When I got the message from the pawsome foursome’s human that their sitter had cancelled last minute – shortly after discovering my own 20s-themed Great Gatsby-esque new years plans had not come to fruition (thank goodness I hadn’t begun fringing the dress!) – it was a no brainer that I would say goodbye to 2019 with these loving furballs for company. After all, they’d seen me through my 27th birthday earlier in the year. It seemed somehow fitting.
We started the day with a lie in, a hearty breakfast (a.k.a. trying to eat as much of the perishable non-January-detox food as possible before midnight), and an attempt at writing resolutions (naturally including some reference to getting to bed earlier in order to rise earlier and make the most of each day…) Hamilton and Harrison did not share this sentiment and swiftly commandeered my recently vacated bed after I’d fed them their breakfast.
A trip to the supermarket around lunchtime saw me returning home laden with prosciutto, salami, garlic bread, champagne, and – unfortunately for my bank balance – a whole heap of jasmine scented candles and reed diffusers which had been reduced in the sale. Not forgetting, of course, a vast quantity of brocolli for the girls that would make a doomsday prepper jealous.
The girls and I went for our last walk of 2019 through the gloriously muddy fields of Nether Wallop later on in the afternoon, and returned to the house in need of a good hose down. Unfortunately for Hettie and Harriet, this was quite literally true. I, however, preferring not to be hosed down against a garden gate, enjoyed a long shower with newly purchased toiletries and embarked on the evening feeling fresh as a daisy and ready to greet the new year.
Celebrations included a ‘sofa picnic’ consisting of cheese, hams, grapes, garlic bread, and an attempt to polish off chocolate orange number five of the holiday season. (A.N. I failed, so the last remaining segments and leftover chocorange number six will have to wait until I’m a little less dedicated to my sugar detox…) The entertainment for the night consisted of watching New Year’s Eve on Netflix (a.k.a. falling even more in love with Zac Efron) and spending an embarrassingly long time trying to light a fire with cardboard scraps from the recycling.
As midnight drew closer, I popped the cork on my champagne-for-one bottle – making me, Hettie, and Harriet all jump in unison – and saw my way through the bubbly. This may have gone some way to influencing the dance party that happened around the living room once the film had finished shortly after 11pm. The final hour of the year was accompanied by a soundtrack of Lizzo, Kesha, G.R.L, Little Mix, Panic at the Disco, and more as the girls and I bounced around in front of the roaring (at last!) fire.
All in all, it was a lovely way to end the year and not as desperately lonely as social pressure would want me to believe. Despite seeing pictures of friends and family at various parties and events all over social media, I was still having a wonderful time enjoying Zac Efron, champagne, prosciutto and brie, chocolate orange, a roaring fire, Lizzo, and of course four needy furballs for company. It gave me plenty of opportunity to review the last 12 months, celebrate my successes, learn from my mistakes, and make big plans for the new year.
And as a bonus, as it wasn’t a particularly boozy affair, I even managed to run the New Year’s Day parkrun in Andover AND finally made it to Stonehenge, but that’s a story for another day…
Happy New Year!
Tails from the Road 