You (both of you) may have expected today to consist of part 3 of the great honeymoon diary. But that’s not happening today; maybe next week.

Today, I’m going to do a very brief run-down of this past year.

Looking back on the year, there were lots of things that could have made it bloody awful. But in fact I think that when I look back on it, 2010 will have been one of the best years of my life.

On the bloody awful front: the year started with death. One of my great uncles died; I was quite close to him and it was a stressful time, made all the more so by the fact that much of the mourning was done in the public eye. I’d seen him on the day he was admitted to hospital, and then had gone back to London; New Years was spent hoping that he’d live long enough for me to get home to be there, but that wasn’t to be.

Not hugely long after that, a great aunt died; we’d known her well as she’d spent about a month of every year in our house. Another funeral, but this time we could mourn privately.

Soon after that, my grandmother died. Again, I’d made arrangements to try and get there in time but it wasn’t to be. I only made it back for the funeral. This marked my first cremation, but in some ways it was a happy time – she was no longer suffering.

At other times there were bad moments with people; there was anger at the world and there was frustration at a lot of things.

But despite that, the following happened: I had superb holidays, I was astounded but the warmth of feeling on the occasions of the three deaths above, I had good times with friends and with family.

And above all: I gained a wife, a wonderful partner in all things to come. She and I have bought ourselves a house and are making it a home. And the awesomeness of that makes everything else much better.

Thanks, beautiful, for a most excellent year. Let’s see how we improve on it in 2011…