13 Mar - The year starts now!



We're getting into the business end now. I always feel like the first few months of any year are a strange and peculiar time. The weather is grim, the nights are dark, and there's nothing really going on. The big events and club listings usually saved for Summer or Autumn, the festivals have announced a few line-ups, but we've still got 6 months to wait until they kick into action, and (in a normal year), we'd have to wait until late May/early June for Ibiza to fully open (thankfully, that's been moved forward to late-April this year, to make up for the barren years of 2020 & 2021). 

But as we draw to the end of the Six Nations (more on that shortly), the clocks go forward by an hour, and there's this evergreen mist of optimism shrouding everything, as we take in the beauty of Spring - by far the greatest 'season' in the calendar - and start to realise that our year, pregnant with a baby called 'fun' - is due for C-section any day now. That means the thrilling culmination of another football season in May, (often followed by a booze-filled Summer via a World Cup or Euros tournament), there's BBQs, seaside trips, Wimbledon, pub gardens, sunset walks, and occasionally, an Olympic Games to contend with. 




Nobody ever remembers what they did in January-March of a year, this period is essentially the 'loading screen' to how we'll define the year in our mind. Think back now. To 2018. Or 2004. Or 2007. Or 1998. Each time I mentioned one of those years, you never once thought about what happened in the November of them, did you? You thought about the activities you enjoyed between (most probably) May-August. 

I will, quickly, just touch on yesterday's result at Twickenham, by the way. Despite the victory for Ireland, it was - without a doubt - one of the grittiest, and hardest-working England performances I've seen in many years, despite going down to 14 men within 90 seconds of the game starting, and I'm hoping our chance to exact revenge will come next Autumn during the World Cup in Paris. That's a tournament I'll be attending, and I'll also be in Qatar for the Footballing equivalent later this year. In fact, having perused my emails last night, I'm booked onto more than 30 flights between now and January. As I said earlier...




... The year starts now! 

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