Hello 2016 | Hogmanay Walks

Hello!

Happy new year! I hope 2015 was good to you, and I'm perfectly sure that 2016 is one that will be incredible. You know when you get that feeling that something big is on the horizon but you're not quite sure what exactly it is? Yeah. I got that feeling. It feels big. Exciting. Important. Incredible. Scary. I can't wait to experience it!

So, in Scotland, "New Years Eve" is called "Hogmanay". I'm not sure why, but it is. I'm sure it dates back to way past medieval times.

Anyway.

Most people celebrated the new year by going to parties, or by staying at home, sleeping or watching tv. I decided that I wanted to go for a walk with my lovely friend Jennifer.

Usually when we go for walks, we walk around our local area for about 30 minutes before going back home... But tonight was different. And I felt adventurous. I packed my DSLR and my tripod as well as a couple of torches, layered up, put on my warm danisnotonfire llama hat (link in case you have always wanted to know where to get one) and ventured out into the cold.

The roads were quiet. There was nobody around. I met up with Jennifer and told her what I had thought of as a plan. A walk around town.

I live in Falkirk, it's building itself up as being a tourist town, which is great for me as a travel and tourism student, and you have probably heard of either the helix park, or the kelpies?

She agreed to the plan. We went to hers so she could get her scarf and some gloves and off we went. We chatted for a while, I kept my eye on my phone for the time so I could sing 'Auld Lang Syne' at the top of my lungs (lol) and we were choosing to stick to the safest areas, ie main roads rather than woodland.

At 11:55pm fireworks started. I think someone's watch was a bit fast! We were standing between Falkirk and Laurieston, looking across at Stirling and Grangemouth when the clock struck 12. The skies sorta lit up. I'm not going to lie it wasn't a tremendous sight, we had a lot of buildings in the way and most fireworks were in the distance, but to be outside and seeing 4 lots of fireworks being set off around us, knowing that it was a new year, that people were celebrating, watching them, filming and trying to take photos... It was incredible.

Once that had died down, after a couple of minutes, we decided the next stop was to Calender Park. Again, we stuck to the main road (it's a wooded area) and I snapped up a couple of photos of the house.

The moon was also massive in the sky and I captured this image of it behind the trees. Also if anyone can tell me what planet has popped up in the top of the image I'd be grateful to know. I think it's either Mars, Mercury, Venus or Jupiter.

It started to get icy, as we were now walking in below freezing temperatures. It had to be below freezing. There was no cloud cover, there was endless stars in the sky. We decided to walk the long way to the Helix development, the home of the Kelpies. How amazing would it be to get a picture of the Kelpies on Hogmanay?!

It took maybe 45 minutes, because we were trying not to slide on all the black ice but eventually we reached the development, located just outiside Grangemouth, on the outskirts of Falkirk. Jennifer was freezing, in hindsight I should have told her about my plan for a long walk before leaving so she could wear layers. Oh well, live and learn.

We did get to the Helix, we brought out the torches so we could look for the ice, which had gotten even worse, and I tried to take a picture of the Kelpies through the trees... Which wasn't for happening so I settled for this.

Then we made our journey home. We got back to hers at 2.50am where we sat for a bit and had a drink of tea, she made herself some tomato soup and offered me some (I wasn't too hungry). We said our goodbyes and I made my own way home.

This gave me a chuckle as we were walking so slowly because of ice

I passed by an older guy who said "Happy new year, hen" as I passed, saw my neighbours were still partying (omg) and I arrived home around 4.15am, sat down for a bit, updated twitter a bit, got sorted for bed, went upstairs and saw a spider sitting above my bed.

That's a good luck sign though, right?

Anyway, I was too tired to deal with that. I lost sight of the spider, waited a few minutes then went to bed.

I hope you all have a wonderful year! Thank you for taking time to read about my ramblings!

How did you spend your new year? Did you go out, or did you stay in and have a quiet one?And what are your plans for this brand new year?