New Years in London

During my freshman year of high school (1998-1999), the marching band learned that they had been invited to march in the Millennium Parade in London the next New Years (never mind that 2000 wasn't actually the start of the new Millennium). The band promptly put out the news, started collecting payments, and didn't go on a trip that year so everyone could save up. I couldn't go on the trip. And although I understood, because it cost a lot of money, I was very disappointed.
Sophomore year, New Years came and went, and all my band friends came home with stories of all the fun they had.

Well, John and I flew out of Atlanta late in the day on December 30th and arrived in London early in the day on December 31st. To avoid doing too much travel at once, we stayed in the airport hotel and took the train home to Norwich today.

Yeah, we could have taken a train from the hotel into London proper and watched midnight fireworks while Big Ben chimed the hour. But instead, we stayed inside where it was warm, watched the festivities on TV, shared a bottle of champagne, and played World of Warcraft. (My Christmas gift to John was a promise that I would play WoW with him.)

I bet my London New Years was nothing like what my band mates experienced during the Millennium celebrations, but John and I had a good time.

Fun note:
One of my college Latin professors pointed out the fatal flaw in the name of the Mazda Millenia. The word "millennium" comes from the Latin "mille," which means "thousand," and "annum," which means "year." Thus, a "millennium" is a thousand years. Mazda spells "millenia" without the second "n," making the word a combination of "mille" and "anus," which means "back side." Thus, the Millenia is a thousand bottoms!