Sad end to the year

The funeral mass for my friend's mother was at 10.00 am. I stayed over in Carl's for handiness sake and got to the church in good time. Tom was one of the founders of our Music Group. Although he no longer comes along to our music sessions, he and I meet once-a-month-ish and go out for a meal together. We've known one another for a long time. So his mother's death affected me quite a lot.

One of the other guys from the music group was at the church too, so I gave him a lift to the graveyard and after that back to the seafront hotel where the family had laid on some food. I needed to get back home to change and so on for tonight's New Year celebration, so I gave him a lift in to town afterwards, once again taking the M50 (and, thanks to my companion, finding the ideal exit option from the M50 to the city centre). Traffic in town was surprisingly light, so we made good time. I spent an hour or so checking out more sale offers, went back home, changed, and headed back across the city yet again, back to Carl's place.

We were back in Bray at 8.00 pm, right back where I'd been for the morning funeral. We were treated to a wonderful feast of home-made Indian food (top marks especially to the samosas ? as good as you'd get in any restaurant). Lots and lots and lots of wine kept us going until midnight, at which stage the champagne was cracked open and the party really got going! Drunken charades finally came to an end at 6.00 am.