Happy New Year from Prague!!!

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Happy New Year from a Prague that until recently was buried under several inches of thick winter snow - all pretty and romantic for about the first five minutes, until you realize that you have to battle your way through the resultant slippery slush on your way to work every morning… Thank God so many people gave me warm clothing for Christmas is all I can say - all those scarves and gloves and warm socks etc are definitely coming in more than handy now, believe me…. ;-)

Luckily for me the weather had already warmed up a bit though by the time New Year’s Eve rolled around yesterday (nothing worse than trying to celebrate in the tit-freezing cold), and in fact this year’s festivities ended up being some of (if not the) best ever in my life so far!!! Under normal circumstances I am usually a self-confessed New Year’s hater, traditionally preferring to confine myself to the house with my parents and the alcohol cabinet rather than partake in the enforced jubilation that generally characterizes this time of the year. I’ve just always hated feeling obligated to celebrate and be happy just because of a meaningless change of date which takes place every year - having to brave those drunken crowds, to fight for a seat in every pub or club I go into and finally paying all those exorbitant entry fees / hiked up drink prices for places that don’t charge for all the other 364 days of the year, before inevitably falling pray to that dual element of retrospective melancholy and anxiety about the future that always seems to set in (with me at any rate) the minute the clock chimes midnight. However, 2007 was to be my first ever official New Year’s in Prague, and staying in was simply not an option for this time! Having changed my life for the better in so many other respects this year, I therefore decided to adopt a new approach to January 1st and steal myself to actually venture out of the house for once this time - and luckily for me ended up having one of my best nights in the Czech Republic so far as a result!!!

To cut a long story short, Bad Influence Dutch Girl and I had this year somehow allowed ourselves to be dragged along by Mr American and housemate to the official Maxim titty party at the nearby Radost nightclub, a compromise only reached when the guys promised to pay our VIP entry tickets (which at £50 a go neither of us were about to turn down - titfest or not!). Even so, Marian and I were still dreading a testosterone-fuelled night full of topless waitresses, horny desperate men and generally just having one too many tits shoved in our faces over the course of the evening, so it came as quite a pleasant surprise to find that the club and the lounge / restaurant above it were actually quite civilized after all, and that we were by no means the only other females (apart from the strippers!) in the place as a result. Yes, the club section downstairs did feature two semi-clad girls writhing together provocatively in a chocolate bath, but apart from that it really wasn’t that seedy at all - in fact with our VIP tickets we were seriously living it up in true glitterati style all night! Included in the £50 VIP entry fee was a truly excellent (not to mention beautifully presented) 5 course meal in the glamorous restaurant section upstairs (which included, just in case you’re interested, such traditional Sarah favorites as fresh sushi, smoked salmon sandwiches, and gnocchi with sun-dried tomatoes and goat’s cheese), several delicious cocktails, and best of all - unlimited champagne all fucking night!!!! Never before have I ever had the luxury of swigging champagne right out of the bottle as if I were some moneyed it-girl fashion model or something, but guess there’s a first time for everything - and I even managed to come away with a couple of bottles in my bag at the end of the evening as well!! Now this is a lifestyle to which I could seriously become accustomed - such a shame it can only be once a year on my pitiful pay…

Or then again maybe not. As much fun as I had last night (got in about three in the morning, but despite all that champers only a little bit tipsy rather than all out drunk), after two months of almost constant overindulgence I really don’t think either my poor battered brain / liver / wallet can literally take anymore… New Year’s Resolutions are definitely to cut back in all respects (drinking / eating / spending / smoking / partying etc) this year, and while I’m at it to maybe get round to finally learning some actual Czech while I’m here too! Luckily I think the aforementioned cold weather will do far more that any amount of willpower on my part in confining me to the house and thus reining in my various excesses as a result - have a feeling that very soon it’s just going to be too cold here to bother!!!

Still, even despite the current arctic conditions, impending cirrhosis and looming financial insolvency, I can’t say 2006 wasn’t a brilliant year on the whole - thinking about it possibly even my best one ever… Not many years you can say you’ve made a living insulting your co-workers at HP, travelled across Africa all the way from Kenya to Cape Town over the summer, and last but not least emigrated to Europe on a whim a couple of months back, with job / flat / furniture etc all falling into my lap within the first 48 hours of arrival! Not to mention the uncharacteristic surge in my love life at the moment, kicking off with the Jacques thing in African and ending up as truly worthy of ‘Sex and the City’ by the end of the year (more on that later)!!! Still, I think I definitely have a lot to be optimistic about 2007 as well, what with the social life going from strength to strength at the moment and things on the work front for once not ticking along too badly either. Yes, the job I do right now is underpaid and unchallenging at best, but for the very same reason is undeniably easy and stress-free, and at the very least serves as a convenient starting point till I demand my promotion within my company / decamp to one of the other countless firms in Prague currently recruiting foreigners like there’s no tomorrow… ;-) In short, I have options at the moment, though if I’m honest I would really like to progress where I am if I possibly can - crappy pay aside, they really are a great company to work for (all that holiday, lunch vouchers, generous bonuses, breakfasts, Christmas presents, positive working environment etc etc), plus I really like my colleagues and all my immediate managers and supervisors around me too. Will give it a few months and only then decide my next move - right now the piss easy job fits easily round and more or less funds my turbulent out-of-hours social life, and for the moment at least there’s not much more I can ask for than that really…

So all in all 2007 looks to be yet another good year - last but not least because I just happen to have met another Mr Perfect last week, and this time round he’s not attached!!! Don’t want to jinx it by saying too much to soon - suffice to say that the attraction is more than definitely mutual this time, so this might just be the space to watch in 2007 after all… ;-)

Anyway, wish me luck with everything and in the meantime Happy New Year to all who actually read these pages (is there actually anyone, come to that?)! Either way hope everyone out there has a great 2007, whoever you are and wherever you happen to be in the world.

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