January 2006

I woke up on the first day this year off the back of a solid 10 hours sleep, in my nice king-sized bed with the sun streaming through my window in rays created by the elm tree outside my room.

AS IF! Firstly, I didn't sleep a wink on New Year's Eve! Haha secondly, any thoughts to be in my bed at home was quickly swept away as I was in fact 16,690kms away!

Yes, I was in New York, New York, NYC, The Big Apple, The City That Never Sleeps...neither did I.

New Year's Eve was spent at Charlie's apartment playing some drinking game with Charlie himself, his brother Gyver, Norman, Diana, Anna and myself. Needless to say, Anna and I somehow made our way back to the "Roach Motel" (where I actually got an offer to appear on American national television to share my experience there - because of my stinging review of it on TripAdvisor.com) and collected our luggage which was already packed and caught a premium luxury cab to JFK airport.

From there we flew to Toronto where my cousin put us up in the beautiful neighbourhood of Mississauga. We spent five days there visiting the main attractions like the world's tallest building The CN Tower, Niagara Falls and Casa Loma.

We went back to New York after that and were there for another two days where we tried to squeeze in as many last minute buys as we could before catching three connecting flights over 25 hours through LA, Sydney then back to Melbourne on Monday, January 9th.

Being back "home" after the longest trip I had been on ever was interesting. It was weird not having to rummage through a luggage bag for clean clothes, or think about where to eat next and whether I had a map of my destination. I think the biggest difference was waking up in the morning and not having to think "Okay! Where to today?"

Within a week I was off again on a day trip up to Belgrave for Soul Survivor which was really good. Seeing heaps of familiar faces again was nice, but what topped it off was the talk by the speaker that night about what makes a great leader - mistakes and the ability to learn from them. That was exactly what I needed to put me in the right frame of mind for the year.

Another highlight (or lowlight) of January was farewelling and wishing Carol a safe and smooth transition to Sydney and a happy birthday at Belgian Beer Cafe on St Kilda Rd. I remember that day well, it was really hot and Garry drove us in his Mini. We got there late as usual, but it was the first time in about 3 months since I had seen the Uni bunch! It was deja vu since my 22nd birthday the previous year (which is around the same time as Carol's!) was at the same place with a similar crowd. This time though, instead of going to Lygon St to get gelati for dessert and set garden sprinklers off, a few of us including the birthday girl went to St Kilda beach afterwards to have some ice cream which I enjoyed. I think that night felt like the proper beginning to the year, when friends who'd been around for years prepared to move on.

It's like this was a month for birthdays because a week later it was Vanessa's birthday at Airstream in Glenny on a 38 degree day! That was also a good night to catch up with everyone I hadn't seen yet, and after a hearty meal, everyone came back to my place to play poker and mah-jong. I think that night helped to push along the house gatherings which eventually led to the legendary Pictionary nights which were so prevalent in the beginning of the year.

January also provided me the opportunity to see one of my all time favourite celebrities, Charlize Theron, in the flesh. She was in town to promote her movie North Country at Rivoli Cinemas in Camberwell. Being just a stone's throw away, I was willing to forego two hours of the church's Chinese New Year's dinner at King Whale in Springvale, to wait for Charlize to show up and get pictures of her! I didn't manage to get her autograph, but I did get Pete Helliar's which was still okay haha.

So the first month of this year was filled with plenty of activities and a few especially hot summer days! I remember one Sunday being a 43 degree day and a group of us ended up heading to Camberwell and I had a guava juice with my lunch to cool myself down. Ahh January, always a happy time for me, a time when everyone's deep into holiday mode, the tennis comes to Melbourne, beautiful summer days and waiting for the rest of the year in earnest.