New Year's Eve 2010 at The Sleaze

Well, today has already taken several unexpected turns, none of them welcome. My plans to spend the afternoon watching a Sergio Leone DVD were disrupted when the DVD player, (which had been working perfectly well yesterday), decided to refuse to play any disc put in it. By the time I'd given up on trying to get it to work, it was past five o'clock and everywhere had closed due to it being New Year's Eve. The only places open were supermarkets. Unfortunately, neither of my local town centre supermarkets sold DVD players. However, I reasoned that if the town centre branch of Sainsburys was open until seven this evening, then the larger one on the edge of town would be too, so I drove there. Luckily, they were open, and they did have DVD players. Of course, by the time I'd bought the new player, got it home and set it up, I didn't have time to watch the DVD, as I had other things scheduled, (which makes me sound more organised than I actually am).

So, with the day already disrupted, I'm left pondering the annual question of whether I'm going to venture out this evening to celebrate New Year's Eve. This year I actually do have a genuine choice - with my local pub now under sympathetic management, there is a suitable venue. Indeed, I spent Christmas Eve there with friends, (technically, as we didn't leave until after one in the morning, I also spent part of Christmas Day there), and had a good time, although it was a bit crowded. The trouble is that I'm sure that it will be even more crowded tonight and, to be frank, I'm getting too old for all this New Year's Eve nonsense. The prospect of spending time in a crowded pub, probably surrounded by people I don't know, because they don't usually drink there, doesn't fill me with enthusiasm. Right now, it's looking like another New Year's Eve in, probably watching that DVD I wasn't able to watch this afternoon. Anyway, whatever I end up doing, it just remains to wish all and sundry a Happy New Year. See you all in 2011.