A very Happy New Year to one and all. I do hope that 2013 is a good year for everyone.

I have never really been one to celebrate at Hogmanay, I'm the sort who prefers a quiet night in with a good film. It's a time of reflection and an opportunity to look back and see what I can do to improve my life, I guess that's what New Year Resolutions are all about, although I prefer not to make actual resolutions, I just quietly nudge myself to do better.

Christmas and New Year are times of celebration and with that comes excessive consumption of alcohol. I hardly ever drink these days, it doesn't agree with me, I may have the odd wee glass of something once in a while and I am partial to hot chocolate with a wee Baileys in it, however I do find that there seems to be, of late, an increase in the number of drunken disturbances in the streets.

Locals seem to think this has got worse in the last few months ever since the latest bar opened in the town. Competition is fierce and as a result other bars are not being quite as rigorous in implementing their usual policies of not serving people who have had too much to drink. There also does seem to be more noise outside pub premises as drunken conversations take place amongst smokers. With excessive alcohol comes drunken scrapping in the streets. New Year's Eve was particularly bad in the West End of the town with brawling and screaming going on until the early hours. I'm not against people having fun but when my sleep is disturbed regularly by drunken arguments I get a bit weary. Come on landlords be more aware of your clientele and their intake and give those of us who live in the town some peace.

I thought telly over Christmas and New Year was pretty poor, didn't you? I eagerly looked through the TV guide thinking I could catch up on films I hadn't seen at the cinema only to be disappointed by the choice and then staggered to see how many repeats of programmes were on. This year, for the first time in a while I didn't receive any DVDs either so have to say I hardly watched the box at all. I think it's sad that the days of sitting round the tv after Christmas dinner with a box of chocs ready to watch the much anticipated Christmas film have long gone, another wee tradition fallen by the wayside.

A funny thing happened to me at Queen Street station as I returned home from my Christmas break. Laden with bags I got into the lift to go down to the lower level platform for the train to Helensburgh. I was the only person using the lift, imagine my horror on stepping into the lift ( capacity 35 people) to hear the announcement "Lift overloaded". I hadn't even had any Christmas pudding or cake during the festivities. Thank goodness I was on my own!

Finally the first unsung local heroes of 2013 are the young women who stepped in to help the older members run the Rhu & Shandon Senior Club. They are much appreciated for the many outings organised throughout the year and also for a great Christmas lunch at the Ardencaple Hotel. The Three Musketeers, Jean, Theresa and Jessica would like to give them a big thank you.