# How do you mark the New Year?



## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Christmas is over, and Hogmanay approacheth. 

Do you keep the New Year, or is it just like any other evening? Do you go out to a party, or hold one at your house? Do you have a few friends & neighbours in for drinks? Do you quote Rabbie Burns & have a dark-haired, blue-eyed first-footer with a lump of coal? Do you watch the New Year television - pretty dire in the UK, imho - before toasting your wife & retiring at 12.15? Do you hate the whole silly fuss.

Or what? It would be lovely to hear from you, and thanks in advance for any replies. :tiphat:

And a Happy New Year to you.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Although my father was Scottish, my family never bothered with New Year. And after visiting Taggart's cousin in Edinburgh one year, when we were kept up till six in the morning playing party games before being shunted off to a makeshift bed in a corner, I vowed that I'd never do 'Hogmanay' in Scotland ever again. It was Taggart's uncle getting drunk and slagging off the English that really got me, though.

For many years, Taggart & I didn't really bother, though it's nice in our seaside resort to pop outside at midnight & hear the ships' hooters. For the past few years, though, we've been to a New Year Dance. It was lovely & friendly, but you never got to bed before 3 a.m., by the time you'd driven twenty-five miles home & showered etc etc; then you couldn't sleep for aching muscles, so the New Year would begin in a haze of grottiness.

So this year, we're just having a quiet relaxed evening at home. And very nice too. There have to be *some* benefits of getting older.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

In pencil, so in case I want to revise anything it can be erased and revised -- i.e. my usual working habit


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

There seems to be two sorts of Scottish new year - sober and otherwise. The sober sides don't seem to make that much of it. The other lot probably do, but never remember exactly what.

As a child we used to visit relations for the New Year. There were general festivities all round with lots of stodgy food and cakes. I realised afterwards that this was an attempt to slow down the effects of alcohol. We usually went to bed a bit later than usual and then were got up near midnight for "the bells" and a bit of a celebration.

At that stage, Scottish television had a live Hogmanay programme and the drinks were genuine. Duncan Macrae used to declaim the "Wee Cock Sparra" and one year his wife tried to stop hime, live on TV, saying "Duncan, ye canna, ye're fu!" but he still went ahead - the joys of live television - and there were no tapes so they only live on in memory.


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## Jos (Oct 14, 2013)

3rd edition of The Quiz!
And this year we are hosting the event. 31 participants, 5 teams, children take part in the teams and have special questions that leave the adults clueless.
Since my team won the last edition by a landslide, my mate and me had the honour of making the questions this year. They will weep !
Ofcourse there will be lots of pauzes for drinks, nice food (good thing we have a few "foodies" amongst the participants), and attempts to cheat.
Bubbles at midnight
A pleasant evening to you all !

Cheers
Jos


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Jos - that sounds brilliant. I'd love a New Year like that. Enjoy!


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Champagne at midnight, then guarding the gallery until about 3 AM, just in case. The disadvantage of being in the main shopping and entertainment street.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

I like the champagne bit, anyway! Wishing you the best for 2014, Art Rock.


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## Jos (Oct 14, 2013)

And another mark is me becoming a senior member here!!!
Always nice to be taken seriously , hopefully my teenage children will do so too in 2014..........

Cheers,
Jos


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

I tndulge in the old English ceremony of throwing a Scotsman over my shoulder.


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

I think I'll more or less join Mr Moody, but probably throw a bonnie lass over my shoulder! (Then run of to throw some Caber under the Kilt with her)








/ptr


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## Couac Addict (Oct 16, 2013)




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## TurnaboutVox (Sep 22, 2013)

moody said:


> I tndulge in the old English ceremony of throwing a Scotsman over my shoulder.


I think that's 'the old English ceremony of a Scotsman throwing up over my shoulder' at Hogmanay, no?

Ah, such days of celebration are well behind me, but I loved 'first footing' in Aberdeen as a student (what I can remember of it anyway!)


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

I don't do a thing. Go to bed the usual time, don't drink, pretend the whole thing doesn't exist. Then on New Year's morning, I am the only person in many square kilometres who isn't hung over.


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## EricABQ (Jul 10, 2012)

We don't do a thing at night. Neither my wife or I are fond of going out at night.

Today, however, we are going to drive up to Santa Fe for the day. It's my second to last day of my time off, so we wanted to do something other than sit around the house.


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

moody said:


> I indulge in the old English ceremony of throwing a Scotsman over my shoulder.


The advantage of this is that the bottle in the Scotsman's pocket is then in a convenient position for drinking from, and he won't remember how much you drank!


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## scratchgolf (Nov 15, 2013)

I'm too old and bitter to go out anymore and my wife and I prefer hosting. Last year we had 5 couples over and we played a game. Each couple was responsible for their own portion of the game and the only rule was it had to be weighted on a 100 point scale, whether 100 trivia questions at 1 point each or 5 different games at 20 points each. That way it was even as each couple hosted their own portion and the other 5 couples could compete for those 100 points. Categories ranged from trivia to wine tasting to blind food tasting to music recognition. One couple even purchased small Lego sets and timed each couple putting them together. That is until I got frustrated and retrieved my leaf blower from the garage. The Lego game ended in a draw, and I was disqualified for poor sportsmanship. I put together gifts baskets of varying cost and allowed winning couples to choose in order. I much prefer such evenings to drunken hooliganism and vomiting co-eds.


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

I do indeed toast my wife. I have to re-marry each year because of this.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Happy Hogmanay, and a Happy New Year, everyone. Let's hope 2014 is a good year for us all!


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## scratchgolf (Nov 15, 2013)

Ingélou said:


> Happy Hogmanay, and a Happy New Year, everyone. Let's hope 2014 is a good year for us all!


It's like time travel in Sillyville. You're living in 2014 and I'm listening to Messiaen in boring old 2013. 9:54 AM, to be precise. Please tell me, what is the future like? Flying cars yet?

Never mind. It's not 2014 there either. I'm a big dummy and we'll both have to wait for flying cars.


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## Flamme (Dec 30, 2012)

I planned to go out with a friend in an irish caffee across the river but i have worked today and went to do a lot of paper work for my health insurance and im literally in pieces of my previous strength, so i h ad to cancel...I usually go to the city on a pint or two...Im gettin ''too old'' for modern new years euphoria Or is it just today...


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

My family watches on TV the Crystal Ball go down in New York City. Otherwise the music concerts on TV are really boring to me. We have hors d'oeuvres and champagne too. The rest of the evening before that, we play games and such.


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## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

I shall be here all on my own, as usual. I stay up to see in the new year, and then get to bed around 12.30.


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## Flamme (Dec 30, 2012)

Maybe will watch a cool new year Movie if i get an idea for one...Anyway this playlist 



 will get me into the new chapter number 2014


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## Cheyenne (Aug 6, 2012)

My parents are watching television, as they will for the next five hours or so.. I think I'll just read the dual language copy of Die Leiden des Jungen Werther that arrived today.


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## Flamme (Dec 30, 2012)




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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

brianvds said:


> I don't do a thing. Go to bed the usual time, don't drink, pretend the whole thing doesn't exist. Then on New Year's morning, I am the only person in many square kilometres who isn't hung over.


Yes but that's fairly boring and not in the spirit.


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

Cheyenne said:


> My parents are watching television, as they will for the next five hours or so.. I think I'll just read the dual language copy of Die Leiden des Jungen Werther that arrived today.


Here in Belarus we have a saying: "The way you meet the new year, the same way you will spend it". So, maybe it means you will get to read a lot of dual-language German classics in 2014.

As for me, I am down with a bad cold, so not really in the mood for anything tonight. I'll just have a glass of red with Solti's "Die Walküre", that will be fun enough.


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

Usually at a resort, which we will do again this eve. Bowl games bracketing the stroke of midnight and Champagne. Blissful. 

A *Healthy, Happy, and Prosperous New Year* to everyone. :tiphat:


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## scratchgolf (Nov 15, 2013)

My youngest and my wife just got diagnosed with Strep Throat and Influenza A. I hope my New Years Plans don't clog the septic system.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

I celebrate by swapping calenders, and observing a moment of silence in memory of the ground lost to the plutocrats in the old year.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

scratchgolf said:


> My youngest and my wife just got diagnosed with Strep Throat and Influenza A. I hope my New Years Plans don't clog the septic system.


How horrible! Hope they soon feel better & this is the last nasty affliction they suffer for the rest of 2014.

Sitting posting this with a glass of red wine in hand, and soon to retire to bed to read - *not* going out tonight or staying up late. Oldies' bliss!


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## Flamme (Dec 30, 2012)

Watched a nice movie ''Photographing fairies''...I need something imaginative for the Beginning...It may provide some boost for tomorrow...Eating cakes and drinking coffee...


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Some wine, alone listening to music. sniff sniff

Any beautiful ladies want to rescue me?


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## Cheyenne (Aug 6, 2012)

The Sorrows of Young Werther was a supremely moving book. As much as I wanted to believe I was beyond Wertherism, there is something of it in me too, of course; I read it at the right age. But I found the passages Goethe added later the most interesting, because it shows how he, when he grew out of it himself, could understand the phenomenon better, for he commented on it with amazing grace and clarity in only a half or dozen so extra passages.

May I grow as Goethe did! Carlyle described it thus:

"Anarchy has become peace; the once gloomy and perturbed spirit is now serene, cheerfully vigorous, and rich in good fruits … The ideal has been built on the actual; no longer floats vaguely in darkness and regions of dreams, but rests in light, on the firm ground of human interest and business, as in its true scene, and on its true basis."​
Now I will join my parents for the last half hour; I think I can handle 30 minutes of television.


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## Clayton (Nov 10, 2013)

I mark the New Year wishing all fellow members good health and happiness for the New Year! May there be lots of Good music to you all! :cheers:


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## cwarchc (Apr 28, 2012)

do dheagh shlàinte
to you all


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## Copperears (Nov 10, 2013)

Happy New Year's to you all!

I'm sipping a perfectly fine shot glass of Jack Daniels; the Glenlivet will have to wait its turn.

We will make a fire, to fend off the wolves.

Then, towards midnight, we will witness the frost on the pane, and breathe a sigh of relief that the old struggle has ended, and the new one has not yet begun.

Stillness is all.


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## ahammel (Oct 10, 2012)

My wife is working the midnight shift tonight, and I'm exhausted from the holidays, so it's a quiet evening in for me. I've got two book reviews to finish off for my 2013 reading challenge, and then I think I'll settle in with an Americano and some tunes.

Lutosławski's Cello concerto on now.


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## MonicaStillwater (Dec 31, 2013)

My poor husband has to be at work at 4am, so he's gone to bed at 8pm. I am watching a movie and will probably hit the hay about 11:30. I did polish off t


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## MonicaStillwater (Dec 31, 2013)

haha, I polished off the last of the bubbly, which is evident in my typing skills. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR, Y'ALL!!!!


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

cwarchc said:


> do dheagh shlàinte
> to you all


Another lurking Scot in our midst.


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## Flamme (Dec 30, 2012)




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## Flamme (Dec 30, 2012)

He's ''in shape'' for 2014


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## Jos (Oct 14, 2013)

A great 2014 to all members of Talk Classical !!!

:cheers::cheers:

Cheers,
Jos


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## sabrina (Apr 26, 2011)

Happy new year to all TC members! 
I always celebrate the new year in a way. We sometimes join a party, but I hate parties where some guys get drunk! Luckily my hubby never is one of them. 
In recent years we just got out around midnight and join the crowd at the city-hall for the fireworks. A little champagne, and some movies...I don't listen to any opera as this would be too selfish...So last night we watched The Life of Pi...


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