Let me start by saying HAPPY NEW YEAR to all you crazy kids worldwide! I hope you had a cracking one!
I am loving 2011. I'm still in Auz which is a dam good start considering I braved an alcoholic boat that I'd never met before for new years...I'm not totally naive I've heard the stories one minute you are watching the fireworks the next you're playing twister naked with a russian midget, well that was Coopers last new year....what are the chances of it happening twice???
Anywayz: I made it into Darling harbour around 3pm and grabbed some food...thanks for treating me to a slap up dinner mummy (on a separate completely unrelated note don't look at the credit card bill yet...). I sat watching the harbour - Sydney really goes to town on the decorations and live shows everywhere its surreal celebrating in the warm but totally how it should be done every year! I grabbed my boarding card around 5, declined a proposal of marriage around half 5 - don't worry I did weigh up my options deciding to say 'hey mr drunk 50 something guy who's wearing an alcoholic backpack with a giant straw - I appreciate the offer but I don't see us working out...if we are both unattached in 10 years and I don't have 30 stray cats living with me I'll reconsider'...aside from him not many other people were intoxicated which was really different compared to the norm of Rochester on a NYE afternoon...not that I'm criticising any of you Rochester folk - I love Rochester - you know woo go Dickens!!!
Anyway time to board around 6...all my fellow sailors were dressed up to the 9's and we all got champers on arrival....I could totally get used to this boating malarkey it was nnniiiiicccceeeee! I headed up to the upper deck and looked out across Darling Harbour - they'd closed the harbour off around 3 as the crowds were already packed in like how I pack my pic-a-mix...tight right!!! I started to miss home at this point....I mean its New Years and who was I going to grab to kiss when the clock hit 12....well hello mr captain...thank god I am such a social butterfly! I followed the captain down to the lower deck up front....I don't know the boat terms for up front was I on the bow? At the Stern....who knows except there was a table with more champagne on it...sorted!!! And then 2 people asked me to join them because I was on my own! How lovely are Aussie people? Or so I thought....after about 30 minutes talking to me these 2 Aussie Hill billies asked if I was a 'Pomm'....er what gave it away my accent or my answer to the 'where are you from question' both things that were present from the start of this conversation...anyway they then turned away from me and proceeded to ignore me for the rest of the cruise....jokers!
Fortunately I met other nice people though - a family from Rhodes with the cutest kids, then some British guys on a cricket tour and a Chinese family who had to take some racist slur from the hillbillies at which point my friend Captain Bruce (I don't know that this was his real name but this was the name I have appointed him) got involved and smoothed things out! Good Brucey :) We were cruising for about 3 glasses of champers - I don't know what that is on 'real' time but we headed out under the Sydney Harbour Bridge passed numerous barges of fireworks everywhere - they must spend millions and millions on the firework displays - amazing!
We parked up...again my boating language is not exactly spot on...opposite the Opera house and the Bridge looking out across the Sydney skyline and surrounding bays as the sun set and the clock hit 9pm. What I didn't know before I went out was that Sydney has 2 displays one at 9 for the families so the kids can see the fireworks and then the 'real' 12 o'clock, midnight, new year one...many oooh's and ahhhh's ensued for the 9pm fireworks and on completion the slightly tipsy cricket tour on my boat all started yelling 'Happy New Year' to each other....muppets lol! British people, myself included, make me laugh!!!!
A nice reminder of home....'fascination' (old lundy/uni classic) came on at which point a short lived burst of over exuberant dancing ensued...but its a party boat who wouldn't expect to see a happy little British muppet dancing?!?! (The Hillbillies didnt...). I had fun though and while I danced the night away we joined the parade of lights - all the boats switched on their fairy lights and toured the harbour in a MASSIVE line of boating'ness - it was fantastic...we were the 5th boat following a sailing boat with a big smiley face of fairly lights....everyone had gone to town on dec's for the boats and it was spectacular! Music on the boat was pumping, lights flashing, dancers dancing, food...doing what food does...so much fun! (This is where I met Danny & Kelly who'd just come from NZ and were heading to Thailand in a few weeks when I go - it was brilliant to chat to them as we sailed back up to our harbour spot at the end of the parade and we'll be meeting up out there....tiny celebratory new friend dance YEY!)
Midnight....FIREWORKS....utterly the most EPIC display I have ever seen in my 22 years on this earth! It was just amazing 20 minutes of pure pyrotechnical genius! It made the 9pm ones look like a few dud sparklers - it was just fantastic!!!! 2011 hello there!!!!!
Fireworks over we headed back to the docks around 1 and I said goodbye to my new friends having facebooked each other up already and made the long trek to Bondi beach where I wanted to watch the sunrise...packed bridges, packed streets, crazy old dancing ladies, packed trains, one packed bus and I was there...what I didnt know was David Guetta had a big New Years Eve gig there and the place was ridiculously busy. I found a spot of grass on the hill overlooking the bay around 2.30am though and lay back listening. He's good! The gig finished around 3.30am and people started to clear though hundreds still lay on the grassy verge drinking...sadly a few people were too drunk and some started to fight...the police came and tried to move everyone on around 4.30am. Now I am not one to dispute with a police officer under any circumstances, total respect for the uniform, but I had waited for 2 an a half hours in the cold new years day air and sunrise was less than 30 minutes away. There was NO way I wasn't seeing my sunrise. Long story short they saw sense and let me stay. 24 minutes later I had made it onto the beach and watched the most stunning sunrise over the bay...absolute best evening, morning ever...a very Happy, Happy, Happy New Year to everyone!!!
31 Dec 2010 -1 January 2011
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Like, like, like! (I don't know whether there is a 'like' button on here but I would have pressed it three times (as I am an unnecessary button pusher)).
ReplyDeleteThis sounds fantastically more exciting than my new year's eve but it was waaaay cool to get a voicemail message from you at midnight (aka lunch time in real time).