Another Year
Sunday, December 31st 2006 - 6:23 PM
That's yet another year over then. I'm rarely in the northern hemisphere at this time of year, so the christian new year doesn't really mean much to me most years. The southern hemisphere new year is on the other solstice - i.e., around the 21st of June - and that's what i tend to think of as "new year".
But i'm in Europe for this one, so i it really is new year for me... It's not really really, of course - the real northern new year happened just after midnight GMT on the 22nd. But i guess it's close enough.
I don't think i'll be out partying though - and i'm unlikely to even still be awake at midnight. I rarely am, at the best of times, but i'm still sick so i'm definitely not going to be feeling like staying up late.
This is just the first new year of the year though. New year in the Muslim calendar will happen around the 20th of January in 2007. So that will be the second new year of the year. I expect to be in Afghanistan when they celebrate the Afghan new year, too - on the northern spring equinox, which will fall on the 21st March in 2007. That will be my third new year. Unlike the Muslim lunar calendar, the Afghan calendar is a solar one - and apparently more accurate than the christian calendar.
Only another two weeks to go till i go back to Afghanistan. Probably, anyway. i haven't got my ticket yet and it's the Eid-al-Adha (end of the hajj) holiday in Afghanistan for the whole of this week, so i can't organise my ticket until that's over, because i need to get the procurement guy at work to get it for me...
The way things are going, too, it's looking like i'm going to spend my whole time in England sick. It's beginning to get really irritating. I was almost better - and then i spent the whole day on Friday out walking in the cold wind, and now i'm worse again.
I haven't been ill for more than a couple of days since i nearly died of typhoid in 1995, in Mexico.
2006 has been a pretty good year really though. I spent most of it living at the beach - and the rest of it living about as far from the beach as i can imagine ever being! I think my life has improved a lot this year - mainly in relation to employment.
I'm waiting with bated breath to see what 07 brings!
You can see some of my photos of Afganistan at
WillKemp-Photos.com/afghanistan