Today marks that time on the calendar when one realises that the people who lobbed into the spare room, took over the television remote-control and found the Japanese whisky hidden behind the broken sandwich toaster in the back of the cupboard, are starting to grind the gears.

But they're immediate family and besides, everything smells a bit funny at the end of 2020.

Drought. Fires. Floods. Plague. Recession. Elbow bumps. Barilaro.

But that's looking backwards. What really matters is the year ahead.

Here are the fearless predictions of a newly minted psychic's sidekick for what awaits us in 2021.

January: Warnie's new hat for television appearances - the baggy brown - will be revealed to be inspired by the cartoon Andy Capp and his cap. "I've always had a thing for Flo and durries," the greatest ever leggie will tell New Idea for an undisclosed sum.

February: One Nation's Mark Latham will move to Newcastle and immediately announce he likes the beaches, follows the Knights and will rid the place of the "transgender cultural Marxism and Trotskyist gender-fluidity obsession, clearly influencing educational policy in Hunter childcare centres."

March: Rugba league season launch will be overshadowed by off-field incidents involving copious alcohol, fights and social media. Rugba league administrators will promise to "get tough next time this happens."

April: Knights will lose their first four in a row. In an attempt to increase support in the Hunter, The Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party will propose legislation making it illegal for anyone to describe McDonald Jones Stadium as "the place where the dreams of locals go to die."

May: The Newcastle Jets will find a new owner in The Block's 2020 con-artist Emese Fajk. While yet to cough up a cent of the $4.25 million she bid at auction for Jimmy and Tan's house, sources close to the Jets claim that even a potentially bogus offer from a serial swindler is preferable to no interest at all.

June: Joel Fitzgibbon announces retirement from the federal parliament and legally changes his name to Coal Fitzgibbon. He immediately takes a lobbying gig with the NSW Minerals Council. "This is clearly the NSW Minerals Council demonstrating they put their money where their mouth is," says Coal.

June: Fear-mongers in Newcastle will bang on that a proposal for a diesel storage facility at the Port of Newcastle, while an ammonium nitrate storage facility sits near-by at Kooragang Island, could be targeted by terrorists who will stop at nothing to ensure the success of their evil plan requiring Newcastle to host a Commonwealth Games. A senior communication spokeswoman from Orica releases a statement re-assuring the public that ammonium nitrate is only dangerous if it explodes.

July: Regular Herald short takes contributor Steve Barnett will disclose his conversion to wokeness while under the spell of Peter Garrett during Midnight Oil's Hope Estate concert. "I can recall wokeness came over me during Cold Cold Change and the amazing lyric 'no master plan, it's a bad design'", Mr Barnett will reveal in a tell-all interview on the ABC's Conversations with Richard Fidler.

IN THE NEWS:

August: The Property Council of Australia Hunter Chapter and the Hunter and Central Coast Development Corporation announce their Newcastle work is complete. "We've squeezed every possible dollar out of this place that we can," they tell suits at a Business Council lunch. "Our attention is now focused on Maitland, particularly High Street, which is screaming out for developers threatening action against the council in the Land and Environment Court.

September: Local government - the metaphorical dog poo non-celebrity candidates must repeatedly stand in while waiting for a crack at higher office - elections will provide a landslide win to Labor in Newcastle. Going to the polls with the slogan "Always transparent", Labor provokes Merewether local Mark Latham. "Real Australians don't believe local government has any business in all this trans-parent stuff."

October: The fight to retain a green corridor in Newcastle will be lost when the developr's senior QC to the Independent Planning Commission argues her client must be allowed to rip bush apart to establish housing estates because of a clear precedent established in The Castle. "It's the Constitution, it's Mabo, it's justice, it's law, it's the vibe and, no that's it, it's the vibe. I rest my case."

November: NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian officially appoints Upper Hunter MP Michael Johnsen to the newly created position of "Unofficial, Honorary, Acting, Deputy Dog in Training, Parliamentary Secretary to the Hunter" which will see him turning up to fridge openings all over Newcastle.

December: Already? Egads!