New Years Eve & The Arrival Of 2012!!!

The Streets Of London On New Years Eve!!!

This New Year was an interesting affair. Over the last few days my parents had been away and in their replacement, Henry and Grace had been staying in my family home with Maisa and myself. Those two however, had booked tickets to a concert for New Year, of which Maisa and myself weren't particularly interested in. I had already seen Kasabian live (in a muddy field at Glastonbury in 2005) and Maisa isn't really too keen on that type of rock music. Unlike most years that I remembered, my boys had all scarpered off in different directions too. They were all doing things seperately and so it was left to Maisa and myself to entertain ourselves for New Years Eve.

After a day of resting, we eventually got ourselves ready and headed out for something to eat. Restaurants were not overly full and thus we didn't have too much trouble getting a table at most places, at least local places anyway. After some delicious pasta and a few glasses of wine, the two of us headed out into the mayhem that is central London on the last night of the year. The plan was to go and see the fireworks. They are usually pretty spectacular and I had actually never been into central London on NYE to see them - I used to just always watch them on the telly. London was chaos. Trying to get to a decent part of the river (near the London Eye) to obtain the best viewing spots were long gone. I think you had to queue all day to get those places. I'm sure I read on the news that one person had just stayed in the same spot since last years event, so they didn't have to bother fighting the crowds this time around. It is possible I dreamt that news report though.

After being led half way across London by the local police, battling with hords of people, we finally made it to a spot on the river - directly opposite the Oxo Tower. The fireworks WERE pretty spectacular despite the two of us being quite far from the main action. Also, by the end there was so much smoke from the first fireworks that you couldn't actually see the last ones from where we were. Still, it was fun to be out in all the madness and it was certainly something very different to what Maisa is used to on New Years Eve. We then took the very long walk back to King's Cross Station before heading back home. There we had a few drinks and waited for Henry and Grace, who soon returned. We finished the night off with further drinking before eventually collapsing on our beds.

It was nice to finally spend a New Year back home in London and to spend it with Maisa too. I still couldn't believe it was already 2012. Supposedly to some this coming year is the last that we will all have on this planet however, I was too busy to start thinking about the end of the human race at this moment in time. This coming week would ultimately be as manic as my last............and any thoughts on man's demise would certainly have to wait for now!!!