Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to my thousands of readers.

May yours be merry and bright.

Click on this link http://www.elfyourself.com/?userid=98479f25886096f4e73461eG06122202

And now, the end (of the year) is near......

So what a crazy year eh?
Where did the year go?
I can't believe it's Christmas again already!
It doesn't seem a year ago that....

And other such comments are being banded around like they're going out of fashion at the moment. As are lists of the year. Anyone who knows me will know I love a good list. So I thought I'd have a crack at another one. Or a few. Or something that could be called The Ric Mann awards (a bit beyond my station? Probably)

So here are some of my opinions of some of the best things of the year:

Film of 2006: Tough one, but probably The Departed

Song of 2006: Even tougher, but I'm going for Heartbeats by Jose Gonzalez

Album of 2006: Easy - Costello Music by The Fratellis. If you don't own it - go and buy it, you won't regret it.

New band of 2006 - Boy Least Likely To. When I first heard the name I thought they'd be another Blink 182 or something, but no, they're great. Again I recommend their album The Best Party Ever.

Band name of 2006 - Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly. Pure genius.

Overplayed to annoying levels song of 2006 - Gnarls Barkley's Crazy

Overplayed but still good song of 2006 - The Automatic's Monster

TV programme of 2006 - A tie - Planet Earth & Not Going Out - got both end of the intellectual spectrum covered there then!

Sporting moment of 2006 - certainly not anything cricket related, I'd say it is The FA Cup Final in May. The Gerrard Final as it will, apparently, be remembered as.

So there you have it, 2006 in a nutshell (reminds me of the joke in Austin Powers - that's not me in a nutshell. This is me in a nutshell: "Help, I'm in a nutshell, get me out of this nutshell, how did I get in this nutshell" Oh how we larffed).

I hope you had a good year, mine was ok, as you ask. Could have been worse could have been better, but I'm not hear to moan, I'm here to celebrate the year. Hurrah!