The sun has set over 2012.

The group of Americans and Australians that celebrated the New Year at the hotel, once more with armed guards patrolling at night, left this morning. I have a terrible head cold which refuses to budge, so I am spending quite a lot of time in bed, in a semi- feverous state where snippets of song lyrics come flittering past, some of them making a nuisance of themselves. My American friend Karen who spent Christmas here brought along some Christmas music, but of the American variety. We therefore listened to ‘White Christmas’ etc. but also to anything which had remotely to do with Christmas, such as George Michael’s : ‘Last Christmas’. Now, here is a useless piece of song lyrics if I ever heard one. I am putting in a formal complaint against this song. Last Christmas, I gave you my heart But the very next day, You gave it away This year, to save me from tears I'll give it to someone special I thrash around on my bed, annoyed and vaguely aware that there is something very wrong here, which is keeping me from snoozing: Why would the recipient of George Michael’s heart want to hand that on to someone else?? And would that person be interested in second hand hearts? And how many hearts are we talking about here? Did he have a heart transplant meantime? Well, as I said, I am slipping in and out of a paracetamol twilight zone...