Ho Ho Ho. Etcetera. Time to drop this year down a very deep hole. And bury it.

I missed the chance of saying Merry Christmas. Late. As usual. Turns out that a lot of people I know procrastinate just as shamefully as I do-so a very late Merry Christmas, and I hope that everyone ate too much, drank too much, filled the swear box to overflowing...and there you go.

But New Year's-that is a different story. I wish everyone a very happy, healthy, prosperous and (reasonably) trauma-free 2018. I expect that everyone will be celebrating tomorrow night, in one way or another, in company or solo. Me, I will be celebrating-solo.I'll be watching some of the huge load of stuff I saved over the past few months (just tape everything. You can always go back and delete it later. I always do. So why bother? Beats me!).

Or-I might just start wading through the 2,000 plus emails that are languishing in my inbox. Most of them are absolute garbage, and can be deleted. But-ah, but-there are some that are good to read and keep. Or even read and delete. But to get to those, I have to trawl through a load of crap. Oh, joy. My delete finger will be getting a workout. In fact, I should probably email Microsoft and say thanks for the carpal tunnel.

If this year has been as traumatic for you as it has been for me, let's all drink a toast to burying 2017-down a hole, never to be seen or heard from again. I've had eight years like that-and I'm determined that I won't be making it nine years. I doubt that my constitution can stand it.

I'm not even making any New Year's resolutions-because I break them within the first week of the new year. We can make resolutions any time-why wait until the end of the year, when our stress levels are through the roof, and we promise ourselves that we will do things that we probably will never do? So-no resolutions.

Well-maybe just one: I promise myself that I will not carry 2017 over into 2018. It's the start of a new year, and I really, really need to learn to leave the past where it belongs: in the past.

I remember years ago, when I tore the ligament in my ankle (very, very nasty and painful), but didn't want to go to the hospital. Hospitals are bad for you: full of sick people. So I went along to a Chinese acupuncturist and herbalist called Dr.Chen. He was around 85 years old then, so he'll either be dead now or very, very, very old.  Chen needled me, gave me some Chinese herbs, and told me that my biggest problem is that I'm unable (and/or unwilling) to let go of the past, and I'm carrying that into my present, as well as making myself a miserable future. He said that in China even something that happened a moment ago is in the past, and they know to let go of it and not dwell on it again. And he said that he got to a very healthy 85 by living by those principles.

Okay, so-whatever. That was good advice, I was maybe - 20 or 25 at the time - and did I follow it? Oh, hell no-since when do I follow anyone's advice-even my own?

So Happy New Year. Celebrate. If you're on your own, celebrate that, because there are worse things. Trust me, I know this from experience. Celebrate, release the past as much as you can, do a ritual-if all else fails, just get loaded. You'll pay for it on New Year's Day-but who cares?