Down the road in Carlisle, today is known as Black Eye Friday . Traditionally, workers in the town get the last afternoon before the pre-Christmas weekend off so they can go to the pub for a fight. I'm buying all my presents on this side of the border.

It's been a funny old year, right enough, and I'll do my review of 2006 next week at the same time as all the papers. In the meantime, I intend to spend the next few days supping mulled wine, even though I can't stand the stuff, and eating turkey, although I'm not too keen on that either. Why can't deep-fried KFC-style chicken be the traditional festive poultry dish?

No matter, I'm determined to get into the season of goodwill. Even if it means emptying Dumfries of sherry. As such I'd like to thank everyone who has read my blog this year, and posted comments or sent me emails when I was going up the wall with boredom. To you all I wish a very merry and culturally non-specific Winterval (ha, let's see if I can earn an irate mention in Richard Littlejohn's column).