Ad eundum quo nemo ante iit – To boldly go where no man [or woman] has gone before
Well it wasn’t quite like that on New Year’s Eve, not as exciting as the Star Trekky quote suggests, but every time we approach the bottom end of the year (or is it the top end? North or South?) – it is a unique start for everyone, a new beginning, so here we go, make it a bold one, and tread where no man or woman has gone before, into the future! It’s your space, create it with your own style.
So how did you spend your new year’s eve in 2010? If you’re like me, or my baby boomer friends, yes, those ones getting a few crows feet around the eyes, a bit old and wrinkly, losing stamina, joie de vive along with spectacles, keys, mobile phone, the f-ing shopping list etc, you may have been tempted to remove the bookmark from a good novel, slide into bed with a cuppa tea and turn off the light early on Friday night, rather than face the inevitable anticlimax of waiting for that clock to count down to midnight – please, finally, hurry up, are we there yet? And after that feign excitement over the passing of yet another year. Does the universe care? What does it matter if it is a minute to midnight or a minute past? Happy New Year!
But I found a new thing to do this year. The Territory called. I escaped the Emerald City and swapped its exotic pyrotechnics for the more modest offerings of Darwin, and was not disappointed. No overcrowded railway platforms for me this year, crushed four deep with other revellers sadly waiting an opportunity to press into a stale old City Rail carriage and jolt uncomfortably for forty minutes into Town, along with the clouds of perfume, the T-shirt sweat, the glossy high heels, the muffin-tops, the hip-slipping jeans and the sloppy-thronged feet.
No, this year I walked leisurely to the Darwin waterfront five minutes before the 9pm fireworks. I ooohhh’d and aaahhh’d as the rockets shot into the air. I joined the communal sigh as the last wisps of smoke drifted into the cooling silence. I took an easy walk back to the apartment, no pushing or elbowing required, poured another champagne, and settled for the duration. Refreshing quality of life, eh?
But, waiting for the big 12:00 on friend’s balcony, I took an age to set the alarms on my mobile phone. Why was I setting multiple alarms on New Year’s Eve? So I could text friends and family in every other time zone around Australia and NZ, so they got a New Year’s greeting on cue: Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide, Dunedin – they’re all different. It’s a nightmare when I call anyone from Darwin: I have to do a maths quiz before I dial. Who am I talking to? Are they eating breakfast or lunch? Is it daylight saving time? What day is it? No this is not early onset Alzheimers, its one of the hazards of living in Darwin – in the tropics, with 12 degrees of separation between you and the equator. Everyone else seems to get to New Year before we do – behind in everything here I guess, even the time, but the lifestyle ain’t bad. Like another drop of Wolf Blass?
