Day Two Hundred and Seventy Nine - 1.1.11

Dear all,

It's 1.1.11!!!! And what a night. We joined Kerry and Vince up in Owen Sound for a night of joyous festivities which morphed into a hilarious double-party over with next door neighbors, Kristy and Todd.

We had a BRILLIANT evening. Darren and I drove up mid way through the evening as I had been working; the road was almost completely devoid of cars which made it a serene drive up to Owen Sound through the night.

As soon as we touched down, the drinks started to flow. Darren got his hands on this very interesting Croatian ale, called Uzujsko [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ožujsko_beer] which tasted really rather good despite the unpronounceable name.

I used Vince's shoes to shuttle backwards and forwards from house to house which added comic value.

Christy and Todd had done an amazing job with decorating their house and there was food and wine everywhere!

I also experienced the fabulous Nanaimo bars for the first time. Despite the fact that I had never once heard of such a thing, it is apparently a stable in North America and I tell you, I have been missing out. They are 'raw' ( which I guess means they are relatively easy to make) and consist of a wafer crumb base layer, then a layer of vanilla custard icing and then covered in melted chocolate. There are many varieties I have discovered whilst typing in Nanaimo into google, including mint, coconut and mocha. They are quite simply, delicious.

There were star wars toys, there was music, we were dancing, it was a triumph!

Here is a snapshot of the decadent cheese board which I managed to cut into.

There was also a brilliant Mosaic of debates going on through the night: Here I managed to capture Vince, Skye and Darren thick in a political debate. I think you can sense the drama through Skye's arm movements.

The highlight of the night was of course, midnight! For the first time ever, I got to watch the ball drop on TV and saw in 2011 with gorgeous Darren and a glass of bubbly. Life really doesn't get much better than that. The ball, made exclusively by Waterford Crystal, is raised to the top of the pole at 6pm and descends to the bottom of the pole, one minute before midnight, watched by an estimated 1 billion people!

Dick Clark is hanging in the there [just] with Ryan Seacrest now the master of ceremonies shepherding the likes of 'the new kids on the block' [God help us] and Ke$ha on and off the stage in front of the million strong crowd in Times Square. I loved and and it truly felt like the start of a tradition on New Years Eve/ Day!

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE!!!! 2011 IS GOING TO BE THE BEST YET!

And in other news:

1. Luke also kindly entered me into the annual 'Priston Duck Race'. It is still unclear as to whether I placed in the race but here is the photo-finish!