new years eve on ice...

Goodness me, has the year ended already?? 2007 was the Chinese Golden Year of the Pig - which is my sign. No wonder I had such a good year!

New years eve was spent chasing friendly squirrels in the gardens outside Kensington Palace, with a walk through Hyde Park, and small wander along the Oxford St shops. Just after dark we headed back to Hyde Park, as Sharon, Karl and I were going ice skating!! They have a Winter Wonderland there, with a German christmas market and a huge ferris wheel.

At 6.30 we donned our skates and tentatively took to the ice. There were too many wall huggers, so I took to the ice unsupported straight away. A lap in, and Sharon and Karl were doing the same. We tottered around for a few laps but got the hang of it quickly.

Amazingly, none of us ended up with wet arses, although we didn't get the chance to get up to olympic speeds, nor was I trying out pirouettes or figure 8's! It was quite packed, which didn't help - we were always dodging flailing arms and mad skittering feet of people trying to avoid falling (hilarious to watch, but not when I might have been taken out by them!). Bodies thudding on the ice was not a nice sound.

We couldn't take camera's onto the rink, so no photo's of us in our skates, but I did get one of the rink afterwards. It was much lighter than the photo appears, and they had classical music playing while we skated.

We headed home, getting gourmet burgers along the way, and at 11.45 turned over the telly to watch the count down to midnight. I almost missed it, but Karl managed to pop the champagne right on midnight, and we toasted to 2008.

Or as I heard someone say - two thousand and great.

Happy new year - and I hope yours is great!!