Perhaps it was because New Year's Eve was so damp, but it didn't really seem like the expected party, and I didn't have the all-terrain vehicle needed to make it to the Exodus Festival in Papamoa.

But I've had reports and it sounds like the event was a fantastic end to one year and start to another. I take my hat off to Tim Cooper and all others involved in the initiative – this was a big call for the Bay and it was inspiring to see them remain undaunted by whatever the heavens could throw at them on the day.

The fact that we can now have a legitimate New Year's Eve music festival here represents a strong step forward for the area after over a decade of official paranoia about any sort of celebration that could attract 'the wrong element”. It all started with the somewhat out of control millennium bash on the Mount beach and led to liquor bans and the outlawing of anything that breached the 'fun for all the family” straightjacket.

I can only imagine the council hoops the Exodus Festival had to jump through – but I'm very glad they did.

It now seems like a long time since Christmas, but I'd like to start this year by hoping you had a happy one.

I hope the day was kind to you, the presents plentiful, the food delicious, the company loving, and the hangover sufferable.
Things worked out very nicely here at the Watusi Country Club – amidst the daiquiris and dancing girls – when my partner was given a present that immediately became a favourite of mine too.

My partner likes products. Specifically, extravagant beautification products: cosmetics for the stars. This works out well for both of us, since she likes to apply them while I like to study and laugh at them (though usually out of earshot and to myself).

The endless contortions of the beauty industry as they attempt to sell increasingly obscure creations that no one previously knew they ever needed or wanted provide simple but satisfying entertainment for bears with very small brains such as myself, and this new arrival immediately catapulted to third on my mental list of Best Beauty Products Eva! (The exclamation mark comes with the list, not the sentence.)

It emerges from that fine cosmetic producer Molton Brown and is called Celestial Maracuja Body Soufflé. I wanted to eat it with a cheese sauce but it's really not that sort of soufflé. It will, however, 'leave the skin supremely velvety, exotically scented and sumptuously soft.” If it does that, whatever it costs, it's worth more.

And it should do something, since I note from the box that it contains hydrogenated ethylhexyl olivate, cetearyl glucoside, hydroxyethyl acrylate/sodium acryloyldimethyl taurate copolymer, squalane, and polysorbate 60. And that's a mere two lines from the nine lines of ingredients...

Still, it's not my absolute favourite. Third only. In second place is the elegantly named Aveda Tourmaline Charged Radiance Fluid, which 'refines skin texture to reveal radiance”. And I think we can all agree that a little radiance never goes amiss. Why, only this morning, I was looking in the mirror a tad concerned about my apparent lack of radiance. Fortuitously, the back of the bottle suggests you 'use daily for amplified radiance” and I think that was my problem – through lack of regular use my radiance had remained stubbornly unamplified. It is, I am told, a pre-moisturiser, though why you would want to immediately hide your radiance under a moisturiser escapes me.

The Best Product Eva! – officially from my years of exhaustive research – wins the title purely by virtue of its name. It is weird-smelling and black and I have no idea what it does or how to apply it. It is Coffee & Spice Citrus Sugar Body Polish Oil Gel.

I don't think with a name like that it matters much what you do with it. Just standing and reading the label probably has conditioning benefits. I certainly feel better knowing that it's up there on the shelf should I suddenly need a Body Polish Oil Gel (or even just a spicy cup of coffee).