NYE Recap

And so a new year dawns (poladroid style! Yeah-yuh!)...
With Mum being in hospital and her having a birthday on NYE, I felt that skiving off down country was probably a shitty move this year. Given the way that this year has panned out, I figured that staying in AKL was the goer, and set about deciding which invite I was going to take up. CC's plans to see it in the central city fitted in best with the rest of the plans I had for the day, so the city it was!
New Years Eve morning, it was up bright and early to make sure that the house I was house sitting for was spic and span before moving back home. A quick pop up to the mall where I got a dress for new years (and a dress for the races, although we never got there) and ran a couple of errands and then it was back home to get ready. A trip up to Auckland and a wander through Auckland Domain before grabbing Burgerfuel as Mum's chosen birthday meal. I made my parents laugh when I referred to the large burger that I was eating as a "grown-up" burger - I usually only get the small size; if you've had Burgerfuel, you'll understand why. Dropped Mum back at the hospital and chilled out on her bed for a while, just shooting the breeze.
Time rolled around and I went outside the hospital to catch the bus into the central city. The bus driver decided to stop for his dinner break outside Victoria Park Markets, and we had to swap buses. I got down to the Viaduct in one piece and met up with CC and the gang at Provedor. Once a couple more people had arrived, we shot round to Float (where we couldn't get in because one of the guys was wearing sneakers) and then hit Lenin where we got the stunning white wine sangria cocktails you can see in picture 2. They had promo girls wearing ice blue corsets and white fur miniskirts and white fur legwarmers... much argument about whether this was cute or just damn fugly.
Next stop - Degree... unfortunately still serving food and packed as a sardine can. We got vodka and orange and sat outside trying to work out a plan of attack. One group was really keen to head to Globe, the other not so much. Split time!! CC and I ended up in a bar called Trench Bar, part of the Kermadec complex and home of the creepy fish on the wall in Picture 3. It played house (large bent on the electronica) which isn't something I listen to a lot of, but it was still fun. You know how a lot of bars play sports on big screens in the background? This one played Fashion TV... fantastic! Dancing in my high heels got tiring after a while so I changed back into the jandals I'd been wearing earlier in the day (yes, I had a massive handbag I had been toting around all day) and meandered round in those... at least they were silver and matched the dress :D.
The bar got steaming hot and after midnight, CC and I decided to get some fresh air. We went down the stairs from the bar and the streets were packed. We had some guy tell us the best place to get Chinese food in CC's town, in an attempt to get one or both of our phone numbers. We walked across a road before realising that the little man was still red, not green. We bought sausages at a charity BBQ and sat on the steps of the StarMart to enjoy them... and make many filthy jokes about sausages. It was while we were sitting here that we caught this performance (?) and I was lucky enough to catch it on tape.

The two guys at the end of the video then insisted we took their pictures... after people-watching a while longer, we headed back to Trench for a bit more of a dance before heading off. We tried a couple of other bars on our walk to Kitty's apartment but exorbitant cover charges put us off ($50, Spy Bar? Really?) and so we meandered on. Some random drunk asshole (who wasn't speaking English) kept trying to grope CC and I, until Kitty threatened that she was going to call the police on his ass. Thanks Mamma Kitty! A quick pit stop at Mickey D's for burgers to soak up the excess, a little bit of an uncomfortable giggle at a flasher on Queen St and then it was back to Kitty's apartment for a quick couple of hours sleep.
For sleeping on a tiny couch, I woke up the next morning feeling fantastic! Well as fantastic as you generally feel when you have sleep debt that can be measured by days rather than hours. The mission was then on to get back to Sky City where CC had parked her car the night before. Hobbling across town (not an easy mission if you've ever been in Auckland's CBD) looking like a pair of wild-haired hobos only for us to arrive at the carpark and CC to realise that this isn't where she parked her car. Two casino employees and about another 800m later, we find ourselves (and CCs car) in the Staff Carpark and finally head for home. One emergency stop on the side of the motorway for CC to hurl and for me to hop in the drivers seat and then we were both home, absolutely knackered but having had a wicked night.
Wasn't too keen on the races without my partner-in-crime, so I spent the day caffeinating myself and riding a sugar high before going to a birthday party last night. Pleased I wasn't the only one zombie-fied (although I still managed to not get home until eleven). Slept the sleep of the dead last night for almost 12 hours and now I'm amped to do it all over again! Roll on Girls' Night tomorrow.
Remember, Scribblettes - it's not what you are doing, but who you are with. Make 2009 a year of positive people and it's guaranteed to be great!