Happy New Year!

Here we are on 1st January 2010 - it is the first time I have written it!

Last night Stuart and I went around to Danny's for a party. We brought food, well lots of home baked bread, drink and chairs:) It was going to be the last supper of 2009 as we had many courses thanks to everyone preparing a dish. There was nothing rushed about dinner, which was good as we were continually eating. We had guests come and go as they moved on or arrived from other parties. It was a very international party - there were Americans, Belgians, Scots, an Englishman, a South African, an Australian, and a German!

We realised it was nearly midnight and we were sitting at table, however, we had to sneak in a German (and Scandinavian) New Year tradition to watch a 15 minute comedy sketch called 'Dinner for One'. Danny was so excited when Stuart arrived with it and he was amazed he had even heard about it. The script was written by a Brit, but it was filmed and produced in Germany and never made it to the UK. It is extremely silly and the first 5 minutes are funny then it becomes stupid:) Anyway, we went by the tradition and all stood and watched this before going out on to the front porch to pop the bottles of champagne.

After some debate about who actually had the right time, we let the host tell us when! It was a lovely evening, a little cold but dry. There weren't many fireworks because you are not allowed most types of them (including firing pistols n the air!) within the city limits. I think we were all making enough noise to make up for that.

Let's just say the party went on to 4am and we managed a dip in the pool - the very leafy cold pool! All of just undressed down to our underwear and jumped in, about 5 minutes later Danny turns up in his swimming trunks and is really disappointed because we have already been in. Louise, Danny's girlfriend, and I took pitty and went in for a second time. The second time was much worse! I am now bearing a scar, having removed the skin from a portion of my foot - I missed the deep end! Apart from that we all survived. To conclude the evening, and warm up, the dancing started - well, I did!! I had to apologise to Danny this morning, as with any occasion of alcohol and music, I ended up on his dining room table dancing! For some reason I was dancing around the ceiling fan (it wasn't on), but I was spinning it and then going up and down between the blades!

We missed half of the1st, only getting up at midday but we had a great breakfast eating more of Stuart's bread with boiled eggs, cheese and meats. There was not too much mess at Danny's so the room was put back together in minutes. It was the most amazing day - blues skies with not a cloud to be seen. It was about 15 degC in the sun - it almost reminded me of days in Aberdeen going to walk along the beach on New Years Day.

This afternoon, after getting home, we managed a walk to the shops for provisions and then both of us fell asleep on the sofa. Yup just like it always is on the 1st!

Happy New Year and Best Wishes for 2010.