New Years Eve/Sydney, day 7

Tonight is the big New Years Eve fireworks show and Sydney is already buzzing. There's about 25 or more designated areas around town with views of the harbour that are already filling up. Each area has a maximum crowd size and once it's full, they don't let anyone else in. So some places fill by noon; others don't max out till 3. But the overall message is: Get your spot early!

As a consequence, we head to the Royal Botanic Gardens right away, minus a few digressions to look at restaurant menus. (Curt's still hoping to find a Salade Nicoise. What has gotten in to that guy?) The streets are already barricaded and our bags are searched multiple times. It's OK to bring alcohol, just as long as there's no glass bottles. Instead, people bring plenty of beer in cans & wine in boxes, along with a picnic basket full of food, and some blankets or beach towels. Fortunately. we're armed with our Aussie beach towel (purchased yesterday in Manly) covered with a pattern of road signs saying Watch Out for Kangaroos and Wombats Ahead. (see the photo of me sitting on said beach towel) We should blend right in.

We arrive about 1:00, which means we'll be here for the next 11 hours. We're sitting in almost the exact same spot where Curt sat to do his sketch of the bridge on Tuesday. That day, the grass was deserted except for 2 ibis birds who kept coming over to inspect Curt's progress. Today, the same grass is covered with blankets and towels and bodies. Not surprisingly, the ibis seem to have retreated to the depths of the park, away from the lively partiers.

Some of the more experienced people remember to bring a deck of cards and one couple behind us even bring a Scrabble game, which we covet. Curt LOVES to play Scrabble, and he and Byron have become experts to the point that they know all sorts of obscure words, such as ut and qat (would you believe that ut is the old word for do in the musical scale do-re-mi?) The only problem is that Curt's such a ruthless Scrabble player that I don't play with him very often because I end up in tears about half the time. We contemplate challenging the couple behind us to a game of Scrabble, but I feel it would be rather unfair of Curt to ask to play with them, and then beat the pants off them.

We bring along some snacks for the duration, but there are also food stalls available selling things like coffee, chips (French fries), ice cream, hot dogs, and other equally unhealthy options. The whole operation is amazingly well-organized with security, porta-loos, and rubbish patrol. There are 2 wheelie bins every 25 yards - one for rubbish and one for recycling. A few event staffers walk around offering rubbish bags and people periodically get up to take a load of beer cans to the recycle bin. Remarkably, throughout the afternoon and evening I hear people calling out things like "Hey Andrew, want me take your beer cans with me? I'm on the way." If there is such a thing as 7,000 polite drinkers in one spot, this is it. I am astounded at how well organized it is and by how well behaved everyone is. Nobody is too loud or boisterous and everyone seems to respect others' right to enjoy themselves. This goes on for the next 10 hours!

Most of the time, we feel like the only people over 30 in the crowd, but eventually a man (45ish) with 3 kids (10, 12, 18) settles near us and we strike up a conversation. He credits the authorities' excellent organisation skills with the experience learned by hosting the Olympics. It's nice to talk to him for a while because by this time, we've been here for 5 hours and I can only read, write, or do sudoku for so long before I go stir crazy. Plus my butt hurts from sitting on the hard ground. I'm really too old for this kind of thing.

One thing that surprises me is how many people in the crowd bring books to read. Most of the people here are in their 20s and are spending a lot of time on their cell phone, flirting, drinking, smoking, or giggling. It's hardly the type I would expect to be reading. But there they are, all over the place, buried in a book. Out of each group of 8-10 people, 3 or 4 will be reading. I can't imagine finding a significant proportion of American young people reading at a big drinking party/event.

Whenever Curt and I get bored, we just watch the people around us:
• Meet the Cuddly Couple, in their late 20s, who nap on the blanket while she gently caresses his cheek.
• There's also the Drunk Wife, about 25, who first catches our attention as she loudly tells the story of how her husband almost didn't marry her for some reason. She manages to get totally plastered soon after we arrive so we start placing bets on how long she'll last. There's no way she'll make it until midnight! I'm guessing she'll be out by 6:30.
• And there's Drunk Wife's Husband, who doesn't seem nearly as drunk as her (but makes up for it later).
• Behind us we have a young man with a Golden Voice. I have no idea what he looks like, but with his deep baritone voice and his accent, he really should become a newscaster. As the night progresses, I learn his entire life story - how his parents divorced, etc. But what he seems to be the most proud of was that he "shagged Lisa in the shower" which he repeats a number of times at great volume. We don't believe his claim for a minute. It seems like he has more imagination than facts.

At 9:00 there is a 10-minute fireworks show for the children, so they can go home and go to bed at a reasonable time, I guess. There's still 3 more hours of steady alcohol consumption left until the big show. But about 11:00, the nice man in front of us and his 3 kids depart. I think the kids are running out of patience. The youngest has been wrestling and rolling around for hours, while the middle one plays with her cell phone.

As soon as this family leaves, their space is inhabited by a group who proceed to take pictures of themselves in all possible combinations. Curiously, one guy in the group has a really squeaky, nasal voice like Owen Meany in John Irving's book. A Prayer for Owen Meany is undoubtedly my favourite book; it's the only book I ever read from cover to cover ... and when I reached the end, I immediately read it from cover to cover again. In the book, Owen's growth was stunted and his voice was high-pitched and grating, so Irving always wrote Owen's dialogue in upper case such as "I DON'T KNOW WHY YOU WON'T COME OUT AND PLAY WITH ME, JOHN." As I read it, I could clearly hear a voice in my head that represented Owen's shrill delivery, and the guy who was now sitting in front of us seemed to personify it perfectly. Thank goodness they don't arrive until 11:00 because it would have been excruciating to endure it the entire time.

My prediction about Drunk Wife is turning out to be dead wrong - she remains totally plastered, but not passed out. She's been in this state for almost 10 hours so far. Now that's endurance. Drunk Wife's Husband keeps stumbling over Owen Meany's tripod so he wisely moves it to the other side. Meanwhile, Golden Voice is making good progress with the girl he was telling his life story to. Cuddly Couple light some incense which makes it smell like 1970 all over again. Drunk Wife's group is British, not Aussie, and they start singing (drunkenly of course) O Britannia, but they don't know any words other than "O" and "Britannia." So they switch to something about "... I know I am, I'm sure I am, I'm England till I die." Over and over. (Remember how I said that nobody is too loud or boisterous for the next 10 hours? It was during the 11th hour that people truly hit their stride.) It doesn't really seem like a good idea to start singing raucous British identity songs when you're vastly outnumbered by Australians, though. I was half expecting the other 6,990 people to counter with a blazing round of Waltzing Matilda to drown out the Brits. But they appear more bemused than anything, and manage to resist singing a reply, perhaps assuming that the Brits will get bored of singing the same 2 lines and will move on eventually. Meanwhile, this seems like a good time for me to make a trip to the porta-loos. When I return, everyone seems to have mercifully gotten over their urge to sing.

FInally, it was time for the fireworks to start. The organisers spread out the pyrotechnics around the harbour so different areas could all have a view. It starts with a big display off the bridge. It moves to a couple different spots, east of the bridge and west of the bridge. There are even fireworks exploding behind us from the tops of the skyscrapers in the city which worries me a little because it makes it look like all the skyscrapers are on fire. They explode some by the opera house, then back to the bridge and during the big finale, things are blowing up all over.

Here's Curt's impression of the evening - " If I had to sum it up in a few words, it would be: cell phones, cigarettes, boobs and booze. Boobs has a double meaning - in addition to the idiot factor fueled by alcohol, about 80% of the young women were falling out of their tops. It's a fashion trend."