New Year
1 January

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Ross arrived yesterday afternoon and was given a big pussy welcome by Cyril the cat. I'm sure that he misses Ross greatly. Certainly, he misses the company and I should think he misses Ross's stillness compared with my mobility.

We've had a good New Year together. We watched Wes Craven's Wishmaster, which was the usual load of old special effects cobblers built round a loose story of spells and potencies beyond our ken, and then we watched Sliding Doors which was a really good romantic comedy cleverly scripted with parallel stories demonstrating how small changes of events may set people off on different paths and yet they will always meet and love the people they have to meet and love. In between, we dined off salmon stuffed with a dill sauce (a Tesco's speciality), new potatoes, cauliflower and broccoli washed down with a little Cava and orange juice to give poor man's Buck's Fizz.

There's been lots of sex, you'll be pleased to hear. We continue to put those pennies back in the jar. It started with much groping in the bath (it's a village in Somerset ) which, in turn, led to a little doggy style in the bath itself. That moved onto a pile of towels on the bathroom floor and Ross's legs over my shoulders and him coming. And that was finished off by him spread-eagled face down over the spare bed and me pounding him to glory. Yum. Later on there was a late night shag with me face down and Ross pounding me to glory It was a good way to see the New Year in though not as well timed as two years ago. Still, we lay in bed in each others arms and listened to fireworks and cheering and Big Ben and felt at peace with each other and with the world which makes a great change from this time last year.

So, I'm sitting here in my work room, in good spirits, bathed in sunlight and listening to Ladies and Gentlemen - the best of George Michael, which was one of Ross's Christmas gifts to me.

Normally, I try to think up new affirmations but I looked back over the previous years and, out of the 36 that I've previously posted, I found 10 that were unfulfilled. So, with a little modification here and there, I present them for one final time in alphabetical order. It's this year or not at all.

• I shall decorate at least one of the interior rooms.
• I shall have more dinner parties.
• I shall investigate cocktails (specifically the cocksucker - equal parts of butterscotch schnapps, Baileys Irish Cream and vodka).
• I shall take more trips into the countryside and out to the coast for picnics.
• I shall try something daft like roller blading.
• I shall try to party more than once this year.
• I shall try cooking for pleasure rather than subsistence.
• I shall visit the dentist.
• I shall visit Dungeness to see where Derek Jarman lived.
• I shall wend my way through another year maintaining this WebLife project and then, come the Millennium, I shall review.

That should just about do it. I'll make the rest up as I go along.