Janet Christie's Mum's the word

Almost time to say hello and wave goodbye, make like Marc Almond as he headlines Edinburgh’s Hogmanay Street Party hooley. Wherever you wind up celebrating, whether it’s cavorting around in the centre of the city, standing at the door of the Pink Flamingo crying in the rain because you’re the designated driver again and you can’t get your party animal pals to call it a night, or cutting your carbon footprint by snoring through The Bells tucked up in bed, it’s time to wave goodbye to 2019 and the troublesome Teen decade and say hello 2020!

2019, once we ran to you (we ran), now we run from you, you standing joke of a year. You were a run around, a lost and found, and not for us I feel.

2019, a year of stalemates and uncertainties – Would Boris stay in No 10? Would Brexit happen? Who would win the WAG war between Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy? Could anyone tell the difference between news and fake news, lies and truth? Did anyone care? Would anyone trust politicians or Great British Bake Off judges ever again?

It’s time to wave goodbye to 2019 through the rain, hail, sleet and snow – or just through the duvet – and make a fresh start with a whole new year, a whole new decade. Time to roar into the Twenties, back to work, back to school, back to routine, back to the shops – time to get a head start on any looming Brexit shortages now it’s all going cheap in the sales.

Time to take off that unbecoming frown and say hello to 2020, wave goodbye to 2019 and have a very happy Hogmanay!