Happy New Year

What a great end to 2007 we had! We heard a couple of weeks back that friends of ours were planning to invite a bunch of their friends over from the UK to spend New Year in Den Haag and that they were planning to have a big New Year dinner at their house. In unison Flo and I both exclaimed that they should hold the event at our house, since it's perfect for entertaining guests. After giving it a couple of days thought, they agreed and so last night we had about sixteen people 'round and fed them all with a mid winter barbecue (I've been looking for an excuse to buy a barbecue for months!).

Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and there was plenty of food and drink so that by midnight, everyone was full and merry and anticipating bringing in the New Year with the communal fireworks in the little square down our street. Flo and I knew what to expect since we'd spent last New Year at home also, but for our guests this was the first experience of the Dutch New Year celebrations. I think they were all pleasantly surprised (and a little shocked), describing the event as a scene from Baghdad!



Today has been quite relaxed after the festivities of last night, although Flo and I were not nursing hangovers like the rest, who went on to a night club until about three o'clock. But in preparation for our own big event, Flo's keeping off the booze (only having had about half a glass of champagne all night) and I'm generally a lightweight these days and can't handle much more than a few glasses!

So after cleaning up the house a bit, we went out to get a breath of fresh air, taking a walk around the neighbourhood. We only walked for 40 minutes and 4 km, but this was enough to cause Flo to drop onto the sofa and sleep for an hour when we got home. She's been doing that a lot recently, sneaking in a late afternoon snooze. It's a good sign for the pregnancy, but over the past couple of days Flo's started to get anxious again about the pregnancy... so it's a good job that we're off to the hospital for another scan tomorrow to see how the little one is coming along!

If everything goes to plan, 2008 should prove to be a very eventful year! Happy New Year!