This year has had the feel of being broken backed.
There was a period between the end of April and the end of July when I made no postings at all to this Journal. This autumn and early winter have felt particularly lacking in festivity. I have a feeling that I have lived with another of my periods of my type of depression. And for quite some time.
What this means is that events at the beginning of the year like my trips to London, spending a weekend with Ross on a Quaker gathering at Glenthorne guesthouse and my holiday in Madrid with Roland all feel as though they don't belong in this calendar twelve-month period.
I've also been looking at the fact that I turned fifty-five and, notionally at least, am therefore just a decade away from retirement. The question I've been asking myself is how I want to spend that time.
I started the year by saying that I wanted to do "professional work which is more interesting than I have been experiencing of late". I had in mind a bit more variety in my work at Connect. And this I have had in abundance. Reading back through the various Journal entries, what I am surprised by is the number of postings which express my dissatisfaction with various aspects of my work experience and the detail they go into. You might almost think that I was building up a case for the defense.
So, it's not surprising that I've also started to look at what alternatives there might be and, in particular, whether or not I might become a primary school teacher. Some of my best moments of the autumn have been have in the classroom (and some of the most challenging as well).
How this will resolve itself I do not know and only next year will tell.
For the time being, let's look back in earnest at 2009. I've kept to the ratings that I started last year with their half-star increments.
I've also retained the principle that an event must be rated with three and a half stars or more (ie to be at least very good) to be included in these lists.
So, let's take this traditional sweep through my year.
Ranging through the various categories, I have to say that there were a few that would have had no entry at all if I had stuck to to must have four stars notion of previous years.
Unusually, there were few high ranking films this year. The nominations are
And the award goes to
for being an excellent yarn, well told and well mounted.
I have been to as much theatre this year as I have in the whole of the previous five years. Evenings such as Entertaining Mr Sloane, Three Days of Rain and The Price were ranked good but not very good.
Nevertheless, there were still a number of nominations and they are
I would love to give the award to one of the local productions but it has to go to
because performances and production came together to illuminate a timeless classic.
The nominations in this category are wide-ranging from serious documentary through gripping drama to broad life-affirming farce. The nominations are
I would love to give the award to Beautiful People for making me laugh out loud more often than any TV comedy in the last decade but the award goes to
for truly opening my eyes to a whole hidden history in a year when I have been looking at changing careers and entering the teaching profession.
I have read a number of books this year - many by authors who have appeared in these lists in previous years. Many, many have been good but none has truly gripped me in the way that past winners have. So, for this year, I am not awarding a prize in this area.
There have been quite a few good evenings in the opera house this year but only three which make it onto the nominations list and they are
The performance of Cosi would have easily walked away with the garlands in any other year. However, this year, it was up against one of the performances of my lifetime and so, without question, the prize goes to the performance of
given by Glyndebourne on Tour in Stoke this last November. Despite an enormous number of surrounding adverse circumstances, this performance rang out clear and true with shattering effect. Quite superb and possibly outstanding.
Once again I'm left with just one dance performance to reflect on. I enjoyed my evening watching Barebones Dance Company but it was
which drew the laurels.
My relationship with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra has changed enormously over the last five years with the advent of their new Music Director, Vasily Petrenko. I've been to an increasing number of their concerts and its a measure of his success that all four nominations in this category reflect the orchestra's work. The nominations are
Really good orchestras play well for guest conductors as well as for their own chief and so I'm giving the award to the performance of
because Hannu Lintu is a conductor who I shall look out for in the future.
I bought fewer recordings this year and they were, by and large, good. One, however, stood head and shoulders above the rest and so the award goes to
a compendium of pieces by Monteverdi given by the ensemble, L'arpeggiata, which has given me enduring pleasure throughout the year.
I've been to a number of new venues this year as well as exhibitions as is reflected in these nominations
I would love to give the palm to the Wallace Collection which was a real gem. Viewing Picasso's Guernica represented a lifetime's ambition fulfilled. The Walker Art Gallery exhibition showed what remarkable holdings of European art we have on Merseyside. The prize, however, must go to the visit to
which is one of the world's great collections and gave me the chance to see a large number of works of high quality by Velázquez, El Greco, Goya and Hieronymus Bosch.
There's been a fair few things happening on the social front too but, reading through the various postings, one thing struck me is how often Ross and I have been ill this year.
I know that I've been off work on two separate occasions, which is unusual for me since I started on a four day week. However, there have also been a number of occasions when we have postponed things or not gone to things or one has gone without the other over the course of the year.
And yet, we've still ratcheted up a goodly number of happy events such as
And, for me, there can be only one answer to what was the best experience out of that list and it is
because it was the start of a very special journey which will continue into next year.
Although this list of nominations is quite long, really, with the exception of the potatoes, it is just one story which is to do with getting the old outhouses demolished and replaced by a new back garden shed.
And so, taking the end point as standing for the whole saga, the winner is
because I never really consider myself as being a practical person and yet I sometimes surprise myself at what I am actually capable of doing.
I'm pleased to see that there have been a few special meals this year and that my son Robert's name crops up twice. So, the nominations are
And the award goes to
because it was the first time that my son had cooked for me.
I'm going to go out on a limb with this one and give the award to
at the school where I have been working voluntarily because they have been a joy as well as a trial over the past four months and they have given me a sense of the reality of what a new career may entail.
Again, I am going to go out on a limb with this award as well because not a year has gone by in the last ten years without me saying how lucky I feel to be living in the area I do.
For the most part the people are pleasant. At this time of the year, the front windows of the houses are full of trees with flashing lights. There are no grandiose displays. No-one is trying to outdo everyone else. It's a joyful celebration of light in a dark world.
We are close to shops that cater for all of our basic needs without have constantly to resort to using a supermarket. We are close to the beach. We are close to the countryside. In two hours we can be in the Lake District, in the Peak District or on the North Wales coast. We have access to a major European city with all the facilities that that entails as well as being able to take advantage of the small market town ambiance that surrounds us.
So the award goes to
for being an excellent place to live.