Well, here I am again, another New Year's Eve. The old isn't a problem - I feel old (goddam it, I am old), I can look back on another year of doing the same old stuff, and one look at the review of the year's news in today's newspaper leads me to speculate that our very civilization is itself growing terminally old.

So what's new? In the absence of anything better to do I thought I'd start this blog, the ramblings of a rather sad and increasingly grumpy old man crying out to the world from the comfortable and leafy English suburbs. As you may guess I've never blogged before, but I suppose it's the 21st century equivalent of those little diaries we used to get in Christmas stockings and which dutifully documented the events of the first few days of each year ("Got up. Played with my friends. Had sausages for tea"). So is my 2007 blog destined for an equally early demise? If anyone should read this perhaps they'd care to look in again in February to find out.

So let's set the tone straight away - tonight I am going out for a meal with my wife and two grown up (so they tell me) children. We are going to a Chinese buffet.........