Another Year Done

New Year's Eve.  We don't normally celebrate - I think it is quite sad to say goodbye to another year, to remember those who are no longer with us to celebrate and look forward to the year to come.  We will, as we have done for the last I don't know how many years, go out tomorrow and start the year as we mean to go on with friends and family and a damn fine meal at the Farmyard.

My New Year's Eve started with a gift - the delivery of my new Super Duper washing machine.  It was delivered this morning as promised by some lovely guys who called as instructed just as they turned off the main road into Droushia rather than from the village centre.

We had opted for delivery only - John was happy to install.  The lovely guys took the old machine and all the packaging and John set about the installation.

I am really happy that the machine comes with an English Fascia - not only that it also comes with the Greek underneath so a hugely educational gift not just a washing machine!  My cup runneth over that there is a fast 15 minute wash - although it took us some time to figure out how to actually access it.

We had removed all the bedding in readiness for tackling the first wash and John was over the moon that I had finally relented to having the 4.5tog duvet on the bed - not bad that we had lasted to the final day of the year to do so.  Really it hasn't been that cold at night but it is getting colder and the lovely fine days mean that we have clear skies and the clear skies mean that the temperature drops at night.  January and February are historically the coldest months - hopefully nothing like as cold as last year.  Looking back through photographs I see one of my in the house wearing the bobble hat that Lilian had knitted me!!!

As we had to move all the rugs and some of the furniture in order to get a clear run to bring in the new washing machine I spent an hour or so cleaning the conservatory and giving the rugs a good clean.  I am itching to take the decorations down but we have decided to wait until after New Year's Day - we aren't sure whether Mum and Lilian will come back for a coffee or whether Ellen and Richard will pop in so we will keep it looking festive for one more day.  

My aspiration for the next year is to be tidier, more organised and less cluttered.  This is a forlorn hope obviously but it started early with me having a good old sort out of a couple of drawers without John looking over my shoulder putting stuff back!  The charity shops will benefit.  We have limited storage in our house but what we have we fill.  This was followed by a bit of an ironing session.  I reckon the next purchase is going to have to be a new iron as mine seems to be playing up.  To be fair this one was dropped in transit when I purchased it and has never been one hundred percent.

The glory hole in the kitchen got a tidy too which meant that I came across the old wax which I turn into candles so did that to get it out of the way.  We can now find things in the glory hole - that wont last!

John settled down to an afternoon and evening of sport.  I made a chili con carne which was to be our celebratory supper and embarked on the sending of good wishes to friends and family - so much better to do it early when you or they are still sober and the networks aren't jammed up.  With all the various time zones involved there isn't a good time when you wont be waking some poor soul up with a text.