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I鈥檝e left my camera at my brothers so no photos of the New Year! I鈥檝e asked a certain basket weaver to post her photos so here鈥檚 hoping she has the good sense to delete all the bad ones of me. Hogmanay was great. We had dinner at friends then the ceilidh at Corrie hall. It was quieter than usual because we didn鈥檛 have a band but that left more room for dancing and Stuart was a fantastic Master of Ceremonies. The best surprise was that some of the band that usually comes had turned up so they played on from midnight for free! The fireworks were excellent and everyone had a lovely time.

The 1st was first footing, which started with breakfast a 3pm at my house then off we went on the rounds. Everyone had prepared a different drink from hot toddies (heavy on the whiskey no water) to liqueur punch. It鈥檚 amazing it didn鈥檛 get any messier than it did. I was having a long conversation with Peter and apparently every time the music stopped I came out with a really odd, bizarre or embarrassing line. I was hoping everyone would鈥檝e had too much to drink to remember but apparently not鈥�

Julie is moving to a lovely new house in Whiting Bay with central heating and an indoor bathroom! So she had her leaving party on the second. We went to great efforts to get the oil drums and BBQ鈥檚 up to her house which is a bit small, to serve as outdoor heating as we didn鈥檛 think everyone would fit in the house. This involved having to get the neighbours out to move their car so Wendy could turn the van as she could only get it half way up the track before it started sliding back and Stuart got his car stuck for a wee bit. It was like car ceilidh dancing. We had phoned ahead for muscle to help carry the stuff up to the house which had arrived in the shape of Eric in a T-shirt in January, he was a wee bit cold by the time we got the van open and everything up to the house at which point it started to rain. This didn鈥檛 perturb the hardened smokers who appreciated our efforts. They seemed surprised that the rest of us had no intention of sitting outside in the freezing cold. A bunch went off to the pub to find 鈥淢ore interesting people鈥� and actually came back with some!

By the third I was a wee bit tiered. Diana invited us over to the dark side (Kilmory) so we went for dinner in Kildonan then up to Dianas鈥� for games. It鈥檚 not easy to play thinking games when your brain is fried but it was funny.

Back to work today and all houseguests should be gone by the time I get home. Looking forward to quiet and solitude unless there鈥檚 another party I鈥檝e forgotten about鈥�.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!