New Year's Day- Happy and Healthy New Year everybody.

 New Year's Day- Happy and Healthy New Year everybody. 

We did it then, didn't we? We saw out 2020 defiantly until the bitter end, riding the storms, battening down the hatches when and where necessary before punching the air ecstatically, breathing slowly and then recognising that 2020 had just been one of those years although as a singular entity it was by far the most dreadful twelve months in living history. In fact just when we thought it couldn't possibly get any worse than it turned out to be, then it did. The sorrow, suffering, pain, death and unremitting misery had become the most prominent themes of our lives and even now it still seems as though Covid19 is destined to stay. 

And yet here we are on the first day of 2021 and it's a happy, healthy New Year to you all. You may have thought that we wouldn't have got there without our strength of character, the hardiest of British fighting spirit and a good, old-fashioned display of pluck, determination, inner belief and just a smattering of courage. So let's just pat ourselves on the back heartily and open up a new chapter in our lives, one of optimism, positivity, whole-hearted happiness and thick lashings of enjoyment. If only we could imagine that things will start to improve shortly rather than at some random date at the end of June. 

Here it is then. 2021 in all its multi-coloured splendour and glory, a year of careful rehabilitation and recovery for most of the world and then a gentle convalescence at home with the families and friends we've been missing for far too long now. At the moment Tier 4 in Britain has meant nothing more than some unfortunate relapse back to where we probably were last April.

 The world is still firmly closed, a viral, bacterial mess that just seems to be leading us backwards rather than forwards. There are distinct signs of deterioration and there doesn't seem any month in this year's calendar that the world would feel so much better with a quick jab of the new vaccines. The vaccines of course may well take us down the road to redemption, that paradisal day when it all comes good and the lockdown finds that gold-embossed key which opens up a million shops, restaurants and cafes permanently. Yes, for good and never bad again in any generation, time, decade or century. 

Just when we thought we'd turned the corner earlier on in the year a new variant of the virus came charging towards like a marauding army, snarling, angry and stampeding towards us like some supernatural force, a threatening pain in the neck we simply couldn't shake off however hard we tried. At first we thought we'd cracked it, seen the back of it all, knocked it on the head decisively and by now we'd all be on easy street, back at work, back at school and back in the land of the living. 

But oh no this was never going to be easy and if we were honest with ourselves we privately knew it would be pretty tough even though we're on the first day of 2021. This could drag on until perhaps the end of February or given the worst-case scenario Easter but let's not think in such pessimistic terms. Some of us are beginning to look around us and wondering exactly what must be going through our battered and bruised minds. We could just sit back and resign to ourselves to the fate endured by Doris Day. Whatever will be will be! That though would be ridiculously defeatist.

Today should have been the day when London abandoned itself to the fun and frolics of its yearly New Year's Day street carnival, where hundreds of American drummers, brightly coloured floats featuring men and women dancing their way through the West End of London and then more people grinned happily at the kids who have been longing to get out of mum and dad's feet for ages. But Covid19 has blown that idea out of the water and it all feels as if little in the way of progress has been made. We may just as well be back at that late March day when all of this first began. 

Last night the traditional New Year's Eve fireworks display staged at London's Embankment still went ahead but this was very much a dramatically watered-down version of the real thing. This time it was the turn of the Dome and Wembley Stadium to catch the discerning eye. First there were the striking, wartime searchlights which did you remind you of that Churchillian spirit. But then the Catherine wheels started spinning in a riot of greens, reds, whites and then giving way to soaring rockets which exploded into colour before fizzling out into some oblivion far away from the River Thames. 

It felt like an apology for a fireworks party inasmuch as it didn't seem the real life version rather than that spectacular pyrotechnical extravaganza that normally decorates that part of the world on that night of the year. The London Eye just looked very depressed although the Shard was lit up in a way that was reminiscent of the Empire State Building. London does like to get all dressed up and ready to party but this year it couldn't flaunt its fancy dan finery, the clothes and glad rags that seem so fitting on New Year's Eve and especially parties. 

The River Thames, which would normally provide a very colourful mirror of the night's proceedings, just sat there listlessly and genuinely looked down in the mouth. What happened to all of those humans by the side of the river, huddled together very communally, gazing enthralled at the fireworks, their eyes like saucers and then discovering that although it may be bitterly cold at midnight there was still a half an hour fireworks party to look forward to so maybe the evening won't be wasted at all. They might as well stick it out even though they may have to walk back home because the trains stopped running hours before.

Still, there was always Jools Holland perennial Hootenanny music fest to turn on the TV to and almost revel in since Britain needed some jazz trumpets, a tinkling piano, a couple of lively violins and the Jools Holland band by way of impressive accompaniment. Last night the BBC gave us Alicia |Keys at her most polished and sweetly melodic, New York the most heartwarming of anthems on a New Year's Eve gathering among friends. Keys background consisted of rows of empty chairs as the BBC's graphics department struck just the right note. 

Then Britain and the rest of the world fell almost exhaustedly into a new year as if it could hardly keep its eyes open a moment longer. Australia, New Zealand, India and the rest of the other side of the world had already shaken its bottles of champagne to see in 2021 the day before. But the clocks had now moved forward in Europe and by midnight last night the whole of the world had found its equilibrium. 

Once the fireworks had gone off Britain turned around and found that it had left Europe by the tradesman's entrance. Boris Johnson, the UK's PM, had released the Brexit valve and Britain felt it could do whatever it wanted to without feeling any undue pressure from those Brussels lawmakers and busybodies. Britain was now at the beck and call of the whole globe for its trading prosperity. The world was the UK's oyster and it was time to negotiate with the Far East, new and emerging markets that had been strictly off -limits up until now. So it was time to say farewell to Europe. Britain thinks you're now surplus to requirements and don't forget to switch off the lights for the last time and lock up afterwards. Ta Ta Europe!