Happy Hogmanay!

[TheGoodEarth]

or New Year's to those south of the border.

[Green Aura]

Hogmanay it is then

Happy New Year everyone - especially those in New Zealand as it's already 2011!!!! (And elsewhere too by now)

[spider8]

Yes a great and happy New Year to everybody
May your efforts be rewarded, your veg grow well and nature show it's beauty......getting all soppy now and without the aid of alcafrol

[Milims]

Happy New Year to all and here's hoping all wiur dreams come true - except the one about being chased thru the supermarket naked by a big spider!

[MuddyWitch]

Here's to a better 2011

What I want to know from Homegrown (or any of you Antipedeans), is: in the future do we have to wear silver lycra?

MW

[flowertotmum]

Happy new year to all...may we all be happy,healthy and self sufficientish..live long and good lives..cheers everyone
many thanks to all of you for hints and good advice as well as a good laugh...see you all in 2011..unless hubbys homemade wine kills me first
ftm

[MKG]

Yep. A great big hug of a happy new year to everyone

Perhaps - just perhaps - this year the human race will stop pissing about and actually do something about preserving the place in which we all live. When I was a young teenager, I read science fiction and I thought "Oh yes - I want to be a part of that kind of thing". I still do. But then I began to grow up and things like the Cuban missile crisis actually began to frighten me. But we got over that one. Or I thought we had, but then Vietnam grew into a monster and I began to question the level of responsibility of world politicians. No matter - eventually Vietnam receded into the background, and the Berlin Wall came down and I watched (with pure joy at the time) as I saw a semblence of sanity being reimposed on the world. Mikhael Gorbachev became one of my heroes (and remains so to this day - he, at least, caught the disease of realism).

And then I think about Churchill's speech ...

"From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an "iron curtain" has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia; all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject, in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and in some cases increasing measure of control from Moscow."

And, you know, I believed that shit when I first read it (unsurprisingly, because it was true). What a man, I thought. With heroes like that, the world will always be in safe hands. It came as the supreme disappointment of my life to discover that all of those fine words were merely a mask for the advancement of THE most insidious disease ever to see the light of day. It's gone under several names. It insists upon changing its form at regular intervals so that it can hide itself away. It does this so successfully that it is difficult to pin it down and call it by its name. But that name is consumerism, loads-a-money-ism, f*ck-you-mate-I'm-alright-ism, who-gives-a-toss-about Africa-ism, loads-of other-isms. When, I ask myself at this time every year, are we going to get it right? I'm getting old now, and I have to admit that creeping cynicism has taken a hold on me. I really do think that the human race is incapable of saving its own arse.

But tonight, I went out and took a look at those stars I dreamed about as a very young science fiction fan. I could hardly see them for the amount of light pollution. No romantic ending, then.

I marvel at the stuff you lot pull off in the face of abject adversity. Hence the group hug - and I really did mean that. But I'm very surely (don't worry - this is not me being suicidal) losing the will to live. Well, not live - but I'm certainly losing the will to fight back. I mean - for what? Tonight I feel that it's all a waste of time - and I hate the bastards who have created this situation and those who insist upon its perpetuity.

I'm too old to start a revolution - missed my opportunity. But 2011 is a whole new year. Perhaps - just perhaps - there's someone on this very site who'll prove me to be utterly wrong. Oh, I do hope so.

Happy New Year, everyone.

Mike

[Millymollymandy]

Happy New Year everyone!

[oldjerry]

For What??..........well,you sad.old ,cynical (and disconcertingly,like me) sod,what else ya gona do??...It's not that''don't go quietly into the .......'' (you know, crap old cliche )it's at least that smug warm glow you get from the knowledge that everyones going to hell in a handcart,most of them don't realise it ,but you do!
And then ,of course,I look at my children,10,6,and 4..........
When I was a young man Ithought everything was achievable,and Ihad the ideas,and I wanted change,most 'old' people were pathetic reactionaries.........On reflection,the analysis was spot on,youthful naivety had just completely misunderestimated what we were up against.
The naivety's long gone but the challenge remains the same.
People wont listen to a gobs---e on a soapbox, but they( MAY) be persuaded by example.
Comforting though it maybe,you dont achieve a lot by just talking amongst ourselves,dont know about you,but against the usually acknowledged truth I've become MORE radical with age.
Anyhow,enough navel-gazing, Best Wishes, Happy New Year.

[MuddyWitch]

Mike, there's a lovely place where people DO care: about the future, about the planet but, most of all, about each other...Welcome to ISH

It's the comrardery (sp?) & support of this place that keeps me sane and probably accounts for me still being alive: I truly was close to suicide when I first found this wonderfull group of people. I was under the impression that hubby & I were the only ones who gave a damn. I'm SO glad I was wrong

MW

[MKG]

Thank you very much MW - of course, I know that

My fit of festive season blackness is now officially over. But I think Oldjerry and I should start a club called GOB (grumpy old bastards). I'm trying to think who else could join - gosh, that's a difficult project. Perhaps Andy will set us up a separate area in which to post.

In the meantime ... HAPPY NEW YEAR and may all your problems be small and your veggies large.

Mike