Peter at New Year

[ ... continued from yesterday ]

We decided not to stay in Walters after our New Year meal, but went to the nearby Cozi instead.

That was really quiet too. Mike, the barman, was his usual welcoming self, and we got on well across the bar with another customer. Then Peter (the blip subject, taken at 3 minutes and 22 seconds into 2012), an old acquaintance of Carl's, arrived. We chatted with him at a bit of a distance to begin with and then joined him at his table. We celebrated the coming of the new year with him and had a really good time together, reminiscing, complaining, ranting, being grumpy -- a perfect, unexpected encounter, and a great way to welcome in the new year.

Back at Carl's Kino afterwards, we made a half-hearted attempt at watching one of the Harry Potter films but were forced to give up.

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It was 11:30 by the time we surfaced. It felt strange not to be in Bray and not to be joining Dave for his New Year swim, but another tradition which has developed over the past few years is that Carl and I call in to see what is now an ex-member of the Music Group on New Year's Day, and this part of the routine did go ahead as usual. The tradition began with us arriving on the doorstep unannounced some years ago, but now it's become more formalised. I'd arranged to be there (in Kilquade, Co. Wicklow) between 2:00 and 2:15 and we drove up outside the house bang on time. We spent an enjoyable time there, with Irish Coffees, Christmas Cake, and Benno B's (Baileys & Sanbucca, would you believe).

After Wicklow, I did a little stop-over in Carl's before making my way back home. The undoubted highlight of the rest of the day was a wonderful Pixar evening on TV (all on BBC Three) - Wall-E, then an hour-long Best of Pixar and then straight on to Ratatouiile. Wonderful! Great stuff!!