Looking back at 2022 and forward to 2023, Christmas alone and to move or not to move that is the question

It’s customary at this time of year to think of the past and look forward to the future. I don’t like doing that as generally the past is pretty grim and the future not that enticing.

2022 has certainly been one of those years. Finally I have been able to get to work after April 2022 and have been working every day I can to try and sort out my finances after 2 years of nothing. We’ve had Putin (who I’ve been badmouthing on here since 2012) finally come out and show himself to be the tyrant I always knew him to be by invading poor Ukraine whilst the world finally has a politician that is likeable and inspiring in Zelensky.

Even though I’ve been hard at work, it’s not been without its trials. Putin did his best to deter visitors, petrol prices and the Mayor of London have combined to make it all but impossible to do car tours any more.

Several days have been lost to strikes and protests whilst others went MIA for the Queen, both her Jubilee and her death. It just shows how vulnerable it is to be self-employed in London when literally anything can and does happen and it just throws off your income in a way it doesn’t for anyone else.

Some of the highlights of 2022 have been meeting more lovely Excluded people and also some nice and famous people. Having never met him before, I met Stephen Fry several times in the summer but it took to the last time when I stopped to chat and ask for a photo. It’s so nice that when people you admire live up to your hopes.

In late winter I also met another man whose voice I recognised without even seeing his face. It was so nice to meet Jeremy Corbyn and we talked a bit about SOAS and how unfair the government have been to 3 million #Excluded like myself.

A definite highlight wasn’t just attending the party for Boris Johnson leaving office (no not the illegal ones he and Rishi went to) but coming face to face to him albeit through a car window. Even though I was on a tour, I asked if I could excuse myself for a few minutes and despite the presence of several police shouted so loudly that it hurt my voice for several days. “Boris you’re a Ffffing wanker!” His eyes widened in shock and for a moment I thought I may be arrested but the police just giggled and grinned, they obviously agreed and my tourist loved it. I still feel regret though that I wasn’t more forthright in speaking what I really thought of him!

Apart from that I also attended an amazing wedding at the Corinthia Hotel which is my favourite hotel in London. I particularly enjoy their toilets with classical music and literary verses spoken by leading actors and actresses coming through the speakers.

It seems funny when it has been -7/-10 in the garden this week with some unexpected early and quite harsh winter weather but despite everything, one can’t think of London in 2022 without that heatwave. And I had to walk around all day in that for weeks on end. I still remember going on the famously hot Underground on that hottest day. There was also the night when I left my back door open one evening and when I went to close it I found the biggest pop I’ve ever seen on my kitchen floor, obviously done by an elephant but how it got into the garden or through the back door, I have no idea! I still did much better with the heat than the lovely though frozen South African tourist I had a week ago found even the 0 degree weather too much.

Aside from things like getting locked in a skyscraper with Roman Ruins the most surreal touring day may have been doing a Churchill walk a day or so before the Queens funeral. Somehow I wangled special dispensation to take 6 people from Chicago to go behind multiple lines of police and even armed soldiers when everyone else was banned, even TV people. That sort of thing happens quite a bit, I guess I am just good at my job, genuine sounding and good at talking. Another time during the same period having gone behind the lines, tourists commented that I must work for MI5 or the secret services and I told them that I couldn’t tell them even if I did.

Having said that 2022 has been another tough year. Lots of people who were very well cared for during the pandemic dropped me like a hot coal and this year I won’t be doing Christmas in any way. No tree, no cards, no presents. The same for my birthday a few days later and indeed for New Year. There is nothing to celebrate and no-one to celebrate with, Such is life but I don’t think anyone would say it is an easy or nice way to spend Christmas when everyone goes on about not needing money or gifts (despite usually having much of both) but all you need is the people you love. It only makes it worse when there is no-one.

I must say that I am thinking of moving house in 2023. I’ve never been able to live in anything like an ideal home. Compromises have always had to be made and the first few places were frankly living in crime dens and pretty awful places with some awful people. You know you live somewhere bad when you an walk around Whitechapel all day and its only on the bus home for the last 2 or 3 miles where you feel you’re on edge.

A large part of this is due to money, everywhere in or near London is expensive and without either a well paid job or family support it can be impossible to live where you want. It’s all a compromise on money, transport, facilities or at least it is if you are from the poorer part of life. In my case I’ve only ever bought the very cheapest place I could afford, the only place in fact.

Of course I could swap my Georgian terrace house and move away from London and buy a huge place but then that makes it hard to work in London! Again due to money I’ve always moved into places that needed work in some way or other and having lived in the current house for almost 3 years, it bears no resemblance to when I moved in.

Having had an estate agent value my house recently, I now know what I can get. Either a glorious house in the country or another smaller though better house just a mile or two away. I could even have my own driveway for the first time ever!

I’m not sure how 2023 will turn out, usually each years turns out to be pretty miserable and vindicates my no New Year celebrations.

I’d really like a holiday, I’ve not had a proper holiday for a decade and generally work about 360-365 days a year. It would be nice not to especially when as a tour guide I sometimes get people on tours who I have seen many times over the years.

I’d also like not to work so hard all the time but its hard when the government left you to die Excluded with zero income or help for over 2 years. I need some guides for my business to replace those that left the industry, left London or sadly left their lives. If I had more guides then I might not have to work every hour of every day and that would favour moving away from London a little.

Currently I do have half a day off planned for early January when I will be made a Freeman of the City of London which is something I’m very excited and a littler nervous for. I also hope to get my next book out too.

And lastly just because he is such an odious and awful sycophantic creep of a man. Let’s hope my lying MP gets given the boot in 2023.