Happy New Year

And if you can have a happy New Year's Day, you're a better man than I am.

I was wakened up 15 minutes after the bells by fireworks. They didn't last long, luckily, or I'd have had what I still think of as a Mary Woodrow moment. Mary owned the newsagent's in Main Street Bowmore many years ago and lived above the shop. When the local lads used the street outside her shop to practise their handbrake turns of an evening, she would give them half an hour's fun and then she'd be out in the middle of the street, a sight to see in her nightie and dressing gown, shouting abuse. So here I am nearly three hours later, wide awake. And I'm in no rush to go back to bed because when I wake up it will still be New Year's Day.

I hate New Year's Day. Have done for years. It reminds me of what Scotland was like when the Church of Scotland controlled the Sunday shop opening times. Well, I don't suppose they did but it felt that way. Sunday used to spread in front of us like a desert. It got a wee bit better in the 70s and 80s but I can still remember getting a row from my granny in the 50s for skipping down the street on a Sunday. A lot of folk had the weekend off and, after spending Saturday running the weans to the dancing class or football practice, they couldn't use their Sunday to do boring stuff like food shopping or exciting stuff like having a Morrison's all day breakfast after the shopping. Not for them the thrill of picking up DIY supplies at B&Q. Because everything was shut.

I got a reminder of what it was like 'in the olden days' in Scotland when I went to Carlisle years ago and discovered the only shop open on a Sunday was Woolworth's. It was packed. Wonder what the good people of Cumbria do for entertainment of a Sunday nowadays?

I've been looking at tinternet and it seems 2017 has brought us not one but two New Year's Days. My favourite local pizzeria (Toni's in Fenwick Road since you ask) has posted a one-word message against both 1 and 2 January: OBSERVED. I suspect a lot of other local businesses will be the same.

But the supermarkets, which are not locally-owned and have never respected Scottish traditions are planning to open right through the holiday and that's a bit annoying. What do people have to buy on New Year's Day that they couldn't wait for till the next day so the staff could have at least one day off?

While we're about it: I do get annoyed when I see 'Bank Holiday Bargains' advertised in supermarkets in Scotland and then realise the bargains are in celebration of English bank holidays - ours are at a different time. I write to supermarkets about that, as I do about their failure to sell Scotch beef and lamb and Scottish fish and shellfish. All praise to Lidl and Aldi who do. I also write to them.

So till I get tired again, I'll just sit here and enjoy the Camino del Angel Malbec that someone gave me for Christmas. It's from the Valle Central in Chile - and Chile, I saw today, is going to be the destination for tourists in 2017. Some of us have already been, of course. Are we smug? Darn tootin.