Lozzy Boy's Capital of Culture 2008 Space

So the curtain comes down on 2008 and Liverpool's year as European Capital of Culture. All that remains is for the official handover ceremony to the next capital of culture, a distinction so worthy it now requires two cities - Linz and Vilnius (in Austria and Lithuania, as you ask). This party on the tenth of January will offer Liverpool a shot at the title of Firework King, but looking at some of the spectaculars welcoming in the New Year around the world (not to mention my own showstopping display last night), the competition is pretty impressive. 

Liverpool hosted stacks of cultural extravaganzas, there were record numbers of tourists and an estimated 3 million people attended events around the city. My highlights were the invasion of the streets by the Superlambananas and, as a lifelong Beatles fan, the Liverpool Sound at Anfield, headlined by Paul McCartney. There was a Capital of Culture buzz about the city throughout the year and, crucially, the people got involved and gave the events a Scouse flavour. Liverpool was voted the most musical city in the country and, perhaps inspired by the city's grand status, Liverpool FC saw the year out at the top of the Premiership.

After a festive fortnight of gourmandising, I'm looking forward to a more disciplined January, although I'll put that off for a few more days - I need as much food and drink as possible to stave off the effects of the current cold snap...   

  So the astonishing dominance of Team GB's cycling team carried on from the Olympics to take the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards by storm.  I thought Lewis Hamilton had the award sewn up because of the amount of F1 fans. How wrong I was, and how little I knew of the countrywide army of cycling enthusiasts locked in a voting frenzy yesterday. Not only was Chris Hoy victorious, but the Olympic cycling team snaffled two of the other gala baubles as well. 

An organisational cock-up meant that I had to sacrifice my ticket to the show at the Echo arena. Secretly I was delighted, though. My delight was confirmed when the ticket usurper revealed that he had been located fully fifty yards from the action with a Krypton Factor-style assault course to negotiate when nature called! The staging of the awards has been decreed a triumphant success by the local papers and a return to the Echo Arena is apparently guaranteed. However, unless through some late flowering of sporting prowess I secure a ringside seat for next time, I’ll be watching from the safety of my sofa once more.

I have to confess some disappointment at the absence of any real clangers by the presenting team. They managed a slick show even if the TV visuals were so busy that I started to feel nauseous and had to look away from the screen. Hoy deserved to win the award. His achievement of winning three gold medals was incredible and the highlight of an unusually successful sporting year for Britain. Judging by his acceptance speech he is also a decent, amusing guy, and shock horror, a personality!  

I texted happy birthday to a mate on Thursday. His response made me chuckle: 'Cheers old chum. Liverpool are top of the league, I'm top of the work table tennis league, it's me birthday - I'm a happy man!'

Damn right. The ping pong achievement alone is a enough to take a man to his grave content. And Liverpool topping the league as we approach Christmas, that's fantastic for any fan. Isn't it?

Well not for some of the demanding masses, no. After their last home game Liverpool moved to the top of the Premiership, at a sufficiently advanced stage of the season to mean something, and were booed from the field! OK, so they hadn't soundly thrashed West Ham or Fulham before them, teams normally dreadful in the colder climes up north, and there is a strong argument that the draws represent four dropped points, but these things can happen. Liverpool are stuttering, not yet playing to their potential. They struggled to put Blackburn away this weekend, a team on such a shocking winless run that they should be dispatched more clinically. 

To a degree I can see why the boo boys get upset: Liverpool's manager is ultra cautious, as far from my stereotype of a dashing bullfight loving, hot-headed Spaniard as you can imagine. Liverpool seem to get involved in a tactical game with inferior opponents, overly concerned about what the opposition can do, rather than steamrollering them with their superior players' skills. But I'm a glass half full kind of fan. I think that in the second half of the season Keane is going to start firing, Rafa will solve the enigma that is Babel and the awesome Fernando Torres won't be so unlucky with injuries. And hopefully I'll be getting more euphoric text messages come the end of May...

You know Christmas is around the corner when adverts for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year start to beam their way into your living room. This year the (ahem) glittering event is to be broadcast live from Liverpool's Echo Arena and I'm going along to watch.  I already know that this is a mistake: part of the show's annual charm is the close-up voyeurism afforded by TV of the toe-curling, stilted banter between co-hosts Sue Barker and Gary Lineker. There's always a chuckle to be had as Gary launches into a link facing the wrong camera or other such hilarity. But I fear this merriment can only be fully enjoyed in the comfort of your own home with a glass of wine in hand, not from a lofty eyrie in the gods of a soulless amphitheatre. We'll see...

The awards themselves are even more predictable than usual. Lewis Hamilton looks a shoo-in for the solo crown, whilst Usain Bolt, injecting the unusual element of personality to proceedings, should win the international award (more glamorous than the relentless Phelps' efforts in the pool) and I reckon Team GB will pick up the team award for their Olympic heroics.

Despite the show's inherent naffness, it's a fixture of my festive TV viewing. Sit back and enjoy. Over to you, Sue...    

Amid all the depressing news of swingeing job cuts around the country, a rare positive economic story emerged from Merseyside today as famous shipbuilders Cammell Laird announced that they would begin trading again. Formed in 1903, some of the most illustrious members of the British fleet, including the Prince of Wales and the Ark Royal, were made at the Birkenhead-based shipyard, which was a huge employer in the Merseyside area for much of the twentieth century. The company has secured a lucrative contract with the Ministry of Defence so there will be job creation in an industry which looked to be fading away on the banks of the Mersey. They'll need to work on their security, though, as my photography agent Ronaldo was almost able to wander in unchallenged.

Unfortunately, job culls are the current norm. In these credit crunch-affected times no day is complete without some company announcing mass job losses accompanied by the braying doom-mongering of financial experts. You have to wonder what these people do when the economy is growing. Who knows? Maybe Robert Peston was a landscape gardener until a few months back...