"All Is Quiet(ish)...On New Year's Day!"

A stunning start to the New Year!

So it's the new year, and we're back to our daily routine of hustling the monsters off to school before 9am amidst a flurry of toothbrushing, muesli eating and multiple clothes changes (courtesy of Dumps).  At least we didn't come across another dead chipmunk en route today (or 'chickmonk' if you're Dumps) which made me both recoil in horror and wonder why the dogs hadn't eaten it.

We have now all adequately recovered from New Year's Eve festivities - even our friend from Kuala Lumpur who sadly came down with a case of 'Delhi Belly', as did another friend of ours, on the great night itself...meaning that a couple of fresh lime soda's were as raucous as things got for them.

I kept it moderate, given that the husband spent the majority of the 12 hour 'rave-a-thon' up near the bar behind his beloved decks, spinning tunes and air thumping along to others when his mate was at the helm...leaving me as sole carer to two simultaneously hyper and exhausted little boys.

Being Goa, there were tons of little ones about - either dancing with the parentals on the homemade dance floor inside the beach shack (something I cannot imagine ever happening in the UK), waving glow torches and lighting magic kite lanterns up and down the beach, or cuddling up en masse in the sand playing made up games together in a 'Lord of the Flies-esque' posse (minus the sinister element, obviously).

Though many of the little ones were too excited to sleep and thus wide awake for the seemingly endless 'Apocolype Now' type rendition of amateur firecracker displays up and down the beach around midnight, Eggie and Dumps crashed well before then, curling up like two little sleepy sausages in my sarongs.  I rarely left their side, afraid that some oblivious party goers might mistake their sleeping forms for rather comfy cushions, and instead enjoyed watching the flow of human traffic up and down our beach.

As the husband dropped 'Salt N' Peppa's PUSH IT' at midnight, the sky was alight with crazy crackling and coloured constellations and as I looked around at all the happy faces and the grinning smiles of our friends who had traveled all this way to spend New Year's with us, I felt really blessed.  Some old friends, some new, they all helped make this occasion a memorable one and I had to try and recall a better New Year's Eve in recent memory (I couldn't).

Surprisingly the monsters slept through all the craziness and sometime after midnight, after a few bottles of celebratory champagne were quaffed, the husband stole off with me, laden with Egg (and I with Dumps) as we trudged through the sand to deposit the monsters into their rightful beds.  Given the sheer size and weight of Egg these days, and the fact that I was wearing a floor length black dress at the time which was impossible not to trip on, the husband and I did not enjoy the journey back IN THE SLIGHTEST.

However he somehow managed to find the energy to slip back out and continue in the festivities, whereas  I was quite happy to call it a night and crash with the monsters.  Of course the next morning when the monsters woke us up at 8:30am, it was payback time as I was rewarded for my abstention whilst the husband was punished for his lack thereof...attempting to get through the first day of the year on a mind numbing two and a half hours sleep :)

Nonetheless, it turns out that we made history by putting on the first ever proper dance party on this particular family beach...ever!  (And if that weren't enough, surely the presence of a reality show celebrity and a supermodel spotted on our beach proves that our little bit of paradise is now in the ascendancy?!)  The shack owner is so pleased about his reputation as the 'best place on the beach' now, that he's offered the husband a bottle of champagne as thanks and now greets him as a long lost friend.

That's great and all, but I think I'll pass on the champagne thank you very much.

Two sleepy bundles of boy

Not even a fresh orange juice can help two and a half hours kip!