2007

Well yes, it's a new year here in Australia. Already. We do so like being ahead of the rest of you (let's not mention all those nations to our east which somehow manage to get there before us. The cheek of them!)

Pictured is a little calendar from a Russian town north of the Arctic Circle. I don't know what the caption says (if you do, please say) but I'm hoping it's something like "Happy New Year, piggies! Let's celebrate in outlandish hats! With glitter!"

It was such a huge New Year's Eve celebration in this household last night. The dogs were just about wild... with sleep. I was going to do a Northern Exposure marathon (sister and hero J gave me DVDs for Christmas, and my parents gave me the DVD player to watch them with... yes, I'm a lucky and grateful little chook). But for one reason or another, mostly loneliness and melancholy (yeah, boo-fucking-hoo, and to all my non-existent friends, go screw yourselves), I lost the energy to walk as far as the DVD player and ended up watching TV instead, and was very glad about that: ABC TV gave us Cream at the Royal Albert Hall in London in 2005. I only saw the last 20 minutes, damn it, but it was fantastic, probably one of the televisual highlights of my year.

The Cream boys - let's face it, and I mean no disrespect here - these blokes are getting old. If you saw them in the street, you might wonder if they were doddering off down to the club to play the pokies**... (the aforementioned insult was brought to you by classist ageist ignorance, by the way, and is an exaggeration for dramatic effect. For all I know, these 60-somethings are out running marathons and writing groundbreaking brainiac papers or something)... but no, wait! They rock! Put them up against any number of youngsters in a similar genre, and these grandpas, God love 'em, would thrash the shit out of those children. It was so heartening. I've been getting increasingly worried about my own wrinkles and other associated oldnesses, and feeling in many ways like my life may as well be over, but here on screen were people older than me, wrinklier than me, and worlds ahead of me in every way, including talent, prospects and (I hope) happiness. Ahead, is the point. Ahead of me. All is not lost. Age shall not weary them.. or it will, but not to a lethal extent... or not until death is officially declared. (UPDATE: What I mean is, age shall not weary them, but not because they're dead and will never get old, but because they're alive and kicking and doing what they love. And I mean us! us! all of us.)

Or something. The point I'm trying to make is that oldies can rock, and they did. Go, you grandpas! I'm glad I was around to see it, and I want to become what each of them appears to be: a wrinkly cool person.

And to you, reader: whatever. It's 2007. Yay. New start.

** Poker machines: gambling implements designed to induce coma-related money extraction.