I can’t get family to visit me. It’s not my hospitality. My partner and I are renowned hosts. We have a spare room always on the ready and a bevy of activities for newcomers and old hands alike.
What keeps family away is the journey. From the East Coast of the USA to Sydney is approximately 24 hours travel time (perhaps longer with the new security measures going into place). There’s the flight to LAX which is really a warm-up act to the 14.5 hour flight to Sydney (six movies! four meals!).
When you come to Australia you fly over the International Date Line. If you leave on a Monday you arrive on a Wednesday. What happened to Tuesday? Hell if I know. I think you lose it – forever. (Apparently you get it back when you fly to the USA as your plane lands in LAX several hours before your take-off time/day in Sydney.
Go figure.
Tonight is a lot like flying across the date line. With the tick of a clock hand we say farewell to a year – and a decade. Time Magazine called it the “Decade from Hell”. Reflect back. Enron, September 11, Paris Hilton, Lehman Brothers, George Bush (twice). Won’t go down as my favourite years.
New Year’s Eve is a bit like an Etch-A-Sketch or absolution after confession. Your slate is clean and you get to start again. Fresh starts! New thinking! Changes to the old me!
To me it’s like a flight across the Date Line. It all seems slightly artificial. I won’t drop 5 kilos tonight or have a refreshed bank balance. I’ll wake tomorrow in the same bed with the same family. And that’s really, really okay by me. It’s good.
What tonight is good for is promoting Australia. As New Yorkers freeze in winter we’ll showcase our beautiful city and its amazing displays of fireworks.
Get ready world – Sydney gets to dash first into the new year and the new decade. Feel free to follow!
