Sunday 1 January 2017

Another Year (2017)

2017-01-01 Nyår4

And once more we’ve said goodbye to an old year, and welcomed a fresh new one. It’s odd how every new year always starts with having to clean up the mess remaining from the old one, though!

It’s a long-standing tradition for me and two old friends (going back to when we were neighbours in the same building for many years) to celebrate New Year together. One friend’s sister, who lives in another town, usually comes too. For some years now, the other friend’s mother has been with us as well. And again this year, all four were able to come. For various practical reasons, we’re always at my place, and keep pretty much the same simple menu and routine every year now – I make quiche, and they bring salad and cider and snacks (and help with the first load of washing up!) We also always watch a film (back in the early days, on VHS – nowadays DVD). This year The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2015)  - sequel to The Best… (from 2011 but watched by us in 2013). With that bunch of star actors - like Maggie Smith, Penelope Wilton, Judi Dench, Richard Gere – you really can’t go wrong…

In spite of rain and fog, there were a lot of fireworks going on outside all evening as always, with climax around midnight. A law some years ago against launching fireworks in densely populated areas without permission hasn’t made any difference whatsoever that I can notice. Some of the major store chains having stopped selling them also does not seem to have stopped anyone from buying them; nor has a law against buying or handling them if you’re under 18 had much effect. (If anything, it all seems only to increase every year!)

So… something that’s not even really worth trying on New Year’s Eve around here, is going to bed early in the hope of sleeping through the midnight hullaballoo…

Usually the worst of the fireworks has died down around 00:30, though, allowing my guests to go home (by car). After they have gone, I always need some time to wind down – so while the rest of the year I almost never stay up after midnight, on that very first night of the year I rarely get to bed before 2 a.m. 

And as a consequence, my New Year’s Day morning is always lazy, and the rest of the day is usually spent slowly restoring my home to sort of “normal”… (Not taking down my Christmas decorations though. They stay up at least over Twelfth Day / Epiphany.) 

4 comments:

  1. I laid in bed from 9 until 1:30 and planned bad things to do to all the people using illegal fireworks. same thing here as where you are, laws and more laws and they do it anyway.... this year they were much louder and much brighter, my windows were flashing with light and they had something that sounded like a machine gun. glad your friends got to you and home safely. as long as you are having fun with friends, why not

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    1. It's a very worrying trend with fireworks now also being used as weapons (thrown deliberately at other people in some public places!) and not just for watching and admiring. :(

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  2. Happy New Year to you, Monica! I know 2017 is already 3 days "old", but the largest chunk is still ahead :-)
    In my hometown, we only heard the fireworks - the fog was so dense we didn't see a thing!

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    1. "The fog was so dense we didn't see a thing" - somehow that sounds rather ominous, Meike (in a figurative sense). Let's hope we'll be able to see things more clearly later on in the year! :)

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