Another Year is Over; Another Year Has Dawned
As the old year passed into the new, last night, I celebrated by cycling along the seafront. It was a warm, dry evening, and half the city, it seemed, had turned out for a giant, midnight beach party. There were bonfires on the shingle, and family groups of revelers stretched out along the prom. In the minutes coming up to midnight, faces glowed in the darkness in phonelight anticipation as people checked the time. Then, in an unsynchronised fashion, rockets began shooting skyward over the sea. Across the Solent, as if in response, the sky above the Isle of Wight was filled with bursting bouquets of light. And at the stroke of twelve the boats in the black water that divided us from them sounded their horns in a discordant and mournful drone. Were they crying out in celebration? Or were they grieving over another lost year? Once more, a new year has crept through the dark days of December and taken me by surprise. Only yesterday, it was Christmas. And a week before that it was Bo...