Subject:          Happy New Year

Well, Happy New Year everyone, hope it was a suitably jolly time and all that. 

Had a fine Xmas bit here in frozen Toronto with the white Christmas,
Turkey, pud, port and hangover etc. Then took the bastard slow train to
Chicago to see Dr. Keating (14 hours each way - never again). It was good
to see the ol' boy and he did a great job of showing me the inside of
Chicago's bars and generally further shagging up of my liver. Still can't
figure out how I spent two months rent in 6 days but I think I had a good
time!

New Years eve itself was magic with margarita galore at one of Chris' many
women friend houses (although Chris is adament they are all just platonic,
one of them is definately after a piece of him). Then we hit a rather
splendid bar where more alcohol was consumed including some rather natty
semi-demi bottles of champagne (they looked a little like German WW2 hand
grenades and had a similar effect on ones head). Then the evening kicked
off fully and it was open season on any women within shouting distance - of
which there were many. I had a fine time chatting up everyone that wasn't
scared off immediately and I think Chris was grappling aswell (were you
Chris, can't remember?). 

However, suddenly it was 2 and we were all hoofed out of the bar - due to a
major oversight none of these women were asked to join us for the rest of
the evening or were asked back to Chris joint. This is probably a good job
too as he lives in a dodgey area and his love palace is rather short on
love - the only 'bed' is a 5 foot square pad of greasy old foam on the
floor and the sheets are grandma pink (sorry Chris - has to be said). So
instead we stumbled off to another rather cool bar and continued in the
same vein; it's at this point the evening fades in my memory, but I
remember looking at someone cooking fried eggs and struggling not to vomit
in the taxi home.

A fine night was had by all. Indeed, it was a bit of a 'two for one' event
as we were still half-cut when we woke up to watch the footie (and as
you're all so keen to point out, I like value for money).

Anyway, that's a portion of my festive period, but now its back to the
grind stone in the lab/jail. Hope you all had a cool festive period. And go
on Al, you old duffer tell us a story of your Xmas carnage.

Nick

(To Jacki and Wendy - I'm sorry about the somewhat sexist nature of this
e-mail, I am usually a modern sensitive man and I do cry alot)