The Queen's Stuart's Speech

Eet has been a yeahr owv mowst cyelebrated joy - of fainding love and of maiking long jourrneys. Karissa aind Ai would laike to say a most heartfelt and wonderous thank you to hyou all.

Stuff that. I'll leave the accent to HRH. It's too much trouble to type it.

There will be posts before the new year, too, so there's no great and pressing need to sum up 2004 just yet. I have a sneaky suspicion that I haven't done as well on my 'To Do' list for 2004 as I did in 2003.
Ah well.
There were a few things I did which weren't on the list, including the getting married thing and the emigrating thing, which I'm perfectly happy about even though they weren't, strictly speaking, on the agenda.

But lo! It is the time of gifts and coldness and Winter Festivals of varying religions...unless you're in the Southern Hemisphere, in which case it is the time of gifts and warmth and Festivals which bear no resemblance to the seasons going on outside. But I'm sure you'll improvise masterfully.

Have a great and good time with your holiday, whichever it may be, wherever it may be, and whosoever you spend it with.

As this rounded chunk of rock spins around its star, spare a thought for all those who you have brushed with this year - be it passing them on a pavement or sidewalk, on a train, a bus, in the shops, over the phone to a customer services department (yes, even those sods) on the Internet, through your work
or sport or play or anything...and know that they and the people they've brushed with and beyond, those they came into contact with and theirs and theirs and theirs...as the web of contact and connection fans outwards and around the planet, know that that is all of us, all of us on this planet, living together on this spinning piece of rock which wobbles around a star.

And I, in the biggest, most ambitious broadcast sentiment ever, in the most stretched-thin CC-style, would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas, whether you celebrate it or not - just have a fun 25th of December 2004, okay?

There. That means I don't have to wish anyone else a Happy Christmas again this year, and I've improved my productivity enormously.

So with that, Krissa and I are retiring to her parents' home in the state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations for the holidays, where we shall no doubt aim to have a riotously good time.

Back soon.

And when I mean 'back soon', I mean 'back soon, when in the next thrilling episode two of my best friends from England join us for New Year's Eve revelry and tourist New-York-ness on a Biblical scale'.

Thought I'd better clarify.
Have fun, one and all.