The village New Year’s Eve celebration was great! We helped make the aperitifs in the afternoon, 600 “toasts”, then home for a shower and change before the festivities began at 8pm.

The meal started at 10.30, by which time everyone was already quite happy, on very little food and large quantities of pousse-rapière (a toxic mix of sparkling wine and orange liqueur). By midnight, we’d eaten three of the six courses on offer and we probably finished eating by about 3am. Before the meal started the DJ explained what the strange, red and gold tubular objects on each plate were – Christmas crackers – and what you did with them; several people asked us to translate the jokes (impossible) and the brain teasers (more successful). In between each course and after the meal we danced, on and off our chairs, and played silly games until the soup was served at 5.30am. Adrian and Julie didn’t make it to the finish, but Nick and I were determined to see it through to the bitter end this year; no problem for Nick to stay up all night, but I had to keep dancing as it makes it difficult to fall asleep.

There are some very keen dancers in the village, but when one of them asked me to dance (jive), as soon as we’d finished, Patrick went over to him to tell him to go easy on me as I’m a novice! They’re so protective of their “new English”, bless ’em!

Adrian and Kieran went out after dark on new year’s day to try to reduce a neighbour’s rabbit population, but came home empty-handed; but we put up a target in the vineyard today and all took turns shooting it; another new skill!

So 2013 has got off to a good start for us and I hope it has for everybody reading this too.