Some things are over, some things go on

In the pub this evening reminiscing about the year gone by. 2016 has had its fair shares of ups and downs, and then some.

People have left our lives. And people have entered. Where will we all be this time next year? Only a fool would bet on the outcome of that particular brain teaser.

There's no fool like an old fool

I'd had all month to write a new song ahead of last night's Songwriters Circle, but, not for the first time, I missed the deadline completely. Damn you Noel Gallagher - you say these songs are falling out of the sky waiting to be caught - why don't you start sending a few my way? I did, however, write a song straight off the bat when I got back. How perverse is that? It's called There's No Fool (Like An Old Fool) and was inspired by a line from my dad's recent postcard: he's just completed his first solo vacation in I don't know how many years following the recent death of my mother.

As missives go it was probably the most information packed script ever to fill the reverse side of a 7 x 5 picture of The Med. He missed his calling - he should've been a copywriter and no mistake. Or a stand in for Michael Palin.