Well, that's it for another year then, unless you live in Scotland where today is also a public holiday, or extra recovery day!
Let's look ahead, and I don't just mean at how on earth we are going to manage to eat all the food stacked up in fridges and cupboards before its sell by' dates.
Or why we still have booze cabinets containing bottles of those weird alcoholic concoctions that have only had one drink poured from them - and will be unpalatable by next Christmas?
advertisement
Here's a personal wish list for 2008 of a magnificent seven things that could, should, or shouldn't, happen in East Lancashire during the year:
The 'Whitebirk problem' is finally solved after a decade of long daily jams and short-tempers by the county council brainwave of installing traffic lights, an idea presumably gleaned from similar motorway and ring road junctions all over the country!
North West trains get rid of the scruffy, draughty, rattletrap buses on rails which masquerade as 21st century rolling stock on the East Lancs line in vivid contrast to the clean, sleek carriages to be seen gliding through Preston to stations other than Blackburn, Burnley and Colne.
Enterprising café and restaurant owners wake up to the fact that in Blackburn some people would like somewhere nice to have coffee or something to eat in the town centre after 6.30pm on a weekday evening. 'Some people' includes many of the 1100 left out in the cold for the 50 minutes between the fireworks display and the Cathedral carol service on December 17 when not even Morrisons café was open.
Our schools are transformed from battlegrounds where tribal conflicts flare into ever-escalating violence into places where youngsters are inspired by teachers who can devote themselves to educating rather than form-filling and struggling to keep the peace.
The canal which meanders through our towns ceases to be treated like a giant skip into which household waste, car tyres, shopping trolleys and 1001 other useless items are dumped. Instead it is allowed to become as attractive downtown as it is in the rural areas through Pendle and between Feniscowles and Chorley.
A heartfelt hope that Blackburn with Darwen council's merged Mela and Arts in the Park festivals pass off successfully and without any trouble despite my deep scepticism about the wisdom of losing the individual identities of the events and bringing them together on Tarmac and concrete rather than green space.
The cheery smile and 'hello' with which strollers throughout East Lancashire routinely greet each other in parks and on footpaths is carried into all those other walks of life where grunting, growling and scowling are more normal methods of communication.
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
Print
Email this
Comment
