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1) No cover charge
2) Slightly lower chance of being involved in a brawl
3) Slightly lower chance of attracting unwanted sexual behaviour
4) No lining up for drinks. Just reach for your esky
5) Not necessary to yell yourself hoarse trying to be heard over the raucous music of some cheesy nightclub
6) No lining up for toilets. As you can see by the photo above, there are plenty of trees to choose from just down the steps
7) Seemingly limitless food and beer. Everyone brings extra in case someone else runs out, resulting in a huge glut which you will spend the evening trying to minimize.
8) You get to celebrate the coming of a new year with the people you want to be with, and not with hundreds of thousands of other idiots
9) It gives you and your friends something to talk about over the coming twelve months
10) At midnight, you can just get in your cars and go home, cause the sheilas will hopefully be sober enough to drive!
Below, we have Cosmo demonstrating to Zombie his unique method of turning the sausages with the use of a pair of thongs.
Eddie wanted to secure a year of good luck in 2006 by eating twelve grapes at midnight, as is the Spanish tradition.
Click on the small pics above to view full sized photographs
The day before New Years Eve, I managed to catch up with someone who was a very important character in the early history of The Savage Files. Andrew Ivamy from SDQ Designs, was the guy who helped me to sort out some of the early problems I had with HTML coding. I'm still no computer genius, but without Andrew's help there would have been a lot more sleepless nights as I tried to get my head around this new world of technology that I plunged myself into.
MARIA'S ADDENDUM...
HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!!! Isn't having a barbecue an original way to celebrate the new year? At least, it is for me. In Spain we eat a huge dinner with our families or friends keeping in mind that at 12 o'clock we will have to eat the twelve grapes that will give us luck for the coming twelve months. And it is then when the party starts for us. Well, mostly if you are young and have the energy to be out in the cold, otherwise you will stay home, eating and drinking until the early hours of the morning. But when I say early, I mean real early: 6 or 7 o'clock, when someone will be designated to go in search of churros (a typical Spanish fried dough at its best dipped in thick chocolate). It is funny the different conception of hours we have. When we have guests staying with us, Steve will arrange to meet at mid morning on a Sunday. I have learnt by now that mid morning for a non-Spanish (I'm not allowed to say "guiri") is 9.00 am. However, for a Spaniard mid morning is around 12.00, and meeting up with anyone before that time is not permitted by the Spanish law.
Anyway, the barbecue was a success. Again Steve is telling me what to write, so I have to say that it is not that Australians don't party on New Year's Eve, it is that they start earlier and, consequently, finish earlier as well. We were at the barbecue at 3 pm, loaded with enough food and drinks to feed a whole army, probably thinking we were the only ones bringing food. But everyone brought enough food for everyone else, so 2 days later we will be still eating leftovers. And the party went on and on while the beer, wine and food disappeared until it was 12 o'clock and everyone wished a happy new year to everyone else and went home. Guys, the night is young and the party starts now!!!
Whatever, we all had a great time and it is fantastic to start a new year without having to worry about what the weather will be like when you are elected to go searching for churros.