New Year's Stories

Now that Xmas & New Year are a distant memory for most people, I'd like to tell you about my New Year's "celebrations".

Turning down the offers of going clubbing with a couple of student nurses or to a house party in the centre of town, instead I went to a cottage in a sleepy village in Dorset, with friends I've known for more than a decade.

-There were no street lights for miles.
-I had no phone reception for 3 days.
-I drank practically no booze at all.
-There was no reason to get up in the morning.
-We sat around all day & played parlour games.
-There was no chance of a midnight snog on NYE.

And the sad thing is... I really enjoyed it!

It was really chilled, the company was great, relaxed; there was no stress - one guy did all the cooking, a range of celebrity chefs' recipes!

I had a really good time.

Bloody hell, I must be getting old...


For NYE we went to the pub (as in the only pub); the locals all looked a bit odd... but I suppose being from Civilisation, we all probably looked odd too.
We met a hippy mother who'd brought her baby along. To send it off to sleep, she held it upside-down by the feet and swung it gently from side to side; she was surprised it didn't go off to sleep as quickly as usual - I reckon it was because I moved the chair & table out of the way so she wouldn't bang its head...

For my New Year's resolution, I vowed to be healthier.

So for lunch on New Year's Day I had
-garlic bread
-a bowl of mussels
-a bowl of chips (the mussels' sauce is wasted otherwise)
-and, er... a roast lamb, roast potatoes & vegetables.

Oh well, I'll try again next year...

Better than my resolution a few years ago - I decided that I wouldn't swear unnecessarily any more.
Come midnight, the first thing I said was "Happy fucking New Year"...


One word. I only lasted one word...