Latest posts by Martin Moodie (see all)
- How I overcame Severe Tire Damage to become the oldest influencer in town - April 20, 2024
- Free as a (Kiwi) bird and flying high in Haikou - April 13, 2024
- Discovering Food Accademia’s world of fine flavours at a Hong Kong cha chaan teng - April 6, 2024
Well I guess I can’t let the criminal deeds of a Siberian cat burglar be my last contribution for 2014 so I’ll sign off The Moodie Blog here, the 101st of the year.
Tonight, like many of you, starting not long from now in my native New Zealand, I’ll be signing off one year and welcoming in another.
Tonight, like many of you, I’ll reach out to those I care about via the words of the perennially poignant Robbie Burns classic Auld Lang Syne:
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And days o’ lang syne!
For auld lang syne, my dear
For auld lang syne,
We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet
For auld lang syne!
And, like many of you, as I sing I’ll think not just of those with me and close to me in spirit but of those who have passed, family and friends, down the years. And this year, in particular, I will raise a glass to two of my comrades in travel retail who have big battles to deal with in 2015, health battles, in fact, that will test them sorely but from which they will ultimately emerge triumphant.
The little-known fourth verse seems to express those emotions best:
And there’s a hand, my trusty fiere,
And gie’s a hand o’ thine,
And we’ll tak a right guid willie-waught
For auld lang syne!
In modern English (but who really needs that?) it reads as:
And there is a hand, my trusty friend,
And give us a hand of yours,
And we will take a goodwill drink (of ale)
For times gone by!
Robbie Burns poses his opening lines (Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?) as a question but I think it’s merely rhetorical because there can only be only one answer. Naw, naw, naw (No, no and no again).
Thank you to all my acquaintances, auld and new, in travel retail, for being with me on the journey that was 2014. I look forward to joining you all again next year.