“Wake up! It’s 2017. Happy New Year!”

The year started for me when Angela woke me from a deep sleep.

On the TV, the screen was filled by the spectacle of thousands of pounds worth of fireworks, gyrating, cavorting and bursting across the London sky in a kaleidoscope of many colours. Each explosion ecstatically cheered on by thousands of revellers. Over the years, I too have similarly celebrated and have collected memories of pop-ping champagne corks and other revelries, but now I am much more attracted to ‘a quiet night in’.

Perhaps, had I the gift of prophecy, it would have been prudent to have continued snoozing, and allow 2017 to sally forth without me. I like to think of myself as a pragmatist. I sincerely believe that there is no option other than to manage the cards as they are dealt, though, at that moment I didn’t know that the 2017 pack contained so many jokers. From my perspective, it was to become a year like no other. It was scary.

Like many other people, I was overwhelmed and bored by the apparent surfeit of fake news and the never- ending flow of ‘doom and gloom’ fed daily via the media. Globally, it seemed, toxic rhetoric by the likes of Trump, Putin and Kim Jong Un threatened the world with imminent annihilation, whilst politicians in the UK were diverted from establishing compassionate policies and the protection of vital ser-vices by the time-consuming and seemingly impossible ‘Brexit’ dilemma. Could it get any worse? It could and it did!

With the year still in its infancy, I was, despite, to my knowledge, being symptom-free, diagnosed to have bowel cancer and in July I had to undergo an operation to remove part of my colon. I, fortunately recovered well, and I was, after this temporary interruption, soon back on my merry way, until November, when I was once again unexpectedly stopped in my tracks by a kidney stone that left me in consider-able pain and kicking my heels at the A&E Department.

“Enough is enough” I had thought. “I don’t want another year like this, I’m glad it is nearly over!”

But nothing is over ‘til the Matron sings!