New Year's Eve passed as planned; at 11.30 pm we dragged ourselves down to the beach (I say 'dragged' as that is late for me nowadays (again, whatever has happened - I used to be such a raver!!), ready to watch the fireworks that are set off all around the bay as the clock strikes midnight.
I am never overly enthusiastic about fireworks as when I was growing up in the UK, Guy Fawkes Night was almost as big as Easter and Christmas, and we, like everyone around us, had our own bonfire and fireworks (cooking baked potatoes in the fire and admiring a series of rockets, sparklers, 'catherine wheels' and so on firing off from our own garden every year until the UK decided to make them illegal, and then we went to the annual 'firework show' in the nearby park - by which time, I had been well and truly put off them anyway by hearing of a girl at my school that had been injured by a rocket being fired into her eye. Besides which, I do kind of think that if you have seen one firework show, you have seen them all - but, I have to say, the beach show this year was pretty spectacular, made even more enjoyable by Jan having brought a bottle of champagne with him for us to properly toast the New Year whilst watching....!
Despite the bottle of champagne on the beach, and a bit more when we got back in to 'warm up', we actually didn't feel too shabby on New Year's Day, so I was off playing tennis quite early whilst Jan was running, and then we spent half of the day doing what those of you that have read this blog before will remember that we enjoy immensely, and that is the cleaning out of the pool in readiness for the New Year. We know how to enjoy ourselves. By about mid afternoon though we had had enough of it, so took ourselves off for a walk, stopping off at my tennis partner's house on the way home in order for Jan to share in a spot of Cognac with her husband, whilst I sat virtuously sipping a glass of water. Day 1 of 'dry January' well and truly underway.
Days 2 and 3 of dry January have continued with my feeling extremely pleased with myself that it is all going so well. It's a strange thing this 'no boozing' - I do it every January, and whilst during the rest of the year, especially when we are in Spain where the wine is so fab, it can be difficult to resist drinking, for some reason January 1st comes along and I find it all relatively easy (OK, it's still early days...) but I think it is something to do with 'if not now, when'. With a view to continuing my good habits, I have also purposely avoided watching any news relating to Covid on Twitter and other channels and by doing so, found a couple of interesting pieces that I thought to include here.
One was a project I read about in Turkey (I am always interested in Turkey as many people will know, as I spent a long time there in a previous life), plus it being Christmas (Jan will fall about laughing at this little play on words!) it seemed particularly appropriate. Apparently some mega wealthy Turk got it into his head that people with money like to live in turreted palaces (think Disney), so decided to build a huge great estate full of them in the middle of the Turkish mountainside, on the basis that there would be a huge rush to buy one.. sadly, after spending more than USD 200 million, the houses all stand empty and the whole development is now a tourist attraction.... looks pretty damned creepy if you ask me.
Why am I talking about this? Ah yes. I suppose it is because I have spent the last thirty years watching various of my fellow 'brat-packers' from the early days in Prague making a small fortune in real estate development, and always thinking that I went into the wrong business, since it has never seemed to me that there is a great amount of knowledge required - just the ability to persuade banks to lend huge amounts of money (blimey... that's going to make me popular...!). That also reminds me of a group of us in about 1991 sitting around a table at the inaugural 'Prague entrepreneurs society' which I and a few others had rather pompously set up, and one of us, my good friend James, saying that if we all put GBP 10,000 into a pot, he would go and buy a building. Sadly none of us had GBP 10,000 at that time (but he did, and he duly went off and bought several buildings and quite a lot of other stuff too!).
And then there was this story (well article), posted by a friend in Prague. It's not really Covid, more 'Brexit-related'. And it's very depressing, so not a good way to end a light and fluffy New Year's blog. But it needs reading and, at the very least, sharing...
Sorry to end on such a note, but I did say before that I am aiming for a year of 'confelicity' and I have just had that, since I hear that a good friend of mine, who I also sent this article to, is going to push a load of cash their way. Marvellous. More from me soon.
You’re still a raver compared to me. I was in bed before midnight and missed the whole thing. Felt smugly virtuous on Saturday morning, and still do. I’m missing your views on HRH…I don’t imagine he’s feeling smugly virtuous anymore.