2013 revisited and 2014 glanced at.

2013 was a mixed year, both for me and for the rest of the world in general.Some of the highlights and lowlights:

- Lots of famous people died and many more were born. However we won't know who the new arrivals are, because they haven't made their mark yet. They will!


- Departees include:

 Nelson Mandela, John Fortune, David Frost, Alan Whicker, Noel Harrison, Peter O'Toole, Michael Winner, Slim Whitman, Frank Thornton, Bernie Nolan, Lewis Collins, Joan Fontaine, Tony Gubba, Kenny Ball, Tom Clancy, Ken Norton, Richie Havens, Paul Shane, David Jacobs, Bill Pertwee, Nigel Davenport, Reg Presley, Mel Smith, John Cole, David Coleman, Paul Walker, Lou Reed, Richard Briers, Richard Griffiths, Ray Harryhausen, Storm Thorgeson, Seamus Heaney, Colin Davis, Andy Johns, Ravi Shankar, Patrick Moore, Dave Brubeck, Larry Hagman, Herbert Lom, Andy Williams, Hal David, Victor Spinnetti, Phyllis Diller, Mary Tamm, Vidal Sassoon, Whitney Houston, Ray Bradbury, Gore Vidal, Ernest Borgnine, James Herbert, Joe Frazier, Milo O'Shea, Bruce Reynolds, Kim Jong-il, Hugo Chavez, Maggie Thatcher and my Mum.

If some names aren't familiar, drop me a comment and I'll elucidate!

The best known of the newcomers is a young lad called George, whose parents come from quite good families. His future fame is probably assured.... poor little chap!

In 2013 England cricketers won the ashes and lost them again with what is probably going to be a whitewash in Australia.

Sir "Fergie" resigned at long last from Manchester United after several false starts and has made millions ever since bvy selling his "autobiography" and charging £100k for an after dinner speech (I expect he got the dinner and a bottle of the finest claret thrown in as well!). Since he went United have struggled to dry their hair properly.

Lionel Messi showed that he's not the little angel and possesses a nasty little streak when he refused to visit a young fan with cancer in America, because he wasn't being paid. He was actually in the same town at the time.

Tom Daley came out with a Splash!

Hurricanes, typhoons and floods hit the world.... as they seem to do every year. Thousands were killed, or made homeless. In the UK a few hundred homes were flooded and insurance companies put up everyone's premiums.

The Polar Icecap INCREASED in size, so Global Warming definitely became Climate Change. In other words it could go either way. Incidentally, the "iconic" photo of a polar bear stranded on a tiny piece of ice and drifting in the sea does not mean we're killing polar bears when we start our cars. In fact, polar bears prefer to hunt seals that way because they have a 360 degree view of the surrounding water and are more likely to catch their prey. Polar bears are also extremely good swimmers.

We got a new Pope, the first from the Americas, and the first from the Southern Hemisphere. It actually seems as though he might practise what he preaches and bring the RC church into the 20th century at least!

The 3D printer was invented. So far they've made a working gun and a hamburger. So much for technological advances.

We continued to bail out the Meditteranean countires with another £10m to Cyprus. We also continued to throw millions of pounds at countries like Nigeria (email scam center of the universe and a country sending up space rockets) and India (also in the space race and possessors of a nuclear weapon). Most of the most corrupt countries in the world are given our money in bucketloads, which just goes to show that Nigeria's email scam supremacy is under threat!

2 Islamist extremists set off a bomb at the end of the Boston marathon and 2 more hacked a soldier to death outside his barracks in London. Meanwhile all little old ladies are scanned and searched at airports, while one islamist extremist escaped the country dressed in a burqa and no one dared ask him to take it off.

Edward Snowden the USA army whistleblower was given asylem in Russia. What a surprise!

Kim Il-un had his uncle executed (among a few thousand) for being scum, even though it was his uncle who had masterminded the young Kim's succession. Backed the wrong horse there!

Egypt's army kicked out the president they'd put in power to replace the president they didn't like. Better like next time, guys!

Islamist extremists attacked a shopping mall in Nairobi, killing 64 people. In Algeria another islamist group seized an oil refinery and murdered most of their hostages.

North Korea conducted its 3rd underground nuclear test. Word has it they had to be underground, because none of their rockets went more than 50 feet before exploding.

In Bangladesh a multi-storey factory housing a number of sweatshops collapsed killing 1,129 and injuring a further 2,500. The owner did a runner and several UK clothing companies pledged never to use sweatshop labour again.... at least not in the same street.

My books are still available at Amazon on http://www.amazon.co.uk/Leap-Faith-Richard-Hardie-ebook/dp/B00GQHXSHS/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1388752986&sr=8-1

Blog on, Dudes!