best. new years. ever.

...well, for now anyway.
I went on holiday with my boyfriend to Sydney over the Christmas / New Years period where we had a massively great time catching up with good friends, being the kind of turistas I once heaped all of my contempt upon.
It was a great trip and was made even greater by the calibre of our friends who variously put us up, put up with us and transported us around the city (most signicantly, thanks Peter).
Only one of the many highlights but most certainly the funniest event of the trip was our New Years celebration, which was held at a squat in Balmain, right on the harbour. As you can see from the pictures, we had the best view in all of Sydney and were able to enjoy all of the fireworks as they lit up the sky at 12.
The venue itself was great and the tenants were most hospitable hosts and hostesses.
Unfortunately, knowledge of the event had spread like wildfire thanks to myspace, with word getting back to the tenants that somone had been advocating guests trash the joint, so they had to be explicit about ensuring guests were aware of house rules and respect everyone's rights.
There were a couple of problems with the night, too. The toilets were broken and had to be flushed with buckets of water so, predictably, many trashed partygoers didn't comply. Sewerage started seeping along the ground and down the hill beneath the venue. It smelt. The dj's for the most part were nothing if not utterly uncaptivating. And finally, the tenants were nowhere to be seen late in the morning when their presence would have been handy.
But that's all okay because the party was great.
And another good thing about the party was that we attended it with some good mates who wanted to chemically enhance their experience with us. So we all ran around having little mini-(mis)adventures and getting along like houses on fire, accordingly.
There was a freaky moment in the morning with an upset man who was intimidating a 16 year old party goer. I intervened, the youth worker/negotiator in me taking over, which helped to defuse what could have been a nasty situation. I actually handled it pretty well I think. Not least of all because at 7am, having partied hardy all night, I was pretty stonkered.
Anyway, it was a wonderful night and the best New Years I've had to date.
And now it's back to work... Ho hum.
(If this entry is all but incomprehensible, that's because I just got back from Sydney and am dog-tired.)