New year - Bungo at the bells

We've been working pretty hard since leaving Wellington back in June - well, apart from sitting on a desert island - so it was no surprise when Christmas was over that I got ill. And it was the good old flu - none of this rubbish man flu sexist nonsense, just plain old hot and cold sweats, feeling dreadful flu. (it was probably woman flu actually as it certainly give me a really bad headache and feeling of impending doom) (not talking about you Katie xxx ;o)

Inconveniently it appeared on Boxing Day and we had a wedding to attend on the 28th - it was touch and go whether I was going to go or not but in the end I decided to drag myself out of bed. After all, when would I ever miss out on food and beer?  But I was a bit of a mess and had to leave the party to go to bed at 9pm. Match of the Day being on was simply a coincidence - honest!!!

Here is the happy couple (above) - and below is Katie looking stunning as usual

Here's me putting a brave face on things......

And here is the photo that made me decide that I should head for bed early..........correct decision...

So we got back to Glasgow and it was a race to get fit for Hogmany - we had been invited to our friends house over in Airdrie-ish and we were really looking forward to a no nonsense New year in someones warm house where we could just relax. But unfortunately it wasn't to be and I was still not up to it - I also didn't want to pass any type of flu bug onto our two godchildren who are 1 and 3 years old.

So we stayed in until about 11.30 and we decided that we should really pop our head outside and see what all this Bungo in the Bells talk was about. Apparently they have this thing every year where they do a wee parade and then have a bit of a countdown outside someones house with champagne (bring your own) and chinese lanterns and a bit of music. here's what it looked like.....

 Me pretending again that I am feeling fine - when i am actually in shock as I am not lying down in my bed.

 What's that old saying - starve a fever, drink champagne for everything else?

 Inevitably Katie and I met someone we knew - this time it was Katie's turn to meet someone she knew.

 Standing up sleeping, with a runny nose.....the champagne wasn't working.

 Everyone was excited about trying to set fire to paper bags...................

 But a high number of them just got stuck up the trees which kind of spoiled the effect.........;o)

We were in bed sober by 12.30pm - rock and freakin roll eh?

So that was New Year, another year over and 6 months since we left Wellywood - crazy business. A good friend of mine once told me that it takes at least 9 months to re acclimatise after living abroad and at the moment it's looking like that prediction is spot on.