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This week on the Open Book Blog Hop we’re talking about what we like to do for New Year’s Eve.
I love the atmosphere down on the London Embankment on New Year’s Eve. In years past, Sam and I have booked a hotel room along The Strand, and after dinner have wandered down to the riverside to wait for Big Ben to strike midnight. A wonderful pyrotechnical display then erupts from The London Eye on the first of Big Ben’s twelve chimes, and Stevie gets all misty-eyed once again.
This year will be no exception, although as we get older our knees tell us that they don’t really want to wait about in the cold for the fireworks to start. All roads down to the Embankment get blocked off after about 8pm, so as to limit the amount of people down there, and so it’s a long wait until midnight. However, for the last few years we’ve booked up a riverboat cruise on one of the tourist clippers. You have to book up quite early in the year in order to get a place, and I think Sam books it every January! It starts off from Tower Pier at 10.30pm, and arrives at the London Eye just before midnight.
There are always big queues at Tower Pier, as many river cruises set off from there. However, everyone is usually in a good mood, and there’s lots of laughing and joking. We usually try and grab a seat outside if the weather is good, and take some photos along the way. The clipper will cruise down to Greenwich past the converted warehouses and wharves where my great-uncles/second cousins used to work as Dockers, picking up some more revellers along the way. Everyone on board the clipper receives a free goody bag of snacks, and there’s a bar inside also. The captain times it just right to arrive at Westminster!
What does Kelly Williams do on New Year’s Eve? Born in Saratoga Springs, New York, Kelly Williams embarked on a now twenty year career in writing. After a childhood, which consisted of voracious reading and hours of film watching, it was a natural progression to study and produce art.
Kelly attended Morrisville State College, majoring in the Biological Sciences, and then continued with English and Historical studies at the University at Albany, home of the New York State Writer’s Institute, gaining her Bachelor’s Degree. While attending UA, she interned with the 13th Moon Feminist Literary Magazine, bridging her interests in social movements and art. Topics of Kelly’s writing include the environment, animal welfare, gender limitations, racial disparities, and the trauma of war.
You can find out Kelly’s New Year’s Eve plans by checking out her blog on the link here: http://authorkwilliams.com/2015/08/blogger-problems-a-cartoon/ You can also find out more about her books by clicking on her Amazon author page here. http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Honor-K-Williams-ebook/dp/B00UZHWARY/
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P. J. MacLayne said:
I’ll take watching fireworks from my windows. With temperatures expecting to be around 8 degrees F, it’ll be too cold to sit outside and watch them!
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Stevie Turner said:
I’ll take lots of photos!
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Kelly Williams said:
Oh boy, let me count the ways that I am so envious. i am such an Anglophile and this would just be amazing to do.
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PJ Fiala said:
That sounds fantastic Stevie. I hope you enjoy your New Year’s Eve.
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Stevie Turner said:
Thanks Patti; you too.
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Haddon Musings said:
Don’t forget about post to the Senior Salon tomorrow. Enjoying your book.
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Stevie Turner said:
Thanks. Which book? Have just linked up.
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Haddon Musings said:
No sex please, I’m menopausal.
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Haddon Musings said:
Be sure to post a follow up for this year. It sounds so grand. As I told you I was in London one New Years and it was so memorable.
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Stevie Turner said:
Will do. I’ll take lots of photos.
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aurorawatcherak said:
That sounds lovely. We can, obviously, walk on our river on New Year’s (and that’s where they shoot the solstice fireworks off from), but the image of the boats sailing past during the display … I like that. Could end up in a book.
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Stevie Turner said:
The boats don’t sail past, they all moor up at midnight as close to the London Eye as they can get. They start up again when the fireworks have ended.
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aurorawatcherak said:
I like my version better, but good to know.
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aurorawatcherak said:
Reblogged this on aurorawatcherak.
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