roycemleev3.50

Our friends on level 15 - Jimmy and Sue - invited us to their place for a New Year's Eve soiree with some of their friends. It was going to give me my first opportunity to use my new camera. Now it is just a little itty bitty thing with limited settings, so there are no long exposures and I don't have a tripod so some of the snaps are a little shaky.

We got there just in time for the 9:00pm fireworks, which were ok but I was definitely hoping that the midnight main event would be more spectacular. After that the party thinned a little - quite a few people had multiple engagements for the evening. Jimmy kept his post both behind the bar and in front of the CD player, which kept him on his toes. After several more glasses of champagne and a couple of pieces of sushi, it was time to start the countdown.....

And so that ladies and gentleman is the end of 2004. It was an amazing year - me going to London, Paris and the US, Laura going to China, my two best friends having babies, me working in Melbourne, going to the finale of "Popstars Live" and the taping of "Surprise Wedding 2" - all highlights.

We had heaps of visitors; Cate and Michael, Laura's Mum and Brother and Nan and Pop, Paul and Lynelle, Kay-lee and Bel, Michelle, and Tanya's cousin whose name I still stupidly forget.

After years of trying I finally saw a performance by Compagnie Philippe Genty - very, very different. I also saw A Perfect Circle in concert, and a number of movies most of which are just too awful to tell you about. Thanks to Laura's China trip, I saw too many DVDs to list them all.

The song I played most on my iPod? "Gravity" by A Perfect Circle. Number 2 was "Maynard's Dick" by Tool. Hmmmm, don't quite know what to say there.

I played 1 and a half rounds of golf, rode my pushbike 6 times, and went to the gym once. Conversely I knocked off [deleted] tubs of ice cream and [deleted] packs of bikkies. I also partook of 1, maybe 2 (but definitely not more than 5) Krispy Kreme donuts.

And (with perhaps the smoothest segue of the year) that was the year that was. See you in 2005!

So Discount Shopping Day in Sydney it was not, due to royal proclamation the traditional Boxing Day sales were delayed for a whole day leaving us with nothing to do. Well, I spose I could've watched another day's cricket, but I was thinking at the time Laura might very well smash the teev if I tried.

Instead we decided to head down to the park and see the yachts in the Sydney to Hobart kick-off the trip south. I think a number of boats had already left their moorings and were knocking about in the harbour waiting for the start. There was mostly smalller, less heard of yachts still getting ready, but lots of spectators still eager to wish everyone well.

We kicked a footy around for half an hour or so before deciding we should make a move if we wanted to see the boats exiting the heads. At the bus stop, bus after bus after bus streamed past us - totally full - so we started to get a little concerned. The traffic was now horrendous and it was quite obvious that a bus was never going to get us there on time, if ever. Opting for a taxi brought little further joy as hundreds of taxis already with fares filed past. It seems everyone else had our idea.

Finally, we managed to share a taxi with some dutch backpackers, and despite the traffic, made it up to Vaucluse with time to spare. Not much room to spare though, the place was absolutely packed with spectators. Speaking of packed, when the boats did arrive it was just amazing to see all the wash - there were boats everywhere! And not just boats, there were planes, nearly a dozen copters, and even Capt'n Cook paying us a visit. Actually he was leading the race for a bit, but Skandia and Nicorette and that other big one whose name I forget swallowed him up after not too far.

After the hubub died down we decided to walk to Watson's Bay for some fish and chips. On the way we past more groups of people lining the top of the heads. Those who were moving seemed to be going in the opposite direction (ie, home) which hampered our progress somewhat. Eventually we made it to Doyles but had to endure an hour wait for our takeaway, it was just that busy.

We bused it back home, and I fell asleep in front of the cricket. After my short nap I woke up, with all of my skin (but especially my face and arms) glowing a brighter shade of red. Had I forgotten something earlier in the day?