So, what can you expect in 2007?

For starters, 2007 is an International Polar Year - only the third ever, after years in 1882 and 1932. It means groups from various countries will club together to pool their resources in order to further our understanding of the poles.

And speaking of Poles, the first day of 2007 sees Bulgaria and Romania join the European Union, while Kofi Annan will finally step down as UN Secretary-General, to be replaced by South Korean Ban Ki-moon.

At the end of January, Microsoft will release their new operating system - Windows Vista - for public consumption.

On 11 March the US and Canada switch to Daylight Savings Time, two weeks ahead of the UK, in a change to the previous dates. Meanwhile, on the same day, the World Cup of cricket begins in the West Indies (anyone got a ticket?). Two weeks and a day later, the long overdue smoking ban comes into force in England.

22 April heralds the first round of the 2007 French presidential election . I'm supporting Ségolène Royal, because I like her name. As with the US election, there was very little science involved in my deliberations. The second round takes place on 6 May.

The Eurovision Song Contest takes place in Helsinki on 12 May, after Finnish band Lordi won in style last year. Expect the Icelandic vote to be somewhat distracted - they've got a general election on the same day.

6 June marks the start of another G8 summit, this time in Germany. Will Tony Blair be there? And three weeks later it's the start of the Manchester International Festival - coincidentally, just two days before a calendar blue moon (a second full moon in a calendar month). Maybe it's Manchester City's year...

The first day of July brings us the concert for Diana, which will take place at Wembley Arena, and six days later London is again the centre of attention as the starting point, somewhat illogically, for the Tour de France.

Finally, in September we can look forward to the World Cup of rugby, with matches mostly in France but also occasionally in Wales and Scotland.

Now, the bookies have long since cottoned on to our predilection for a prediction, and at 6/4, Girls Aloud splitting up is a hot favourite for the year ahead - but the Spice Girls could reform, at 12/1.

Prince William to become engaged to Kate Middleton is at 2/1, far more likely than the 10/1 shot that is Osama Bin Laden being captured - itself a dead cert compared to the UK winning Eurovision, at 20/1.

But some people are banking on an altogether less likely proposition: the Second Coming.

"Will the Rapture happen in 2007?", asks a question on Yahoo! Answers. Answers include:

• The Blondie album?
• I hope it doesn't happen too soon, I need a few more years of life.
• Yes, on 26 October.
• No, but it would be nice. What a surprise for Bin Laden.

Meanwhile, Wikipedia has an interesting little section entitled 2007 in fiction.

Finally, one blogger predicts MySpace will become "uncool" in 2007 (it has to happen at some point), to be replaced by fellow social networking site Orkut. So - anyone got an Orkut invite going spare?

Happy New Year all - 2006 Dayorama not-a-zeitgeist-honestly to follow...