Bloody New Year

New Year's Eve. Lucky are the Australians as they're now in 2013 and have had their New Year's Eve party.

Since I can't now drink very much, if at all if my doctor had his way, eating fattening food, the only stuff which tastes good, puts on the pounds and dancing the night away is now a physical impossibility, what's the point of a party. Might as well curl up with a good book or watch a repeat of "Midsumer Murders".

I'm afraid this now is my regular response to the signalling of the death of one year and the birth of the new. A resigned cynicism and aged weariness. "I've seen it all before".

Bloody jolly cards, bloody jolly greetings, all wishing you a Happy New Year. And what do you get? The same old, old year with an extra digit. No sooner has the fair greeting left your lips then you're smacked across the chops with all those bills. You know, the ones you'd resolved this time last year to get under control. A fat lot of good that did you! 

And all the good advice that comes tumbling out of the skies this time of year. How to lose weight after putting on acres during the "festive season". How to save money after losing all sense of reality and believing that you could save money by spending more on all that stuff which, on reflection, was near total crap.

Every programme, on the TV or radio, bangs on about resolutions, ways to save and 20 things you didn't know you could do with that unwanted Christmas present. The talk radio stations plead with their listeners to phone in with tawdry tales of Festive mishaps, mawkish episodes of Christmas cheer, and tearful testaments of loneliness and betrayal  to make the rest of us feel lucky.

This time of year, the parallel world that is "Carpet World", "Furniture World" "Oak Nation" and "Currys" goes into overdrive. Surely they do not believe that we believe all the nonsense they throw at us about sales. "Not £3,765, not even half or a quarter that price. No, in all honesty folks we're giving away this beautiful (sic) three piece for less than half  a crown." And it's with no deposit and is interest free over 4 years.

How many beds, sofas, side boards, kitchens, dishwashers, does an average household need in one year?

Frankly we haven't the room in our house for any more durable consumables. We could move out and that would free up some space.  That's, in fact, what  many people are doing. They have so much stuff  they hire space in one of those storage hotels that have sprung up near motor ways, IKEA superstores and prisons.

What's going on here! Jettison the junk! Or have we become so insecure that we need to fasten ourselves down with clutter. Have we lost all sense of value that we can't decide what is worth keeping and what we should get rid of?

There's much to be done in the world, and in our own lives. So set to it. If you make one resolution let it be one that's important and you keep.

I hope you had A Very Merry Christmas. One centred on family, sharing, giving and receiving. One filled with laughter, companionship and fond memories of absent friends.

I Wish You A Happy New Year in which your fears and enemies are confounded and your deepest longings fulfilled.