For some very strange reason our year end list of the best moments of 2012 never got published. It may have been cursed from the beginning. Some believe it a conspiracy. Others say that the editor of the post forgot because it was Hogmanay. We may never know.

Do you remember 2012? Well we certainly do because all this exciting stuff happened in it. It may seem odd that we are publishing a list of stuff that happened in 2012 but remember the Oscars still haven’t happened and that’s the biggest year end list there is. Enjoy remembering things as we take you through some of our personal highlights of the year we call 2012.

Elyse

In November 2011, sitting in the library, I read that The Rolling Stones were back in the studio, rehearsing and thinking about putting on a few gigs for that small anniversary they had coming up. I decided in a split second that I would be going to one of those gigs, no matter what lengths I had to go to. Were they going to play Glastonbury? I would be there. Would it be in the USA? I would be there. Would I have an exam the following day? Regardless, I would be there.

I thus have three interlinked moments of 2012 which come together as one overwhelming, surreal package. Firstly, the moment in October when I received an email which announced the dates of four Rolling Stones gigs, two of which were in London and at convenient dates for me to attend. The second moment would have to be when I realised I had managed to get a ticket in my virtual basket during the concert presale and that I had secured what was effectively a very expensive form of golddust.

The third piece of this moment montage requires little explanation beyond this video:

(NB: I am not the screaming woman in this video. However, I was definitely a screaming woman, sitting somewhere nearby.)

Michelle

The 7^th November 2012: the day Glasgow Celtic beat the so called best team in the world, FC Barcelona. This moment would have been a whole lot better if I had actually been at Celtic Park to witness it along with the rest of my family. Instead, I was in the library essay writing. Tough life, eh? Still, I think the text I received from my mum after the game sums up the euphoria of all Celtic fans on that fateful November evening: ‘Omg, it was amazing. Gran cried 3 times. Lol!’ (Actual text from my mother.)

Hitch

Seeing the Queen jump out of a helicopter for the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics has to be up there. I am not ashamed to say this, but Danny Boyle made me cry that night with his ceremony – and who couldn’t shed a tear when a deaf dumb and blind choir of children sung the national anthem? Or seeing nurses and actual patients of Great Ormond Street celebrating the NHS AND Children’s Literature Or having the inventor of the internet Tim Berners-lee send a tweet at the pinnacle of a ceremony that says – “you know what people of earth? We are fucking good at shit”. Even seeing Grime music given centre stage via Dizzee Rascal in front of literally billions of people – one of only a few features of East London that was actually celebrated. Actually the entire thing was pretty great – I don’t think £9 Billion is too much to pay for an Olympic venue full to brim booing members of parliament. Not in jest mind, in actual fully fledged hatred. Seeing private firm G4S get roundly screwed by their own ineptitude when a public entity could do it even better, and at a moment’s notice too was quite enjoyable. Somewhere there is my favourite memory of 2012, but given that everyone else on this page is likely to say something similar, regardless of how fantastic a job Boyle did (there are few people who can excite Huw Edwards and Trevor Nelson with the same spectacle) my favourite moment falls between man landing a rover on Mars, or Cern Scientists basically announcing

that they were right about sub-atomic particles of which I understand very little. All I know is that it feels good to see scientists get genuinely excited by what they are doing, and having coherent trans-global efforts of man rewarded with success and demonstrating what can be done if we work together to do something that doesn’t simply

make immediate profit.
Other Contenders: Not being killed in that apocalypse, Felix Baumgartner jumping from Space, Obama winning election even though 27% of the US still voted for a complete douchebag.

Angus

Chris Hoy
2012 has been a pretty big deal in the UK the Jubilee happened, NASA landed a Rover on Mars (@MarsCuriosity) and Felix Baumgartner floated to space and then jumped back down to earth. For me though I felt the best moment occurred during the Olympics. Olympic fever gripped even the worst cynic, I am not even particularly interested in people who sport, but something about it happening in this country and Britain doing so well made it compelling viewing. Everyone seemed to be hooked and as I was leaving work I realised that I was going to miss Chris Hoy’s final solo race. Walking up Lothian road I remembered the big screen in Festival square where I joined what appeared to be the entire staff of Clydesdale bank and the various other offices around the square to cheer on Sir Chris to his final Gold. I never thought I’d say this but cheering on an old Watsonian as he showed some cyclists a thing or two about cycling was my favourite moment this year.

Sam

I went to Copenhagen for a couple of days, that was pretty cool

Finlay

It is undeniable that the Olympics were pretty great. The opening ceremony was exceptional, it some how got those of us who were expecting to hate the whole thing on board. I can’t quite remember the last time I enjoyed sports as much as I did in summer 2012. Other moments of the year are personal to me. This year I helped organise a 24 hour long radio show which I hosted with Christian Illingworth all in the name of charity. We interviewed a bunch of guests; highlights being Michael Winslow, Frightened Rabbit and Diane Spencer. We also played a bunch of games on air and didn’t sleep for over a day. It was certainly a marathon trying to keep the momentum going but we managed it and in the end raised a whole bunch of money for Waverley Care. My other personal highlight has been relaunching Nanu Nanu. After chatting to a few people it became clear that relaunching Nanu Nanu was going to be viable and so it happened. It has been really rather fun.