New Year's Eve - Ten Years On

As we approach another end of another year, it seems hard to believe that a decade has already passed since everyone was getting ready to breathlessly celebrate the Millennium.

Thank goodness I was as far away as possible from the opening of the Dome and worries about the Y2K bug (remember that?). Instead, I was midway through my first proper trip anywhere - five weeks travelling around India.

A group of about twenty of us had been in Bangalore for my friends Phil and Supriya's wedding and we then travelled to Vagator in northern Goa to prepare for the Big Night. On 31 December, unaware that I had been made redundant whilst I was away, I had an early evening beer with some Aussies welcoming in 'their' New Year and then shared a meal with friends on the beach. Then we headed to 'Disco Valley' for an outdoor, all-night rave.

During the night, it was impossible to tell how many people there were out there in the darkness, although it was rammed. But after celebrating the UK's New Year at 5.30am, the sun came up and suddenly we were presented with this gurning madness:

This year's festivities promise to be far more chilled. And, a decade older, I'm really quite relaxed about that...