As the New Year approaches and the rain cascades down on Basingstoke once again, I find myself in the unique position of spending the evening at home with my youngest son as the elder one gets pissed somewhere in Kempshott; it appears that the baton of partying and wholesale enjoyment has been well and truly passed over to the younger, fitter and better looking man. Not that I am bitter at the passing of youth of course.

2012 has been a funny old year, it has featured the misery of another English failure at football, the joy of a Reading FC promotion and the unprecedented success of the Olympics. On a personal front their have been changes to my relationship status, the rain affected failure as a Sunday cricket captain to reach my first ever score of 50 and a promotion to the honorable position of chairman at Oakley Cricket Club .

Le Fondre goal: At night at St Mary’s was one of my highlights of 2012

At work, I have experienced the thrill of contracting with new colleagues and somehow managed to keep the name of Claremont Building Services Ltd going for its 15th year, despite the continuing recession that has seen the demise of many more companies in my industry, some sad, some richly deserved and filling me with unnecessary glee.

But without doubt, for me anyway, 2012 will be best remembered for the rain that has poured incessantly from our skies since April. It is hard to believe that in March this year Britain was suffering a drought after a bone dry winter. However, from April onwards the weather stopped fucking about and went into full scale deluge mode with the British summer being virtually wiped out, resulting in postponements of fetes, concerts and from a selfish point of view, numerous cricket matches that I would often spend my working week looking forward to. The BBC link immediately below makes fascinating but depressing viewing.

BBC 2012 rainfall feature

One source of fun was the continuation of my hobby writing blog posts and I am glad to say that year on year, the readership continues to grow, which like any amateur writer, is a critical factor to keeping it all going. So, all of you who regularly click on my posts that feature, rage, sarcasm, love, hate and hopefully some comedy value, I would like to show my appreciation for your continued readership and the recommendations you have made to others.

Most of the emails and comments have been positive though I was asked to remove a post regarding Deirdrie Barlow, something I refused to do and with the help of site engines I have been able to collate the most read posts of each month.

So here they are:

January Creativity, Where Does it Come From

February-The Patomime Villains

March-The Art of Conversation

April-Crisis at a Promotion Party

May-Bob Lethaby, Leader of Men

June-The Plight of the Buzzard

July-The Blue Peter Goldfish Murders

August-Stumbling Across Twitter

September-Cat Death and Foresight Failure

October-A Roman in East stratton

November-Madejski Alcohol

December-The Joy of Christmas cards

I would like to wish all my readers a happy and more entertaining New Years Eve than the one I am about to have, but remember this. Whilst you are all nursing thumping hangovers tomorrow morning, I will be in the unique position of sitting on my self-righteous moral high horse with a clear head.

Unless of course, I open that bottle of vintage Port my dad gave me for Christmas……….