It’s probably best to say Happy New Year at this point. Mine was spent in London, another cheap return ticket by train and plenty of amusement along the bank of the Thames.
Swan and myself started with a couple of beers in Seven Kings before heading into central london where we met with Devito and Ainhoa before finding somewhere to sit in a Wetherspoons somewhere behind the Tower of London. A bit of ameretto and a couple of hours later we took off again closer to the river, having a good little meander in and around walled gardens along the river and through the marinas before ending up outside the Lord Mayor’s office with Swan’s sisters and their respective boyfriends.
It was quickly decided to find some shelter (a bar) where we waited for the strike of midnight. We had stopped right outside HMS Befast, hoping to be able to glimpse the spectacular fireworks, but rather perceptively, we managed to avoid them completely. It didn’t seem to matter too much at the time though - we heard Big Ben, saw some flashes of light behind the City skyline and retreated back inside briefly to place one last order.
At this point Swan, Devito, Ainhoa and myself split away once more and took to scouring the backstreets for some final place to spend the early hours. Despite our best efforts to crash a party without tickets, we found places would let us in if we paid, so we did.
The rest of the evening was spent on a cultural exchange with a group of Swedish tourists. I now know that something that sounds like ‘schlips knutze’ is a tie with a knot, however I am struggling to find ways to work this into conversations. It took about four hours to get back to Swan’s and I didn’t get to sleep until 7.30am.
By the time I arrived at Marylebone at 3pm later on New Year’s Day to catch the train home I was feeling surprisingly awake, but after walking back from the station then fish and chips, I was out like a light.
A good start to the new year by my reckoning.