I love the start of a new year, the anticipation of better things to come, the planning of new activities and the making of resolutions, which rarely last beyond the first two weeks. Our New Year, the first-ever celebrated in Bulgaria, started off extremely well and every year I secretly hope that this will set the tone for the months to come!

My New Year's Eve was celebrated in the company of our Bulgarian neighbours with plenty of rakiya and traditional cuisine, including a huge banitsa. Hidden inside were nuggets of tinfoil containing predictions for the year ahead. I'm not a fan of banitsa, but I wasn't going to miss out on the possible forecast of a swimming pool or brand-new camper van, so with great trepidation, I bit into my pastry to release the foil within. Carefully unravelling it I was jumping for joy when I read: "You will have a new house." Of course, there's nothing wrong with the one I've got, but an apartment in town would be nice! My neighbour took the next bite of the pie and his prediction revealed rather alarmingly: "You will have a baby." Now my neighbour is rotund and we have often joked about him giving birth to quintuplets, but somehow the shine was taken away from my dreams of a city pad.

Shortly before midnight our neighbours insisted on turning on the TV to heckle the president as he gave his New Year's address to the nation, and, then, on the stroke of midnight, we all gathered on the terrace outside to take turns at firing live bullets from our neighbour's shotgun - what an original way to welcome in 2008 and a fraction of the cost of fireworks, too! After our noisy salute, we enjoyed the many bursts of colour that lit up the skies from surrounding firework displays and then it was back into the house for more alcohol and a session of texting frantic New Year's greetings. I think I received six messages saying: "Happy New Year from all of us in Bulgaria." An hour later texts arrived from those friends and family in Northern Europe - more "Happy New Year from all of us in Austria/ France/Holland," etc. Finally at 2am Bulgarian time, when our guests and we were all the worse for wear, the text messages flood in from the UK.

On New Year's Day the children were on the streets by eight to wake up all of those drunken bums with a pat on the back from their sourvachka sticks. They went from house to house, as did every other child in the village, tapping people on the back with a twig decorated with popcorn, dried fruits and handkerchiefs. As they did so, they recited a traditional Bulgarian rhyme to wish people health and happiness and in return they received money, fruit, sweets and more handkerchiefs to tie on the sticks. They returned home as I was staggering out of the shower (a vain attempt to wash away my alcohol-induced coma) each with a carrier bag full of goodies and with nearly 40 leva a piece. No one in the village told them to get lost, no one hid or refused to answer the door, in fact they were welcomed and expected at every house they visited, a complete contrast to what would happen if something like this was to be done back in the UK. All in all, 10 children called at my house to receive whatever I could rake together in the way of goodies and in true expat style, I was totally unprepared.

By January second my village became a veritable winter wonderland, with crisp snow on the ground, icicles hanging from the balcony and an army of snowmen standing tall outside everyone's house. The children would gather in the square to plan their next activity, which generally revolved around snowball fights, bum boarding down an icy slope or building yet another snowman. They would arrive home with rosy cheeks, wet and exhausted from hours of rigorous exercise, but they were happy, healthy and free. Were they to sit out the winter in the UK, they would spend most of it in front of the TV, trance-like, eyes glued to the screen, hardly moving. It's not that I wouldn't want them to play out in the UK, it's just that while winter temperatures there are no different from here, it seems colder. There is a chill north wind, constant rain and permanent grey skies.

As the snow recedes now, there is talk of an early spring with warm February temperatures just around the corner. I might have given up on all of my New Year's resolutions, but 2008 has started off on a good foot and like every year in Bulgaria, it just gets better.