We were all glad to see the back of your older sibling, 2020, but so far it looks like you're just as delinquent.

Many of us had hoped that once the year clicked over, things would look up.

That weirdness, calamity, total disruption would recede in the rearview mirror.

But no. Barely a fortnight in and you're already looking like another year from hell.

You've tossed in a new, mutated, more contagious variant of COVID-19, one that's 70 per cent more transmissable than the original.

We're watching with growing alarm how it's spreading through the UK like wildfire.

Once again, we're glued to the daily COVID updates from our premiers, fingers and toes crossed that this new virulence hasn't escaped from hotel quarantine into the wider community.

And with this new alarm, new restrictions on our travel. Lockdowns, borders slammed shut, holiday plans in ruins.

And it's only January.

But that's not all.

First week in and you catapulted the United States into a whole new dimension of crazy.

The images of frothing bogans (they call them rednecks over there) storming the Capitol, whipped into a frenzy by the president are beyond bizarre. They are terrifying.

Not content with that, 2021, you've ignited a spurious global whinge fest about freedom of speech after the social media giants belatedly decided to drain the fever swamps of their own making.

Crybabies like Donald Trump Jr are now bleating endlessly about it, saying it's an assault on free speech.

And here? The conservative politicians are running a mile, too scared it seems to call this for what it is: a long overdue clean-up of Nutterville.

So, 2021, you've woken us up early from our traditional summer slumber.

Heck, you've even tossed in some rubbish weather to ensure we didn't get complacent. But, please, go easy on any more nasty surprises.