OH LOOK... IT'S GONE FROM NINE TO TEN.

Still happily residing in "planet holiday". Only I've traded down a wee bit from planet "Christmas" holiday to bog-standard planet holiday.

This involves pretty much the same activities (or lack of), but alas these activities are done without the glow of a Christmas tree.

The tree was removed today - the festive period is officially over.

I don't like and I don't "do" New Year. I've never been a huge fan to be honest. I've always viewed it as a poor relation to Christmas. New Years day always finds me thinking "I wish it was a week ago" etc.

Like a lot of things in Wee Eck's Scotland it's seen as tantamount to, if not treason, then at least "thought crime" not to go for the full blow tartan-hellish-thingumyjiggish-hog-ma-feckin'-nae. But I hate it.. It is after all little more than the mathematical anomaly that sees the number at the top of your calender change by one.

I wouldn't want anyone to think, by the way, that my dislike of New Year coincides with my stopping drinking. It doesn't it pre-dates that by a good few years. After all in this day and age you certainly don't need New Year as an excuse to have a drink (well- I didn't).

Anyway. Try as I might to bury my head in the sand and ignore it I cant (so in a lot of ways it's like Big Brother, Strictly Come Dancing and crap like that). It envelopes this wonderful country of ours like a big manky tartan travel rug every year. It's supposed to keep us warm and cosy, but to me it just feels cloying and makes my skin crawl.

It descends, assisted by the media, like a foul mist and takes us back to a twee Brigadoon type state of artificial sentimentality.

Anyway. To show that I am not against all things Scottish (which I am NOT) I celebrated with a bit of real culture and downloaded from Bogards Tapes a gig recorded last month or so with Tommy Smith, Scotland's finest jazz musician, and Arild Anderson. Beautiful stuff....

I also tried to keep my own little tradition alive of "book-ending" my year with races.

My first run last year (2009) was the Portobello promathon on New Years day - so my last run of the year was the Dunbar Black Bun Run. A quick 1.5 mile dash through the snow and ice (in vest and shorts!).

Today, sadly, the race at Portobello was cancelled :-( The prom was covered in ice and I think the organisers made the right decision. Strange though that almost everyone who turned up for the race ended up running the course anyway! Albeit at a much more relaxed and leisurely pace. While I did miss the race itself it was a great "event" just jogging along with so many others.

Anyway, don't let my misery infect you. If it is your bag then Happy New Year.