....AND SO THAT WAS CHRISTMAS?

Maybe I should feel a tinge of shame for admitting relief that the season of alleged goodwill is finally over.  But it has gone on for too long, what with the `build up` that seemed to have started around September time when the first Christmas cards appeared in the shops;  Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year`s Eve, New Year`s Day, the Monday Bank Holiday....it`s all too much. 

Now that it`s all over, workers are back at work and kids are back at school, Mrs. Snopper and I can go shopping to restock our supplies of Complan and incontinence pants without fighting our way through frantic queues.  And so it`s time to look back and pick out just a few of the things that have scratched the surface of my consciousness in the last couple of weeks.

It`s been a mixed bag really.  Good things included seeing friends and family - if nothing else, Christmas seems to be the catalyst for bringing people together if only once a year, so that was good.   Other good things came courtesy of sport - the last refuge for those unable to do nothing.  The cricket in Australia and the fortunes of my football club brought a welcome relief, which brightened the grey, dark winter days.

We`ve had our share of tragedies - the floods in Queensland, the murder of Jo Yeates, the continuing loss of life in dubious conflicts, the sad and untimely loss of Pete Postlethwaite.

We`ve also had some of the more bizarre, such as the gripping news that Sir Elton ("Arise, Sir Reg!") John and his husband David Furnish are having a baby by a surrogate mother. Now I guess these days it`s `cool` that people can do pretty much what they please but I`m afraid that `news` left me feeling just a tad uncomfortable - as much by the public exhibition of unrestrained excess as by the feeling that, however pleased with themselves the happy couple may be, there remains some concern for the all round wellbeing of `their` child.  And apparently, there are more on the way. 

And how could I miss yet another example of the small minded pettiness of that other knight of the realm, `Sir` Alex Ferguson?   Preston North End had little choice but to bring an end to the stewardship of their club by Ferguson`s son, Darren, following a string of poor results leaving them at the bottom of the Championship table.   And `Sir` Alex`s reaction to his son`s sacking?  Why, to instantly recall three Manchester United players who had been on loan to Preston.   It simply confirmed that despite being  knighted for services to Tony Blair, Ferguson senior simply has no style, no class, no dignity.  Happy Christmas to all those in Preston.

And we`ve had some bizarre political shenanigans too.  We had the ConDemNation coalition government relaxing planning laws, so that there are now loads of things you can apparently do in the Big Society without planning consent - I quite expect to see an exploratory drilling rig being assembled in next door`s garden, just in case. 

 HM Gov. have also decreed that local councils should relax parking fees and parking restrictions.   They have hailed it as `the end of the war on motorists,`.....just at the same time as they impose a VAT increase on the price of everything, including petrol, along with yet another hike in fuel duty to save the planet from global warming as we shiver our way through the coldest winter for over 100 years.  They should know by now that with yesterday`s rain we did not come down.

So it was a mixture of the good, the bad and the ugly......I must leave you to decide which of my yuletide selections fall into which category.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!