New year greetings With the New Year 2011 round the corner, the belles of celebrations are ringing around and the feeling of joy has taken everyone in its blanket. With merely few days left to enter into 2011, it is palpable that your mobiles would be flooded with Happy New Year SMS so that even if you are miles apart, but can feel close to your friends and folks. The New Year greetings speak thousands of words and let you be close to your relatives and friends.Beyond forty things are different. It it’s a party involving old friends, you live in fear of that bloke who always used to get pissed and drop his trousers when you were at college together. New people are just scary in general and works ‘do’s’ plumb levels of embarrassment that take having your bum photocopied ten times as their starting point. So New Year, at it’s best, involves hanging around the fire in slippers and fleece blankets trying not to succumb to the temptation of making resolutions.
I prefer to think about New Year ‘hopes’ rather than resolutions. In 2011 I hope that our government finally sees sense and doesn’t cut all the services that make this country something approaching a welfare state. I hope that somehow, conflict in the Middle East ratchets down a peg or two (I would like to see lasting peace, but I have to be realistic). I hope we as a family can make a decent living and have a bit of fun and happiness in our lives and I hope that my son will be able to find a job. I hope that everyone either stays healthy or gets better and I hope against hope that 2011 will not stink in the way that 2010 did.
Fingers crossed, as we say here in the UK. Next time I blog it will be 2011 and then we’ll see. In the meantime I hope that everyone has a bit of a rest, a lot of nice hopes and, at least, the joy of a new pair of Christmas socks to enjoyIt’s a time we reflect on the past year, prepare for the upcoming year and appreciate the events and folks that are and have been – special to us. While we as golfers, as an association and even a nation, have faced some difficult times this past year, I am truly optimistic about 2011 and excited about all of us meeting the new challenges and enjoying the opportunities ahead. On behalf of my family, my friends and members at Hillendale Country Club here in Phoenix, Maryland and the 28,000.
