So this is the new year...

This will not be the first New Year post I've submitted to this blog. I'm sure it will not be the last. Because as much as you try to fight against it, the 31st December makes you a little bit more pensive than usual. All that happens, of course, is that the time ticks over from 00:00 hours to 00:01 and we are in a new year. The 31st becomes the 1st and we're off again. This same series of events happens at the end of every month (except where the final day is the 30th, 29th or 28th) and yet it is only this one occasion when we all have parties, drink alcohol, dance, play games, kiss and make resolutions.

The school year starts in September, not January. The tax year starts in April. So why do we not celebrate then? What resolution is there that is so bound by time, the calendar and seasons that means we can only make in on January 1st and not...today, or yesterday? Nonsense. Make resolutions every day. Resolve to be a better friend, laugh more, drink a little less, use less petrol, visit people, smile at work, work hard, grant yourself a little free time, speak about yourself less, give away more, moan less, allow yourself to fail, move slower, think faster, spend less on clothes and more on stamps, talk to God, forgive and move on. A diet can start on March 13th. A chocolate detox will not be set up to fail just because you start in mid-June.

So tomorrow is January 1st 2009. Think of it as one digit changing at the end of the date as we write it. No big deal. If you can't think of a big life changing resolution, chill out - there's plenty of other things to be getting on with. If you are reading this on some random date in the middle of the year, there's no better time to stop yourself and start over. Get better. Be changed. Be liberated. Do not be confined.

Sermon over. Happy New Year.

A brief rant...about Leona Lewis.

I'm sorry, perhaps I'm picky, but what right does Leona Lewis have to knock Take That off the number1 spot?! She has done a fairly mediocre cover of an amazing Snow Patrol track, and subsequently destroyed all hopes of a Take That Christmas number one! I am angered!

Leona is young lady who has 'conquered' the US, won the X-Factor, and invaded radio waves. She uses vibrato like she's being punched in the oesophagus, and yes, she has an unimaginable vocal range. At first I thought I was just jealous. But I'm really not. I don't like her voice. I don't like her music. And I don't like the way everyone is obsessed with her.

Take That, on the other hand, are a totally respectable man band who had huge success, broke away and lived some real lives and then returned with some solid gold hits. Gary Barlow is a song writing guru (yes, they write and perform their own material, Leona) and they've been there and done it. They're not about breaking digital download records, or conquering any countries. They're just bloody good musicians.

I used to hate Take That. At least, in my younger days, I was not their biggest fan. But now, I cannot fault them. Absolute brilliance. Leona...well she's just a British Whitney. Good set of pipes, a certain amount of interview-likeability and a 'history.' But for me it takes a killer song, written and performed by a killer musician to warrant number one acclaim.

So I don't know about you but if Christmas 2008 is going to be tarnished by yet another X-Factor winner, or an ex-X-factor winner (and to vocalise how much I despise that show would take at least another blog!)...I'm hopping on board the Rick Roll and doing everything in my ability to get Rick Astley to number one!!