Signing off

It's Christmas day. The turkey was dry. Cranberry sauce way too sweet. Not sure about you, but for me Christmas day is, more often than not, a disappointment. Not really. We don't celebrate Christmas. No turkey, no tree no cranberry sauce. Actually, just back from my first run since completing my 1,000km. The Heath is still completely covered in snow. Lovely.

Anyway, as promised, before I sign off on this blog, there is only one thing left to do - share with you my predictions for the New Year.

You see, after foreseeing the drop in the price of oil below $70 when all the "experts" said it was heading toward $210 per barrel and, more significantly, anticipating that Carla Bruni (aka Mrs Sarkozy) will take a lover in 2009, my annual forecasts have become a thing of legend. As accurate as those of Macbeth's witches. As thought provoking as Wittgenstein's Tractatus Philosophicus. As exciting as the launch of the latest vintage of Beaujolais. An event which many are waiting for from the moment the days start getting shorter.

So, after the hyperbolic, and by-no-means-truthful introduction, here goes: my predictions for 2011:

Economics & Business:

1) Irving Picard, entrusted to recoup the money Madoff burnt, will recover $5bn from HSBC and $15bn in total
2) Spanish government bonds will rise to 7%
3) BP will sell its US downstream business to protect its US drilling rights
4) Oracle will acquire a major hardware storage business
5) A Chinese website will become the world's 2nd largest social network site and IPO to raise $10bn
6) UK GDP will grow by 3.7%; US GDP will grow by 4.3%

Culture:

1) Social Network to win Best Picture at the Oscars; Leonardo De Caprio will win Best Actor
2) J.K. Rowling will announce a new Harry Potter book
3) Titian's The Madonna and Child with Saints Luke and Catherine of Alexandria will sell for $50m in auction - currently expected to raise $15m-$20m
4) Matthew Weiner will announce that the 5th series of Mad Men is the last, making it the last non-interactive major TV drama series

Sports:

1) The amounts FIFA members received as bribe to vote for Russia and Qatar for 2018 & 2022 respectively will be revealed - >$100,000 each
2) Arsenal will win the Premier League (no laughing please - it's not that they are so good but that the others are equally bad)
3) Real Madrid will win the Champions' Leauge; Jose Murinho will accept his medal with modesty and humility (ha ha ha) and Cristiano Ronaldo will stop looking at himself in the mirror (ho ho ho)
4) Chelsea will fire Carlo Ancelotti and will replace him with Guus Hiddink (not a long-shot by any measure)
5) Roger Federer will regain No. 1 spot (BTW Andy Murray will not win a Grand Slam)

Gossip:

1) Katie Holmes will leave husband Tom Cruise and expose him as gay
2) Gwyneth Paltrow will announce she is pregnant
3) Carla Bruni will admit to having an affair in 2009, thereby vindicating my forecast
4) David Beckham will admit to having a child out of wedlock

News & Politics:

1) The Coalition will last; David Cameron and Nick Clegg will announce they are in love
2) Vince Cable will resign from the government (more likely even than Ancelotti losing his job)
3) Israel & the Palestinians will announce (another) failed peace initiative
4) The US will capture Osama bin Laden or, at least, prove he is dead
5) Obama's approval ratings will top 50%; Sarah Palin will announce she is standing for President in 2012 (the latter admittedly obvious)
6) NATO will strike a deal with the Taliban

I will consider anything less than 20/25 a major failure.

Many thanks to all of you who found time to read this blog. I had a great time writing it. Hope you enjoyed the reading.

Signing off.