans Saints

The Saints stellar offense against Detroit's secondary ? Blow out, Brees to pile up the yards and TDs.

World Darts final

Running total from yesterday : 10/14

I'm going for Adrian Lewis to successfully defend his title tonight.

PDC World Darts Semis

Couple of great games in prospect tonight, the quarters were brilliant to watch. So hard to call these.

Andy Hamilton v Simon Whitlock

Great win for Whitlock against my tip Gary Anderson in the last round. Hamilton is in the form of his life, and looks like he believes for the first time. Hamilton's scoring power to see off Whitlock, who has to miss doubles some day.

Adrian Lewis v James Wade

Defending champion v tournament favourite. Lewis is better in the longer matches and has done it before, but Wade beats him more often than not. Wade to reach his first final.

Update 1 : Hamilton, but only just. What a great game !

Update 2 : Well, at 5-1, I thought I was quids in there. Incredible fight back from Lewis, never seen anything like it in my 30 years of watching darts. Amazing.

NFL Week 17

Okay, i'm just going to write about games that potentially impact the playoffs - teams that can either clinch their place or change their seeding today.

AFC

Patriots can nail down the number one seed for the second successive year with a win at home to Buffalo - not that it did us much good last year. Brady to eke out another ugly win, beating Marino's record but not catching Drew Brees.

Baltimore will win their division with a win at Cincinatti, who themselves need to win to get a Wild Card. Ravens to nick it.

Denver need to beat Kansas City to win their division, but Kyle Orton will have a point to prove. Chiefs to spoil the Tebow party. Which will allow Oakland in for the divisional title if they can beat the Chargers, which I think they will.

Titans to steal the last wild card by beating a disinterested Houston, who are guaranteed the third seed whatever, and Pittsburgh to crush Cleveland. Jets to win but miss out.

NFC

Green Bay have the number one seed locked up, so they will rest most of their team against Detriot, who will want to win to get the fifth seed and will therefore do so.

49ers will hammer the hapless Rams to take the second seed. New Orleans will keep Brees in the game until halftime or so, which will be long enough to get the job done and see off Brady.

Atlanta will beat Tampa Bay and hope Detriot slip up.

And in the big one, the Giants to continue the Cowboys late season misery.

Update 1 : Patriots did i the hard way, going 21-0 down at the ened of the first quarter, before blasting 49 unanswered points past Buffalo. Can't really believe we've gone 13-3 with such a poor defence - we can't give three score starts once the playoffs start.

Titans scraped past Houston, who played their starters for no apparent reason. The Jets lost, and three more interceptions for Mark Sanchez, for whom time must surely have run out.

Green Bay still managed to win, despite benching key players - backup QB Matt Flynn throwing for 500 yards and 6 TDs - wonder if someone will come in for him. Young Stafford looks class if he can stay fit too.

49ers and New Orleans both won as expected.

So far, 4/6.

Update 2 : Denver bottled it as expected - incredibly poor game - but so did Oakland. Baltimore and Pittsburgh did the business. Atlanta hammered Tampa Bay.

Now 8/11.

Update 3 : Giants always in control. Final score 9/12.

Talking 'bout a Resolution

Resolutions for 2012

Well, the first goes without saying. Drink less, lose weight.

There's a second one concerning work, but I don't write about work on here.

Finally, get back on the Social Media horse. And stay on it this time.

I'm going to primarily (but not exclusively) make this site about sports previews and predictions. The Premier League has shown itself to be a mug's game in the last 24 hours, so I'm going to avoid that where possible.

Spoilt for choice today - last day of the NFL regular season, and PDC World Darts Semi-Finals. Posts coming up. Feel free to join in via Comments.

Trent Bridge

First blogpost for more than a year, but let's get past that and move on, eh ?

I've been slightly disappointed in the media this week. The triumphalism around the victory over India on Monday was understandable, the universal assumption that England will cruise to victory in the remaining tests was not. India are a fine side, and have more steel than Indian touring sides of yore. I confidently expect them to win at least one test this summer, most likely at The Oval.

Having said that, England have to be heavy favourites in Nottingham this weekend. Here's why.

Trent Bridge used to be the best batting wicket in England. Draws were a regular result. Then, in the mid-to-late 2000s (I always want to call them the noughties), Nottinghamshire decided to redevelop the ground. They did nothing to the square, but, crucially, the big new stands square each side of the wicket clearly affected the atmospherics. The ball suddenly swung more and for longer than had previously been the case, and the average first innings score dropped by around a hundred.

Which brings us to Jimmy Anderson. England's primary seamer has taken a phenomenal twenty seven wickets in his last three tests here. Anderson is at the top of his powers at the moment, and this very talented Indian batting order looks under-cooked, due to the mad schedule their board has imposed upon them. Sadly for India, their bowler most likely to exploit the conditions, Zaheer Khan, has been ruled out again. As an additional factor, this is the ground Kevin Pietersen made his reputation on within the county game - he has two big Test centuries here. It all points to England being on top.

One word of caution - one has to go back to 2004 to find the last instance of a side winning the test batting second, and that was courtesy of a virtuouso performance by a genius named Muralitharan. That little coin tomorrow morning may yet prove to be the most decisive element.

Canadian Grand Prix

Well, that was a cracker wasn't it ?

So into my F1 these days, and an absolute McLaren convert since the tour of their Technology Centre.

Contemplating a trip to Spa for August Bank Holiday as a late birthday present to myself...

ITV HD

There now follows a transcript of my reaction to ITV HD cutting to an advert and missing the England goal last night. I will leave out the swear words.

Dismal England Performance

No, no, not THAT. I'm talking about the rugby.

We seem to have regressed back to 1991, stick it up your jumper. Australia are building up nicely into an exciting team that is all set to break All Black hearts *again* next year.

It's not good Johnno, it's really not. We need a playmaker at 10 or 12, and we need pace at 13. Picking two bangers in the centre is not going to work in international rugby - they tackle too well. And our backs' kicking out of hand has been consistently poor for so long now its unbelievable this has not been addressed.

Kudos for hanging in there and making a game of it, but I'm afraid Australia's young boys gave our lumbering old men a right run around.

Priorities

Why is it that when I come under pressure at work, as I have in recent weeks, the first things I sacrifice are the things that help me let off steam (RSS, blogging, Twitter etc) ?

It just means I end up abusing my only remaining outlet - alcohol - which just leads to an ever decreasing spiral of depression.

Going to make a conscious effort to rectify this starting now. It's either that or I'm going to start punching people in the pub.

Wild Card I

Watched both NFL play-offs last night - okay, so I watched the second half of the second this morning, same difference.

I'm not sure whether the Bengals and Eagles were dire, or whether two very good defences just made them look that way, but Cincinnati and Philadelphia fans are going to be awful depressed this morning.

The Jets looked solid without being spectacular. They have a tough road trip to either Indianapolis or San Diego next week, and it'll be a lot harder for them to deal with those more multi-faceted offences. I'm hoping that they do us a favour and beat Indianapolis, so if we manage to pull off an upset in California, the AFC Championship game will be at Foxborough. Probably too much to ask for, and I'm not counting my chickens about the Ravens tonight - I think that's going to be very close.

Dallas look like they're on the verge of something special. Solid defence, options in the backfield, maturing quaterback, good receiving corps - potentially they've got the lot. This year may be one too early for them, but they're becoming one hell of a unit.

Snow Business

Yuck. What a week. Didn't make it to work after Tuesday, as my rear-wheel drive car is for motorway cruising, not skidding around in the snow.

Roads around here are slowly improving as it melts, which at least meant I could get to the shops yesterday (albeit using my wife's front wheel drive), but another hefty snowfall and it's back to square one.

I hate working from home. It's so restrictive. Audio conferences are hopelessly inferior to real meetings, and I can't really talk to my team without micro-managing them.

This week's going to be an interesting one. Lots of big decisions to be made.

Man Down

Just heard that Wes Welker has torn both knee ligaments and is out for months.

What a disaster for him and the Patriots. He has been the most consistent receiver in the league for the last three years.

Why oh why oh why did we play any of our starters today in a game that meant basically nothing. What an expensive lesson to learn.

Our chances of making the AFC championship game are now basically zero. Any win next weekend will be a good win. Chances of a an upset the week after are now very small.

Having lost Brady to the same injury for the whole of last year, we're not exactly doing well for luck atm...

Today in Sport

So England surprised me by winning the toss and choosing to field. That may have been partly due to the local weather conditions. Great start, but only one wicket in the final session means honours even on day one. How England bowl with that nearly new ball tomorrow morning will have a big say in this match.

Manchester United. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ! Gotta love that. Ages since a proper giant-killing, but that definitely qualifies.

Villa have another home draw, against Brighton. We'll take that.

Patriots lost, but there was very little on that game. Watching the Cowboys beat the Eagles right now - that's a surprise, I fancied Philadelphia for at least the NFC championship game. They may yet get there...

Darts final was awesome - 7-3 Taylor does not tell the story, Whitlock pushed him all the way in almost every set. 15 titles in 21 years - has any sportsman ever dominated so much ?

General Election 2010

So, there's going to be a General Election this year, probably in May.

I think Armando Iannucci summed it up best, when he likened the prospect of a Tory government to a knee-operation.

“You know it’s going to happen, it’ll get done and you’ll probably walk a little bit better as a result, but you’re not really looking forward to it.”

Truth is, all of the three main parties are left of me and far more authoritarian. I despair of Cameron - unless he's playing a very clever game and is planning to lurch back to traditional Conservative principles after securing the election, I see him nothing more than a slightly less spiteful and more woolly version of Brown/Blair.

However, mainstream thinking goes that UKIP and (even more so) the Libertarian Party don't yet have the following that means they would be anything other than a wasted, or worse, a split vote that lets in the socialists. Given they don't so much count the Tory vote in my constituency, as weigh it, that argument cuts no ice with me. Truth is, I've never lived in a marginal constituency, so my vote has never counted for anything.

So I guess I'll see who's standing in my area and will have the luxury of voting with my heart rather than my head.

Sporting Predictions 2010

Random prediction time.

The team that win the toss tomorrow morning in Cape Town will bat and win the match, and the series.

Villa to narrowly miss out on the top 4, but we'll be in at least one cup final.

Patriots to win at home next weekend, but lose away in the next round. Hard to call a Superbowl winner, five very good teams this year, but I reckon the Chargers have the momentum and the best balance and will sneak it.

England to finish fourth in the 6 Nations, beating only Scotland and Italy.

England to lose a key starter to injury before the World Cup finals, but make the semis anyway.

And believe it or not, its another Ashes year ! Australia to win in Brisbane, England in Perth, a draw in Adelaide, Aussies to win in Melbourne, and Swanny to spin us to an Ashes retaining victory at Sydney.

Disclaimer : I am not responsible for any betting losses incurred. However, commission for winnings will be gratefully accepted !

A New Decade

Let's be honest. 2009 sucked big time.

Professionally, very frustrating. Trying to stop people making bad decisions all day, every day, gets exhausting after a while.

Financially, well not as bad as it could have been, but the house move we thought would see our boys through until they were ready to leave home, fell through and we're just not getting a sniff for ours at the moment. See what happens in the next few months, but son number one's secondary school allocation may bring this back to the top of the agenda. If that goes wrong and he ends up destined for the local sink school, desperate times may lead to desperate measures.

Personally, it was a new low. My father passing away very suddenly and unexpectedly in May rocked the whole family for the rest of the year. When you see a man who has worked hard all his life enjoy less than two years of his retirement, it makes you question both your own mortality, and your life goals. Thankfully, my wife has been an absolute rock, so even when I felt like I was cracking up, which was probably more often than I let on, I could always come home to her.

So what's going to be different about 2010 ?

Well, as with every year, I need to cut down on the drink and up the exercise. I think the events of last year might actually make me do a little better this year. I'm not going to become a saint overnight, but if I can average one less night of hedonism per week, and one more session at the gym, then that will go a long way.

I tweeted three actual resolutions too. I haven't made any for many, many years, so this is a change.

Resolution 1 : Tweet more often. #nyr 2:40 PM Jan 1st from dabr

Resolution 2 : Resume blogging. Find a theme, build an audience. #nyr 2:42 PM Jan 1st from dabr

Resolution 3 : Meet up in the flesh with the people I only talk to online these days. #nyr 2:44 PM Jan 1st from dabr

Well, have now made a start on the first two...

Predictions

I reckon this weekend's round of 6 nations games is the easiest to call in a long time.

France to whallop Scotland
Wales to easily beat England
Ireland to run up a cricket score against Italy

Compare and Contrast

Mon 9th Feb : How dare RBS pay any bonuses to its staff ? They are all lazy, corrupt thieves and should be fired, pay back all past bonuses and be publicly flogged.

Wed 11th Feb : How dare RBS lay off 2,300 of its hard-working staff ? These people are not responsible for the credit crunch and without them the bank would have collapsed. They deserve better treatment.

(c) All media