By George (and Joanna), they did it!

I don't know about you, but I certainly feel in need of a new year.  The fast-moving days of 2015 have been more than enough.


It's been an anxious and exhausting year . . . internationally, politically and environmentally.
But, before the New Year arrives, don't you think we might be wise to take a pause?

This pause between Christmas and the New Year is valuable.
It's valuable in offering us a quiet moment in which to look around.

Time to look at the accumulated physical clutter.  Not just the Christmas cards and decorations, but all the out-dated paperwork,  the clothes we're unlikely to wear again, the household items we'll never use.

Time to consider the year-long build-up of apprehensions and anxieties that are cluttering up our minds.  To weigh up those tired, outworn plans that will surely never see fruition.

A moment, perhaps, in which to ask the pertinent question:  do we really need to take all that exhausted clobber into a new year?
A few items in our hand baggage perhaps.  But why choose to be burdened with such a very weighty suitcase?

There are, of course,  facets of the passing year that need to be kept and used as building-blocks for the future.
I'm sure you'd agree that we need to keep the resolution of the Climate Change conference, but not any subsequent back-sliding.
We need to keep the compassion spawned by the migrant crisis, not the subsequent waves of protective self-interest.
We need to preserve the sense of purpose and unity triggered by terrorism, whilst discarding the fear and hatred that can follow in its wake.

But, wait a moment.  Do these ideas of pausing and discarding seem a little spartan?
If so, take heart.
I've something comfortingly familiar to offer you.

It's friends that matter.  With so much uncertainty we need the company of familiar faces to escort us on our journey from the old year to the new.

Are you, I wonder, suffering a sense of withdrawal after the final episode of 'Downton Abbey'?

Thanks to time-travel and angelic intervention, George Clooney and Joanna Lumley have worked a seasonal magic spell . . . a comedy video in which you will be reunited with all your favourite characters.

So, as the year draws to a close, let's throw out all that unwanted clutter but, at the same time, pop the Crawley family safely in our hand baggage.

Should our world continue to prove stressful in 2016 remember that, if you need a smile and a touch of nostalgia, you can always click here.

Carson hasn't gone with the departing year.  On the contrary, he'll be waiting to serve you a restorative sherry at Downton Abbey!

Happy New Year!