On the last day of the year I suppose it’s customary to take a look back at what happened during the previous 12 months.
But the trouble with doing that this year is the risk of making everyone thoroughly depressed by what 2013 has to offer.
After all, there won’t be another London 2012 – the clue is in the name – or another Diamond Jubilee. Britain won’t inspire a standing ovation from its position on the world stage after a job very well done.
No, I think the year ahead will be back to business as usual, for the country as well as ourselves.
We’ve already gone back to counting the pennies, not that that’s stopping us from keeping the tills ringing during the sales.
And the only thing we’ve really got to look forward to as a national family is a new Royal baby – a baby who will one day be King or Queen, all being well.
It’s a real shame. I loved the Olympics and Paralympics. I remember being stuck in traffic on the way to Gunwharf, trying to decipher the Dalek radio station that is 5 Live to hear whether Sir Chris Hoy had won yet another gold.
And I suppose an apology is overdue to those drivers around me who might have been startled by the whoops issuing out of my open window. But actually, so what? It was a great achievement for him, as London 2012 was for Britain. And cheer about it we most certainly should.
After all, as a Pompey fan there have been times watching sport when I’ve wanted to bury my head in my hands and sob.
But I have never had so many tears in my eyes as when I watched the athletes standing on their podiums, so proud to have won.
My tears for them were tears of joy, not the Fever Pitch despair of Fratton Park at times.
But, as I said, 2013 is unlikely to match those massive highs of the really rather damp summer of 2012.
So I suppose what we should do is this: use the year ahead as a way to fulfil our own challenges, and find our own joy in embracing each life event of 2013 as if there was a podium at the end of it and we were going for gold.
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