So fireworks universally, Dubai, Sydney, London, New York, and Udekki (Sri Lanka). If it is not raining here we will take tables to the beach and play music, eat, and as the midnight approaches the fireworks will start. Rockets, mainly. One of the workers here a woman called Widgera, is a mad firework fiend, she holds the rockets in her hand and lets them go at the last moment, it’s quite something for us fire squeamish people to watch.

There are a few different types of sparklers here, the short fat ones blaze with a magnesium ferocity that burns holes in skin, clothes and the screens of phones. The longer ones are safer. I should be more enthusiastic about fire, being a fire sign, but I’m not. I love a cosy lounge room fire or a barbecue, maybe a candle or oil lamp but the ragged hole in my favourite tee shirt put me right off.

it’s impossible to wear anything that has a synthetic base in the tropics. It almost immediately sends me into a hot and heating panic, let alone its inherent inflammability. In fact anything that is difficult to pull on distresses me these days. Damp legs caught in pant legs, tee shirts on, despite my best efforts, backwards just does my head in. I think the tropics is getting to me. I do remember putting on complex garments, with pull through ties and arm holes that seemed to disappear as I entered the garment. I also remember discarding the same garments in little heaps of expensive material, on days when I was sartorially ambitious but didn’t have the bottle to follow through.

So if you are going to the tropics think simple, love a sarong, a flip flop, a singlet or a tee. I dress appallingly at Udekki, nothing matches really, I am the proverbial stripes and florals dresser now, co-ordination, matchy-matchy fabrics a thing of the past, my daily choices are limited by the following criteria; is it cotton? (tick) Is it easy to get on? (tick) I’ am even beginning to see the value of the poo catcher pants that I have so rubbished when I had a Balmain veneer of up-myself-taste. In the mid 90’s I remember saying, “Shoot me if I ever get one of those mobile phones?” Yep that went well. A poo catcher may well end up on my bod, why? Well they hardly touch the skin and that must be my third question re clothes, will this garment annoy/chafe/abrade/irritate me? If it doesn’t then a great big TICK… Actually I use the same criterias in relation to everything, hummmm… says far to much about my internal processes, but what the hell it’s New Year?

So the New Year eh? Resolutions, let me know if any of you come up with a good one. Last night a guy asked me if the yoga I taught was spiritual. Not sure exactly what he thought spiritual was but here’s what I answered, ”Not really, we are all spiritual enough to be going on with, but are we good human being? Yoga the way I understand it makes you a better person, happier in your body, less reactive, kinder to yourself and others, more tolerant and adaptable. “ He seemed happy with that. Soooo my resolution is to do more of what I know to be good for me and to become a better person I might even become wiser, but don’t hold your breath.