Still crazy after all these years

Just back from Scotland where I took advantage of the traditional Hogmanay break and enjoyed an additional day's holiday.

For those who don't know, Scotland has an extra public holiday over New Year but as January 2 fell on Saturday this year it was on Monday instead.

I guess it's a hangover (no pun intended) from the days when most people in Scotland worked on Christmas Day.

My family moved north in 1969 and I remember my father – a factory manager – going to work on Christmas morning, returning late afternoon.

In those days Hogmanay was celebrated far more than Christmas and I remember a succession of neighbours - some of them complete strangers - knocking on our door and inviting themselves in for a "wee dram".

In fact our first Hogmanay in Scotland was notable for the fact that the last visitor was finally ushered out at 9.00am on New Year's Day, at which point my father (a very moderate drinker) went to the kitchen and poured down the sink what was left of the last remaining bottle of whisky before retiring to bed.

I think it was television that brought Scotland more into line with England. Christmas TV – most of it produced in London – was such a big thing in the Seventies that Christmas gradually increased in importance.

Personally I've never been a fan of New Year 'celebrations'. The prospect of having to stay up half the night (or even all night) at some party or other never appealed.

Even the best celebrations, the impressive Fireballs Ceremony in Stonehaven, for example, come with a caveat – hours standing around in the freezing cold before anything happens and it's all over in a matter of minutes, much like the fireworks in London or Edinburgh.

So the purpose of being in Scotland over Hogmanay this year was not to celebrate New Year but to watch Dundee United play our (very) near neighbours Dundee.

Although the stadiums are only 100 yards apart it was the first time I'd been to Dens Park (home of Dundee) since May 1983 when United beat Dundee 2-1 to win the Scottish League Championship for the first and only time in their history.

That day more than made up for the first time I went to Dens, in September 1971. Although the tide would turn, Dundee was still the larger and more successful club and they won 6-4 that day. It sounds like a great game but it was actually quite humiliating because United were 5-1 and 6-2 down before late goals made the final score look more respectable.

Matches like that leave a mental scar (I was 12 at the time) so I avoided the place for many years.

The game on Saturday was equally depressing, but for different reasons. All you need to know is covered by this article in today's Scotsman (Dundee United's pulse is weakening by the game.)

Thankfully I'm at an age when the outcome of football matches – and even the threat of relegation – doesn't bother me as much, though you might not have believed me when United took the lead early in the game and I joined every other United supporter (including my son) in going batshit crazy.

What happened after that was predictable if not inevitable – goalkeeping error (equaliser), deflected shot (winning goal), player sent off, etc etc.

On the bright side, at least the game went ahead, despite the rain and the sodden pitch.

Somewhere in my house there's a photo taken outside Tannadice on New Year's Day 1984. I'm wearing a United scarf and looking bitterly cold. There's snow on the ground which may explain why the game was called off hours before kick off.

Unfortunately I was blissfully unaware of this because there were no mobile phones and I had spent the entire morning travelling to Dundee from Aberdeen on a bus that seemed determined to visit every town and village en route. Hence a 60-mile journey took four hours.

Anyway, I'm back at my desk and it's time to catch up and look ahead ... Watch this space.