I've never been drinking in Kinver before and I had just helped Chad P and Jackie move house. I had no official plans for the night and was excited at the thought of being drunk in a new and completely different atmosphere.

Our plan was simple, yet genius: We start drinking in the village centre of Kinver and then work our way out towards the Pub opposite the new house. Easy...
     
  A pint and a packet of crisps. I was looking foward to this night. Previous New Years Eve's have seen me working or drinking in very crowded environments. As old age sets in, I much prefer the quiet pint (unless I've had too much and I want to go to a club).
     
 

Chad P looks distinctly sober here.

I'll fix that soon enough...
     
 

Jackie looks too sober!

Shouldn't take too long...

Has Jackie got a really small head or have I got a giant bag of Pork Scratchings?

For the non-English followers out there, a Pork Scratching is a piece of pig skin cooked until crispy. Nice. Modern pig snacks will use the pig rind. Nice.

I prefer black pudding (pigs blood) but pubs don't serve this in handy packets...

Incidentally, we had changed pubs.

We were informed by the landlord of the pub opposite the new house that we needed to be there by 11pm as he was going to lock the doors and not let anybody else in. New to the area, we believed him. He obviously said this to get us in early and spend more money!

I love this bar - they sell sweets behind the bar. We munched our way through these until the free buffet arrived!
 
I think the drink is taking effect...

Chad's killer pool pose.

We were new here, and everybody else was local so we hid away in the back room playing pool until about 11:40. Little did we know that they were waiting to move the pool table to put the food onto! Every now and then, somebody would pop in and look at us. We thought nothing of it and then realised later - we were in the way but they were too polite to ask us to move! Whoops.

It was only a matter of time before the alcohol rushed through my circulatory system and into my 'let's sing karaoke' part of my brain, thus switching it on.

My first song of choice? Mack The Knife.

This is the fist time I've ever seen anything like this!

The photo is on it's side, but this is a tower of two pence coins stacked and held together by being dipped in beer!

There must be at least £1000 here!
 
The signs of fermented vegetable consumption are showing...
Midnight had passed and we all did the obligatory holding of hands and singing Auld lang syne or however you spell it. Jackie bumped into a girl that went to school with her, even though she never actually talked to her at school. She made up for lost time by having one of those rapid catch-up conversations at a speed which only women can understand when men are drunk.