There's a song playing on the radio

Got nothing medical to tell you but thought I'd wish everybody a Happy New Year. Mine was very quiet indeed, just staying at home and in bed watching rubbish telly. Can't say I was that bothered as I've never really got into New Year, it's always been Christmas that's been the more important time for me and Christmas with the family was absolutely brilliant.

In fact preceding that we had my birthday on the 23rd and it was also excellent. All my friends and I had a bit of a tradition that my birthday was the big night out of the year because it was always the day where you could guarantee we'd all be home from wherever it was we were all living at the time. It used to always be going out for a curry but my situation meant that what we did this year was to have a take away curry at my house. It was an absolutely brilliant night, with me almost certainly telling stories that you shouldn't air in front of your mother, and with everybody else in absolutely tremendous form so even though we didn't go out it was still fantastic.

The usual promises were made of coming to visit more often but I know that real life will somehow contrive to get in the way of that and I'll just have to take my visits where I can get them.

The people I didn't see on my birthday I mostly caught up with the weekend before at my mate Gerry's wee boy's Christening so it's been a great period for just hearing how things have been going outside in the real world.

Little things like that trip out to the Christening, or the guys coming round on my birthday, can seriously perk me up for days afterwards. It's not that I'm sitting moping about at home all the time, but for some reason a visit from a good friend just seems to flick a switch and I'm genuinely happy for the days following.

So 2012, you've got a lot to live up to. March, I'm looking at you specifically.