I was chatting to a friend this morning who was bemoaning the fact that his family were going to a party in the city for New Year's Eve tonight. It wasn't that he didn't like parties, he does, but rather the whole palaver of getting on and off trains, being squeezed by crowds, negotiating drunken fools and sundry idiots, and so forth and so on.

I have been through a similar process and found that, for whatever momentary joy one gets from beautiful fireworks, not to mention the frisson of communal love that comes from a glass of champagne, it is just not worth it. I was texting another friend this morning whose teenage son is grounded and who therefore can't go into the city with his mates for hours of pointless boredom. I remarked that New Years Eve in the West was really just the bastard child of Ground Hog Day and Waiting for Godot, minus the humour and insight - that is, hugely repetitive and entirely anti-climactic.

So, as platitudes roll from the tongues of media heads and a false sense of bonhomie washes across the multitudes, as folks discover yet again that the next day is pretty much like the last and that the chalice they hold is not only empty but largely illusory, I wish everyone a safe and meaningful New Year. May your resolutions be focused on making this a better world for all living things.