New Years on a beach?

New Year’s… it’s just a day. However, it is probably the most celebrated day in the world, and it just came and went in a matter of seconds, literally.

This has to be one New Year’s that I will truly never forget…let’s see how far back I can remember…last year I hit a party at the W hotel in Montréal and for the last three years prior to that I was at Raj’s famous New Year’s Eve house party bash. This year I was going to celebrate it in Australia on a beach with friends I had just really got close to in the past three months. Oh, but wait… there was a catch, half of the group was in Melbourne and the rest stayed behind in Sydney. It was interesting to not see the rest of the group for nearly a week, I actually missed them and when we all skyped each other in Steph’s room about three hours before countdown we had a “missing each other moment.”

We were supposed to meet up with a group of Brazilians and go to their place for a little pre-New Year’s Eve party, but our phones just wouldn’t work, that or we just got the wrong number.

Smirnoff were arranging a major New Year’s Eve party held on Bondi Beach. There were as many people as the eye could see and luckily with our VIP pass we got into everywhere we wanted to. Funny story… here we are running around trying to figure out what this pass could do and little did we know it was actually for a party the next day in Melbourne called Summer Dayze…lol…but being as convincing as we are, people just waved us in everywhere, including the VIP area right in front of the stage. We ended up getting there about 11.30pm. We wanted to make sure we had enough time to dance before the big count down. I don’t know what it is about us but we truly attract people, everywhere we go people always want to ask us something. We didn’t have any big cameras, but for some reason our group just gets a lot of attention. Maybe it’s because we’re just all so diverse and have a genuinely good time that people just want to get to know us.

The music was exactly what I wanted out of a New Year’s party, and the live performances were so engaging. Here I was in front of a massive dance floor with thousands of people just so happy to be alive, and in a VIP area that we’re not supposed to be in. The count down came and we started screaming 15,14,13… all the way to 1. Fireworks started to fly in the sky and everywhere all you could see where people hugging, kissing, cameras snapping away and people on their cell phones frantically calling home and loved ones.

At one point there was this girl who simply would not stop asking me “can I please go on your shoulders? Can I please go on your shoulders?” she must have asked me about 20 times before I told her to ask some one else. Who else but Takashi, poor guy. It was just something you had to be there to understand, he was holding her on his shoulders trying to jump up and down while this girl had the time of her life. He was sweating so much that you could see his face melting away. Good times… and footage. Now you try getting a cab on New Year’s with everyone either in front of you or behind. It didn’t take us much time to realize that the taxi just wasn’t coming so we jumped onto a bus and took it home.

All in all New Year’s Eve went off with a huge success and it was something I will be able to tell the world for the rest of my very long life… lol.

Sydney Australia

Within the first couple of days, Sydney managed to captivate my body, mind and soul. Most importantly the nightlife is what makes me think twice about going back after this trip is over. This is probably this first city I have been to that I can say really compares to mine. People here like to party, but every club and bar I have been to has had really strong laws enforcing people not to drink over the limit. I’m someone who really believes in responsible drinking and when I get back to my city I might want to bring some of what I have learnt here to Montreal in hope of encouraging people to drink responsibly. One night I was waiting in line at a bar when I literally saw a bouncer deny some one into the venue because he looked like he had one to many. That makes me think, why doesn’t the rest of the world have that, doesn’t it just make sense? Why aren’t the people who own these places taking more responsibility around the world to protect their customers? Someone looks drunk therefore why would you let him go back into an environment where he can just drink more and more? I think we, as a society should discourage it from the start. Then again how far can you go? I don’t see anything positive that can ever come out of a person who is in a state where he can’t walk straight.

Enough with the drinking theory, back to the parties. Last night we went to a party called the Ministry of Sound, and whoa was that a night I’ll never forget! The highlight of the party were the people we had met, me and Luiza were just dancing our hearts out to really classical techno music when people around us just started talking to us more and more until we ended up with an entourage of about 30 people. Every couple of minutes another song would come on and everyone would whistle, scream out “yeahhhhhh”, clap and high five each other. It was brilliant. I didn’t want the night to end and I could see Luiza didn’t want it to end either. Alas, all good things come to an end.

What other cool stuff have I been to? There is this club/bar in the Kings Cross area called World Bar where we have been going back to every now and then. The people are friendly and they serve drinks in teapots, which is extremely unlikely, and for me unheard of. There are tyres outside for smokers and there are little picnic style tables everywhere for people to mingle - all in all very laid back and relaxed.

Hugo’s is a place where I like to be the most; everyone is dressed up, women in cute little dresses and everyone looking really hot and sexy. You can fit about 2000 people in there and the disco balls on the dance floor flood the ceiling. The style of music was house and techno and occasionally I heard some hip-hop and RnB beats. It’s known to be a place to pose a bit more than your usual spot but if you’re like me you’re going to love it.

So much to cover… The club 3 Monkeys has to be one of the funniest - however, when it gets late into the night the body odour of the people starts to take over the party… which is when I leave. They have live bands playing all kinds of music hits from all over the world. Who doesn’t love partying to music they have been hearing since they where five? When ‘Grease Lightning’ came on everyone started dancing like they were from the 50’s and me and Stephanie swung each other around like super stars. Other than that there are about 3 floors and about 4 bars which is nice to have because if the music gets too loud you can always walk up or down and find a different scene.

That’s the clubs… I have been to the opera house, I have taken a ferry and tomorrow I'm going to the Blue Mountains. Going out is always fun but if I don’t get to really see this place I wouldn’t feel like I have completely taken advantage of this life changing experience. Manly beach has to be my favourite because it has a huge walk way and it reminded me of the beach I went to in Brazil. Bondi beach had more of a man made beach style to it however that’s where our new years party is suppose to be so I’m sure it will wow me.

As I type to you on a patio of a fancy restaurant I look out and see boats moored up with the whole of Sydney behind them. People from all over the world are walking around taking pictures and just enjoying this amazing weather and place. I will miss you Sydney, but I'm looking forward to Melbourne and seeing what it has to offer. Apparently the nightlife is better than in Sydney…oh yeah!