It's always a little gloomy when the festivities are over - but lets look on the bright side for 2023 - Susan Morrison

Well, the decorations are down and the fairy lights are packed away. The living room looks oddly bare. Both cats are well annoyed. They very much enjoyed the large organic scratching post with the built in water bowl, or as you and I know it, the tree.

As ever, it took longer to take Christmas down, and as ever, the minute I had packed the very last box away into the loft and settled with a well deserved mug of tea and the last mince pie, I spotted a lurking decoration on a shelf.

It's always a gloomy little moment when the festivities are over and we’re back to auld claes and porridge, but let's look on the bright side. The days will get longer and summer holidays will happen. We know this because, as is always traditional in Scotland, the travel agent adverts appeared within about 12 seconds of the last peel of the Bells, closely followed by the sofa company urging us to take advantage of the sale we just can’t refuse, and then the kitchen refitters offering deals of a lifetime. Or at least, the length of time between one ad break the next.

It was a near-normal Christmas. It's astonishing how fast we’ve forgotten that only two years ago we were sealed in and could only see the nearest and dearest by sitting outside and wearing Victorian style diving suits.

I remember the gloomy forecasts of ‘things will never get back to normal ever again’, well, they did, and with a bang. I passed city centre pubs here and in Newcastle so cram-packed that complete strangers were forced into accidental snogging. Well, maybe not entirely accidental.

It was a near normal Hogmanay. Things certainly went off with a bang above the Castle and letters of complaint have probably been swinging into BBC Scotland about the telly coverage..

What will 2023 bring us? Well, If the last two years have taught us anything, it's that predictions aren’t worth the tea leaves festering in the bin.

Let's hope instead for a good 2023 for you and yours. Happy New Year!