You just never know what opportunities life is going to throw in your way. That was my biggest take from a year of massive highs and lows.
The sad stuff first. We lost Hazel. Too soon and too painful, but forever loved. And Geoff Unsworth and Teresa Hawksworth, both so kind and warm and a cruel loss. Ian Hawksworth's eulogy to his wife, and the mother of his children, was as powerful and loving as anything I've ever heard.
Our debate forum Discuss has had a storming year - we're really thrilled with the progress we made - doing podcasts and putting on first rate debates - the real high points were our religion ding dong with Polly Toynbee and Bishop David Walker and the fracking fracas with Kevin Anderson and Bez.
My involvement in Discuss has really energised my involvement in popular debate and politics. I've seen some fantastic debates - Juergen Maier on Europe was outstanding, Tom Cannon on Football was pure poetry, but it was also contributions from people with a strong personal viewpoint who weren't academics or professional politician - guys like Steven Lindsay, Graeme Hawley and Tracey Smith, and then there was Bez, the longest ten minutes of my life from the moment I said: Ladies and gentleman, here's our first speaker... To be fair, he was on the winning side!
Saw some inspiring and thought provoking talks - the Blue Labour conference in Nottingham was probably the event with the deepest and widest range of provocations my friend Michael Merrick on education and Greenpeace's Ruth Davis on Nature, Science and the Common Good.
The best speech I wasn't at, but listened to on the RSA podcast, was Jon Cruddas's lecture on Radical Hope.
I long ago gave up on the main hall at Labour conference providing any of that, but the fringe had some real highlights - Liz Kendall on the personalisation of public services and Maurice Glasman on community organising - "the time it takes an activist to interrupt someone who is talking about something important to them - 8 seconds. The time that a stubborn interruption could be useful - 30 seconds." Personally, I think you can read some situations where even longer works. Listening always works.
Writing - got into the final of Pulp Idol - a first time writers competition. Making good progress on my debut novel getting published in 2015.
Work wise - I've really enjoyed being part of the Manchester conversation with Downtown - sitting at the table for some of the vital policy conversations that are contributing to the growth of Britain's best city, just as devolution rises up the agenda, providing a positive and progressive contacts and a context for the best business network in the North.
The work for Seneca, Liberty and the Tomorrow's Practice project for the ICAEW has been a real privilege, working alongside fantastically clever people creating businesses that are thinking hard and evolving in a challenging world.
Finally, I was selected to be Labour's parliamentary candidate for Hazel Grove for 2015. As described in the Stockport Express, Prolific North and the Business Desk, it is a big new step. But more than anything this represents a privilege and an honour, it is an opportunity to build a new covenant and a new way of doing community politics in this constituency.
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