A Happy New Year

The New Year's Eve party at the Cricketers was a real treat. We were joined by the same friends that we were with at the Millennium New Year event 10 long years ago. Mr A cooked roast pheasant for dinner - there's a definite 'game' trend at Lola Towers since we discovered what good value it is. Then some dressing up happened, taking far too much time. I was ready in two minutes and sat down reading the paper for the next half hour while the boys faffed about with their unaccustomed finery.

Numbers were limited so that we wouldn't be too crowded in the pub, and Smurf had arranged various drinks and entertainments, starting with a quiz. The prizes were awarded to all teams by a lottery ticket system, regardless of ranking, so despite getting our traditional pasting in the music round we ended up with a very respectable prize of a bottle of Cava.

There was a singer, and although some people danced we decided to play a game. We were tucked away in the back of the pub, and had a lovely time, disturbed only by Smurf letting us know that a) there was a snack waiting, and b) it was coming up to midnight and another glass of fizz was in order. We finished our game in time for the walk to the dance venue.

The Assembly has been open for about 18 months, and you may remember that we went to a gig there to see Alabama 3. It is still great, the music was fine, we danced, I drank water, we danced more, and were there when they turned the lights on at the end. My acclimatisation plan worked beautifully - we'd been staying up past midnight for the last week just to make sure that we wouldn't fall asleep and miss the fun.

Next day went very slowly. After a late breakfast our visitors departed, and despite our best intentions both Mr A and I fell asleep on the sofa for long stretches of the afternoon. Acclimatisation doesn't take account of two hours of vigorous dancing.