"Yeah" - the Meg Mathews column"

Christmas went by in a blur (oops, I've mentioned a banned word) of alcohol and loads of food. Noel and I flew back from the French Alps - I actually have bruises from direct snowball hits - to our house in the country and met up with all our close mates and family to exchange gifts, drink sherry, eat mince pies by the open fire and walk in the woods. All in all, it was a very happy Noel. And the Grace Kelly hints definitely reaped dividends.

I'm currently planning for about twenty of us to go to Alexandra Palace to see New Order because Noel is a really big fan. The Chemical Brothers will be DJing at it will be a full-on gig with 12,000 people - I haven't been to a real rave for about six years. I'm going to throw on my jeans, a T-shirt and trainers and dance until six in the morning - please nobody photograph me on the way home!

So by the time you read this, we will have spent New Year's Day crashed out in front of the telly watching a tape of the Brian Epstein documentary (isn't Anita Pallenberg a babe?) while balancing packs of ice on our heads and ingesting vast quantities of Resolve.

1998 was a fantastic year for me - I started my own business with Fran, which has given me my independence and silenced all those people who reckoned I shopped for a living. And we hope to be even busier in 1999; we've just been asked to launch London Fashion Week next month. Clothes, models, loud rock music - shouldn't be too difficult, that's just a normal day at work for me.

I don't usually keep my New Year resolutions, but this year I really am going to answer the doorbell when Johnny, my personal and very persistent trainer, comes to give me my workout. And, on the advice of Sadie Frost, I'm going to take up yoga - I may even dye my hair black and start tattooing my hands.

Being a professional party planner, I've also got to start organising the ultimate bash to welcome the next millennium. Can you imagine the hangovers after that one?

• The Times & Sunday Times News Articles - index

c 1998 Andrew Turner

aturner@interalpha.co.uk

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