Hyvää uutta vuotta!

After 31/12/1999 (we were at Potter's Field Park in central London, great atmosphere, great fireworks), any New Year's Eve is going to be a bit of an anti-climax. I can't remember any that stood out after that, only a couple of exceedingly dull ones.

At about half past nine yesterday, it struck me that you don't need to hang around waiting for midnight local time (GMT), you can open some bubbly shortly before ten o'clock and celebrate the Finnish (or Baltic, Romanian, Bulgarian or Greek, according to taste) New Year at ten o'clock and then simply go to bed.

If you are still up at 11 o'clock GMT, you can repeat the process and celebrate the European New Year. If you are so minded, repeat for the British New Year an hour later.

Gluttons for punishment can keep going until ten the next morning (Midway Island) or indeed start at ten in the morning with Kiritimati on Kiribati and celebrate the New Year for twenty four hours solid.