Where's your head at?

Sydney. New Year's Eve. It's, like, the best place on the planet to be. Right? Right. I think I'm correct in saying that it houses the largest firework display in the world, so being here for the big NYE is pretty spesh.

So what did I do? I missed the whole thing.

Basically, ages ago we heard that Basement Jaxx were playing at a festival called Shore Thing on Bondi. It was part of the reason we planned to be in Sydders for New Year. We LOVE the Jaxx. Duncan and I saw them at the Wireless festival in Hyde Park last summer and were blown away. Anyway, tickets sold out in an instant. When we got to Sydney we heard that a second batch of tickets were going on sale, so we queued for ages - and didn't get any. Boo.

So, hope for the Jaxx were dashed. Eve was gutted (they're her fave and the main reason she'd agreed to come and meet us) and everything else was either really expensive or sounded rubbish (Judge Jules? No thanks.) That was until 2 days before NYE. Eve and I were in reception, dancing to Basement Jaxx on the radio and giving it the whole "Boo! This could have been us at New Year!" when someone over heard us and said that they were desperate to get rid of two tickets. B-b-b-b-b-b-bingo bango!

So $150 dollars each later (eek) and Eve and I had our NYE wish come true. We were Bondi bound. On the actual day people were up at 7am to head down towards to quay and stuff to wait for the fireworks at midnight. Nutters. People don't even wait that long to watch a Bon Jovi concert. By 9am there was something like 10,000 people waiting to get in to the Botanical Gardens. Blurp.

Anyway. Pottered about in the day. Had a sober conversation with Dave, which ruled. Went over to Pott's Point and had a lovely lunch with Adam and Amanda Fry (used to work with them both at Sugar, didn't I?)



Next, had a few drinks with Eve, Duncan, Jenna and James on the balcony and then it was time... headed off at 8.30 for Bondi! How excitement. You'd think, wouldn't you? Except for a) by the time I got to the bus stop I was desperate for the toilet and the public one was out of order b) there were LOADS of screaming 15 year olds all drunk and going the same way as us c) after waiting for the bus for, like, ever we realised that the bus to Bondi had been re-scheduled for a different stop d) I had no idea where this stop was e) when we eventually found the stop the bus took ages f) when the bus finally came along all the 15 year olds boarded and spent the entire journey singing "where's your mo-bile?" and "show your red-pants" and other 'hilarious' variations to the "Where's your head at?" tune g) I sat in vomit on the bus and got it all over my wrist. So yeah. New Year's Eve didn't start with a bang.

The set up at Bondi was pretty amazing though. It was like a proper festival on the beach and once I'd got through the gates, used the loo and bought a Redbull it was all good. Rockety Rock. At midnight we got fireworks too, although not as spectacular as the main ones I fear, and then the Jaxx came on! Whoop! It was amazing. Eve and I hugged each other and danced and squealed - and then turned around to find some bloke urinating all over the backs of our bare legs. Nice. Welcome to 2007.



The set wasn't as good as when I'd seen them in London, but it was still a pretty cool way to see in the New Year. Seeing the gorilla was my favourite part. I got very excited. Where's your head at? I'm still not really sure.

Bus back was mental. There were hundreds of people waiting to get back to the city. Sucked to be us. But eventually an empty one came past at about 2.30am and we piled on, with Tom from Brazil. All good. Back to the hostel. Drank champs until 6am and then decided to gate crash the bar Duncan was working in. So that's where we went, and danced to RnB until 8.30am. Kriss Kross'll make ya Jump Jump.

So yeah. That was New Year's Eve. Bit gutted that I missed the display. But I guess I can come back and do that anytime. It was good, man. Happy New Year.