For Joyce, although you might have to get used to it ;)

Friday – New Years Eve. I worked all day, but I’d had over a week off and indeed have over a week until my next shift so not too much of a hardship really. It was a mix of busy and quite cheery with everyone wishing each other Happy New Year, and quite tedious when it got very quiet in the afternoon and dragged. I’d worn a jumper, albeit a short sleeved one and was roasting plus had failed to make any lunch to take with me so rang Ady to collect me for lunch so I could come home and eat and get changed into something cooler for the afternoon. He ran me a bath so I had a quick dip, washed my hair, got changed into something far less seasonal, ate and went back to work again.

We’d arranged, fairly last minute when we realised we were free on NYE and they were driving almost past the door on their way home from Christmas with family, to have Marcus and Michelle here for the evening to see 2011 in with. This was fab, we’ve all missed them (and Chloe of course) and had been really disappointed not to have a planned visit from them before Christmas due to illness. They had already arrived before Ady came to collect me from work and completely misheard me saying I was ‘going to get my Nicola clothes off’ 😆

A lovely evening followed, with us making efforts not to peak too early despite cracking open the fizz well before 7pm. Davies and Scarlett had a sleepover and spent their time between us downstairs and a film in Davies’ bedroom. They saw midnight in with us, watching the fireworks in London on TV and then they headed off to bed while we watched Hootenany from March ;). We learnt that Michelle has a rather shady past time for which she has convictions, after which Ady gave her the first kiss at midnight 😉 I’m happy to retain my amateur status 😉 . Both Marcus and Ady were quite taken with Kylie on TV though, I guess she is more their age 😆

We enjoyed friendfeed giving us snippets of other people’s celebrations, had a phonecall from my mum at midnight (I don’t think either of us heard anything, she was in a pub with people shouting all around, I was in the lounge with the TV up so loud one of the speakers fell off) and texts from people throughout the evening.

We went to bed about 3am I think, having waited so long for 2011 to arrive it would have been rude to abandon it too soon once it got here ;).

Saturday – New Years Day. Clearly having seen it in properly there was not so much of a rush to get up ;). We debated going to see some local morris dancers but no one was really in the mood, Scarlett and I nipped out to Lancing as I’d forgotten to pick up an anniversary card for my parents (married on New Years Day 39 years ago), but we didn’t find one in Lancing and ended up getting one at the shop around the corner.

Marcus and Michelle had the Grand Tour of the campervan. Much chatting, laughing, eating and drinking continued until our next guests arrived – The Barts 🙂 We had a lovely few hours crossover of everyone here, with my parents arriving to collect their anniversary card / exchange New Year & anniversary wishes adding to the mix before Marcus and Michelle headed off for home. We did tell them not to go…. 😉

My parents left not too long afterwards and with everyone fed and the kids directed towards upstairs if not sleep we had a very enjoyable evening chatting, laughing and playing a game that James’ secret santa at camp had given him which was most entertaining and kept us going til nearly 3am again.

Being the Year of the Spillage the Ady machine came out at least once, and there was almost a PMSL spillage when James recreated Ride on Time by sitting on his watch and dashing about the room 😆

Which meant another late start to Sunday. Everyone was looking rather peaky and so a walk to the beach was decided as ideal therapy, once Kirsty & James had had the Grand Tour of the campervan. On the off chance I tried to start my car which had been standing since before Christmas and I’ve had several attempts at starting and failed each time. It started first time so I decided I would drive it to the beach to give it a run. The kids wanted to come in my car too which meant taking Ady’s would be pointless so we went in mine. It took a bit of warming up though and died just before we were about to turn into the beach carpark. It did start again, get across the road and was fine all the way home so presumably just needed a bit of a run to get going properly.

The beach walk was just gorgeous. It was late thanks to faffing at home and then further faffing with the car so we were approaching sunset at 330pm but the light was amazing, the sky filled with stunning colours and of course the sea reflecting them all.

There are about a million pictures on flickr 😉 but my faves are:
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and the obligatory self timer shot of course ” alt=”self timer” />

Back for hot chocolate, tea, coffee etc for those who wanted it, dinner for the kids and then off upstairs for them while we had a lovely curry and another evening of admiring the kindle, chatting and a couple of rounds of Spot the Intro. I’m practically a gamer now 😉

It might have been getting on for 3am again….

Today Slightly quieter from the kids – Davies and Marcus did some gaming, Scarlett and Alex carried on playing with the toy animals. The Barts packed up and headed for home, with sandwiches foisted upon them by Superhost Ady ;). We tidied up, chopped wood, hoovered, did some washing and then collapsed.

Ady and I attempted to compile a list of things we need to do as really final throes of planning should begin in earnest. So I now have a long job list, Ady is back to work ;). Scarlett had a long bath and I brushed her hair which had gotten very wild and tangled. The kids had tea, Davies had a bath and then I read them the first 4 chapters of Chronicles of Narnia – The Magician’s Nephew. They have seen a couple of the films and Scarlett has been listening to some of the audio books so they are familiar enough with it to sit through the slightly wordy text of the original stories now. Reading it aloud not only brought back the memory of reading it myself as a child, it also brought back the memory of Frazer and I creating a little area in my parents loft just like Polly’s complete with sweets, torch and some toys which I had quite forgotten until reading it.

Despite an 8pm bedtime Scarlett didn’t fall asleep until 1130pm when I went and sat on her bedroom floor as she was struggling with being alone in a room in a proper bed after Davies’ floor with a roomful for the last 3 nights. I assume Davies is now asleep but he wasn’t at that point. Grr. But I guess having seen 3am myself for the last 3 nights and sitting here still now at long gone midnight I possibly can’t really talk…

So, a lovely start to the new year, filled with friends, laughter and sharing exciting dreams. Our adventure is really feeling like a close realit