The year we called 2010 is nearly over, and it was quite momentous in various ways.  Without going on too much I’m going to indulge in a little look back over the year from my point of view.In my own little world there are three things that stand out in 2010:  moving house, standing for parliament and Chrystal leaving for university, about which I have already written more than enough.  Moving house was the one that will make most difference to my life, Chrystal getting into uni is the one I’m most pleased about but the election is the one that gets my name forever in Wikipedia and BBC website, and gave me the chance to meet Patrick Stewart.

We also had a couple of changes of personnel in the Skudder household when Jayne’s cat died and we acquired Chiquita to keep El Diablo Rojo company, only to have Rojo run down outside the house a week later, so we had to bring in a new kitten to keep Chiquita company and stuck to the Spanish theme by calling him Diego.

The year was bookended by snowfalls.  The January snow meant I had a 5-mile walk into work and the PM cancelled his visit to my workplace.  The November and December snow was a bit easier to handle for me – just a 5-minute walk into work – although the impact on the roads, rubbish collections, and everything else seemed no different.

With at least six months of being pre-occupied and stressed about elections and moving I’ll admit I didn’t pay too much attention to the outside world, so I can’t inflict my top 10 albums, films, books, etc. of the year.

According to Last.fm I spent most of my time listening to the Fall and Doctor Feelgood, but Spotify did give me a chance to hear quite a lot of the 2010 releases too.   There were some new albums from big names like Neil Young, Bryan Ferry, Crowded House, Elvis Costello, Paul Weller, Pet Shop Boys, Iron Maiden, Tom Jones and Gorillaz which were OK, but the ones that albums that stood out more for me were:

• LCD Soundsystem- This is Happening
  The track ‘Drunk Girls’ alone made it one of the albums of the year, but the rest is also top-notch, and then they went and brought out a special ‘Deluxe’ edition with some nice session versions.
• Elton John and Leon Russell – The Union
  Another EJ album where he goes back to his classic 70s sound.  This could easily sit between Captain Fantastic and Rock of the Westies.
• Dan le Sac & Scroobius Pip – The Logic of Chance
  They could so easily have been a one-hit wonder with ‘Thou Shalt Always Kill’ but came along with a fantastic album containing two stand-out tracks: Great Britain and Sick Tonight
• Chemical Brothers – Further
  You know what you are getting with the Chemical Brothers and this didn’t disappoint.
• Grinderman – Grinderman 2
  Where I finally ‘got’ Nick Cave, and then went back to listen to his old albums.
• John Grant – Queen of Denmark
  This got a lot of critical acclaim and rightly so.
• Mark Ronson & the Business – Record Collection
  Where Ronson swapped the horns for 80s synths and came up with some great tunes, while turning blond.
• Robyn – Body Talk pt1, Body Talk pt2 & Body Talk
  Three albums released in the year is quite an acheivement, even if the third one was mostly tracks from the other two which were both short albums. I enjoyed them all.
• The Time & Space Machine – Set Phazer to Stun
  Some psychedelic sounds from that bloke who used to be in the Grid.
• Edwyn Collins – Losing Sleep
  It was good enough that he was able to return to recording at all after his health problems, even better that it was with a fine album.

All that, plus honourable mentions for decent albums by Belle & Sebastian, Damian Marley, Hot Chip, MGMT, I Am Kloot, Shit Robot, Janelle Monae, Isobelle Campbell & Mark Lanegan and Massive Attack, made it a good year for music in my opinion – and that is without the re-releases like the Oil City Confidential soundtrack and the Megadeth and Yazoo live albums. And Finntroll of course.  Who can forget Finntroll?

As well as belatedly discovering Nick Cave through the new Grinderman album I also finally got into the Fall because of their excellent album Your Future Our Clutter, and discovered the wonderful Fat Freddy’s Drop as a result of hearing their live album.

As far as the world of Television is concerned I felt a bit of an outsider as most of the schedules seemed to be full of soaps and reality shows which I really can’t be bothered with.  In fact two of my highlights of the year were nearly as old as me – the long-awaited repeats of Colditz and the Goodies.  The only new stuff I can remember having enjoyed was Sherlock, Dirk Gently and the Psychoville special.  There must have been something else, but I can’t remember it.

So what is there to look forward to in 2011?

A new car for starters, a new grandchild and hopefully a new job – I can’t see our impending reorganisation getting delayed by another year.  That should be enough to be getting on with, but there will also be some local elections which might see Labour pick up a few more seats on Crawley council and has to be our best chance of something in Horsham what with the Lib Dems losing all credibility this year.

It will be interesting to see if the student demonstrations and UK Uncut protests will continue and escalate during 2011.  There is certainly enough to get angry about already and I can’t see things getting any better during the year, nor can I see the royal wedding making everybody forget about it all, though the extra bank holiday will be something too look forward to.

Would it be too much to hope for to see Crawley Town beat Derby in the FA Cup and get promoted  and for West Ham to  win some silverware?  I’ll be happy if they just escape relegation.

On balance, I enjoyed 2010 and I’m looking forward to 2011 despite everything.