Kyle and Hannah's New Year's Party

Posted on 2013/01/01 10:01:15 (January 2013).

[Monday 31st December 2012]
So it's the last day of the year then. It has of course been a year dominated by the arrival of Erika. It was actually new year's day that we first discovered Chie was pregnant (although we didn't entirely believe it at first!) - so this time last year we still had no idea what 2012 had in store for us. A pretty good year, by all accounts.

Another mattress arrived this morning - the third we've had so far - and this time we held the delivery man there until we'd opened it and thoroughly inspected it. We'd told John Lewis to send a different type this time - a foam mattress rather than a spring one - thinking they might be warehoused separately and not prone to the same problems. So I'm pleased to report this was one was actually OK, and Erika now has a proper place to sleep after three weeks of frustration with John Lewis and City Link.

Around lunchtime I went out to do a bit of shopping - more Christmas shopping (as we still haven't seen all of my family over the Christmas period yet) as well as something to wear for tonight's new year's eve party. Kyle and Hannah had invited us over, and the theme was "winter kitsch" so I bought a couple of hideous looking fleeces for me and Chie. I also bought some sushi from the Japan Centre to take back for lunch, which turned out to be a bit of a dissapointment.

We spent the remainder of the afternoon at the flat, and I felt quite dozy - I think I may have even had a short nap, which is pretty rare for me.

In the evening we headed down to West Dulwich for the party at Kyle and Hannah's place. Al and Charlotte were there too (in Santa outfits). The prosecco flowed freely, and then later Champagne.

We'd originally thought we might leave before midnight, so we could catch the last train, and it wouldn't be too late for Erika, but somehow or other the time just flew by, and when I checked the time it was already twenty to twelve. Erika had been napping on and off through the evening, but was very much awake for midnight, and as any baby would immediately started crying with all the commotion as the clock struck twelve. Bless her.

We left a bit before 1am, and had an interesting journey home, involving a night bus to Brixton, then the tube from there. A journey I might have second thoughts about any other time of year, but at New Year public transport in London is - for better or worse - filled with happy revelers, and generally pretty safe. It's also free! We didn't spot anyone else with a baby though. We got home at 1:30am, and getting Erika to go to sleep was not a problem this time - maybe we should try this more often?

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