End of Year

So I suppose this is my end of year review part two....and it's funny to think that in parts of the world it's already 2007, while we still have six and a half hours of the old year to fritter away.

And that's exactly what we're doing chez Shanahan. It's a dark and stormy night here - so no prospect of first footing it around Risborough. The rabbits are safely tucked up for the night and there's a bottle of wine open and I'm merely doodling while my elder two children cook us an end of year supper.

This is the year when I became father to a teenager. L-B's currently making her own breadcrumbs while my 11 year old, Rory, is squeezing the living daylights out of several cloves of garlic. We're promised home-made chicken kievs with a side dish of risotto bianco con pesto in the next hour or two. I hope this is the start of things to come and I'm impressed and delighted that both the elder two like cooking.

Sophie has disappeared to the other end of the house - she's up to something....I'm just not sure what!

So goodbye to 2006 and all that. it has been a year when I've got far more involved in CiB and also the BBC's public accountability setup. I've stuck with rugby coaching after a couple of wobbles ....and even managed to win the Weakest Link and get selected for Mastermind in 2007.

Work has, frankly, been a bit of a coast and I've got to up the game in '07 - and really push into travel and history writing which both proved fun but ultimately not very productive this year.

With glass of Chablis in hand I wish good cheer to:

everyone who put some work Leapfrog's way in '06;
the guys who have restorted my faith in internal comms with some excellent entries to the awards I've been judging this last week;
Tom Jones for being a very gracious astronaut and encouraging in his review of my first effort in space programme writing;
the BBC Weakest Link crew;
two very kind Mastermind researchers;
a great family (who should, always, be first);
Oxford RFC;
Walt Cunningham for being the only Apollo astronaut I'm on emailing terms with;
Chuck Yeager for being gracious - if suspicious; and
Wycombe Wanderers for an amazing football adventure.

And I'll leave the dregs to:

Those wankers using Leapfrog's email address to spam in vain;
The double wanker who reversed into my front fence;
communicators who enter poor work into awards schemes;
communication dinosaurs who still believe the medium is all that matters;
Blair and Bush......great foreign policy guys.

Good luck, God bless, and may your feet go with you.