The times we lived in

THE KISS:Published on  January 3rd, 2000. Photograph by  Matt Kavanagh

ANOTHER NEW YEAR, another conspiracy theory. Back in January 2000 we were all huddled in corners, terrified that our computers would blow up and break down thanks to what we now fondly remember as the Y2K bug, or the Millennium bug. None of which seems to bother this couple, snapped in Dublin city centre. They're in a world of their own as they celebrate the New Year in the timeless style of lovers everywhere.

With its echoes of Robert Doisneau's famous 1950s image of a couple kissing in the busy streets of Paris, Le Baiser de l'Hotel de Ville, the picture is a kind of Dublin Doisneau. It's not just that it seems to stop time: it's that the couple seems to be beyond the grip of the turning calendar which rules our lives.

But the calendar kept turning all the same. January 2000 saw the Western world heave a huge sigh of relief as Y2K turned out to be a toothless little critter. We all reset our computers and carried on.

Now we're stepping into the vast black hole of astrological shenanigans that is 2012. According to a raft of glossy internet websites, we can expect anything from asteroids through the end of the Mayan calendar to nasty malign planetary thingummybobs.

Nasa's website, on the other hand, is reassuringly phlegmatic. "Our planet has been getting along just fine for more than four billion years," it stoutly says, "and credible scientists know of no threat associated with 2012."

Apart, of course, from climate change, economic meltdown and soaring unemployment. Those particular critters put the toothless Y2K in the shade. But hey: new year, new start. Grab a sprig of mistletoe (always supposing it hasn’t become extinct already) and give that uncertain future a big, sloppy smack on the lips. You never know. It might be a disaster. Or it might be the year you find love and win the lottery.

Arminta Wallace