Helen Brown Column | Canterbury News | Local News in Canterbury

One of my personal regrets about 2004 is buying a 2005 calendar in Italy. Spotting it in a gift shop in Tuscany back in June, I thought it'd make a perfect year long reminder of our European holiday.

But the way things are going the calendar and I will part company before the end of Gennaio, I mean January.

It has very artistic paper that's satisfyingly thick but not too glossy. Every month features a photo of a scrumptious architectural monument bathing in that soft gold light we don't get in the Antipodes.

The person who designed it must be a pain, though. Not only does he possess Extremely Good Taste, he has almost perfect vision.

All the numbers are in pale italics that fall sideways in a grey blur when I try to read them.

While I've recently invested in a pair of reading glasses I like to pretend look funky, I refuse to put them on every time I want to know what day it is.

Besides, wearing isn't the problem. It's finding them that's the drama.

Worse still, each day is marked by a single letter representing an Italian word.

Thursday is "G" and Monday is "L". The few appointments scribbled in red ink will be challenging to keep.

Which is another reason I might divorce the calendar.

It's so beautifully designed, there's no place to write "Dentist 4.30" without feeling like a vandal.

But I'm not going to let it get me down. The fabulous photographic calendars that were so expensive before Christmas have slipped to half price.

I'll find one I really like (nothing to do with swimsuits, dogs or motorcycles) and that helps me start 2005 with calm optimism.

No matter how grim and disaster-filled last year was, I want to begin the new one with hope. Even horror stories the size of the tsunami in South Asia can bring a possibility of change for the better.

It's been heartwarming watching so many nations set aside religious and political differences to ease suffering in the region.

I hope that sense of compassion keeps spreading on a global scale.

The outpouring of donations from individuals around the world has proved the pessimists wrong. Humans may have their faults but they aren't totally selfish monsters of destruction.

People care terribly for the suffering of others, and will do something if they believe it'll make a difference.

I hope people continue to recognise the good in themselves, and build on it.

I have a range of other hopes for the coming months.

As a typical mother of young adults on their OE, I'm hoping they'll both travel safely this year and return to this part of the world to settle a while.

I miss our Saturday lunches with fresh bread and salad, and the way they ignore almost everything I say.

I miss being told my taste in music stinks, my cooking's beyond boring and nobody wears clothes like that any more.

I hope the guy next door finds a job.

Even though we don't talk much, he seems to hang around home a lot these days. He and his wife have three young sons to bring up. It can't be easy.

I hope the blind man doesn't get run over. On morning walks, I often see him waving his white stick Moses-like as he wades out on to the road to part a sea of traffic.

His confidence is terrifying.

Once I grabbed his elbow and helped him across. When I asked how he managed, he said he listened for the traffic.

"And do you mind if I ask something personal?" he added. "What's that perfume you're wearing?"

I hope he never loses his sense of smell ? or hearing.

I'm praying the young mother with breast cancer down the road is only away on holiday. She usually asks our daughter to look after her budgies when she's away. There's been no call. Her house looks empty. Grass is sprouting in her flower beds.

I hope my friend in Singapore finds love this year.

A hugely successful career woman, she's one of the loneliest people I know.

I hope my Muslim friend forgives her teenage daughter for running away to live with a Christian boy and embraces them both into her family.

And I hope the moths I cleaned out of the kitchen cupboards don't get back in there ? and that I get a new calendar soon.

Wishing you a Hopeful New Year.

# Helen will be on holiday for two weeks.