Don't go chasing Polar Bears

The bloke second from the right may well have a Knighthood, but that don't make him the Best

I may not always be the best person to come to for advice (blog posts passim), but I'll always give you a good soundbite; since moving back (just in time - a year later and I'd have ended up like Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) and finding myself in familiar surroundings and in the company of friends old and new, I can look back at the year just gone and say 'Yeah, I think we smashed it.'

As for resolutions to carry into 2018, anyone who knows me will testify that you've got more chance of kissing the Queen's tits than me coming up with any resolutions, let alone those of a New Year variety. That said, the Great Escape from Pickering and my relocation to Nottingham has been done to death (again, this blog is littered with reams of the stuff) so, after today, we won't speak of it again; the files have been shredded and the numbers deleted from my phone. Literally.

Right, I'm glad we've got that out of the way. So, in keeping with the unwritten Blogger's Code, here's 2017 all wound up and ready to play; no Top Tens of this, that and the other, just one list. Here you go:

Best Album: Pugwash - Silverlake

Best Single: Pugwash - What Are You Like

Best Gig: Ryan McMullan - Rescue Rooms

Best Choir: Sherwood Voices

Best Novel: My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent

Best Magazine: Ferment - Adventures in the Global Craft Alcohol Movement

Best Podcast: The Allusionist

Best Indian Restaurant: The Balti House, Hockley

Best Pub: Doctor's Orders, Carrington

Best Caff: Warsaw Diner, Canning Circus

Best Beatle: Still George. Obvs.

Best Best: Ditto

Best Postcode: NG5

Best Blog: We Are Cult*

Best person to follow on Twitter: Neville Southall

Best film I went to see on my birthday: North By Northwest

Best TV Programme (Not just of 2017 by the way): Detectorists

Best TV soundtrack: Johnny Flynn (Detectorists)

Best Boxset/Netflix series I've watched this year: Mad Men. By a country mile

And finally, the Best thing I did in 2017: Move On

* Thank you to We Are Cult - always a riveting read - for reminding me earlier this year just how good McCartney II is. Whether or not 'it's the boldest statement a solo Beatle made during Lennon's lifetime' is another thing altogether. (But it makes for a great strap line.)

Macca - Waterfalls

*And that's where today's Blog Post title came from. It could even be your New Year's Resolution.

Happy New Year!