It’s already 2025 in parts of Australia. The Guardian promises to bring up regular updates of New Year celebrations as they take place around the world. People are seeking the best spots to watch firework displays.
(Just as an aside, what do traumatised refugees from war-torn places think about firework displays?)
According to this article, more and more people are dining out on New Year’s Eve, part of the increase in “experiential leisure”, which I think we used to call “going out and doing stuff”. According to Leighanne Bent, marketing manager of an organisation called DesignMyNight (yes, such organisations seem to be needed nowadays, possibly run by folk who studied “events management” at university!), however you choose to celebrate, there is plenty of choice. “Whether it’s a low-key restaurant booking or something more immersive like a secret pink party in a London mansion or even an Abba-themed night with live performers – there really is something for everyone on New Year’s Eve.”
Considering that the weather has been getting steadily worse as the day has progressed - from rather cloudy and windy when I went out for a run quite early to thick cloud and strong winds by midday and the threat of rain to come - we’ll just stay at home and maybe go to bed early!
Twenty-five years ago we celebrated a friend’s 50th birthday on millennium eve, watching firework displays from one of the highest spots in the area. For years that was our New Years’s Eve cum birthday celebration sorted, with long walks home in the small hours of New Year’s Morning. Ten almost eleven years ago he passed away. We kept up the tradition in bus memory until the pandemic came along. Now the group of friends just call and message each other.
As the year rushes to a close the papers fill up with articles about The Best 20/30/50 films/albums/TV series/ podcasts of 2024. There is no need to read them: the headlines suffice!
Then there are the feel-good silly stories such as the one about the good Samaritan in March who mistook a rogue hat bobble on a Cheshire pavement for a sickly hedgehog, and rushed it to animal A&E.
“The lady who brought it in was very frantic and worried because she’d kept it in a shoebox overnight but it hadn’t eaten or pooed,” says Janet Kotze, the manager of Lower Moss Wood wildlife hospital in Knutsford, Cheshire. The woman had lined the box with newspaper, given it a hot-water bottle and a blob of wet cat food for sustenance. Kotze – surprised at the weightlessness of the box – examined the little brown mound under the bright lights of the hospital’s triage room, only to discover that it wasn’t a hedgehog, it wasn’t even an animal – it was, in fact, the lopped-off top of a hat.
The rescuer remained anonymous, but in the course of a few days the hospital achieved global fame. “I had people calling me from back home in South Africa asking: ‘What’s going on?’” says Kotze. The not-hedgehog was named Hedgebobble by hospital staff, and led to tens of thousands of Facebook likes and a cascade of donations to the centre. It was welcome, says Kotze.
At least it had a positive, if short-lived, effect in a sudden boost of donations.
There’s also the occasional look-back at more significant events, not this year but in years past, such as this article about advisers urging Tony Blair to try to calm down George W Bush over the Iraq war. Imagine how different the world might be today if Blair had helped stop that from happening! Too late now!
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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