2020. I'm still trying to wrap my head around actually living to see 2020 arrive. I'm on a private heart patient message board support group and many of the New Year posts said the same thing - 'Can't Believe I'm Still Here!'. I think I've mentioned in previous posts I was pretty sure at the close of the 2018 Christmas season I was having trouble with my heart and had serious doubts I'd still be alive to see Christmas 2019. So being awake at the bells NYE 2019 was a pretty good thing for me. Not an achievement so much as a grace. Thank-you, God!

We had the telly on mute to see the fireworks from Edinburgh - no live feed from London as all we get up here is Scottish on occasions like this.

SIDEBAR MOMENT: So, 12th December 2019 we had a little thing here in the UK known as a General Election. Definitely a 'snap' one as it came far earlier than the expected one in 2022 had Parliament not finally agreed a 'snap' GE was needed to break the Brexit deadlock caused by a anti-democratic Parliament dead-set on overturning the referendum result of Leave The EU. 
Actually it being a snap GE was nice - shorter campaign period meant shorter time having to endure campaigning and fear-mongering from the anti-democratics trying to make us vassals to Brussels. 
And in the end Boris won a genuine majority. While his notion of Brexit is a bit less than we'd like, at least we're seeing forward motion. 31st January 2020 we move to a 'transitional period' - still paying into the Brussels coffers, dammit, and without any say whilst having to 'obey' all their rules. But 31st December 2020 the transition period ends and we're out - 'deal or no deal'. 
HOWEVER - while the shortened campaign and resulting majority were nice things to have happened, the televised coverage of election returns was not - living in Scotland all we got was a Scotland-centric obviously pro-SNP biased televised newsfeed on every channel except SkyNews and we weren't about to watch Berc The Cow crowing (Sky's only pundit for election returns). 
In the end after five minutes on the BeebScotland and STV live coverage we hit mute on Sky to watch the ticker and flipped on the laptop to watch the online live ITV coverage. The ITV coverage was actually rather good - relatively bias free and almost as fast reporting results as SkyNews was
I love my wee corner of the United Kingdom but dammit can we please put the lid down on events coverage being Scotland-centric when it's an event affecting the entire Kingdom, please?! The BBC has dedicated two - yes, two - channels up here just for Scotland (BBC Scotland, and Alba which is all Scots and Gaelic language), couldn't BBC1 Scotland have been UK results coverage instead of that rubbish across all three channels? Couldn't STV for once have bowed to reality and broadcast the ITV programme instead of trying to force us to endure the nasally whines and whinges of NeverEndDumTillWeGetTheRightResult lot??!! 
It would have been nice to have decent election coverage without resorting to the laptop, and even nicer to have the Edinburgh NYE coverage ONLY on the BBC Scotland channel so we could watch the London fireworks on BBC1 Scotland whilst watching the Edinburgh ones on the laptop.

To make things nicer for our NYE bells viewing we had the Stonehaven live clock tower web cam on the laptop. What an amazing spectacle the fireballs parade is. If I live to see another NYE I will be there on the pavements to see the fireballs in person.

So, any road, 2020. A new year, a new decade. Yes, I made resolutions. I kept most of the ones I made last year so this year the list is a bit longer. Naturally it includes several items meant to rebuild my health.

As the 2019 Christmas season winds to a close (as always, everything comes down the morning of the 7th January, and this year I will actually pack away everything the same day. I just don't have that same 'I won't see another Christmas' feeling I did last year), I have to say it was probably one of the most subdued Christmas seasons I've ever passed. Television was dire - absolutely NO religious programming except the Christmas Eve Carols From Kings College. No pantos, either, and school Nativities have dwindled to next-to-none.

Very little in the way of any real Christmas programming or public activities at all and what little was 'Christmassy' was pathetically correct rubbish. Very few Christmas lights on homes and businesses, town and village tree lightings were not publicised (fewer paid 'celebrities' switching on, too), and I didn't hear ONE 'Merry/Happy Christmas!' from any till operator when doing my shopping. The postie and Hermes courier were good enough to wish us a Happy Christmas with every delivery, as was the Amazon courier when he brought the Subscribe and Save. But that was it for Christmassy bonhomie, it was definitely noticeable and quite sad.

The adverts (usually one of the reasons I watch telly during 'the festive season' is to see the adverts) were beyond rubbish. OK, I liked the ASDA one (non-spiritual but charming), and the Waitrose-John Lewis one with the dragon was fun(ish) but that one was muddled - WTH was in that box she gave Edgar Christmas Morning (after he'd accidentally melted the snowman AND ice skating pond plus burning down the village Christmas tree with his apparently unrestrainable fire-breathing)??!! Surely it wasn't the Christmas pudding he presented the villagers with - was it a tablet he could go online with to YouTube videos on controlling his fire-breathing, WHAT?!

Thank-heavens House of Fraser has basically gone belly-up so we didn't have to endure any of their 'edgy-trendy' shyte (sorry but their 'Christmas' adverts were the epitome of utter shyte, simply no other words for it and why I stopped shopping there - I don't think I'm the only shopper to give up on HoF owing to their rubbish adverts). But Marks and Spencer outdid themselves trying to take up the HoF slack. sigh. sigh and gag. Would someone please inform M&S the House of Pain 'Jump Around' song is not a Christmas carol, please?

Two Christmas' ago the only advert to come close to remembering 'Jesus is the reason...' was the Morrisons advert showing a wee girl as the Nativity Angel. This year nothing. From any commercial outlet. It seemed as though the Christian has been scrubbed from Christmas. We did hear many 'Merry Christmas!' greetings - but in all honesty, wishing someone a 'Merry' Christmas is wishing them a season-long drinking binge and lots of illicit sex (the origin of the phrase 'Merry Christmas' comes from 'making merry' which meant being totally blotto and in the hay with as many strangers -or your in-law/best friend's spouse - as possible). Wishing someone a 'Happy Christmas' is just so much more genteel, and appears to be making a hesitant come-back. Dare we hope a more spiritual recognition of the meaning of Christmas will be permitted the same tentative return for Christmas 2020 and beyond? Hope floats.

Hanukkah fell during the 'festive season' - NO mention of it ANYWHERE - no televised lighting of the Menorah, no reports from Jerusalem on any part of Hanukkah celebrations. But there were several horrific attacks on Jews and some vandalism of Synagogues and cemeteries, scarcely mentioned but at least those horrors did make the news. Mostly used to virtue-signal (was there anything more galling than London Mayor Khan mouthing platitudes? Probably, perhaps the Labour Party mouthings at least equal the outrageous daring of Khan to 'condemn' the attacks).

And while we dare not speak it for fear of The Thought Polis (a very, very real fear here in the UK these days, as well as over in Europe), we all know why Christmas 2019 was so bloody subdued.

2020. What will this new year-new decade bring?