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A new year, just like last night at about this time, and still I haven't written anything of it down to supplement my unreliable memory. Well. My unreliable *personal* memory: facts and figures are easy, but what I did yesterday, who I met, what I said... fade, with time, and not much of it.
Anyway...
Seasonal break with the family was nice, even if my brother was only able to stay a couple of days due to Work in his hometown needing him on the 27th. It was nice to catch up with people in Worthing (aunts, uncles, cousins, old school-friends and so on), and the week or so I was there wasn't really enough. I must try to sneak back there a little more (not least so the home improvement work at my mother's house doesn't back up again... ;) ).
After the seasonal break, well, I had a whole day to organise myself for a New Years' party in Fishersgate. The theme? An 80s night (since all the attendees were born in or remember the 80s). The invitation? Had a still from the movie "Beetlejuice" on it. Since I still have all the parts for my Brighton Below costume in the cupboard, Instant Costume! Well, plus a green furry wig/hat from a stall in Kensington Gardens.
Navigating the streets and stations of Brighton in such a costume is an interesting experience, and reminds me (again) why LARPers tend to travel incognito and finish rigging their costumes at the event itself. Reactions from passers-by, and there were many, were mostly positive (even if I was misidentified as the Joker by a 6-year old). "Holy shit, it's a bear!" sticks in the mind, and the ear, somewhat, but the speak^Wshouter was emerging from an off-license, so alcohol may have been a factor. Still, rigging at the party would have lost the impact of the entrance (although it was tempered slightly by finding everyone else in more standard 80s wear. Oh well.)
The party itself was good, what with period food (good), period games (NES and 80s Trivial Pursuit, better) and period music (best!). Around 2340 (and just as my team was about to win Trivial Pursuit, damnit!), the 1980s party was invaded by an allied party taking place in the 1880s. The Time Agency and the well-known Tempus Fugitives appear to have been responsible, but no-one was harmed, and the temporally-displaced people adapted quickly to the change in scenery, and more quickly yet to the buffet. As for the temporally-displaced... well, it turned out that about 60% of the cast and players from Brighton Below were there. And there's me in a tweaked version of my bbelow costume, thinking I was relatively safe in throwing it on quickly for the party. Had I known they were coming... well, I'd have worn something else. So it goes, I guess.
...it still freaks me out slightly that of the 1880s group, there were I think two people I didn't know (or, at least, couldn't identify on sight). Granted, some of them took longer than others ('chelle, in particular, taking almost thirty minutes). These days, I know more people than I can recall in one sitting. Even two years ago, I don't think that was true.
Anyway, the new year thing happened, plus the extra second to account for the Earth's inconvenient rotational period, and there are photos of me dancing inanely on Facebook somewhere. I blame the punch, which I know had the best part of half a bottle of rum in it (and I should know, I put it there). A while after midnight, our party invaded the 1880s for a bit (a five minute walk to the relevant house), then we wound things up and I found myself walking home at 0530 in 2009. About six miles in the cold, in a suit, with a rucksack, and at the end of a very long day. I've no-one to blame but myself, really: I could probably have found a corner of floor that wasn't being slept on, even if some Tetris was involved, and if I hadn't forgotten my sleep-apnea medication (stops me snoring loudly enough to wake the room every half-hour or so) and didn't want to get out of the full-face makeup. And, and, and... I finally staggered up the hill as dawn was breaking, and fell asleep at about 0650. Today I woke at 1400. *sigh*
New Years' Resolutions? I've more or less resolved not to make any, on the grounds that TODOs written down on one day are no more special than any other, and no more likely to be achieved. I'll write a list of something like Resolutions at some point in the very near future, incorporating things like "eat better and lose weight" and "try to focus on whatever I'm doing better", but I refuse to tag it to the beginning of the year, for no obvious reason.
I hope anyone reading this had a good holiday, and is looking forward to the challenges and triumphs that accompany this and every new year.
...now I just wish I felt as positive as I sound.