The Start of 2007

I can't say that the first day of 2007 was an eventful or memorable day. It is just a regular day like any other, with chores to carry out and meals to cook. The only difference is that all the shops are closed. No shopping can be done. Hence I spent most of the time at home sleeping, cleaning and slacking.

The last day of 2006 is a whole different story. I stayed over at Milo's place on Saturday night and prepared banana chocolate bread only because I managed to find cheap bananas at $3.99 per kilo (usually bananas go for $10-12 per kilo). We were supposed to stay over and watch this Hong Kong comedy but the DVD player wasn't working. So Mag, Steph and I ended up watching a French comedy on tv which was damn old ( you could tell from their clothes and hairstyles) but was so damn funny. It was basically about a son who comes from a strange family with 2 guys as his parents but one of them was a sissy or a fag as mentioned in the film. The son wanted to get married and the girl was the daughter of a conservative family with the father involved in politics. Hence the family goes crazy trying to pretend to be a normal family with a normal butler (who happens to be a transvestite and usually goes around the house wearing pink mini-shorts and no shoes). The sissy ends up dressing up as a female on the day the two families meet but all hell breaks loose when the paparazzi turns up and the real mother of the boy comes to the dinner. Heh...hilarious!!! Did I mention that this weird family owns a nightclub for transvestites and they stay just above it? In case you're interested, the title of this film is "La Cage Aux Folles".

The next day all of us woke up late, had lunch at home before heading out to Gold Coast at 2 pm. We took a while to find a nice beach with minimum people. The beaches were quite full considering it was a Sunday and also New Year's Eve. Then we proceeded to have lots of fun playing in the sand, enjoying the waves and clear salty water and of course eating snacks. We managed to squeeze in another video emulating the reality program Survivor but I won't be showing it to any old person. Mag is going to edit it first and I'll see how it turns out first.

The beach was great although I would have liked a little more sun because I'm trying to get a tan. I guess there'll be plenty of time to tan while I'm at the Australian Open for five days in a row anyway. We showered and took some time taking photos at the beach before driving back up to Surfer's Paradise to try to get some dinner. Parking was such a nightmare. We drove round and round and took about 1 hour to get a decent free lot but still had to walk about 15 minutes to get to the centre of Surfer's. Still the weather was so good, windy and cooling. It almost felt like winter. What a wonderful way to end 2006 and start 2007!!!

We walked around, hungry as hell and planning to eat dinner, have coffee and finish off with ice cream for dessert. We decided to have dinner at Billy Baxter's and it was a good thing the food came fast. The food was pretty good or maybe we were just too hungry. Anyway we were really full after that but we each still ordered a cup of coffee from Starbucks and Coffee Club. Those who know me will know that I don't usually go for coffee because I react to strong coffee. But I was tired and sleepy after swimming at the beach and eating the heavy meal. Without the coffee I would not have been able to stay awake for the countdown. In the end, getting a caffe mocha made me really high. We had to wait for about 50 minutes for the countdown and for the fireworks to start so while waiting, the deejay was playing super retro MTVs but the crowd seemed to enjoy it. We just went along and sang if we knew the words while Steph and Mag entertained themselves by shouting stupid things such as, "You never wear underwear!" or "Stop going around naked!". It was quite interesting to watch the crowd do stupid things as well. We were standing just before the first aid tent so we saw a few girls who were too drunk to stand on their own get sent to the tent. I must say, the first aiders were doing good business that night. I believe the police would also be making tons of money from all the fines they could issue to people who were either drinking or drunk in public.

The countdown was pretty spectacular. I think the fireworks went on for about 15 minutes and they were just gorgeous. There was lots of smoke and pieces of burnt paper flying around but it was all part of the atmosphere. Mag said that the fireworks we saw were much better than the ones they did in S'pore and I'm sure they were. I just had to remember to keep my mouth closed or I would be eating ashes. After the fireworks the crowd slowly dissipated but I think many were probably heading to pubs and bars to continue partying. As we walked around, lots of strangers (mainly guys) were wishing us 'Happy New Year' and there was even this guy who asked to take a photo with us. I guess we were just too charming as a group, heh heh heh!!! Finding a toilet was a problem and the one we went to was quite disgusting. I think one of the toilet bowls was spewing water and the floor was flooded. Still, it wasn't as bad as some of the toilets I've seen in Malaysia and the S'pore hawker centres. The Aussie girls were complaining about this toilet but they haven't seen the worst yet.

We were all pretty tired after the whole day and I was feeling nauseous from the coffee. So we walked back to the car and proceeded to drive home. I got home around 2.30 am and promptly fell asleep after washing up. I have to say, the start of 2007 was super!!! I just hope the rest of it goes well too.