For year's I've lived in The Global Village. Most people, courtesy of tv, pretend to live in The Global Village, but tv is a one-way affair. Since I'm supposedly fully wired here I ought to be living in the real Global Village: The Wired World. So I should be able to join in the celebrations all around the globe.

The sunrise in the Pacific; Midnight in New Zealand and Australia: sunrise over Mount Fuji, and all the new years following each other over the world's timezones right up to sunrise in Hawaii.

The first new year was a little bit late, I suppose, at quarter past two in the afternoon of New Year's Eve local time, when a phone call came thru to a girl at the next table from her friend in New Zealand. It was all happening, and the year 2000 had started in New Zealand, and the party sounds came thru loud and clear.

A couple of hours later the party happened in Sydney, when the whole harbour came alight, and it looked as if they had set fire to the Harbour Bridge.

The combination of satellite tv and internet connections meant the whole party just kept rolling for the best part of 18 hours, with New Year celebrations hitting every hour on the hour, followed by brilliant sunrises. Here and there were exceptional bursts: the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Eiffle Tower taking off like a space ship, the deluge over the river Thames lasting an incredible 17 minutes, and ending with the eerie green rain. Then going to bed, and waking up again to find it all still happening as San Francisco burst its fireworks, and then on to the sunrise over Hawaii.

And so, down to the beach in the bright sun of a new millenium. It was a good day to start a new numbering system, but the new millenium really started in the early nineties when the internet really began to get under way. That was the beginning of the new age, and that is going to take us to some strange places. Hang on to your hats!