*VOOM*

That, my friends, was the sound of another year whizzing past.

Whew.

If my last year could be made into a roller coaster, I could sell it to Dreamworld and make a million dollars! Up and down and up and down and WHOA! Blind curve! Thrown for a loop or two or three. Evening out for just long enough to catch a breath before the bottom drops out and keeps dropping....and then a series of break-neck curves designed to completely disorient and nauseate... and at last, the station comes into view...

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for roller coasters, but there's something to be said for those "lazy river" rides, too.

And ferris wheels.

And those little log flume rides that give you a thrill and get your heart pumping and get you all wet, but don't leave you dizzy and reeling and kind of regretting having eaten that last bucket of chips and vinegar...

You've heard of the Age of Aquarius, well New Year's Eve in Sweden is more like the dawning of the Age of Pyromania! You know, Swedes have now been a neutral country and not participated in any wars for at least 150 years, but I don't think that deep down inside, they have ever really recovered from the days when their armies were the scourge of Europe. Read a Polish travel guide someday. It's all about "Gdansk was this lovely little town and used to have a great cathedral that was 1,000 years old, but it was burned by the Swedes in 1756", stuff like that. I mean, they weren't always these lagom, non-violent, middle of the road, white-socks-and-sandals kind of individuals. These people have turned pyromania into a national sport.

You are able to buy almost anything short of a nuclear weapon in this country if it's around New Year's Eve, provided you have the cash. And apparently, lots of people have lots of cash for explosives. The private citizen, the alcoholic, the insane, the terrorist or anyone else, can simply wander down to their local shop and lay out money for incredible fireworks. We're not talking a handful of sparklers and a few cone fountains here, people, we're talking rockets red glare, bombs bursting in air. We're talking huge chrysanthemums and shooting stars with little whirly things and ka-booms! I've seen towns in Australia that haven't managed the 26th of January so well.

In our town the local agents of Svea Fireworks were busy leaflet dropping, offering demonstrations and enticing people to part with a surprisingly large wad of cash. It astounds me that the Swedes who are so safety conscious (they wear protective glasses, clothing, gloves etc just to wash the dishes!) suddenly throw all caution to the wind and act like completely reckless barbarians this one night of the year.

Of course the very sobering reality hits home as we glance at the paper the following morning to read the casualty list of dead and injured forom this one night of madness.

As you can guess, we didn't participate in the fireworks mania. We had a quiet time with dinner, watching the annual TV special "Grevinnan and betjänten" which translates as "The Countess and the Butler" but we know it as Dinner for One. In Australia, it was aired on NYE by good old SBS television. Here in Sweden, the English spoken Swiss rather than the German version has been shown for the last 40 years and like Kalle Anka at Christmas has become something of a cult tradition, with people even having identical dinners while it airs! It's only 15 minutes long and is quite charming and funny.

Then later, close to midnight we watched every man and his dog in town let loose with the fireworks display. It was lovely to see the colours reflected in the snowy rooftops. There were no accidents here, but we heard of several places around the country being burned to the ground after being hit by stray fireworks and several deaths, including one 30 year old killed nearby when he went to investigate why his rocket didn't fire (a Darwin Award waiting to happen).



Yesterday was my birthday! Yep, the New Year's baby - first born in 19.... well, let's just say sometime in the LATE twentieth century. Hubby never forgets my birthday and every year he gets me a gift and also arranges some method of getting the gift to me WITHOUT him having to get out of bed! It's quite ingenious really, as we have a loft bed and it takes a bit of thinking. This year he hooked up a string and pulley contraption. When he did that, I'll never know as I was home ALL DAY the day before! But in the morning, there was the string for me to pull and from behind the bookshelf a beautifully wrapped parcel appeared and I could pull it towards me!

And what was in the parcel? A great CD from my favoiurite Australian singer - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds new album Nocturama which I've been obsessively playing ever since.

My mother-in-law also rang to wish me a happy birthday and to say she has put some money in the bank for me. Lovely! I have also received several e-cards from AA friends in Greece, Germany, America, Australia and Sweden, as well as my own thread on the Pub message board.

A friend in Australia also sent me this interesting link for a Birthday Star. It's kind of neat to check out your own personal birthday star and see it's location in the solar system. My star is in the Hercules constellation.

Happy New Year, everyone! May the next 366 days be your log flume.


"Det ringer, det ringer
till midnatt i tornet,
och väktaren springer
att blåsa i hornet,
och klockan hon slår:
God natt gamla år!
God dag, nya framtid,
som ljusnar till vår!"