Friday, December 31, 2010

Fast away.

There are a few things I've ended up doing in 2010 that didn't even occur to me as possibilities at the end of 2009. Saying 'it's just the ending of Press Gang, but without the humour and eye candy'. Reading more Thucydides. Becoming obsessed with flushing the loo with melted snow. That kind of thing. I'm convinced it all shows my endless resourcefulness.

I'm flying solo again this New Year's Eve. I did last year, too, but that time not through choice, so this time I'm actually going to enjoy the solitude. Probably the strangest New Year's I had was at a party in a barn in Surrey: the electricity went at 11.30, and everyone took this as a cue to start singing and telling jokes like we were on a school trip. We weren't. We were in our early twenties. I also remember fondly standing on the seats in a tram shelter in Danziger Strasse to avoid the fireworks being aimed through the gap between the perspex and the pavement. When I was very young, my parents used to let me have a glass of Advocaat on New Year's Eve. Despite this, I still like alcohol. Nice try, though.

The only New Year's Resolution I've ever managed to keep was my 2008 one: not to add salt to my food before I've tasted it. Probably this is because no-one has since offered me a glass of Advocaat on New Year's Eve. I don't know if I have any resolutions this year. I expect if I had, they'd have occurred to me by now, but I'm keeping an open mind, just in case.

At the moment, everything's a bit mucky out, as the slush has mostly melted (a few large clumps of icy mess still knocking about on the side streets, but only a few), but we haven't had a proper rain yet. It seems right for the year to end a bit messy and understated. Well, comforting, anyhow.

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