Count Down to HogmanayAs the deep freeze intensifies in the Merse- a sighting of a snowplough yesterday may be some kind of portent-its off to the Isle de France, Greater Paree, for Christmas with half the family and 50% of the grandchildren-the other 50% having opted for a Welsh celebration.We will however be back for Old Years Night, Hogmanay and the rest of the Scottish end of year festivities. As Dr Johnston once said, or was it Boswell-'New Year in Scotland is like New Year in England, but with extra vomit' With the usual crack down on drinking and driving in the Borders the vomit may be confined to walking distance from the Cross and other hosteleries and towns with many pubs-Coldstream, Duns, Eyemouth, pools of the stuff may be confined to within the 30mph limit. Huttonian is glad to be in bed well before ten pm by which time, anyhow, the New Year is well advanced in Sydney, Wellington and Mumbai.

The French are determinedly and officially secular but Christmas is as evident in say L'Etang La Ville (The Town Pond apparently) as it is in Regent Street. It will be fun but we will miss the wild scenes of enthusiasm in Fishwick where (according to a Hutton Think Tank puff) the main street is a pedestrian only zone between 2 and 6am, long after the rush hour traffic has been parked before the dangerous corner and the cavorting fishermen, well away from their cherished 4x4s dance in thigh length waders to canned hits from the 50s and 60s. New Year is even wilder and an alternative to the massive Hogmanay Bash in Embra-see image above of the fireworks last year. No doubt Fishwick, the odd damp squib always excepted, will put up a similar display of pyrotechnics

Labels: Christmas lights, Fishwick Bypass, Hogmanay, Merse

  ¶ 12:51 PM