Where’s Wally (aka Alan?)
I’m not quite sure how 2012 has gone through quite so quickly – it’s bloody Christmas Eve already (well, it’s five minutes old). Christmas Eve isn’t my favourite day of the year these days, so it’s perhaps apt that I’ll be off to work later ostensibly for a normal day’s slog. It should be quiet, which is good as it’ll give me a chance to get stuff finished off.
So as 2012 draws to a close without the world ending, it seems a natural point for pausing and reflecting a bit. I ended the year in style on the musical front, as well as lots of Ferocious Dog gigs there’s also been Levellers, Wonder Stuff and New Model Army at the back end of this year, not to mention The Crazy World of Arthur Brown and The Moulettes. Some damn fine awesomeness upon the stage, and indeed, I made it backstage for the Levs!
On the football pitch Forest have undergone rather a few changes in this last year too, and well, probably need to undergo a few more to kick on to try to claw their way back to the top flight. I must admit that whilst I have many excellent friends thanks to football, I’ve found the experience of going less motivating this last year. I’m not quite sure why, but it quite often doesn’t quite live up to the exuberance you get from live music – maybe that shift in emphasis has given me an obvious basis for comparison.
Maybe it’s also that increased exposure to music that seems to have awoken that stark regret I’ve always harboured that I never picked up any musical ability at all, aside from my half-arsed didge-playing ability. Our school had some really talented musicians in it, right from primary school and through secondary school and I either never really showed much interest, or perhaps somehow missed out opportunities to learn. I’m not sure. Knowing me it was probably my own doing, though!
I do remember embryonic guitar lessons courtesy of an enthusiastic primary school teacher and an acoustic guitar borrowed from my Grandad, but I don’t think the club lasted very long owing to a few genuinely talented players who perhaps understandably drew the focus of the teacher with the remedials being left very much behind! I’m really tempted to buy a guitar and see if I can learn to play it a bit though – not to live performance standards, but for my own indulgence more than anything.
We shall see. If there’s anything I’m very good at then it’s procrastinating! I am watching a guitar on eBay though, and can be quite an impulsive so and so when I want to be.
Speaking of indulgences it was over the middle of 2012 that saw me drop from a 16.5 stone behemoth to a snake-hipped 12.5 stone dude. It’s true a few Christmas pounds have already snuck back on but that’s something I’m not too fussed about, once 2013 is underway I can get back on to being sensible and shedding any results of over-indulgence. The trick isn’t total denial, it’s not letting things slide quite as badly as they did last time!
Work too has changed at the back end of this year too, so there’s some adaptation and consideration to put in to there. Sufficed to say I’m pleased to be preparing for a healthy slug of time away from the place to relax a bit, and eventually to start to think about some degree of future planning for my career. I’m not very good at that, so I really do need to work out how to go about doing that. It’s tricky when work itself has been so busy.
Still, one more day of that to get through then ’tis officially the season of good will for me. Once Cat and I have shifted our confounded colds then it should be ace. Rich and Em are hosting Christmas this year, so for me it will be the first ever time I’ve not been at a parental-hosted Christmas Day, having said that, the family will all be present – I’m really looking forward to some quality time with them before Forest inevitably bring me back down to Earth on Boxing Day!
But to be positive, there’s two Ferocious Dog gigs in the bank for next year already (including one they’ve kindly agreed to play on my birthday in the Rescue Rooms (for those wanting to ‘come dogging’ for my birthday, then tickets can be acquired here!)), and we’re off to Krakow at the end of February for Paul’s stag do which will be awesome. So a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to anyone bored enough to have read to the end of this introspection.
It’s probably not escaped the attentions of many that I’ve been a bit of a grump of late – changes at work have been troublesome, and I succumbed to illness which I’m probably still coming out the back end of in terms of recovery. That said, there’s been a plenty of good things too – live music aplenty, meeting 
Alan Fisher 
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