I was going to do one of those year in review things. And then I realised that they almost all either come out sounding broadly like “I’ve had a worse year than everyone else, pity me” or “My year rocked, envy me”.

Being me, though, I want to have my cake and eat it, too.

[Tedious smugness ahead, please, ignore. I’m only doing this to be conformist.]

By any normal “year in review” standard, this has been a shit year, as I’m sure I’ve mentioned in a tediously ironic manner before. A comparison of goals from this time last year to achievments over the course of the year reveals that I have managed exactly none of the things I wanted, mostly because they became impossible thanks to circumstances beyond my control. My big achievement for the year appears to have been “kept head above water in difficult cirumstances”. I don’t feel like I’ve done anything with 2004.

And yet, I can’t shake the feeling that broadly, I win. At everything. Ever.

I have health and strength, and like Fishhooks McCarthy, I’ll steal the rest.

I could go on about my general level of happiness and confidence, and bore you all to death with it.

Instead, this: I got the tube this morning, because I live in the best city on the damn planet, and I’m lucky enough that getting the tube is part of my routine. And as the train moved in toward the centre of town, the sun shone down out of one of those marvellous clear blue winter-morning skies, onto rooftops that were lightly dusted with last night’s frost, colouring the urban sprawl I love so much with a sparkling beauty. I got to see it.

I win. At everything.