We arrived at The Wooden Doll at 7.30, to find there were no seats left – a keen lot on New Years’ Eve, this lot!  We found a place propping up the fireplace, as it was going to be a long night and our feeble legs weren’t up to the job, and I ended up sitting on the coal scuttle (or was it a planter – I never did decide).  Anyway, even though we had arrived pretty early, most of the crowd were already there – people did arrive later than us, but not that many.  Fewer tickets had been sold than last year – a conscious decision, I believe, on the part of the management – and it led to a very civilised evening, with most people in seats if they wanted them (albeit some of them were in the back lounge where they could hear, but not see the band – no good for us, I’m afraid!)  The buffet started to be available well before the music started – another change from last year – and continued to be replenished throughout the evening, meaning that there was never a long queue, and there was still food left to nibble after midnight.  The evening started with a surprise – the man who’s going to make Marty a millionaire (his words!) – his son, Andrew – came on to do a warm-up, and proficiently sung several songs to get us in the mood, to everyone’s satisfaction.  Eventually, about 9.30, the Happy Cats arrived on stage, to everyone’s delight.  I won’t go through the set list – I didn’t write it down, so I can’t! – but we got two good long sets of old favourites with a good sprinkling of songs from the album (although I would have preferred more ) with the usual rapturous reaction from the Wooden Doll regulars.  There were old songs I hadn’t heard for a while, including Lily of the West and Pizzarico, along with essentials such as Fairytale of New York, and even Fog on The Tyne.  When Les broke a string, Brian and Marty treated us to The Banks of Tyne – pity that only gets sung when Les is out of action, and not as a matter of course – then when Les returned he gave us a superb solo lasting several minutes, to the crowd’s delight (and Brian’s comment, “Why can’t he play like that all the time?!)  When he’d finished, Marty requested Brian to take us on a trip around the world on his accordion – so we had a wonderful selection of tunes, with Marty joining in on the bodhran.  Wonderful – more in the future, please, you really should show off what brilliant musicians you all are more often.  As the second set progressed and we got nearer to midnight the crowd loosened up more and more – The Wooden Doll is the only place I’ve actually seen people dancing on the table (hopefully we’ll soon have photographic evidence!) and many of the rest of us were on our feet or, dancing on the sofas and benches - including the landlady, so nobody minded!  At midnight, we sang the obligatory Auld Lang Syne, and as Marty had remembered his glasses this year we got the full version (as he could read the words!) then the singing continued with a string of excellent songs until half past when it reluctantly came to an end – I’m surprised Marty’s voice even lasted that long, as he had to keep breaking off to have a cough due to still being 'under the weather' (speaking of which, it’s good to see Les is back to fitness after his bout of illness)  Another great New Years’ Eve – what did we used to do before the Happy Cats were around?  Wonder where we will be next year?  (The Wooden Doll, if the management have any sense!)  It was great to meet and chat to the new friends we made, lovely to see Lillian (Dodd) again and meet their son Leon – and thanks to Michael and Rach for lending us their house even though they weren’t there – hope they had as great an evening playing with Steve Daggett as we had at the Wooden Doll!   Happy New Year everyone – hope to see you all soon!