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Friday 1 January 2010

2010

Oh dear, Inverness has cancelled its official Hogmanay Celebration on the advice of Northern Constabulary. This isn't an event about which I've ever been able to raise enthusiasm though I did enjoy the fireworks in Birmingham when we had a party in the top floor flat of Cambridge Tower. Chronology except for finding files isn't that important. Some anniversaries matter because they're a chance to celebrate good memories - like birthdays, including Christmas. Otherwise dates serve as mere references, notes in calendars for starting things, appointments. deadlines, like when to submit a tax return; actuarial calculations about life's length; when to start a family. Alarm clocks get you up. Watches remind you of schedules and programmes. But New Year? Pshaw! Give me moveable feasts - ones that are complicated to work out. All the same we had a happy celebration nine years ago as the date over the UK turned from 31 December 2000 to 1 January 2001 - a moment some argue was the real start of a new millenium.
We were in our flat at the top of Cambridge Tower in the center of Birmingham with a ringside view from our windows and balcony over Centenary Square, able to see not only the grand municipal firework display - much of it reflected in the glass frontage of the Hyatt Hotel just over Broad Street - but smaller affairs across a good forty square miles in private gardens across the sprawling suburbs of the West Midlands.

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Simon Baddeley