Depending on where you are in the world, New Year’s celebrations are long since finished. Here, in my part of the world, they’ve just begun to welcome 2019.
In Scotland, the celebration is known as Hogmanay, and in the city of Edinburgh, the festivities are three days long! Now that’s a party.
My plans for seeing out 2018 and bringing in 2019 changed rather abruptly on Christmas eve, and I had to cancel them. Two broken ribs and a cracked one (not mine, my husband’s) have that effect on things.
Vieux-Québec will have to wait another year. I wanted to be there to see in the new year so badly because I wrote about it in It Happened on Dufferin Terrace. Seeing the Ferris wheel and all the restaurants and bistros along the Grande-Allée with their outdoor patios open and the street turned into a giant dance floor. The night culminating with the fireworks display from the Plains of Abraham.
How did I see 2019 in since our plans changed? The same as every other year – in bed and sound asleep before midnight.
Another year has come and gone. Where did the time go? It doesn’t seem possible that 365 days have passed since 31st December 2014. But they have. Wow!
Any resolutions for 2016?
Does your city, town or village do anything to send off the old year? If you live in or near Edinburgh, they put on a fantastic night of entertainment/. And yes, the Scots call New Year’s Eve Hogmanay. That’s a fun word. Hogmanay.
I’d share the wordpress helper monkeys stats for my blog here for 2014 but since I went most of the unable to connect to Jetpack, it hardly seems worthwhile. Besides, I have some other things I’d rather share about this past year and not the cheesy thing that Facebook puts together.
So, here we go! Fasten your seatbelts, we’re ready for takeoff!
April, Easter to be exact, my husband and I spent 10 days in beautiful, romantic Paris.
Don and me at the Arc de Triomphe“Able” and me at the TrocadéroDon at the Trocadéro
Then in September, another romantic destination was on the cards – Niagara Falls, Ontario. Okay, there are the tatty, touristy places but overall, it’s a lovely place.
Horseshoe (Canadian) falls at night
While we were here, we decided to take a horse-drawn carriage ride. We’d seem them on previous trips and have always wanted to do it…
sitting in the carriage before our ride
… so we did.
Our horse and carriage
We even did a wine tour while we were in the region and came home with at least 4 bottles of wine – including a couple icewines!
Don and me wearing our silly hats before our wine tour – photo by Grape and Wine tours
Before the year was out, we spent a week in Quebec City. It was close enough to Christmas that the decorations were in the process of being put up. In hindsight, second week of December might be a better time to visit this beautiful city so that the baubles and lights and everything are in place.
And again, we did a horse-drawn carriage ride. Our driver, Philippe, was amazing and made the ride extremely fun.
in front of the Chateau FrontenacMe at the tree with a cannon ball in its roots
No trip to Quebec City would be complete without a short drive further east to see my ‘haunted’ house which is between Quebec City and Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré.
The “haunted” house
Sadly it’s more run down since the last time I was down in this part of Canada but it’s beautiful nonetheless. And doesn’t being in a state of disrepair add to the mystery and the possibility of it being home to ghosts?
And when we weren’t gallivanting here, there and everywhere, I managed to write over 74,000 words in one of my works in progress (the first draft of the sequel to my debut novel)! While it was with my beta readers, I plotted and started another project and have some cracking ideas for even more writing projects.
So before I get all sappy and sentimental, I’ll finish this post with a little Auld Lang Syne.
SHOULD auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne!
Chorus.—For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne.
We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.
And surely ye’ll be your pint stowp!
And surely I’ll be mine!
And we’ll tak a cup o’kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.
For auld, &c.
We twa hae run about the braes,
And pou’d the gowans fine;
But we’ve wander’d mony a
weary fit,
Sin’ auld lang syne.
For auld, &c.
We twa hae paidl’d in the burn,
Frae morning sun till dine;
But seas between us braid hae roar’d
Sin’ auld lang syne.
For auld, &c.
And there’s a hand, my trusty fere!
And gie’s a hand o’ thine!
And we’ll tak a right gude-willie waught,
For auld lang syne.
For auld, &c.
Robert Burns
What will you do to see out 2014 and see in 2015? Any traditions you take part in?
My Scottish roots and writing by Melanie Robertson-King
