Happy New Year!!!

I'm having a very mellow New Year's Eve. I've dropped off my laundry, done my ironing, eaten some soup and I'm now plopped in front of the TV with a glass of Mencia. Do I know how to party it up in NYC or what ;-) I'll probably be in bed before the clock strikes midnight, I usually am, although that's typically because I'm dealing with jet lag after spending Christmas in the UK. I have no such excuse this time, but I'm just not one of life's night people. I'm much better at mornings, which is why I shall be up with the larks - and the walk of shamers* - to take the subway out to Far Rockaway for a New Years Day surf lesson. I KNOW....surfing in January, but it's forecast to be 50F tomorrow, it should be a beautiful day to be out on the water. I've finally coerced fair weather surfer, Megan, to come with me. She's always been bothered by the idea of wearing so much as a spring wetsuit having only ever surfed wearing a rash guard and board shorts, so she'll be having quite the initiation tomorrow in her 4/3 suit, hood, gloves and booties. After surfing in all that get up wearing a spring suit in a few months will be no probs.

To be honest you couldn't pay me to go and watch the ball drop in Times Square**. They were speculating on NY1 the other day that it's 90% tourists who go, but in almost 12years in New York I've yet to meet someone who's been. Native New Yorker Melissa was postulating that if you count anyone who lives outside of the 5 NY boroughs*** as tourists then the percentage probably shoots up to 98%. They were interviewing people on the news this morning who'd got to Times Square at 6am and were planning to wait it out for 18hours to keep their spot, because once the crowds arrive there's no moving, once you're there, you stay there. How does one go to the bathroom you might wonder? Well I've heard, although I've no idea if this is true, that people just...how can I put this delicately...go where they are standing.

Hmmmm!!

Spending New Year's Eve watching the ball drop in Times Square doesn't quite sound like the most appealing proposition when you hear that does it?

I wonder if there's a whole adult diaper situation going on? Ugh ugh ugh, WHAT IS WRONG WITH MY BRAIN, why on earth did I think that? Just forget I said anything okay, it really does not bear thinking about.

Have a happy and safe new year's eve and all the best for 2012!!

*I did enjoy this Harvey Nics ad featuring the walk of shame and the fact that it doesn't deride the women who participate, but just encourages them to dress better when they do it. Ha ha!! Enjoy it ladies.



**I could take or leave going out on NYE in general to be honest. Melissa's father refers to it as 'Amateur Night' because everyone who doesn't typically go out at other times during the year hits the town on New Years Eve and it just turns into a bit of a mess. Not to be all bah humbug about it, but I'm inclined to agree with his philosophy. People seem to put themselves under too much pressure to have a good time on NYE and it usually falls a bit flat in my experience. In fact the only memorable NYE I've spent was when I was in my mid-twenties and rented a cottage in St Ives. St Ives is a small town on the Cornish coast and the whole town dresses in costume up for NYE and none of the pubs and bars charged a cover so we were free to roam from pub to pub, it doesn't cost a fortune and you have a built in opportunity to chat to people by asking them about their costume. Even the police who were on duty the year we were there cheerfully posed for photos with revelers. Happy days!!

***Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx and Staten Island