New Year’s Celebrations | Stowaway Travel Writing & Editorial Services

Happy New Year, dearest fellow travelers! I hope you had a nice holiday period of stuffing your faces and taking many naps. I had a lovely, quiet time with family and friends during the last week of 2015. Now that we’re fully into the new year, let’s jot down some New Year’s Celebrations. I enjoyed a lot of my celebrations from last year (I’ve really come ’round on real ale, for example). But although I had a lot of fun last year and saw a lot of new things, I still didn’t get out as much as I’d thought I would/hoped to. So for 2016 I’m hoping to:

Go somewhere new to me in London a couple of times a month (museum, landmark, park, etc.)
Get out of London and see another part of the UK once a month
Every 2-3 months, take advantage of my proximity to Europe and visit somewhere on the Continent
Also, as I look forward to every year, spend at least one entire day reading

Last year, I made good use of my English Heritage membership, and since I’ve had it renewed for Christmas, I can do more of that in 2016. Bring on the stately homes and drafty cathedrals! (I promise I’m 32, not 82.)

I saw a lot more than I managed to write about last year, but as ever, I’m playing catch-up. I have more to tell you about South America, for example, and I left there in 2014, but no matter. If I were in the mood to make real resolutions, this year mine would be to give you a written post a week, in addition to your Where in the World Wednesdays. I’ll do my best.

How about you, any New Year’s Celebrations you’re looking forward to?

Happy New Year!
Here I’m decked out in red for Chinese New Year 2013 in Singapore.

Hello, dearest fellow travelers! How are your New Year’s Celebrations coming along? Eight months of the year have come and gone, so while the magazines are already moving from guilting you for your bathing suit body to guilting you for your imminent holiday gluttony, I propose we go back and review our much more fun lists of activities we knew we’d enjoy in the year 2011. Here’s a recap of the concept:

“[With New Year’s Resolutions,] soon every decision becomes a negotiation, every moment a cost/benefit analysis. It’s mentally exhausting to live in a near-constant state of trade-offs.

“Thus, New Year’s Celebrations are totally free of cause and effect. You don’t go see that iO show as a reward for going 30 days smoke-free; you go because you have a free night and $12 and it sounds like fun. These are no-strings-attached things to do. The list is just a reminder of all the ways you love to have fun, a handy reference for whenever you might have cause to use it and celebrate the fact that you are alive.”

Here were mine. I’ve put a strikethrough the ones I’ve done this year, and I’ve added some new ones as well.

~~Spend an entire day at the beach~~
~~Spend an entire day reading~~
Visit a museum I’ve never been to before, like the DuSable or the NMMA
~~Eat a peach (and play a good album)~~
Say “yes” to a random invitation when I have plans to do something more dull
Visit the Garfield Park Conservatory when it’s cold outside, all the better to enjoy the tropical interior
Drink a beer chosen by the bartender at Quenchers
Lose my voice singing along to a mix CD of Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals
Learn how to sing harmony on a Girlyman song
See a band in concert I’ve never heard before