Farewell to 2017, you had your moments

There are now less than 12 hours left of 2017 as I type this,  11 hours and 43 minutes in fact and I have still not decided what I am doing or where I am going tonight to spend the last few minutes of 2017 and the first hour or so of 2018, I can never decide.  I really want to stay home and as I always do what I want, unless other human beings stop me, it will be  cozy evening on the sofa planning my 2018 trip to Australia, paid for by the lovely people at Barclays who overcharged me for PPI not long after I graduated from university. They paid me enough to pay for a good flight and decent places to stay so roll on Melbourne, Sydney and perhaps Perth. 2018 will also be the year I go back to my old employer but in a different job (I did this in 2015 as well but that didn't work out so well).

I am trying to review 2017 in a simply terms as I can and to sprinkle the review with some of my favourite songs of 2017 and some photos.

Travel

I visited Florence, Montreal, Quebec, Barcelona, Madrid and Paris in 2017.  Only Quebec was new, the others are old favourites.  Quebec was worth the visit and it was good to see my friend Miguel settling in a new place, speaking French every day and coping with the cold (it was 3c the day I arrived in mid April).  Paris was my birthday trip and the weather was horrible but Paris was beautiful and watching the Armistice Day parade on the Champs Elysee was a highlight. My trip to Barcelona included a few days on the Costa Brava near Girona and that was warm and lovely.  In 2018 I hope to visit a few of my favourite places again (Barcelona, Australia, San Francisco) and some new places like Lisbon. 

Work

My career has become a box of rather high quality chocolates but not all the chocolates were worth biting in to. 

Music

My music taste continues to be eclectic and amuses my friends especially when I am listening to songs sung in a language that I completely don't understand (try it, it is worth it). My favourite 3 or 4 songs of 2017 are as follows (And yes it includes a song by Steps):

And this is my favourite retro song (from 1974/1975) that I first heard last week:

And as 2017 fizzles out, so does my gym membership. I have yet to renew as the next few weeks in the gym will be full of people who will go crazy in January and will be back to licking their plates in February.  I don't want to be hassled with bingo wings in January. And as for the love life? Early 2017 was still a mess from 2016 and later in 2017 I had the misfortune to date a Portuguese Doctor, all intensity, not much personality, by December I had 'lost' his number.

Happy 2018