The year just gone was a tough one for many. So what does this year hold? STEPHEN LEWIS and MAXINE GORDON speak to people who had an interesting 2011 about their hopes for 2012.
Jonathan Cainer, astrologer
2011 was a pretty good year for the York-based astrologer. He had a major breakthrough in Japan, where all his forecasts are published in Japanese; and he finally got around to rewriting his personalised horoscope service, which generates forecasts tailored to individuals’ circumstances.
Most importantly of all, perhaps, he wrote a children’s novel, something he had been thinking about for years. “In 2011, I finally did it.”
The novel, aimed at ten year olds, is about time travel. It features two boys who find a time machine. “But it is a broken time machine,” Jonathan says, “so it will only travel 24 hours in either direction.”
That allowed him to have fun writing about the anomalies caused when mischievous boys travel backwards or forwards a few minutes in time and change things.
“Time travel interests me because I’m an astrologer,” he says. “What I do is a kind of time travel.”
Speaking of which, what are his predictions for 2012?
He has seldom encountered a year about which so many bad things are being predicted, he says. There are worries about economic meltdown; about runaway climate change; about a new world war. Some doom-mongers point to the fact that December 2012 marks the end of the Mayan ‘long calendar’, and so could spell the end of the world.
Then there are those who predict the arrival near Earth of the mystery planet Nibiru, which is supposed to be on a 3,600-year orbit. Last time it passed nearby, Jonathan says, the world flooded and “Mr Noah took to his ark.”
The good news is that as one of the nation’s foremost astrologers, Jonathan sees no reason to think the world is going to end this year.
Yes, there will be tough times, he says. Some businesses will fail; there is likely to be plenty of trouble and strife around the world; and possibly even a war with Iran. But at the end of the year, most of us will still be here, and life will be going on pretty much as usual.
There is cause for optimism, he says. In June, there will be a hugely auspicious transit of Venus, in which the planet travels across the face of the sun.
Such transits occur only once every century or so, in pairs – the first transit of this pair happened in 2004 – and are said to be associated with ‘wondrous things’ happening, he says.
Australia was discovered, for example, because Captain Cook set out to observe the 1869 transit of Venus from the pacific.
But such transits also tend to be associated with good things in our personal lives, Jonathan says. “So I think that there will be a lot of people whose lives are much happier in 2012 than they thought they were going to be!”
Richard Buck, Olympic hopeful
2011 was the most successful year ever for Pickering 400 metres runner Richard. He won two medals in the European Indoor Championships in March; ran a personal best; and made the Great Britain 4x400m squad for the World Championships in South Korea, although he wasn’t picked to run.
There were a couple of setbacks along the way, however. There was a fumbled baton handover in the 4x400m relay at the Spar European Team Championships in June. “These things do happen,” says the City of York Athletics Club ace. “At least it wasn’t the Olympics.”
And in a second blow, Richard lost his funding – worth around £20,000 – from UK Athletics. As a result he has had to take a job stacking shelves at Tesco as he continues training for the 2012 Olympics.
His ambition to run in the London games burns undimmed, however. He is training more than 35 hours a week so with having to work as well, his life has virtually been put on hold.
But it will be worth it if he can make the GB squad for next summer’s London Olympics, the 25 year old says.
He is hoping to make the grade both as an individual 400 metres runner, and as part of the 4x400m team. He has until July 3 to set an Olympic standard time.
To take part in an Olympic final in his own country would be a dream. “It is the chance of a lifetime,” he says. “When I started out in sport, I never dreamed I would one day have a chance of running in a home Olympics.”
Rick Witter, Shed Seven frontman
A self-proclaimed “singing house-husband”, the father-of-six spent most of 2011 preparing for the Shed’s end-of-year tour culminating in two sell-out dates at York Barbican just before Christmas.
“A lot of people perhaps won’t realise how much work goes into a tour. For the five-week tour, we started in January getting stuff prepared, working out where we would play, organising a brass section.
“Next year, we are hoping to get to a few festivals, so we shall have a quiet first half of the year and a busy summer.”
Next November, Rick turns 40, but this is not something he is worried about.
“You are as young as you feel,” he says. “My children are aged from 13 to two, and I think I am on their wavelength.”
Anastasia Smith, Miss York
Formerly a make-up girl at Estée Lauder in Fenwick, Anastasia, 21, has spent the past few months since being crowned Miss York modelling and raising money for charity.
“It’s been a great year, a real whirlwind of a year, and a lot has changed for me. I’ve been doing lots of modelling in London and have got to meet lots of lovely people in York.”
Anastasia has been busy raising money for two charities: Asthma UK (she suffered with the condition as a child) and Look Good, Feel Better, which works with chemotherapy patients at York Hospital. A highlight of the year was starting off the Run For All Jane Tomlinson race in York.
“I just blew the Klaxon, but next year I want to take part,” says Anastasia.
She will also be doing a charity spin-a-thon at Rocco gym, probably in February.
And she will be going behind the scenes, working as a make-up artist, on a feature film production in York in the New Year. “It stars Sean Bean, but at the moment I can’t say any more about it!”
She will relinquish the Miss York crown in York, but her beauty queen days may not be over. “I might enter Miss England again.”
Dave Sykes, paraplegic microlight pilot
During the course of his four-month journey in a fragile microlight, the York Flying Club member battled desert sandstorms, monsoon rains and gale-force winds.
It would have been a tough enough challenge for anyone. What made it remarkable was that Dave is paraplegic.
He lost the use of his legs in a motorcycle accident in 1993, and completed the entire 11,600 nautical mile flight from York to Sydney with his wheelchair strapped to the back of his aircraft.
He must be proud of his 2011? “It was pretty good,” he says.
Since returning to the UK in September, he has met the Queen, and picked up a handful of awards – including the British Microlight Association’s Chairman’s Trophy and an FAI (World Air Sports Federation) Diploma chosen by a panel of aviators that includes the Red Arrows. “That’s quite nice.”
He’s also completed his book, A Wing And A Chair, based on the blog he kept during his epic flight.
So what does he have planned for 2012?
Well, a microlight flight around Europe for a start – taking in Belgium, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. “I’m getting itchy feet!” he says.
And then he will spend the rest of the year fundraising for a much more ambitious project: a solo round-the-world flight he’s hoping to undertake in 2013 or 2014 via Burma, China, Russia, Canada, the US and Africa. “It would be nice to go around the world in 80 days,” he says.
GP Taylor, Scarborough author
“People are changing their reading habits,” he says. That was brought home to him when he visited his daughter’s bookshop and café in Scarborough. “There was a man in there in his 60s reading on an iPad!”
In many ways, he regrets the switch to an electronic format, but he is not about to blame anyone. “I’ve got the complete set of Sherlock Holmes on iPad,” he says “And at least more people are reading now.”
When it comes to his hopes for 2012, he is characteristically outspoken.
“I hope Britain comes out of the EU. I spend a lot of time talking to people in the streets, and I think 80 per cent of people want to be out of Europe completely.”
Controversially, he would also like to see the City of London taxed less. Bankers were not to blame for the recession, he says – it was US sub-prime mortgages. And we need a spirit of entrepreneurialism to get the country back on its feet.
He would also like to see taxes cut for everyone else. “We need to get people spending again. That’s what the US did in the 1920s and 1930s”.
Shaun Collinge, landlord of The Maltings, York
Collinge is one of the rare surnames researchers think might indicate Viking blood.
“You’re joking,” Shaun exclaims when The Press breaks the news. “I always thought I was a Celt. I always believed our family came from Ireland.”
On reflection, however, he accepts it might make sense if there is a bit of Viking blood in him. “I’ve never been frightened of fighting,” he says. “And I am pretty determined.” Maltings regulars wouldn’t disagree with that.
Despite the recession, Shaun says trade has been steady at his Tanner Row pub, which he has run for almost two decades.
This year, Shaun hopes to start work on an extension at the pub, which would provide an outdoor smoking area.
Planning permission was granted six months ago, but Shaun has to resolve various environmental issues before the green light is given.
“So our goal for this year is to get the extension ready and look to increase our trade.”
David Horton, Lord Mayor of York
Among the highlights has been visiting primary schools, giving power-point presentations on the city and the role of the Lord Mayor. “We’ve seen about 6,000 children and we are hoping to see more.”
Coun Horton supports the opening of the Mansion House to public use; last year it hosted its first wedding. “It’s got to pay for itself at the end of the day,” he says.
And the most unusual engagement? “I was invited to judge the Miss Young Filipino contest; there is a large Filipino community in York. I went along with Miss York, Anastasia Smith.”
This year, the Lord Mayor is looking forward to various events to boost his charity fundraising drive, in aid of York Against Cancer and York Mind.
Despite tough economic times, Coun Horton says York people remain generous. “Oxfam revealed recently that York was in its top ten of cities in terms of donations. So we’re not as tight-fisted as we are made out to be!”
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