Goodbye, and good riddance, to 2009.
And a very happy new year and very best wishes for 2010. By Kate
It is officially, as of 3 minutes ago, 2010. I am at work, sitting at the back of the bar, changing prices (thanks for that, Mr Darling and Mr Brown. What a total waste of time your damn 2.5% vat decrease was - a total waste of time that generated the most incredible amount of paperwork).
In the front of the bar, 15 customers are kissing each other. Fifteen is not a great number to entertain on New Years Eve and we have never done quite so few before. It seems going with the set menu option, something we have always done, was not quite the right way to go this time.
Nevertheless, it is the New Year and it does feel quite festive. The bar looks amazing (see below). I found biodegradable balloons and eco-friendly paper banners at a fabulous website called www.ecomyparty.co.uk, (and the people there were very helpful and friendly – highly recommended) so we have managed to have a celebration completely free of plastic and tat.
I forone am utterly delighted to see the back of 2009. Starting a year in a hospital ward is not an auspicious omen and sure enough the whole thing was a bit of a bastard. Happily, my darling husband is here tonight, fit, healthy and slightly bad-tempered. Blowing up a large pile of balloons gave him a bit of a headache, but nonetheless, his performance is particularly sterling for someone who couldn’t properly talk or walk a year ago.
Waitresses Lou and Jane (looking lovely, below) are both very excited about NYE which is a very good thing as, true to form, I am in such a miasma of exhaustion that I can’t really remember what great excitement feels like. They have got their party shoes on because they plan to go dancing after work. Jane is in such a state of excitement that she just fell up the stairs in the shop. This has in no way quashed her spirit.
Despite my tiredness I took a break from price-changing and writing this blog to indulge in a spot of table dancing, which is now quite a venerable tradition at Green & Blue. Shoes off, Lou, Jane, Jude and I all had a very good session accompanied by Salt n’ Pepa. The customers seemed both impressed and not a little astonished. Let it never be said that we do not know how to give a very good party.
As I returned to work all of them were dancing and a few seemed to be eyeing up a table themselves. Hopefully, beginning a new year hugging total strangers who all seem very happy to be in our bar, while Groove Armada exhorts everyone to shake their ass, will make for the best of times to follow. That doesn’t mean I expect things to be easy - only an idiot would hope for easy - but please, please, let the year ahead be slightly less bone-crunchingly hard.
Let us all drink some exceeding fine, biodynamic champagne to that.
In the front of the bar, 15 customers are kissing each other.
Nevertheless, it is the New Year and it does feel quite festive. The bar looks amazing (see below). I found biodegradable balloons and eco-friendly paper banners at a fabulous website called www.ecomyparty.co.uk, (and the people there were very helpful and friendly – highly recommended) so we have managed to have a celebration completely free of plastic and tat.
I for
Despite my tiredness I took a break from price-changing and writing this blog to indulge in a spot of table dancing, which is now quite a venerable tradition at Green & Blue. Shoes off, Lou, Jane, Jude and I all had a very good session accompanied by Salt n’ Pepa. The customers seemed both impressed and not a little astonished. Let it never be said that we do not know how to give a very good party.
As I returned to work all of them were dancing and a few seemed to be eyeing up a table themselves.
