New Year's Eve 2008 at The Sleaze

Well, here we are again, into the last few hours of another year. Unless you live in Australia or New Zealand, in which case it is already 2009 for you. Gad, how exciting it must be to live in the future! All of which just underlines how arbitrary the concept of the 'New Year' is - it's only a matter of geography which dictates when we celebrate it. Indeed, if you go back only a couple of hundred years, they didn't even celebrate New Year in January - March was considered the beginning of the year. Anyway, ruminations on the calendar aside, having looked back at 2008 at The Sleaze yesterday, I suppose I really should be looking forward to 2009. However, the truth is that I haven't a bloody clue what's going to be on the site next year! Don't misunderstand me - I've got plenty of ideas for stories, I just don't know when they'll come to fruition or what form they'll take! That's just the way I work! I can tell you what I'm doing tonight to celebrate the New Year - not a lot. After much consultation with drinking cronies, the unanimous decision was that it is too bloody cold to go and and deal with the usual idiotic New Year revellers. Besides, it is getting increasingly difficult to find somewhere you can just go for a drink on New Year's Eve these days - most pubs and bars either charge at the door, have private parties or insist on having discos, karaoke or the like. Consequently, everyone has decided to be antisocial and stay at home. So it'll just be me, the beer, whisky, prawn crackers and sausage rolls seeing in the New Year.

The other thing we are all supposed to turn our attention to at this time of year are New Year resolutions. As I've made clear before, I don't usually have much time for these - if you are going to do something, just bloody do it, regardless of the time of year. The reality is that most people never manage to stick to them beyond January, anyway. However, regular readers (and I still live in hope that there are some), might recall that last year I did make a resolution - to avoid my usual romantic disappointments by refusing to fall for unsuitable and unattainable women who don't even notice I exist. I'm happy to say that I've actually stuck to this resolution. Consequently, I've enjoyed twelve months entirely free of unrequited love, which have left me feeling emotionally renewed. This is the happiest I've been in years! So, am I going to make another resolution, along similar lines, this year? I don't think so. I feel that I've learned from the experience of the past year and can now manage my emotional life much better than before. The only firm resolution I'm making this time is o give up 2008 for good! Happy New Year to you all!