As a million or more TV breakfasts balanced on a nation of knees so the second day of ITV’s much hyped Daybreak was rattling through this morning, carried largely by the nation’s favourite celibate couple, Christine Bleakley and Adrian Chiles. Both were looking flush, I thought, with the  millions ITV paid them to jump ship from the BBC’s quirky evening magazine programme The One Show.

But I don’t think Daybreak’s bleary-eyed audience will get the duo’s brand of early-evening humour and the allure of The One Show was its thought-provoking magazine-style features. But let’s give them a chance to blossom and develop.

Nevertheless one thing I can’t let pass was their report from Spain about the property market which, rather glumly, the show’s reporter said is now more Holiday Homes from Hell than A Place in the Sun.

Daybreak’s report chose its angle carefully and focused only on the most vulnerable of the British who moved to Spain, the ones who were always going to need an earned income to survive and who have been hit hard by the downturn.

The first to arrive in Spain during during the late 1950s were adventurous, well-off and usually bohemian home buyers but it wasn’t until Spain turned into the favoured holiday destination for millions of us that owning property on the Costas became a mainstream, discuss-down-the-pub type habit.

But the problems began when the most vulnerable started to move south; the ones interviewed on Daybreak this morning. These are the expats who retired early or moved their young families to Spain in the belief that they’d find jobs despite not speaking the lingo, having much money or possessing the skills needed to make a living on the Costas.

Each story has its own idiosyncrasies and some people have just been unlucky but it’s these type of ex-pats who are the ones moving back home in droves. The type of work they once relied on to keep them in paella and patatas bravas are now scarce – both the tourism and property markets are struggling to survive the recession and these were the traditional areas for unskilled Brits to find a job.

But one thing Daybreak didn’t mention is the 150,000 or more retirees who live in Spain and who – a NatWest bank survey revealed last week – are doing just fine.

The bank revealed that seven out of ten retired Britons living overseas were happy with their new country, and that one in five – or 20% – had returned back to the UK. I wonder if Adrian and Christine will get round to interviewing them?

If you saw in 2010 in the same old city, with the same old faces, perhaps you should be thinking about doing something different next year. Ok, so we know we’re 11 and a half months early, but there’s no harm in being organised…

If your resolution for 2010 is to travel more, discover other cultures, or just party around the globe, then spending New Year’s Eve in another city could be just the thing for you.  Here are our top five destinations:

5. Bangkok, Thailand: If you fancy festivities, parades and costumes, this city should be on the top of your list. And if you can’t make it for traditional New Year, you can still catch up with two others during the year: the Chinese New Year mid-January and the Songrank festival in April.

4. Barcelona, Spain: Apparently it’s tradition to eat a grape at each of the 12 strokes of midnight -  it symbolises good luck for the year to come.

3. Paris, France: Paris’ label of the City of Lights suits it well - just don’t get me started on the Christmas decorations. The place to be on New Year’s Eve is the Champs Elysees. Don’t be surprised if people start kissing strangers in the throngs around them when the clock strikes midnight – and don’t forget to shout ‘Bonne Année!’ to one and all.

2. Niagara Falls, Canada: Every year the ‘Party in Niagara’ is organised by the Niagara Parks Commission, with amazing fireworks over the falls at both 9 pm and midnight. Therefore, if the kids can’t stay awake until midnight, they can enjoy an early show.

1. Las Vegas, United States: You can be sure that the city that knows how to party all year long will throw an amazing New Year’s Eve party. If you can make your way through the crowd, join the massive party downtown. It’s got a wine toast, concerts by big-name rockers, and a five-block-long illuminated canopy 90 feet overhead, on which state-of-the-art sound and light shows are shown.