New Year? Another year...

So the most expensive night out, most drunken night out, or most boring night of the year (depending upon who you are and what you choose to do with it) is nearly upon us... again!

So what?  Its just another night isn't it?  For me, it will be.  There was a time when it was like that anyway.  As a child New Year didn't mean anything more than a late night.  As I grew older, nights out with friends, sometimes in distant cities and expensive nightclubs were more commonplace.  I looked forward to it.

This year, for the first time, I will be working on New Year's Eve, and I probably shall be for many more years to come.  What does New Year mean to me now? Very little.  It's just another night.  Just another day either side.  Yes, the date changes, but the date changes every day, every month.

Am I turning into an old curmudgeon?  Possibly.  However, there is no longer anything special about New Year for me, and that is what makes it worth celebrating or doing something for.  Something special.  If it was with family, or doing something new and exciting, then perhaps New Year would have meaning.

What will I be doing at 00:00 on 01/01/2012?  Probably sleeping.

What Christmas means to me

Christmas.  Last minute shopping.  Presents. Wrapping paper.  Sellotape everywhere, including sticking to itself.  Snow.  Ice.  Cold Winds.  Commercials.  Toys.  Father Christmas.  Christmas Tree.  Advent Calendar. The sales.  Baby Jesus.  Christmas Cards.

In my world, it means something very different.  Yes all of the above is included, but there is something more.  Every time Christmas comes around, it makes me feel better about myself.  Even though this year, unlike many others, I am having to work over what would normally have been my holidays, I feel brighter, happier, and there's that Christmas feeling.  But what is it?

Well, I shall tell you.  It's the security and familiarity that Christmas brings.  All year long we live from day to day, week to week, not always knowing what is going to happen in our lives, or to the lives of those close to us, and those around us.  We work hard, play hard, and all the time we have no grand master plan of how our days unfold.

For me, the total opposite is true at Christmas.  For 28 years, from the evening of Christmas Eve, right through until Boxing Day morning, my routine has been EXACTLY the same.  I could recount to you right now the exact events that will unfold, and the timings of which they shall occur within the period just described. (I won't because I do not wish to bore you!)

Some may say "that's boring" and scowl at the predictability, but I like it, and here's why.  As I previously mentioned.  It provides a security and a comfort that nothing else can.  By knowing how and when everything and anything will occur, I have no worry, no need to plan, or ask questions.  Everything just IS the way it is, and should be.

Knowing that for one day in my life, everything will be right, makes me smile inside, and that is the Christmas feeling I get.  No matter what the hardships are for the remainder of the year, no matter how alone I feel, or how commercialised the season becomes, I always know my Christmas will be perfect.

The Woman Who Will Be Queen

For those of you who know me well enough, you know I am an ardent royalist.  Our culture determines who we are as a people and as an individual, and I believe that the Royal Family are a central part of that identity.  Without them the whole notion of being British / English or whatever falls apart, and becomes obsolete.

Along the same lines, it is my belief that those who serve within the family should follow traditional patterns of titles and privilege.  Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall is currently denied this; legally her title is “Princess of Wales”.  Understandably she has chosen not to be known by this title to avoid confusion and anger with those who believed Diana was God.

The trouble I have is that when Charles ascends the Throne as George VII, she will be known as the “Princess Consort”.  Big Mistake.  This is her personal wish, but I believe she should be known as “Queen” or at least “Queen Consort”.  The title of Princess Consort is a modern piece of garbage made up by over-reactive civil servants aiming to please the masses.  In my opinion it flies in the face of tradition and history, and denies someone, who is turning out to be a star of “the Firm”, their right.

Legally she will be Queen anyway, so why bother with flimsy modern titles, that I know we will look back upon in years to come and laugh at?  The answer is “us”.  The great British public.  We are so short sighted, and have such short memories, and so little understanding of why things are the way they are, that we demand and expect the impossible.  We switch our allegiance from one celebrity god to another as they come and go.  How many of you can name the winner of the 3^rd Big Brother, or the 4^th X Factor without looking it up?  None I bet.

Sadly in this modern world, it is the will of the people that has its way.  Perhaps democracy isn’t always the best option for making decisions!