Day 182 - New Year's Eve

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Today's highlights were without doubt archery and the New Year's Eve party. Londi showed us how to use a bow and arrow and made it look easier than we found it at first. After a few 'markers' landing harmlessly either 2ft away (Gemma) or 200ft away (Ed) we all found our range. Unfortunately Stuart took to it better than the rest of us and was the only one to shoot a gold. It's a surprisingly energetic sport so we were glad to get to tea and the scones that come with it.

All day the staff had been hard at work setting up the venue for the evening's celebrations. What they came up with was nothing short of spectacular - a large barn-sized building open on one side and with half the world's stock of storm lanterns and candles providing lighting. The guy who lit the lanterns started literally hours before the party began. We had a really nice English couple, Rosie and Nigel, on our table and got along well with them into the small and not-so-small hours. If anyone is ever in the market for an antique barometer then let us know and we'll put you in touch with Nigel. Just in case.

The disco began at about 11:30 but one group (of Americans) had already had enough and had disappeared. They were the sort of rude and aloof bunch that have lots of money, think hotel staff are basically their slaves and that you come across from time to time so we weren't sorry to see them go. The DJ welcomed in the New Year 5 minutes early, giving us a clue as to his talents, which included crow-barring about 12 seconds of an unidentifiable 70s track into his megamix just before the premature midnight because "I promised to play some 70s music before midnight". Then the unbelievable happened. At literally 10 past midnight the DJ said there had been some complaints about the noise so the entire party, that had taken about 50 people all day to set up, was being moved inside to another building. Since all the guests were on the dancefloor except the aforementioned Americans, and since we were 50 miles from anyone else in any direction, it didn't take the deductive skills of Sherlock Holmes to identify the miserable ones. Why such a complaint was given any merit was a mystery.

The party continued in the bar, and the DJ set up his laptop and sun-strength strobes. Even to the non-expert ear, the new playlist was just awful. Ed told him; Stuart found the laptop unattended and deleted tracks. But all to no avail. Despite all this going on we were having an excellent time - don't want to give the wrong impression here. In the end we turned to drink since the management had noticed people a bit peeved with how things had turned out and were being extremely liberal and generous with the champagne. Suddenly there were 7 of us left and the sun was about to come up, so Ed and Gemma stumbled towards our favourite infinity pool and took a dip. Very cold, but a well recommended way to see in the New Year.

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