The last day of the year comes to a superb end

Today of all days a sunset must be the best way of marking a blip. The last day of the old year, looking forward to the new.

This shot was taken looking over the Serpentine from Hyde Park after a day of rain and winds. We were up in London to see the fireworks - a long planned day which we organised in August, booking a lovely hotel in South Kensington for a very reasonable rate for New Year.

Behind us at this location was the Winter Wonderland, a huge funfair so brightly lit and a massive Christmas Market where every stall offered something to eat or drink. Even one advertising "Original Frenchfries from Germany". Lots of fascinating shots there but for me the natural world had it hands down.

From Hyde Park we walked along Park Lane to Oxford Street to see the lights and down Regent's Street to pick up the tube back to The Ampersand Hotel prior to setting off for the fireworks along the Thames.

Getting to Westminster was easy, getting back was easy too, a pleasant surprise, but the bit in the middle was pretty disappointing and inclined to be dangerous. Poor signage, stewards who knew very little, people pushing and shoving in small, confined spaces where there was nowhere else to go.

Eventually we found a spot on the Victoria Embankment just downstream of Temple tube station in a "restricted viewing area" which was the best we could manage. From this position you could see the fireworks through the trees (tomorrow's blip), that is, if you could see above the umbrellas, cameras held high and girlfriends on their boyfriends' shoulders.

I know managing some many hundreds of thousands of people is going to be a challenge but the information for would be specatators was very poor and the knowledge of the stewards non-existant.

So, all in all, we thoroughly enjoyed the experience of being in London for New Year, we can say we've been to see the fireworks and done the thing, but next year we'll be watching from the comfort of our own home...