Good bye 2024…23..22..21..Hello 2025

My annual tribute to New Years Eve......

I repost this each New Year to remind me of how time passes so quickly! We are about to say goodbye to 2024 and hello 2025 which hardly seems possible! This year again has been full of surprises - the biggest one being that I have remarried! I’m still in shock but adamant that nothing will change. Travel highlights for this year have come from a northerly direction with Scotland and Balmoral and Donegal in Ireland. My trip to the US fell later and I was there for a most spectacular fall and Halloween and because we are seldom here for Christmas, I went all out and had a very busy and enjoyable festive season which is about to come to a close as we prepare to leave for sunny shores. I hope it’s warmer and brighter when we return. Till the Happy New Year ….. time to remember!

It’s that day of the year when you either celebrate and look forward to what the New Year has in store or you sit and recollect what happened in the year that you are leaving behind. Whether you are looking into a crystal ball or in the rear view mirror – it’s all about reflection. Just like Bridgette Jones it’s about taking stock, tallying up the numbers in your life, doing a few calculations and deciding whether you are winning or not.

That probably explains why some years you will find me sitting at home in my slippers watching The Royal Variety Show and other years I will be putting my left leg in, my left leg out, doing the Hokey Cokey with a bunch of jolly strangers.

Traditionally New Year was a time for first footing, dark haired strangers bearing coal and a lot of Scottish people on the TV swinging their kilts and their whisky bottles. My father, Harry, used to celebrate New Year in a big way down at his local while we children waited for him to come home intoxicated so that we could laugh at him. One year he did the Highland fling with a party can - a huge can of beer that held seven pints – then opened it! We welcomed 1962 in a shower of beer and the house still reeked of Ansell’s’ bitter in June! 

Another year – 1976 I think - the family accompanied dad to his local, the Seven Stars, and at midnight we three sisters marched into the bar because that was the year that women were declared equal and couldn’t be refused entry anywhere based on their gender. We wanted the moon, equal pay and the opportunity to buy a pint in the snug! My sister took our newly legislated freedom a step further by marching into the Gents toilets while my father cried into his beer and declared that the world had gone mad.

Perhaps that’s why my father chose the 31st December to cast off his mortal coil and join the spirit in the sky. That year I lay in bed listening to neighbours singing Auld Lang Syne, distant fireworks and the world celebrating and I wandered how people could be so happy while I was so sad. I suppose that sums up New Years Eve – some have had a year to celebrate and others are sadly counting their losses.

Since being in South Africa we have the additional burden of celebrating twice – at midnight and at 2am as we wait for and send good luck messages to the UK. A few of years ago I opted to babysit for New Year and when friends asked had I seen the New Year in – I replied, “Yes! At 23h30, 00h15, 01h45, 02h30 and 04h10!” I had forgotten that is what New Year’s Eve is like with a 3 year old.

I am also remembering a New Year spent in Cape Town visiting a friends who were in isolation there. Our dear friend had been diagnosed with acute T-cell limblastic lymphoma so while the champagne corks were popping, he was in hospital popping pills and battling the horrors of chemo. Friends of friends opened their home to us and we saw the 2010 in with strangers in Monte Vista and drove back as the sun came over Table Mountain unsure of what the year held. He is a survivor and a hero and I know will celebrate many New Years!

2012 Is it really only 6 years ago that Tony and I were singing,“We'll take a cup o' kindness yet, For auld lang syne,"  with sister Julia and Tom in Manchester - dining in style and dancing the night away. Such a joyful evening and the expectation of a great year ahead - Four weeks later, I was numb with shock and arranging Tony's funeral.

2013 - Spent in Natal with where we eventually found somewhere to eat - Jimmy's Prawns - at 10pm to be told they weren't licensed, Never Again!

2015 I spent the night on my own, scrap booking, I think and then climbed into bed early, content, healthy and grateful to have made it through another year and achieving most of what I set out to do. This year I turned my dream of sailing on the Chobe River into reality. I have visited Singapore and Thailand and spent precious time with Sean Nadine and Katherine. I managed a few days in the UK having fun with Julia, Tom, Sandra and Janice and family. I have fished for trout in Dullstroom, set sail in a canoe on the Keurbooms river (albeit briefly) and I have enjoyed some wild adventures with my camera. I have been productive and managed financially to maintain my home, my health and my sanity, I am content with my lot and looking forward to 2016 - excited at the possibilities it has in store and plotting my path to make more of my dreams come true. Tonight there are no plans as yet,  but I shall be remembering the past and definitely looking forward to celebrating a life lived deliberately.

2016 Today V is arriving from Natal - this will be our last New Year together - the decision is made and I just have to take action. I am disappointed but I am truly worth more than a daily phone call at 9pm and a long weekend per month. My sister and hubby is arriving tomorrow so I am excited for that. We will travel a little and enjoy the beach and the bush! I have new projects to look forward to and enjoying time with my family and friends. I have goals to visit Namibia and  Botswana and perhaps I will fit in a trip to the UK too!

2017 Surprise Surprise - Isn't life full of them! This year I am spending New Years Eve in Novi Michigan. Wrapped in a white blanket of snow - snug and warm and watching Little Women on BBC. Yes - I will be having a glass of bubbly but probably at 9pm as that is what parents of small children do lol. I have achieved all that I set out to do this year so I deserve to celebrate my achievements.  My plans for the year are in progress and I do believe that I will have some exciting adventures in 2018. I am blessed with a loving family and privileged to spend time with the little people in it.

2018 Change, Change and Change! Reflecting on last years comment that I plan to have exciting adventures in 2018 is a bit of an understatement. Who would have thought that life would have washed me up here on the very south coast of England watching swans, gulls and river traffic on the Arun in between rushing off to races in Ireland and the UK? I have had some wonderful adventures, traveled on trains and boats and planes to Canada and the USA and through England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. I have met some really interesting people, made a couple of new friends, spent time with old friends and met someone who is kind, thoughtful and loving and is great fun to spend time with. I hope I have made a difference to a couple of elderly folk and I have loved my year of living differently! I am already making plans for 2019 but right now I am looking forward to seeing you all again in January and catching up with all your adventures.

2019 / 2020 /2021 What happened??

I was trying to remember today how I celebrated the last couple of New YearsEves ? We were in South Africa - packing for Cape Town I think last year. Beyond that I can’t remember - perhaps a long term effect of Covid! New Year seems to lose its sparkle as you age and today we had lunch with friends and will stay at home and look for something good on TV.  Plans - fingers crossed - to travel south are imminent. This year,  I have managed a visit to the USA and had a great time with the family there. We have holidayed in Ireland and as far north in Scotland as we could, and explored the Jurassic coast as far south as we could get. I have reconnected with my eldest brother and made the most of travel opportunities around various restrictions. I am grateful for my health, my family and that my nearest and dearest is well. I am loved and had the opportunity to spend time with my loved ones - a blessing! 

Once my life was lived from goal to goal. I had to-do lists, bucket lists, f#*&-it lists and short and long term plans. Now I am just living in the now - savouring the special times with people and taking life as it comes …..mostly in boxes from Amazon! I know I will spend my 69th birthday in the wild bush of the Eastern Cape and hopefully awake to the rumble of lion, the call of a Knysna loerie  and that special earthy fragrance of  nature that I love. 

Not sure whether we will be doing the Hokey Cokey this year as sadly , Larry La Prise, the man who wrote "The Hokey Pokey" died peacefully at age 93 last week. The most traumatic part for the family was getting him into the coffin. They put his left leg in..... and then the trouble started. Hee Hee!

Happy New Year to all my family and friends........and special thoughts of my dad Harry – I hope that you are enjoying a wee dram at the ‘eighth star.’