New Years Eve 2012

NYE is over rated. Let's just all admit that and get on with things. I love the reason for celebrating because it is so universal and uncontroversial. I wish NYE was the best night of the year. But it just isn't.

Which is why, to mark the passing of 2012, Jane and I decided that what we really wanted to do was eat, drink and be merry in good company and that's All. For a while it was just the two of us, but as it turned out we had quite a few friends at a loss for something to do. In the end, 13 NYE orphans gathered at my apartment for an end of year feast.

 Taking up every available square inch of bench space to prepare.

 Before dinner, we made all our guests sit down to watch 'Dinner For One', a German NYE tradition.

If you haven't seen it, you're missing out on one of life's simple pleasures.

 Friends up from Melbourne. 

I've never cooked for 13 before and I was worried I'd under-catered. In fact, I had a whole extra dish that I didn't complete because it required filo pastry and I forgot to read the damn instructions (you have to take filo out of the freezer a day early and prepare it, etc. blah blah). I went a bit nuts on using recipes I've never tried before from recipes books I got for Christmas, but I think it's fun to discover new favourites. Fortunately, there was plenty of food and no complaints about the cuisine.

 Waiting for the cook.

Tucking in. It looked better than this photo, honestly. 

As always, resolutions came up in conversation. None of us had made any and were generally not keen to commit ourselves. Personally, I think resolutions work best if you have a plan for how to keep them. I have a lot of goals for 2013 but no real 'resolutions'. The best suggested resolution for the night, and which I think I might adopt was 'Get my shit together'. Simple, effective.

One project for the year I have decided to take up is based on an idea I read about that seemed appropriate for me. I had a rough 2012, not a lot of good stuff seemed to happen and it was generally very draining. So my project for 2013 is to write down in a little notebook whenever anything positive occurs and then at the end of the year I can read all the good things that happened to me and remind myself that life is great. They don't have to be big happenings. For instance, in there at the moment is a really sweet compliment someone paid me and a reminder of a glorious day I spent at the beach. Life has few big happy moment but lots of little happy moments and they are just as important to remember. 

My notebook.

 Happy New Year Everyone!