The First Day of the New Year.

New Year's Day Television is rotten! Just like the offerings over the entire Christmas period! I say this most years but it appears to my mind that this year has reached a new low. Vast quantities of films, and I do not watch films, but they were repeats or just rubbish! There was a glut of programmes that were aimed at the brain dead, or perhaps the middle aged, middle class women who now run TV think we are not watching anyway and can fill the screen with the cheap tosh that lies around their studios? It appears they are spending vast sums of cash developing better systems to show us programmes, and manufacturers respond with brilliant, and overpriced, televisions to watch these high quality offerings, except that the programmes themselves have little quality to offer! Almost all those I did like were repeats of those I had enjoyed before. How disappointing is this?

I must say I have enjoyed the use of the PC to listen to radio programmes however! The BBC enables us to pick up many of their programmes after they have been aired and this has been useful. I particularly enjoy Radio 3 and some of the offerings of Radio 4. Comedy, music and decent documentaries abound, usually! I must say I have really enjoyed these programmes during the last year.  The football is better on the telly mind!

While the TV was rotten the weather was not good either. Today started 'crisp.' By 'crisp' I mean freezing, possibly below freezing round here at that. My mood was not helped by getting to my bed at 1:30 and being woken by someone ringing my bell at 3:30.  By the time I woke out of a beautiful dream they had gone and disappeared. Walking around two or three times to day I was surprised by so many shops being open. I still carry the Scots attitude that on this day nothing moves. Usually in Scotland it cannot move of course!  I suspect that in Dalkeith, one of Scotland's more famous unknown places, there were no shops open, and until midday few to care! My face is hot and bothered, I think the cause is the freezing weather which bites into the face when out and reacts to the temperature, not that high in here I say writing with my woollen gloves with the fingers cut out, and leaves me hot and bothered. Where, I wish to know, is global warming?

In Scotland in days gone by 'Ne'erday' saw the Heart of Midlothian play the Hibernian in a local derby. All over the country derbies were played on this day and thousands who had spent the previous hours welcoming the New Year would attend the games. Kicking off at 2 pm,so as to allow the celebrants to return to the next party, the players would get stuck into each other with a will, a will to avoid frostbite usually! The thuggish behaviour of the old firm in Glasgow saw their game moved to a later date, and these days few derbies take place on the big day. I think this is a shame but I suppose this is progress. The fact that on Jan the second we also would play Dunfermline possibly would be too much for the overpaid darlings these days, but in the past this was the routine, and most enjoyable it was too! The fact that we usually (e.g. always) won did help!

The day is over, England returns to normal, Scotland returns to the bottle, and I return to finish the dream so rudely interrupted at 3:30 a.m! Why I ask, do we enjoy wonderful dreams and on waking instantly forget them? We have the emotion from the dream but absolutely no memory of why! So many dreams have been in colour in recent days, or maybe I have now obtained a colour licence for the dreams. I don't recall any black and white ones so why do I notice when they are in colour? maybe it's just me reading too many woman's sections in the 'Daily Mail?'  The 'Daily Mail,' now there is a post all to itself that paper. But maybe later, when I am in a more cynical mood.