Nearly New Year's...
by prudence on 29-Dec-2010
My mother always got depressed at New Year's, and I think it's an inheritable trait.
It's not helped by the fact that my partner's many wonderful qualities do not include enthusiasm about festivals. So, attempting even to keep him awake until New Year can be like pulling teeth.
Here, then, are my least favourite places to spend New Year's Eve:
1. At home. This is just dismal. Too many reminders of childhood New Year's Eve TV progs, awash with over-cheery Scottishness. Who wants to watch other people having fun at New Year's?
2. At work. Especially alone on an evening shift, with Nigel's plans to join me afterwards cancelled by snow.
3. Sihanoukville. If a place is normally sleazy, New Year's will make it worse.
4. Any campsite in New Zealand, unless you've brought your own party. If you haven't, you've got all the disadvantages of No. 1, plus no walls.
5. In a summer cottage on the Dingle Peninsula. All the disadvantages of No. 1, plus it's freaking FREEZING.
6. Bandar Seri Begawan. Lovely place -- just doesn't really do New Year. Which is probably good, as we were convalescing, and needed the quiet.
Here, on the other hand, are my all-star New Year's experiences:
1. Chengyang, Guanxi Province. Wonderful home-cooked food, and a really fun evening, courtesy of our Intrepid guide, Jo.
2. Marrakech. Great music, exuberant dancing, dodgy alcohol. It helps if you have just spent two weeks trekking in the Jebel Sahro, starved of all trappings of civilization.
3. West Berlin (yes, we're talking about a while ago). The Germans seemed to be into the New Year fireworks long before the rest of us.
4. Dublin. Forget about even getting near a pub -- they're superpacked. But we shoehorned ourselves into Bewley's for coffee and atmosphere, before heading to Christ Church Cathedral with thousands of others for the fateful 12 strokes of midnight, followed by peal after peal of stirring New Year bells.
5. Melbourne. Stacks of free entertainment, family atmosphere, and fantastic fireworks, unencumbered by that so-yesterday coathanger contraption that lesser Australian cities still regard as indispensable.
6. A cottage at the foot of Cronk ny Arrey Laa. Now we're going a really long way back, but these houseparties were how I first discovered that New Year's could actually be FUN.
It's not helped by the fact that my partner's many wonderful qualities do not include enthusiasm about festivals. So, attempting even to keep him awake until New Year can be like pulling teeth.
Here, then, are my least favourite places to spend New Year's Eve:
1. At home. This is just dismal. Too many reminders of childhood New Year's Eve TV progs, awash with over-cheery Scottishness. Who wants to watch other people having fun at New Year's?
2. At work. Especially alone on an evening shift, with Nigel's plans to join me afterwards cancelled by snow.
3. Sihanoukville. If a place is normally sleazy, New Year's will make it worse.
4. Any campsite in New Zealand, unless you've brought your own party. If you haven't, you've got all the disadvantages of No. 1, plus no walls.
5. In a summer cottage on the Dingle Peninsula. All the disadvantages of No. 1, plus it's freaking FREEZING.
6. Bandar Seri Begawan. Lovely place -- just doesn't really do New Year. Which is probably good, as we were convalescing, and needed the quiet.
Here, on the other hand, are my all-star New Year's experiences:
1. Chengyang, Guanxi Province. Wonderful home-cooked food, and a really fun evening, courtesy of our Intrepid guide, Jo.
2. Marrakech. Great music, exuberant dancing, dodgy alcohol. It helps if you have just spent two weeks trekking in the Jebel Sahro, starved of all trappings of civilization.
3. West Berlin (yes, we're talking about a while ago). The Germans seemed to be into the New Year fireworks long before the rest of us.
4. Dublin. Forget about even getting near a pub -- they're superpacked. But we shoehorned ourselves into Bewley's for coffee and atmosphere, before heading to Christ Church Cathedral with thousands of others for the fateful 12 strokes of midnight, followed by peal after peal of stirring New Year bells.
5. Melbourne. Stacks of free entertainment, family atmosphere, and fantastic fireworks, unencumbered by that so-yesterday coathanger contraption that lesser Australian cities still regard as indispensable.
6. A cottage at the foot of Cronk ny Arrey Laa. Now we're going a really long way back, but these houseparties were how I first discovered that New Year's could actually be FUN.