What a swell party...

New Years Eve. The purpose of my three house guests visit; to stay over for Sydney's annual fireworks display.

I am blessed that my apartment provides an excellent vantage point for viewing the fireworks. In addition to my house guests I invited two other couples so there were eight of us for the evening. In the past I've considered NYE tedious. Everyone sitting around being falsely jolly wishing for midnight to arrive and then making a quick getaway as soon after the fireworks as would seem decent.

This NYE I would modestly concede was a success. The food - none of it my doing - was excellent. Conversation bubbled along all evening and there was none of that sitting around waiting for the next burst of fireworks to begin. In fact our conversations were only broken by the sounds of the fireworks (the 9pm family fireworks, the new 10.40pm 'are we there yet' fireworks and finally the main event at midnight) and there was no dash for the door as the fireworks disappeared into all embracing smoke. The first guest did not depart until 2am.

In case I was still uncertain about the evening, the emails I received from both couples removed any remaining doubt, each of them congratulating me on the night and effectively inviting themselves to participate again next NYE.

Happy New Year everyone!