Review of the year

To say 2005 has been a year of highs and lows would be putting it mildly. On the work front, August alone ranged from the joys of discussing Festival productions with customers to the sense of betrayal I felt at not being permitted the time off to attend rehearsals for Dido and Aeneas. Before then there'd been a great sense of achievement from getting Nicola Benedetti in to sign her debut CD and, more recently, the madness that seems to an inherent part of the weeks immediately preceding Christmas.

In a wider context, July was, if anything, even more worrying: franco-british relations reaching a new low with London being awarded the 2012 Olympics, immediately followed by terrorist attacks in London and, closer to home, the incredible sight of face-off between anarchists and the police on the streets of Edinburgh. As highlighted in the Queen's Christmas Day address, there's been no shortage of environmental disasters around the world either, so between the way human beings treat each other and the planet, it's all too easy to be pessimistic about the future.

If 2006 is anything like as good as this year, musically speaking, I won't have much to complain about there - there was a glut of events during the Festival, as ever, in addition to the weekly joys of singing at St John's (unless there was any Rutter involved!). This autumn I joined a second choir and can now look forward to performing renaissance and baroque masterpieces as well. Similarly, entertaining at home has been as fun as ever, particularly the realisation that large parties aren't anywhere near as difficult as I'd always thought. Friendships have gone from strength to strength, and even if things with Paul didn't last beyond the three-month mark, I feel more secure on the personal front with each passing year.

Inevitably, however, the events of October have cast a long shadow. My father's untimely death affected me more than I could possibly have imagined and, while there are clear signs that we, as a family, are coming to terms with his absence, he is much missed. The eulogy the pastor gave at the funeral drew parallels between a life brutally interrupted and the Monet tapestry Father left incomplete but asked us to draw comfort from the memory of all that he did, all that he was and all that he gave us.

It's a new era for us as a family, no doubting that. Here's hoping it's reflected elsewhere ...

A Happy New Year to you all.