New Year's Eve hype

I have always found New Year's Eve disappointing and I have never really understood what all the fuss is about (and even less, auld lang syne - just look at the words here ). There you are getting all hyped up about the chimes at midnight, the witching hour arrives, and then nothing. You give your loved one a lingering kiss then, nothing. No flash of light, no present under the tree, just nothing. At worst you get to sing an incomprehensible song and at best you get the tantalising opportunity to go and give someone that you fancy a bit of a snog. But that's it. So bah humbug to the lot of you.

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I have always liked the hustle and bustle of street markets, particularly those in Italy, where stall holders shout, in incomprehensible Italian, about the quality and price of their produce. This morning we went off to Sommieres, mainly to get ingredients for this evening's dinner with the Lloyds, and to visit Intermarché, our local supermarket of choice. Well, there he is, the equivalent of an Italian stall holder, using the loudspeaker system to sell various bits of merchandise and, in true stall holder fashion, his words were totally incomprehensible and distorted by the address system. At one point he even started to sing.
As a practice run for a special dinner party that we will be hosting in January, Jan decided to cook a banquet but more of all that tomorrow.

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If you ever get evacuated from an airport, don't panic. This could be the reason: http://www.french-news.com/fn05/main.aspx?issue=199§ion=Europe&story=55