Silent Night

It was in the event futile to attempt an early bed on Old Years night in multi ethnic N13. Hogmanay we escaped, vomit was not apparent but the fireworks were-from about 11pm until 1AM -not the odd cracker let off by Nordics in Hutton-in years past-but continous barrage of explosions and crackling rockets turning night into a glaring high noon. Baghdad like at times and so noisy that the odd suicide bomber would have gone unnoticed Mind you with the 70mph winds forecast for Scotland by the terrorists of the BBC blether centre the OLd Manse would have been a noisy place as well. It must have been bad up there as the city centre Hogmanay parties were cancelled in both Glasca and Embra to the great relief of the city workmen detailed to be on glass and vomit duty tomorrow morning-nothing, of course, moving to day.

In the absence of cotton wool-all reserved for baby bottom cleansing-Huttonian made do with wet loo paper (water moistened)as ear plugs. Worked well but became uncomfortable as they dried out and required pencil end gouging to remove same this am. But it is a technique to be recommended in the Merse during forthcoming winter storms of which lots are promised by the meteorologists.

And an added local advantage is that I slept undisturbed through 3 or 4 hours of 4 day old baby refusing to accept that night is for slumber and not lung development. For that relief....  ¶ 3:45 PM