"London has literally glimmered with excitement and enthusiasm during 2012...It’s been a wonderful year, but believe me, 2013 is going to be every bit as exciting." ~ Boris Johnson, Mayor of London

There is nothing like a...

especially when there are fireworks involved.

Wanting to see the fireworks without standing elbow to elbow amongst thousands...

we took a gamble and booked a room at our old stanby bordering Hyde Park...

Lancaster London...

knowing that we had a slight chance our room would be high enough and facing the direction of the London Eye where the show would take place.

Bin-go...

all we needed were two clinkable glasses and a bottle of bubbly to enjoy what turned out to be quite the spectacular end to HM the Queen's Jubilee year.

Of course, my video pales to BBC since we were unable to hear the music.

We could just make out Big Ben's stroke of midnight. 

Enjoy your first weekend of 2013.