I have always experienced the New Year's eve come-up with a fluster: hundreds of statuses and tweets from worried individuals asking what everyone else is doing for New Year. These messages continue right up to the 31st December, with frantic people making last minute plans on the day.
Others will have booked something to do months in advance, spending between £50 and £90 for an 'exclusive' ticket to some 'exclusive' party that promises a free champagne cocktail and an allegedly famous DJ.
This scramble has always stressed me out, and admittedly I did start falling into the trap of waiting to see what everyone else was doing before I made my final plan. It then dawned on me: what is New Year's eve about?
It is about making a new start, celebrating the good old 'out with the old and in with the new'. I find it as quite a personal moment of self-reflection and yet quite a unanimous moment of happiness with friends and family. A very odd concoction.
So For the bringing-in of 2012 I decided to go to the London Eye and Big Ben, stand in the street for about seven hours with hundreds of thousands of strangers, and smile warmly to myself as I watched London celebrate with smashing, sparkling fireworks and synched music.
It was the best way I had ever spent New Years Eve, Strangers find common ground at the happiness of the new year and mingle, dance and enjoy themselves. I saw first-hand one of the most famous clocks in the world strike midnight and witnessed the unparalleled atmosphere that around a billion other people catch a glimpse of on TV. The best bit? It was completely free! It was an outside rave backed up with a live radio 1 DJ and all our own alcohol. No extortionate prices and no rip-off New Year's Eve charges.
In total I spent £1.90 on a tube fare down to Waterloo. That was it! The tube coming home was completely free and I drank my own alcohol at the event. I also immersed myself in the epitome of New Year's eve. Brilliant.
The only downside was getting home: it took about 2 hours for a journey that would have only taken 15 minutes on a tube. This was because of the immense crowding that stretched for miles along the Thames. It was all worth it though. I think from now on I am going to spend New Year's Eve at similar celebrations all around the world: Sydney, Times Square, Rio de Janiero. It definitely beats an entrance fee of £50 to a club that on any other night of the year I can get into completely free.
