Countdown to the New Year

The countdown to the New Year has begun and, just as with the lead-up to Christmas Day, there's a sense of expectation in the air. But on top of that is a feeling that one door is closing as another opens, the sensation of a certain finality. The end of one year and the start of another makes us acutely aware of the passage of time, and the older we are the more aware of this we are. At this time of the year, thoughts often turn to our mortality as we review all those celebs who passed away during the year.

But as we cannot do anything about the march of time and, as yet, very little about our ageing bodies, it is surely the best policy to behave in a way which will make our time on this earth as worthwhile as possible. So we make New Year’s resolutions that we hope will improve our lives in the year to come and make us more content and hopefully happier. We promise ourselves and others that we will do this, that and the other in the months ahead and, I suppose, at the time we make the promise we mean it. But a few days, weeks or months down the line, our resolve proves to be less than steadfast and the cracks are beginning to show. Still, what the heck, there’s always next year ... we can renew our resolutions then if it doesn’t work out this year. However, as the years go by and we grow older, we no longer see the need for New Year’s resolutions and indeed it gets less and less likely that we’ll be around to keep them!

Of course no New Year’s Eve would be complete without all the celebrations and general festivities associated with seeing in the new year, and so this NYE, as with every previous NYE, there will be the usual partying and razzamatazz and woe betide those who, for one reason or another, are not in a mood to whoop it up. The best place for them would be in bed, their ears muffled, their eyes closed, and preferably asleep! I’m sorely tempted. As for the rest, who are in the party mood, this is their chance after several days of rest following Christmas, to get in another bout of revelry and overindulgence.

After the parties, the fireworks, the singing and dancing, the jubilation and the general madness of New Year's Eve, there remains only one thing to say before the lights go out for 2009:

SEE YOU NEXT YEAR, FOLKS!