The first day of 2010

Sunlight burning my eyes? Yep.

Mouth like a birdcage floor? Yep.

Head like some small animals had taken up residence in it and were having a metal concert in there? Yep.

It could only be a New Year's Day hangover. My first words of the new day of 2010 were,

"Urrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh.... someone make me some tea."

Animal Girl and KiteBoy felt the same of course. We felt guilty because of the glorious winter sunshine outside so rather than dying on the sofa which we all really wanted to do, we decided to make the effort to go and wander.

I made bacon sandwiches for breakfast, a task which should take no more than 20 minutes maximum. It took me in my champagne-muddled state, around an hour to make. It was going to be a tough day. Animal Girl felt particularly bad as she really disliked the 'dirty, minging' London water so had only consumed alcohol the evening before.

The simple task of showering took far longer than it needed to. I tried to make myself feel better by making a special effort with my hair and makeup. This did not have the desired effect of masking the aftermath of the NYE festivities. I merely looked like a hangover with really good hair and very expensively Lancome'd eyelashes.

We embraced the fact we'd awoken in a brand new shiny year in one of the best cities in the world and ambled from St Paul's to Tower Bridge and Southbank. It was a great way to start the year. Apparently though, every European was actually on this path today. After a good trek and a dip in my blood sugar, I threw a small strop about climbing the stairs up the Tower Bridge to walk along the top, with the whole population of Europe, and stayed on the banks of the Thames with my camera, capturing the first sunset of the year.

At Tower Bridge there was a little German Christmas market stall selling wurst, frites and gluhwein and for some bizarre reason, pumping out Tenor Saw's 'Ring the Alarm' - it's surprising how good reggae sounds in the City by the river in the sun.

Animal Girl is so called in this blog because she's obsessed with animals. She owns a rabbit named Tim (kudos for the human name) and two Dumbo rats who are very friendly and also have excellent people names. I'd told her about the rodents on the Tube tracks and we kept a keen eye out when we waited at the Tube station.

KiteBoy: "There's one!"

Animal Girl, getting extremely excited: "THERE'S ONE! A MOUSE, A MOUSE!!!"

I fell about laughing at the glee in her eyes and watched as lots of European tourists craned their necks to catch a glimpse of a London Tube mouse. She created quite a stir on the platform.

We wandered down on Southbank in the evening light, watching the neon carousel and listening to Big Ben chime across the water at 6pm, laughing at the amount of people queueing to go on the London Eye. We also stood puzzled at a street entertainer (I use the term very very loosely) who had a queue of excited idiots waiting to be bent into poses by him, to have a photograph taken. I tried to understand it. I really did. But it was just crap. And a dubious way for some guy dressed like he was in The Matrix to touch children.

By this point, we were dehydrated, hungry, frozen and still really hanging. An evening of cooking, eating and relaxing beckoned. KiteBoy was hardcore enough to get back on the beers. Me and Animal Girl stuck to water and tea and had an early night.