please enjoy responsibly

It struck me at the non-pedants' millennium how pointless all this point-of-midnight new-year-bells stuff can be; at 13:00 GMT on 31/12/1999 the news showed pictures of the residents of Sydney letting off fireworks whilst we still had nine hours to go. By now everyone between the international date line and Islamabad will have already had ther local equivalent of the bells. If I was going to pin the turn of the year on any particular instant I'd probably go for the pre-industrial favourite of the start-of-spring or the first really warm sunny morning after the vernal equinox; that's when you know you've got through the year safely.

I wouldn't mind so much if it was a genuine friendly celebration where people showed goodwill towards their fellow humans in the company of their nearest and dearest. The current situation wherein I've had to walk around several puddles of pre-emptive celebratory vomit this afternoon and have fielded three unintelligible drunken insultcomments (probably concerning either my hair or choice of legwear) from inebriate oaves outside pubs is sadly lacking in dignity. I pity anyone who forgets their wedding anniversary tomorrow; Tesco have replaced the stands normally containing emergency flowers with large stacks of discounted boxes of beer. In about twelve hours' time all the processed beer will be making its way into drains across the city to mix with this afternoon's rainwater whilst the processing-entities try to find paracetamol in their bathroom cabinet without turning the lights on before going back to bed for another five hours. Still, the upside is that it'll be nice and quiet out in the morning.

If you're out and about, have fun but remember that your head can be a fun place without impairing the operation of bits of it (and lining the already-full pockets of the ethanol industry in the process).

Anyway, if anyone has a spare red bauble next year after they've finished installing their decorations there's a tree in the King's Buildings which somewhat resembles a reindeer which would look a bit better with a proper red nose.

Have a great evening. I shall try not to spread grumpiness too far.