New Year's Eve 2009: South Beach, Miami

Rising on New Year’s Eve, the boys were eager and excited for the night that waited in Miami. The day was one in which we could reflect on the past year and think about resolutions for 2009. These included getting fit, eating healthily and drinking less. Needless to say these were all immediately delayed for at least another month. It was also the day we welcomed our 5th celebrity roadtripper and our 9th overall – Mr David Prentice. Preno is a great mate of mine from Pius days, he now lives in New York and would be joining us for the next four days, as always it was good to see him again. While I battled the new year’s traffic to get to the airport, the boys hit the beach. There, Nick, Monty and Jez caught some rays and Wonders strutted his budgie smuggler/earring combo.

Meeting back at the hostel, and after a brief reintroduction, Preno and I headed to the beach, while the other boys commenced the day’s drinking over a game of cards. Upon our return, we found ourselves already surprisingly behind in the drinking stakes. New Years’ was looming to be large.

We went for a walk along Ocean Drive, which had now been completely reserved for pedestrians and had a feed and a beer at one of the many bars / restaurants. Our waitress was a young redhead who we suspected was from the UK. Wonders being the friendly socialite that he is, soon enquired to where exactly her accent was from, this was met with a surprised look and the response that she was born and raised in Seattle. Wonders probed further convinced that she must have an English parent. The reply to this was the she had formerly had a speech impediment and had undergone 5 years of speech pathology. As soon as she left earshot Wonders could be heard to say “well don’t I feel like a dickhead”. Great bloke. He was now displaying the attitude to match the earring.

We then planned the evening, which consisted of buying supplies for the night (ie alcohol) and deciding that the beach was our preferred way to spend New Years opposed to a club. The $200 party at Mansion, featuring Lindsay Lohan, did not seem good value given the battered states of our bank accounts and Cleland’s reconnaissance from the night before. We then went back to the hostel where we drank with our newly made friends and had the hostel supplied beans on rice with chicken for the second night in a row. Unfortunately Preno was unable to sample the dinner instead deciding to decorate the court yard with it, in a crowd silencing fall.

By 9, the group had swelled to consist of approximately 20 people representing 10 different nationalities*. Up to 11, amongst various banter and chat, various drinking games were played including “dance locomotion” and “Zumi Zumi”. At 11, we decided to get out and amongst the Miami crowd for New Years. Throughout South Beach (along Collins, Ocean Drive and the beach), the atmosphere was musical, vibrant and busy. This included organised fireworks on the beach, self-organised parties on the streets and long night club ques. Whilst enjoying the atmosphere, 12 o’clock quickly snuck upon us and the fireworks started to explode overhead. While wishing everyone Happy New Years we suddenly noticed that Jez was missing a mystery that would not be solved until several hours later.

The night continued with all of us spread between local bars, staying put on the beach and attempting to get into different night clubs. I am not sure how but it ended with us all recounting the nights stories in front of the hostel around 4 a.m. This included Monty deciding to decorate the hostel room with a pot plant and go swimming and Cleland losing his socks. Even Jez reappeared and informed us of his amazing night in which he made many new friends and extended his list of available accommodation in Europe. At this point we all went to bed agreeing it had been a great night.

Wishing you all the best for 2009

Carl

*Real talk: I soon found out that they also play “the game of life” ie push-ups for saying MINE, in Zimbabwe and South Africa. I learned this the hard way as one of the Zimbabwean blokes asked what the seagulls were saying in the movie “Finding Nemo”. My response of “mine, mine, mine, mine” resulted in 40 punishing and embarrassing push-ups.