Hogmanay

Usually at the moment I am fretting over the menu for tonight's meal for ten but due to changes in circumstances of a few of our friends it was not really on the cards this year. Instead we will be going three doors and bringing in the new year there. It also mean that I can slip away after the Bells and get to my bed and not have to wait until the last guests get their taxi, usually around 4 am.

I've never really been a fan of Hogmanay. Not since I was eighteen and spent the night in the cells charged with assault on a person unknown and drunk and disorderly. Both charges dropped in the morning I hasten to add when the police were questioned by my parents on how I got to be drunk within ten minutes of leaving the house where I hadn't had a drink all night and the person whom I allegedly assaulted had made a statement at the time stating that I had done nothing . I was eventually charged and found guilty of breach of the peace for informing a policeman that I knew my rights and that he could not say "shut the fuck up sonny, or I'll put your head through that fucking window".Scottish justice, something to be proud of.

Anyway,  I'm not sure what tonight's soundtrack will be but I will most certainly play these three songs before I climb in to my scratcher.

All the best when it comes and let's hope 2012 is better than 2011.

Jimmy Radcliffe - Long After Tonight Is All Over

Tobi Legend - Time Will Pass You By

Dean Parrish - I'm On My Way

Hogmanay and All The Best When It Comes

I've never really been a fan of Hogmanay, well not since I got lifted aged 18 about 5 minutes after the bells and spent the night in the local cells. It is a long story and I will not bore you with the details, however I will stress that I was completely sober and eventually found innocent of all charges. Since then and until I got in tow with L I tended to avoid the celebrations. With L this was not possible as she rather enjoys this time of year.

Since M came along, what we have done is have our closest friends up for a meal and see in the New Year in the comfort of our own home. So tonight, I will be cooking, what on paper looks like a rather good 4 courses which will be critically picked at by 7 of our friends, one of whom happens to be a rather good Chef .

Another aspect to bringing in the New Year since after the arrival of number one son was to record Stuart Maconie's excellent All Singing, All Dancing All Night which used to be on straight after the bells for 3 hours on Radio 2,  as trying to listen to it was a bit ignorant when you had a house full of guests or so i kept being told.

I can't think of a better way to see in the New Year than with some good northern soul, so with that in mind here are the "three before eight", the final three tracks played at the end of every Wigan Casino all-nighter.

Tobi Legend  -  Time Will Pass You By

Jimmy Radcliffe - Long After Tonight Is All Over

Dean Parrish - I'm On My Way

All the best when it comes, as is said in these parts