For NYE, two friends and I decided we will forgo the mobs, the hours and hours of walking and waiting (and walking some more), and general stench of alcohol drifting across the CBD. We had a cook-in/movie night instead.

About halfway in the night we were getting calls to come out to the city and join a party. With the road closures and blind-drunk mortals covering the roads, driving there was not an option unless one wanted to recreate scenes from their "Worst Moments Of Asian Holidays".

This set off about an hour's worth of to-ing and fro-ing and general indecisiveness. Contrary to first impressions, we were not simply being old fuddy-duddies. We did actually find the partying aspect appealing. We also thought that maybe one of our friends kept asking us to come out as a subtle way of signalling for rescue away from relatives. We were prepared to do that as well. But the subsequent troubles in getting home was a big concern.

Public transport is only acceptable if you also like having someone's vomit on you. Taxi drivers are price-gouging hyenas, the stench of desperation in the streets sending them into a laughing frenzy as they extort upfront payments of 10 times (or more) the normal trip fare. No thanks. Given it was at least a 45-minute walk, and the risk of thunderstorms looming, we decided to stay home, instead choosing to watch the fireworks from the street five minutes away.

It didn't rain a drop.

Nonetheless, we managed to have a good time. The food came out well and the movies weren't too bad. We certainly did not miss the jostling and the lengthy tiring walks. Resolutions to do more exercise in 2007 were quickly made.

SHAMELESS PLUG

I love Singstar and Buzz on the Sony Playstation 2. We played them at my cousins' place after the New Year family lunch. Nothing brings people together better than competition. Establishing once and for all who is the smartest in the pack was very satisfying (it was me, not that it was in any doubt). And singing along to the video clips of the songs is far, far better than normal karaoke, where you normally sing along to some retarded 80's romance clip populated by ugly people with really bad hair and extremely unbearable acting "skills". Of course, the clip doesn't help your singing prowess in any way.


We could easily do away with the contrived drama, idiotic judges and general ineptitude of Australian Idol by just letting all wannabes compete on Singstar. Let the totally objective and finely calibrated computer chip decide who is the best ("best" being a relative term; s/he may still be utter crappe`, excuse my French). Anything that gets rid of Mark Holden and Kyle Sandilands can only be a good thing. Sorry Marcia.