Is That All There Is? Ghosts of New Years past...

1986. A friend's house:

"Rich (if slightly cuisine-ey) food...raw mushrooms, etc. But also smoked salmon and expiring stilton. Played 'Give us a clue' reasonably riotously until coffee at around 2.30, pausing only to toast the New Year, dutifully sing 'Auld Lang Syne', kiss a number of people one didn't madly want to in order to be able to kiss the ones one did, etc. To bed, in 1987, in reasonable condition."

1988. Mother-in-Law's house:

"I ventured onto the lawn in the dark to inspect the new summerhouse and stepped in something large, doggy and disgusting. Spent time with a bucket under the security light. A chinese takeaway, then on to the North Pole for the New Year."

1989. The North Pole PH:

"Debbie remarked that I had been 'the life and soul of the party'. A dubious distinction; dancing with two balloons up one's jumper does not make one the most original wit."

1990. Home:

"We saw the New Year in rather quietly - J feeding Robert in bed, I opening the doors to let the old year out and the new year in...and hearing all the village church bells ringing, and fireworks crackling here and there in the moonlit sky. I wonder what this year will bring. War, probably. [It did]."

Is that all there is, is that all there is?
If that's all there is, my friends, then let's keep dancing
Let's break out the booze and have a ball
If that's all
There is.