Sorry to put a damper on things, but I am dreading this New Year's Day. Not because 2011 promises to be worse than 2010 (impossible, surely?), but because the day itself brings with it the "festive" Edinburgh derby. My beef with this seasonal set-to is that one of my brothers supports Hearts, while the other is a Hibs fan, so this particular fixture (along with its varied outcomes) has marred countless family New Years of yore (although we no longer live in Edinburgh, the match is still on ESPN, which means I will be taking myself as far away from the family hearth as possible. And hoping, in the interests of world peace, for a draw).

I'm sure we all know (or have been) siblings whose determination to set themselves apart from each other has manifested itself in allegiances to rival bands/teams/shows/brands etc., so what was (or maybe still is) the particular bone of contention between you and your beloved brethren? I'm sure Beatles-Stones and Liverpool-Everton are fairly common fraternal faultlines, but how about the more transient, obscure, local-interest-only (or just plain sad) ones*? For instance, were you a Wham fan subjected to ceaseless mocking by your Durannie sister? Did your attempts to make your Sonic-obsessed brother see the light with regard to Super Mario fall on deaf ears? Or were you piggy-in-the-middle while your siblings squabbled over the relative merits of Blur versus Oasis back in 1995?

(*I'm trying to keep it light, so am not really looking for serious political, religious or philosophical differences. Unless they somehow relate to Star Wars in some shape or form...)