View From The WIndow

Perhaps like the three customers who came in yesterday you will have expected me to have the mother of all hangovers this morning being Scottish, after all, unlike the rest of the UK, the drunkards need an extra day off at this time of the year to get over Hogmanay or New Years Eve to the rest of you. Well no, I am sober and shall be tucking in to a fried breakfast shortly without throwing it up. I may be Scottish but I do not like Scottish whisky, porridge, tartan, kilts or Billy Connolly and I have no beef with the English.

Ok the dates wrong, but this is what many see when they look at me, you gotta laugh not complain.

I used to like New Year when as a lad I sat on the stairs or in a corner with my cousins and siblings drinking ginger wine or a daring shot of Advocat, eating a bowl of peas cooked with smoked ham and drenched in vinegar while the family all took their turn singing songs and getting slowly drunk. My aunt Nan would bring her husband Alec to tears with "Oh Rowan Tree" and my dad would give it laldy with "Mexico gave up the Rumba" and bring me to tears with "Let me go lover".

Later as time passed and the parties became memories my old man and his three or four cronies would leave the house early on New Years day (Ne'erday) with bottles of dark rum or whisky to visit half the town and exchange drams, it was a matter of honour not to refuse and make sure everyone got one from your bottle. He carried on this tradition until most of his friends shuffled off their mortal coil and the foray was replaced by dinner at my sisters.

In the Navy we didn't bother much with New Year, it was always business as usual (defending the Empire) and for me it was never the same without the ginger wine and peas, two things I will still eat and drink on occasion. While offshore I was home one year and away the next, I would stay up until the bells tolled, drank a toast and shuffled off to bed, there was the occasional foray to a friends house, pub or a 'do' at ours. This continued while down here in enemy territory.

A couple of years ago however I called a halt, if I was up then fine, otherwise it was a normal night and I would be off to bed whenever I wanted rather than two minutes after midnight. I don't mind wishing anyone a Happy New Year and I hope many of my friends do have a better year than the previous one and if you had a good year then I hope you have another one.

This does not mean of course I am a lost cause, a couple of friends went away for New Year to what looks like an organised do and it looked like fun, it has given me an idea for next year, also if one of my sons are here then I won't leave them sitting alone until the witching hour.

So there you are, not much of a moan for a 'View' today but no point in starting the year off getting my blood pressure up.

OK, just one. I found out that sometime last summer a Lesbian Feminist magazine of some kind had given the movie 'Sausage Party' a good review because it was funny. Big mistake, the readership did not agree and pronounced it full of all the 'ist's' that are bad and had been missed by the reviewer. The one that had me laughing was the argument about the Latino, lesbian taco being a Mexican stereotype. It's a movie about sausages!

The offending taco.