Goodbye 2024

As we approach the end of 2024, it is time for me to reflect on the year just passed and think ahead to the new year and 2025. It’s quite amazing when you consider that it has been 25 years since the turn of the millennium. That year was iconic in many ways due to it being the end of a millennium, the end of a century and a year where certain ill-informed people thought that a computer bug was going to bring about utter chaos and the world was going to end with aircraft falling from the sky and all of your electrical and electronic equipment trying to murder you in scenes reminiscent of the Terminator. 

Of course none of that happened and people like me who worked with computers for a living knew it wouldn’t happen. 

What is even more surprising is that it was all a quarter of a century ago. I was a young man (if you count 37 years old as young) and 2025 was so far ahead that I barely gave it any thought. Nevertheless, a lot has changed in those 25 years; for example I am now an old git aged 62 years. 

Anyway, I digress. I am resurrecting some questions that will help me both summarise the past year and look forward to the next one. 

1. What did you do in 2024 that you’d never done before?

I retired. I know that people only retire once, usually, but this is significant because 2024 marked 40 years since I left university and keenly (and naively) joined the rat race like an excited young puppy. Those 40 years had their ups and downs and I can now look back on them with a mixture of happiness and gratitude. Granted, the last few years were not that fulfilling and I moaned like a grumpy old man as I approached the end. The company didn’t really want me to retire and I was asked to delay it a couple of times but my mind was made up.

I am also a bit of a perfectionist and I waited until September so that I could retire exactly 40 years after I started. 

During my retirement speech (it wasn’t a big one) I was positive about me career, saying that although I really wanted to retire, a big part of me would miss the people I worked with and the opportunities it gave me. And the words I spoke were true and sincere. 

Nevertheless, I am delighted that I did it and I am looking forward to 2025 with renewed vigour.

2. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I did keep most of them but it was easy because really it was more of the same things I have been working in. I won’t bore you with what they were as I have mentioned them numerous times. 

For 2025, I have a slightly different plan which I will be reviewing in the next week or so but involves a more refined routine given that I now have more time on my hands. 

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Not this year although some friends of mine became grandparents again.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

Thankfully, I have had a year free of funerals. 

5. What countries did you visit?

It was quite a good year for travel this year. I went to Spain twice (Gran Canaria and Menorca), France (Nice),  Greece (Skiathos), Hungary (Budapest) and Czechia (Prague). 

I enjoyed all of them.

6. What would you like to have in 2025 that you lacked in 2024?

It would be nice to have a better summer than the past year or two. Global warming means that we have decent temperatures but that combined with the UK’s geographical position means that we end up with more than our fair share of rain generally. We do have great years where we have hardly any rain but my nation is never happy. When it’s too hot and sunny people say “I wish we had more rain!” and of course when it rains they say “What happened to our summer?”.

Make your minds up, fellow Brits. 

7. What dates from 2024 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

Thursday 12th September – the day I retired.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

I don’t want to labour the point but I think retirement is a bit of an achievement. You could argue that it isn’t really because people have to retire eventually but looking back I am proud that I managed 40 years in the rat race without going completely bonkers.

Also, I’ve tried to be more positive this year and it has worked. My method? Simple – do not get involved in or think about politics!

9. What was your biggest failure?

Okay – I will come clean. Despite my answer to the previous question I have thought about politics once or twice and ranted mercilessly. I’m getting better though. 

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

I had a rather nasty virus a couple of weeks ago that resulted in a totally blocked nose and chesty cough for about two weeks. I was fine but it was very annoying and was a little too close to my trip to Prague. Thankfully I recovered in time. Sadly it jumped to Mrs PM shortly after our trip and she wasn’t best pleased. 

11. What was the best thing you bought?

A synthesiser. I mentioned it in my previous post so I won’t go into too much detail. I am looking forward to playing with it in 2025. 

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?

As usual, I award Plastic Mancunian Knighthoods to those heroes who dedicate their lives to helping others without wanting the plaudits that many more famous people crave.

I salute you all - you know who you are.

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?

Okay – I said above that I don’t want to mention or get involved in politics but I will try to hold myself back. Basically we managed to finally get rid of the Conservative Party in this year’s election but Nigel bloody Farage was still around and managed to con a constituency into electing him as an MP. 

And Elon Musk I have a message for you. Keep your big nose out of British politics.

The less said about Donald Trump the better. 

Oh – and of course mad Vladimir Putin.

14. Where did most of your money go?

Holidays as usual. 

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

I wasn’t particularly excited about anything other than going on holiday and seeing a few bands around the city. 

16. What song will always remind you of 2024?

The new song that will remind me of the year is Powernerd by the great Devin Townsend. 

However, two older songs by rediscovered artists that I have ben into this year are worth a mention too. The first is Breathe by The Stranglers:

The second involves Alison Goldfrapp (from the band Goldfrapp) working with Norwegian electronic duo Röyksopp to produce this lovely tune called Impossible:

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: (a) happier or sadder? (b) thinner or fatter? (c) richer or poorer?

I am much, much happier. 

I am about the same in terms of weight and body shape (perhaps a little greyer I think with a couple of more wrinkles).

I am probably less well off – but I don’t care.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?

I was quite happy with the balance struck this year to be honest. I have got myself into a new routine and it seems to work. 

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Worrying. I was a little perturbed about retiring until I actually did it. I had nothing to worry about but that’s easy to say. 

20. How will you spend New Year's Eve?

We are going out with some friends for a New Year’s Eve party. It should be fun.

21. Did you fall in love in 2024?

I was already in love. 

22. What was your favourite TV program?

There are quite a few that I liked. I saw enjoyed the three new Walking Dead spin-off series, the Boys, Sense8, Snowpiercer and I am currently enjoying reruns of Stargate SG1 (I have never seen it before) Also I am watching reruns of a comedy show in the UK called Taskmaster which I have also never seen before where a group of comedians take on ridiculous and humiliating tasks in the name of humour. 

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

I struggle with this because I don’t believe in hatred of a human being. I have to say that Nigel Farage pushes that belief to the absolute limit and the worst thing in the human frog is still around. And Donald Trump tests my resolve too.

24. What was the best book you read?

I’m currently about to finish a post-apocalyptic science fiction series called Under the Breaking Sky which is quite entertaining. 

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?

I’ve been listening to a lot of songs by a prog band called The Pineapple Thief having discovered them towards the end of 2023. However, this year has been a year of rediscovery with artists like The Stranglers, Ayreon, Goldfrapp, Queensryche (post Geoff Tate) and Rob Zombie.

26. What did you want and get?

I wanted a synthesiser and got one (but slightly earlier than I had anticipated). 

27. What did you want and not get?

More holidays? I spent too much money on travelling as it is but I could have done more. 

28. What was your favourite film of this year?

I really enjoyed Deadpool and Wolverine. It was a good laugh.

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

I was 62 years old. I ended up in Budapest with my old university buddies just before (the timing was perfect for that I guess) and when I returned I went out for a meal with Mrs PM on the day itself.  

30. What one thing made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

Do I have to say this again? Retirement. 

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2024?

Non-existent. I do not understand fashion at all and my fashion sense is dictated by two things.. First, Mrs PM has the final say on things I wear because (and I quote) “I’m the one who’s got to look at you and be out with you – even if you DON’T care!”. Second, the shops themselves. The places I buy clothes do tend to follow the latest trends so I would have to go out of my way to buy something eccentric and weird if I was that way inclined. 

32. What kept you sane?

Mrs PM keeps me sane. 

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

The same ones as the last few years. I am a man of simple taste but too old to care too much. 

34. What political issue stirred you the most?

I am trying to avoid politics but as I said above I was delighted that we finally have a new party in government even if Farage is still hovering around like a putrid smell. 

35. Who did you miss?

Nobody leaps to mind. 

36. Who was the best new person you met?

Again, nobody leaps to mind. 

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2024.

Always plan your retirement. Mine took several years and I think I timed it perfectly. 

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

I love my coffee I drink it to keep sane

If I cannot have it then I cannot play the game

Will not play the game

'Cause the game is just fucking stupid

And finally...

I wish everyone who stumbles across this blog post a very happy and fruitful 2025. May all your wishes come true – unless your name is Nigel Farage.

The Music Monkey

I have a new enemy in my war against procrastination – my piano. 

I once read a book that suggests that in order to motivate yourself you should make claims about yourself to motivate you to be the person you claim to be. I think that is nonsense, because by that token I can claim to be a pianist. 

I am not a pianist. What I can say is that I am a very bad pianist who can play very simple tunes but mostly makes silly mistakes that frustrate me to the point where I feel like getting up and walking away forever. 

Nevertheless, in my war against procrastination, I have managed, somehow to find some willpower that I didn’t think I possessed. When I walk upstairs I see the back room and there, taunting me, is my piano and I can see it through the open door. It says to me:

“Come and have a play if you think you’re good enough”.

And to be fair, I have started doing that more often. I am a big fan of routine and habits and this has helped me in my battles with procrastination. One habit I have created is to play the piano daily – and it works. Well – when I say “play the piano daily” what I really mean is “try to play the piano daily” or “play the piano like a blind baboon daily”.

It is working. Slowly but surely, I am actually improving. I can play simple versions of tunes like “Greensleeves”, “O Sole Mio”, “Little Brown Jug”, “The Can-can” and “Scarborough Fair” – sometimes without any mistakes. 

Learning to play the piano was meant to be a retirement hobby but I got so excited by the idea that I started three years before I actually retired. Mrs PM can play a little too (she had some lessons as a child) and she plays fairly regularly too. She is much better than I am. 

And now that I am retired, I can in theory spend more time learning. 

My big plan and goal was to learn the piano and perhaps start creating some music of my own. I consider this to be a project rather than anything more serious. And before I retired I thought at some point I could invest in a synthesiser and perhaps have some fun making mp3’s via my laptop. 

Then two things happened. 

First, I have a friend, an ex-colleague who retired some years ago who told me that he his making music. I was interested and then amazed when he told me that he had published it on Spotify under the name Methyl Orange. I went home and discovered that he had recorded two albums at that point. And now he has a total of four albums. 

Here is one from his latest album:

The second thing that happened was that my company decided to buy me a retirement gift. I opted to leap ahead and I chose this little beast:

I have spent some time in the last three months getting used to it. It is a surprisingly complicated device with a program menu that you can easily get lost in. I also know nothing about the various electronic music terms that are required to use such a device, things like MIDI, “Attack/Decay/Sustain/Release”, Envelopes, Gain, Oscillators – the list goes on. 

But, dear reader, I am getting hooked. And I think I need to sit down and learn the terminology before I can get further anyway. That said, I have had a play with my new gadget and my knowledge is increasing to the point where I have managed to produce some weird musical snippets that actually sound okay (in my view). 

Being a technophile, I now need to wrestle with the geek within who wants to blindly dive into the world of electronic music, and the creative person who wants to learn the piano, I am sensible though and I realise that learning the piano is the mandatory precursor to learning the synthesiser. I can however work in parallel to a certain extent. To be honest, anybody can make a synthesiser tune with little musical knowledge but it is so much better if you have the musical knowledge of how to play the piano. 

You may think that this is where the story ends. It’s not. 

There is a third component that is also important. This is software that runs on your laptop and is called a Digital Audio Workshop (or DAW for short), which enables you to record songs, mix songs and add even more effects. You can do things like play a guitar via your keyboard, the guitar being a “virtual instrument”. This opens up a whole universe of music creativity. Also there is so much to the DAW – it is a complicated tool. 

Here is a demo of a DAW:

I haven’t even begun to scratch the surface yet. I need to improve my piano playing as a priority, I need to learn how to use my synthesiser properly, I need to get to grips with electronic music production, effects etc. and I need to learn about DAW that I have installed. 

I am quite pleased that I have a technical background. I think I’m going to need it. 

Mind you, AI could come to my rescue. I posted about the possibility of becoming a lazy blogger by allowing ChatGPT to write my blog posts for me. You can read about it here:

The Fake Plastic Mancunian 

There are websites out there that will write songs for you that you can use on podcasts, websites etc.

I did try a demo on a website called Soundraw and asked it to write an ambient song. It actually wrote six of them for me. Had I not been a tight-fisted old git and actually put my hand in my pocket I could have paid for the songs and shown them to you. 

You can of course try it yourself for free to see what I mean.

I will post my progress on this blog whether I succeed or not. At the moment I want to try to create something myself rather than trying to be lazy and letting AI do it for me. 

It's quite exciting and a little bit scary because what I thought of as a simple  and this project of my has, in the words of an ex-colleague of mine, “grown arms and legs”. 

How am I going to find time to write, learn languages and create music? 

It’s a tough dilemma to have – but an enjoyable one.