end of year reflections

Is it possible, I wonder, to reach the last day of a year without finding yourself casting an eye backwards over the previous 12 months? 
It's not easy for me, because this blog is the closest thing I have to a diary, and I try not to read back over things I've posted for fear of finding myself out to be a twat. So sitting here with a slight hangover it's hard to remember much of what's happened throughout 2013. I feel a bit narky about it as well because I'm becoming aware that my 30th birthday is screaming up towards me at high speed, so the temptation to look at myself and my life and think "Where am I? What have I done? Did I REALLY expect to be working in a supermarket as I entered my 30s?" is looming large. 
As regular readers know, I am prone to melancholic musings at the best of times. But I can't imagine you want to end the year hearing me moan on about my worklife and lack of accomplishments yet again, so I shall instead say HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE and conclude with a list of POSITIVE THINGS in my life on this date - 31st December 2013: 

I am not lying in a hospital bed with a brain injury, like Michael Schumacher. 
I am not lying in a pool of my own alcohol-induced piss and vomit, like my mother probably is. 
I am not unemployed like many of the people my age in this country. 
I have a fiancee who, for some reason, seems committed to me despite my constant subconcious attempts to sabotage our relationship. 
I am living in a beautiful little house that I don't have to pay for. 
I have two sisters that I am closer to than ever before, and both live fairly close and both are doing really well. 
I am not Jamie Oliver

RC 31-12-13