It’s the end of the year, which means our days are becoming a muddled blur of lime, bourbon and ginger—or was it lemongrass, gin and egg white? Apart from the non-stop clinking of glasses, it’s also a time to get an overdose of Wham! in malls and reflect on the past. Remember when ol’ Square Face was Prime Minister? The government was handing out money to the poor to guarantee its 1,000-year Reich and cops were shooting anyone they didn’t like. Mr. T would sue the shit out of anyone who dared criticize him while people queued for Roti Boy. The South was a mess and The Economist thought our Prime Minister was an embarrassment…But this year, looking back to times passed doesn’t produce that familiar sensation of nostalgia—it just sounds eerily like a trial run for the year ahead. As 2010 draws to a close, we’re watching a video of cops gunning down a murder suspect as Suthep announces the War on Drugs II. Abhisit is saying his Pracha Wiwat populist spending will be completely different from Thaksin’s because, um, they’ll be more careful. The government will probably have to break the back of the TOT-CAT mafia to make way for 3G, just like Thaksin did for mobile phones. Sure, you don’t get sued for criticizing the government anymore, you just get sent to jail instead—it’s much quicker in the long run. The South is a mess, The Economist thinks our prime minister is an embarrassment and there are still people queuing for boxes of Krispy Kreme.Depending on how many chili-vodka-tonics we’ve had, these parallels are either strangely comforting or deeply terrifying, but, hey, alcohol is a very effective anesthetic, so bottoms up! Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and see you in 2011.WE WILL BE BACK JAN 7, 2011.