Hey where did all the time go? I can’t believe that it’s New Year’s Eve all over again… Waking up at 10am feeling hung over and in desperate need of a bacon butty and copious quantities of coffee here I am doing my review of the year in no particular order.
2016 saw some fundamental changes in the political landscape, at least that’s what the pundits and analysts would like you to believe. In the UK we saw the British electorate fall for the misinformed propaganda of UKIP and the leave Europe brigade and voted by a small margin to leave the European Union, a move that so far has demonstrated that our newly elected government hasn’t a “Scooby-Doo” what to do. I don’t have a problem with the result, just that I have no confidence in the people we elected to carry out the task and that there are moves to challenge what is ultimately the democratic will of the people.
Thankfully mass stupidity isn’t the preserve of the British as the Americans have elected businessman Donald Trump to govern the United States for the next four years. It just goes to prove that none of us is as dumb as all of us.
This year also marked the Canadian rock band Rush calling it a day after their long time drummer of 40 years Neil Peart decided to lay down his sticks for the last time after their 40th anniversary tour. What particularly irked me was the fact that rather than making an announcement or even giving an interview with Modern Drummer magazine, he just made a small comment on a blog post and left his bandmates to do all the explaining! When I saw Rush on their last UK tour I thought that they had reached the end of the line. The last track on their album “Clockwork Angels” was called “The Garden” and it sounded incredibly like a swansong to a long career.
For those of us who are Star Wars fans we saw the prequel to A New Hope make its screen debut with “Rogue One”. I haven’t seen it yet myself but I’ll get round to it once it’s released on Blu-Ray as I can’t abide overpriced cinemas these days! And who needs to go out when you can stay home and go big!
Sadly no year goes by without us losing another famous person. In addition to Alan Rickman, David Bowie, Muhammad Ali, Prince and Victoria Wood. This year has seen Kenny Baker, Jerry Doyle, George Michael and Carrie Fisher along with her mother Debbie Reynolds join the pantheon of stars who have left us all too soon.
As for me, well I turned 50 (a “significant” birthday), continued to lose weight albeit slowly and also stop running away from my personal issues and face them head-on. I completed my MSCA in Server 2012 which is something of a personal achievement. I’ve no doubt that the road will be long and hard but at least I’ve made a step in the right direction and that’s what counts.
So all in all its been a good year. Here’s hoping that 2017 will continue to be good to us and that things will get better still! All that’s left is for me to wish you all a Happy New Year wherever you are.
Michael Wlach's Blog 