Another year passes and another begins.

The news rarely seems to get better though.

Happy New Year anyway.

I would say “Happy New Year” but that might be tempting fate.

So all the best for 2022.

We can only hope it’s a better year than any of the past half-decade or so.

A guid New Year tae yin an’ a’.

(And monie may ye see.)

A couple of supermarkets – Morrisons and, I think, Sainsbury’s – I visited between Christmas and the New Year had signs up saying, “Happy Hogmanay.”

Happy Hogmanay?

No-one ever says that.*

My local Tesco made a better fist of it. Their sign – above the alcholic drinks isle, natch – said, “Celebrate Hogmanay,” which is more like it. But even then drink isn’t usually taken till after the bells, by which time Hogmanay is past.

So, now it’s here.

Happy New Year.

* Edited to add: except, oddly, Catriona Shearer and Craig Hill on Scotland’s Hogmanay Live last night.

Happy New Year, everybody.

A Happy New Year to everyone.

In passing I hope any USian readers note the absence of the possessive (‘s) in the above sentence. Which is to say I did not write, “Happy New Year’s,” a usage I have heard on US TV programmes and which every time I do hear manages to irritate me enormously.

In Scotland (and the UK as a whole) the greeting relates to the whole year; not just to its first day. For this reason I shall still be saying, “Happy New Year,” to folks during all of next week – and beyond, depending on when I first encounter people during 2011.

It’s a culture thing. Ignore me if you like.

If you’re Chinese, or Middle Eastern, New Year is some other time anyway.

Well, we won’t make it to Jupiter this year. We haven’t even made it to Mars.

Just one more example of how the future wasn’t.

Happy New Year anyway; to one and all.

*Btw; I hope we’re all pronouncing this year as “twenty-ten.”