AT YEAR’S end, it is traditional to look back at the events that have defined it.

To weigh and measure the vintage of 2009 and maybe pass judgement on its character.

But this year… Not a chance. I’d rather review the house band on the Titanic.

It’s been grim in a word and I have no appetite to wallow in its 12 months of misery and heartache.

No one has been left untouched. The swelling ranks of the redundant are all around and the names of once familiar firms no longer with us are already depressingly familiar.

No! I plan to strike a different chord and focus instead on Reasons to be Cheerful.

And it’s not just the wishing of a deluded fool, although you may disagree.

Right across the city and the region, there are bright lights shining out amidst the gloom, promises of better things to come.

Reasons to remember that just like the boom before it, the slump is temporary.

Here are just a few: Development, particularly in Southampton, has been among the hardest hit areas. But strangely, today, it is also the source of some of the clearest-eyed optimism.

British aristocracy certainly believes in the future vibrancy of Southampton, with the Dukes of Westminster and Buccleuch both making major investments in the city.

The Duke of Westminster, Britain’s biggest property developer and one of the nation’s richest men, stepped in to save the Arts Quarter project after its developer City Lofts was one of the first casualties of the slowdown.

Now, with the weight of his Grosvenor property group backing it up, that is one project that finally looks set fair for the future, clearing up an eyesore that has for too long stained that end of the city centre.

His fellow peer and vast landowner, the Duke of Buccleuch, also stepped in to rescue a recession hit site in the city centre – the Dolphin Hotel.

It’s long and proud history had more recently been one to forget, collapsing with debts of £4.7m. The Duke and his Longrose Buccleuch company plan “significant investment”

to reopen the landmark property “as soon as possible”.

Just down the road at Ocean Village, homes giant Barratt has scrapped plans to sell off its half-built Admiral’s Quay project and is in talks with planners about minor alterations before cracking on with it, potentially salvaging the building site that was hoped to be Southampton’s answer to Portsmouth’s Gunwharf Quays.

Meanwhile the Mayflower Theatre has invested heavily in its future and, unless you’re a hotelier unhappy at the taxpayer funding, the Rosebowl’s ambitious £32m expansion also has to entice with the prospect of regular test cricket and all the razzmatazz that comes with that.

Scottish developer Kilmartin is another whetting the region’s appetite with talk of a huge arena and marine basin as part of a £325m development vision for Royal Pier.

OK, so the site is a graveyard for ambitious fantasists. But this is one scheme that has navigated the maze of competing interests adroitly thus far and may finally break the deadlock on the waterfront.

Elsewhere on the water, the port is looking to press ahead with £150m of investment in expanding the container terminal and dredging the deep-water channel to allow two ships to pass. It’s a massive vote of confidence in the long-term future of Southampton.

Superyacht builder Palmer Johnson is quietly building up its workforce in Hythe, readying for the day when the global market for these ultra-luxury vessels picks up and it can move across Southampton Water into Woolston. Luxury RIB builder Scorpion is also ramping up production from its Waterside base nearby.

On our hard hit high streets, where empty shop numbers have trebled, there are also a few retail high points. Now Ikea is open, US electronics giant Best Buy has followed in its footsteps by selecting the area as only the second in the UK where it plans to build one of its trademark vast stores.

Ultimately it plans to build 200 but is testing the water here because it believes this is where it stands the best chance of success.

Meanwhile, our massive defence sector is holding firm, with Chemring on the expansion trail and BAE bullish about the export prospects for its warship building operation.

And cutting-edge technology, another key sector in Hampshire has excelled itself this year with first winning the global race to develop a test for swine flu and, latterly, developing a promising medical response to it.

Looking ahead to this time next year, all this and plenty more not mentioned besides gives rise to a cockeyed optimism that maybe the task of looking back at 2010 will be more like reviewing the Sound of Music than Armageddon