Feather Stitching

I hope you all had a great time seeing in the New Year (for those of us who have already “been there, done that”) – or have some great plans to do so.  We were invited by friends to join them at their home in Kirribilli, where we saw in the New Year nicely nestled in the garden with a full uninterrupted view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, where the fireworks were wonderful as always.  This is the view from our garden – we were standing/sitting just behind the hydrangea bush you can see in the foreground 😀 

Unfortunately because we were so close, the cameras didn’t seem to appreciate the fireworks as much as we did, but here are a handful of shots from the night that worked out OK.  I didn’t even attempt to capture the finale on the bridge – I just looked up and enjoyed the spectacle and made myself hoarse from whooping and hollering along with the rest of the crowd 😀

The night itself wasn’t perfect as we waited for an hour for buses to arrive at home before we gave up and tried to hail a cab – after 1 1/2 hours a different bus turned up (the Bus Info line was no help at all, and they didn’t know why the buses weren’t arriving as detours were in place due to a local fireworks party on the beach but our stop was still on the designated route), so we hopped on that bus to Hurstville instead and joined the millions of revellers pounding the streets of Sydney.  Alas, even by 10pm when we were on the North Sydney train, they had already had to hose down the carriage due to some ‘over-ripe revellers’ – thank goodness we only had to put up with the underlying whiff of vomit for the short trip across the harbour bridge 😦

Then the real fun began as we tried to make our way to Joanne and Nick’s place, as all the roads had been cordoned off at different parts and we literally had to zigzag our way under the bridge from one road (and one security gate) to the other before we finally found a nice security man who let us go through the gate to where we needed to be.  Our biggest scare was when we came to a park where marquees had been set up to frisk people for carrying alcohol, and we had to choice but to walk through the park … after a momentary panic, I just bowled up to one of the attendants and asked what we should do as we were heading to a private party and were carrying pretty much nothing BUT booze – he was incredibly kind (I must look so old and trusworthy that I wouldn’t cause trouble!), and escorted us through the throngs so we could continue on our merry (or not-so-merry for some of our party) way to Joanne and Nick’s.  We couldn’t believe it when we finally arrived there only to be escorted down to the strip of garden at the back of the property in secluded view of the bridge itself.  Unfortunately our Prime Minister couldn’t join us for drinkies, as apparently he was entertaining foreign officials a few houses away 😉

The not-so-merry half of our party managed to stay as long as the fireworks finished then within seconds asked if they could have a key so they could come home.  Before we left we’d already said that we weren’t comfortable having them on their own in the flat without Katie or I there, but they’d been so po-faced and whining on the adventure over to the party that it was easier to give them Katie’s keys and relax and enjoy ourselves without having to worry about them.  They were a last-minute addition to the celebrations, as apparently they hadn’t been able to find a hotel room in Sydney for New Year’s Eve (well, duh!!!), and the girl was returning to South Africa this morning, so they needed a place to stay …  So nice to be used for a doss-house – “used” being the operative word.  Oh well, they didn’t spoil the night for us, as Katie and I were determined to have a good time and relax and chill out … and we enjoyed playing charades with a pack of drunken brits (with a token Irish couple, and a Kiwi and Aussie of course) under the backdrop of the harbour bridge until about 4.30am – I’m pretty sure the neighbours didn’t enjoy it half as much as we did!!!

So, here I am sitting blogging, after getting into bed at 5.48am this morning and waking up at 9.45am … and demolishing a plate of Vegemite and potato chip sandwiches (such heaven after a heavy night out on the booze, and so much cheaper than McD’s) … the New Year has most definitely been started off with a bang! 😀

Now it’s time to work out the New Year’s resolutions – aside from the usual “I resolve to swear less and lose weight”, I do resolve to enjoy what life has to offer me this year, and ignore those that don’t have the same attitude.  I resolve to see more of what Sydney has to offer, and resolve to keep in touch with old friends much more than I have.  Bring it on, 2010!!! 😀

And on that note it’s time to take my run-down tired bag of bones over to my stitching chair to settle myself in for a while – the next few hours will see me cuddled up with a bucket of water to slurp down, TiVo on to catch up on last week’s viewing, and a needle in hand … with any luck the needle might even have thread in it, and it may even just get pushed through some fabric, at least until my body caves in and I have to succumb to an inevitable “nana nap” this afternoon 🙂

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!