Friday 1 January 2021

Break on through to the other side

 

I have never been a fan of New Year. I was always glad to get through it, rarely stayed up to see it in and am glad when the barrier is crossed. My mother always stayed up for the Bells with a wee sherry and mince pie or something similar even when on her own latterly. She had come from a family who embraced New Year with a good party, sing song, opening the windows to let the old Year out and of course first footing. Sadly the customs have died out since my youth for most .
Our New Year’s Eve was pleasant enough. Monopoly late afternoon , a Chinese meal from M&S and a film. My middle daughter chose “Emma” and it was a relief to find something we could all agree on, my youngest being allergic to period dramas, sometimes. Incidentally this was the last film I saw in the cinema with friends just after my birthday in March. We all enjoyed the film immensely last night, my oldest daughter ( Austenophile)  revelled in the costumes which is her particular interest and the other too were caught up,like myself, in this super retelling of the story. After that we all went to bed. I listened to a recording of a Big Bash League game on the radio and was awoken by fireworks at Midnight. I hope you all had a good New Year’s Eve too.
A quiet day awaits and that suits me fine. One of the last jobs I did yesterday was to sign up for an Open Learning course for ten weeks come late January. . There are less being offered and the art history ones are either a repeat of one I took last year or a far too generalist one. So something different- Archaeology of the Ancient Near East. It will be online again sadly but that’s the 2ay it is, hopefully I will be back to my weekly trip to Edinburgh to face to face learning later in the year. I dare say that the course may feature in some hobby activity this year.
No big hobby plans to announce ( for now anyway)  today, just carrying on with those started and see where my butterfly flitting takes me ...
Finally I intend to continue regular ,hopefully  daily posts for the foreseeable future as I have done since March. Have a good day everyone.








 

24 comments:

  1. Happy New Year. Happy flitting. Wise not to / Hard to make plans until we see which way this year goes.
    Thank you for your regular interesting and varied regular mini posts. I hope your new course goes well.

    For your daughter who loves Austen movies for the clothing there is an interesting range of young costume historians on YouTube such as Abby Cox for example https://youtu.be/DyWnm0Blmh4

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    1. P.s. Is this keeping "The Doors" open part of your first footing New Year routine or Covid ventilation of the house?

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    2. I have passed on the link, thanks. I am looking forward to the course as a wee change of scene mentally, so to speak. Perhaps the Doors had a prophetic voice or even Scottish relatives?

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    3. One of my Scottish / border colleagues was a Morrison who I think she said was a clan or family from the Highlands and Border Reiver area.

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  2. Tradgardmastare,

    It sounds like a great way to end the old year and to begin the new.

    May I wish you and your family a Happy New Year.

    Stay safe and stay well,

    Bob

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  3. A very, very Happy New Year to you and your wonderful girls.
    Hogmanay certainly isn't what it was when we were much younger. Went to bed with a bottle of prosecco and a plastic box of Quality Street; not even a proper tin any more.
    Anyway totally agree about the film "Emma". Love the soundtrack.
    Ronnie

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    1. Sounds a plan Ronnie. I kept my Lego in a splendid Quality Street Tin circa 1966, plastic ones are vile. Hope the Jacobite cavalry arrived safely...

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    2. Not yet but according to the photos in the email I recently received they are nearly ready. The painter was taking a well deserved break over Christmas so hopefully soon.
      Ronnie

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    3. Everything comes to he who waits...

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  4. Happy New Year from a fellow New Years Eve dislike'er! :o)

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  5. Not one to be bothered with the New Year thing myself and as my wife's alarm was set to go off at 6AM so she could go to work I didn't stay up for it , but here's hoping a better year for 2021 , Tony

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  6. Happy New Year to you Alan and family there in Scotland. Regards. KEV.

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  7. Happy New Year! Emma is a solid film well done in all areas. I've enjoyed your posts throughout the year, thanks for them.

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  8. I always insist on letting the old year out of the back door and trotting round to the front to let the new in. My mother always insisted on doing it. I guess that comes from a long line of fishermen. Superstitious lot. Even though we were a couple of miles as the seagull flies from the docks, we could hear the ships’ horns at midnight.

    The fireworks round here were quite something. It sounded like a black powder battle. Could be a sound track to a game (shades of Schneider in Callan).

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    1. A new custom to me , fascinating. For their size the local fireworks here sounded impressive.

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  9. Happy new year! That's from both Ontario, Canada and the Grand Electorate of Saxe-Freedonia!

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  10. A nice and pleasant way to spend the New Year's Eve. We didn't go out, and frankly I'd rather have gone to bed instead of staying up. Ho hum.

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  11. Happy New Year! I am interested in learning the details on the open learning archaeology course.

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    1. https://www.course-bookings.lifelong.ed.ac.uk/courses/AC/archaeology/AC108/archaeology-of-the-near-east-online/
      The above is the link you asked for and Happy New Year too.

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