It was 10:30pm. Drink in hand, friend sitting across from me. Happily surrendering to the fact that this bar and this table is where we would most likely be ringing in the New Year.
10 Hours earlier…
I wanted to go out on an adventure and see how it would all unfold. I wanted to let life lead the way and show me the adventure that was meant for me, just as I wished for the new year to come. In true aligned luck, my friend had similar ideas. We agreed to meet at her house in Bondi, have some champagne and see where the night would lead.
Maybe it’s the romantic in me, but I love the magic of New Year’s. It’s this unique space in time where one chapter is closing and a new one is beginning. It feels like we’re suspended and that within the unknown of the year to come, anything is possible.
As I arrived at her house, we drank champagne, danced to Missy Elliot and my friend read out our tarot cards for the year. We only got through to March when our eagerness to get out and explore was calling. We put on our shoes, headed out the door and into the night of the unknown. With the majority of the city out near the harbour, we had Bondi to ourselves. We walked around, past the beach, looking up at the ocean and stars. We headed to one of our local bars to find that it had reached capacity. We shrugged it off, continued on and tried our luck at the second bar. This time I was starved, and the second bar didn’t have any food. We walked around the corner to the third bar.
Which brings us to 10:30pm.
Drinks in hand, table situated. This is where we could be ringing in the New Year. But not so fast, we still had that magic feeling in our bellies. The feeling of the unknown, the feeling of adventure. We walked out of two different bars in order to be at that bar, at that table, at that time.
Just as we started to settle in, a guy walked into the front of the bar and stood next to us. He made small talk about the food there and asked us if we would be counting down to Midnight there. We told him that it was a possibility, but that chances are we’d end up at the beach. He told us that him and his friends decided to have a last-minute party at his new apartment and that they were each sent out to find people to attend. He said they had met the most amazing, random people throughout the night; people from London, New York, and Sydney. He told us that it was his turn to invite people to the party, and asked if we wanted to go.
A random person that we had never met before? Asking us to go to a random house party full of people we’ve never met? My friend and I looked at each other; our eyes told each other that were in.
We finished our drinks slowly, subtly (not so subtly), interrogating the guy.
It was close to 11:30pm by then and we walked to the party. In my head it was going to be like a random college party. Pretty cramped, red cups, watching the fireworks on TV. I was ready for anything.
We walked through the door of the party, and walked into a penthouse. On one side was the ocean and on the other side you could see the harbour where the fireworks would go off in just 10, 9, 8, 7… we screamed and ran outside. 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 1! The Sydney fireworks went off and we had the perfect view point.
We cheered and hugged the other guests. Almost every guest there had never met as they too were recruited to come to ‘The most random NYE party ever’. As I looked out into the fireworks, I smiled. I had trusted in the adventure of the unknown, and that’s what we were given.
