New Year

New Year

Every year I make a New-Year's resolution.  Many people around the world do this but most of them are unsuccessful.  Not me.  I've succeeded for the last ten years at least.  More on that later.

In the days leading up to New Year, people usually still have a lot of turkey, because the average turkey is very big.  This means that they learn how to be creative with leftovers.  Some can be very creative indeed…

Unlike Christmas Eve, people usually stay up on New Year's Eve.  But then, you all knew that, didn't you?  Whether you are relaxing at home or having a party, the radio or television is switched on.  At midnight people listen to the sounds of Big Ben.

Then everyone pops champagne corks, shouts "Happy New Year" and joins hands to sing 'Auld Lang Syne'  Remember to join your right hand with the person on your left, and vice-versa, so your arms are crossed.  By the way, don't lose too much sleep wondering what 'Auld Lang Syne' means.  Some of us know, but most of us don't care.

I celebrate New Year for every time zone I have worked in, so at eight o'clock I wish Happy New Year to Magnitogorsk, Russia, then Obninsk at ten, and finally, after Poland at midnight, the UK at one in the morning.

New Year's Day was not always a public holiday in Britain.  People had to go to work just like any other working day.  So many people stayed at home with a hangover or arrived at work half asleep that in the 1970s the government gave in.  It is now a Bank Holiday, just like Boxing Day.

Oh, yes.  I almost forgot.  My New Year's resolution is to buy a diary.

Glossary

resolution                               postanowienie

lead up to                               poprzedzić

left-over                                 pozostały

leftovers                                 resztki

stay up = not go to bed

pops champagne corks = open bottles of champagne

vice-versa                               odwrotnie

don't lose too much sleep = don't worry about

I don't care                            nie obchodzi mnie to

hangover                                kacenjamer

give in                                    poddać się

Did you know?

Big Ben is not the name of a clock.  It is the name of the bell that sounds the hour.  The clock is called 'The Westminster Clock' and is at the top of St Stephen's Tower.

Puzzle

Between Christmas and New Year, there are lots of ways to use the food that wasn't eaten on Christmas Day.  Read the clues and fill in the grid with the names of the things people will be eating from the 26^th to 31^st of December.  The letters in the blue column will give you an extra word!

Clues:

1. Two slices of bread with some food from the Christmas dinner in between.
2. Onions, peppers and seasonal meat on long metal spikes (called 'skewers').
3. A cold dish with lettuce, tomatoes, some mayonnaise and white meat that wasn't finished on the 25^th.
4. Something you can pour into a cup or eat from a bowl, and made with the remains of a large cooked bird.
5. Hot, spicy food, often from an Indian recipe, with something extra in it.
6. A French dish made with eggs in a frying pan, with a special topping.

KEY

1. Turkey sandwiches
2. Turkey kebabs
3. Turkey salad
4. Turkey soup
5. Turkey curry
6. Turkey omelette

The extra word was chicken turkey.

Crossword

Across

2 Something you throw away when the old year has finished.

4 The name for the New Year celebrations in Scotland.

5 Most people are getting a bit tired of eating this by the time New Year has arrived.

8 The exact moment when one year ends and another starts.

Down

1 A popular drink at New Year (originally from France).

3 A present that people often use between Christmas and New Year.

6 The name for the sound of the bells a clock makes.

7 What a lot of people will be having around midnight on 31^st December.

KEY

Across:

2 calendar

4 Hogmanay

5 turkey

8 midnight

Down:

1 champagne

3 book token

6 chimes

7 party