the end. the beginning.

So here we are, in 2011. 2010 is done and dusted. I am sure the ever-optimistic Mr Man would make comments here about what a great year it was and how fab and wondrous its 365 days were.

Perhaps. Perhaps not.

For me, 2010 was a bit of a dirge. Not as much as 2009, mind you, but l think 2011 could do better.

We spent this New Year’s Eve doing the same thing we did last year: at Ronnie Scott’s jazz club, where the dress code for the evening is black tie. This year, I wore a dress I got for 10 dollars in Mississippi, and it certainly did the job. We ate dinner, I drank champagne, there was music, and then midnight came and it was all a bit, oh, well, here we go again…

This year we decided to stay in a hotel in town after last year’s disasterous meanderings up and down town on foot trying to get a train home. So that’s why the highlight of this year was the gorgeous suite we decamped to at the Soho Hotel.

I have been spoilt with amazing hotels this week, to be sure.

We got there and immediately ordered room service, then admired our terrace with views over Soho and MPC over the way (some chaps waved at us from their terrace). I took a bath and watched CNBC (honest, a telly in the bath!).

After that, we got all slicked up and went out and did the NYE thing. Soho sounded like a warzone when we got back at 1am, complete with explosions and helicopters. It quietened down pretty fast, and so I coughed my way fitfully through the night.

In the morning, we got up and had a really amazing brunch downstairs…seriously, it’s worth going to the Soho just for brekkie! I had a vegetarian fryup, really nice. Then we walked down to Piccadilly Circus to get a glimpse of the New Year Parade. It’s a funny one, that one, as they just seem to import a bunch of American kids to put it on for us. Cheerleaders and marching bands and redneck square dancers, oh my.