The arrival of the New Year was marked for us not by fireworks, but by a bonfire of negativity.

It was a subdued turn of the year, all told. Missing were the fireworks habitually sent up from neighbouring villages to welcome the New Year. There was no joyous blaring of car horns or factory sirens. No sense of revelry or optimism for the year ahead. Wishes for the new year were tempered with "It's got to be better than the last one, hasn't it?" with the underlying implication that we didn't believe it would be. No one seemed to have the heart for celebration, knowing that 2011 is likely to be as tough, if not tougher, than 2010 was. The politicians and economic pundits have made sure we're all very well aware the the austerity period is set to continue or even deepen. I woke this morning to David Cameron warning us "2011 is going to be a difficult year" and the Archbishop of Canterbury urging us to turn to the Bible to help us through the troubled times. Oi.

Still, one has to look on the Bright Side of Life, no? One of the benefits of being prepared for tough times is that one cherishes and appreciates the small good things all the more, and I'm determined to wring the last possible ounce of goodness out of the small things this year!

The bonfire of negativity I referred to was the ceremonial burning at midnight of a list of all the things that held us back and dragged us down last year. My partner and I each wrote out our own lists, then settled back with the last of the homemade damson gin and watched them curl up in flames - maybe wishing it was one or two people whose names were on that list that were consigned to the bonfire, but hey, we never claimed to be perfect.

I'm not making New Years resolutions. I stopped that years ago when I realised most of them were vague and unfeasible idealisms. Instead, I'm just going to try and make this year one I can look back over with some satisfaction and say, "Yeah, sumbitch, we did it despite youl!"