So it's is goodbye to ..

.. and in with a new year. I love the start of a new year - it's a bit like having a brand new jotter. A time for new beginnings, every seems clean and untarnished and full of opportunity. Conversely, I have never much liked New Year's Eve. It's all too easy to feel a social misfit because you are not having the party of a lifetime and because you do not feel any peace and goodwill towards the drunken idiot that has stamped on your toes and slopped drink (and worse) over you.

The very best New Year's Eve I've experienced was a couple of years ago, when my Man and I got togged up and walked to a nearby hotel for a New Year's Eve dinner and dance. It was very jolly indeed - perhaps a little too jolly, because ever since that night, the hotel has declined to open its party doors to non-residents. Possibly because Neville, the one-man band, had too many party poppers aimed at him by the people on the next table (ahem).

Nowadays, I prefer to either spend the evening having a meal with friends or family provided that the television remains firmly switched off. For, to me, there are few things more guaranteed to depress than an evening watching Jools Holland's Annual Hootenanny or seeing in the New Year Live in some city or the other. I blame it on too many evenings spent watching TV on New Year's Eve at the ex-inlaws, culminating in a genteel sherry toast at midnight. Arrrgggggh! Is it any wonder that the most memorable New Year's Eve spent at home in front of the telly was when a presenter clung gamely to a gantry in a gale- and rain- lashed Edinburgh, with empty streets behind him, still trying to crank up a party atmosphere seemingly unaware that everyone else had gone home.

And tonight marks another first New Year's Eve for me. The stepson has asked to come over and spend it with us. It is a bit of a mystery why a 25 year-old should opt to spend it with us DVD watching and playing cards, but for me it is a very nice end to the year.

Happy New Year to everyone, and may your celebrations go with a bang!