Happy New Year!

New Year's Eve and, after knocking off work (it was somewhat quiet - damn 'skeleton staff requirement'...), we headed to Bristol for a night of knees-up with the Company of Chivalry lasses and lads. It was good wholesome stuff: homemade pizza, cider, potato cakes from the local chippie (potato cakes! I haven't seen potato cakes since Melbourne!)... and Transformers Risk. The usual.

Actually, I hadn't played Risk in about 4 years, so I was well pleased. Even more so when I teamed up with the lovely Martin (the blurry pair of hands on the left in the photo above), we became Decepticons and cleaned up the board.

Race was on to finish the game before the midnight countdown - and then wake Anthony, who had fallen asleep on a 2 person camping chair... before it was too late...After popping the cork on a bottle of fizz, trading the traditional hugs and happy wishes then racing outside in socks and no coats (in -5C!) to see the fireworks that every man and his dog had saved up from Bonfire night and was letting off in the street, well, it all turned a bit silly.

Here is our host Liz, seeking an opinion on whether her chicken fillets, or plastic pasta bowls, do more for her cleavage...
Needless to say, a late night was had by all and there was much in the way of bacon sandwich munching the next afternoon... My husband did both the shop run and the cooking for 7 of us, and is a god among men.

Happy new year folks, and may all your 2009 hopes and dreams come to pass. xoxox