{"id":193,"date":"2005-12-31T11:20:57","date_gmt":"2005-12-31T11:20:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php\/2005\/12\/31\/new_years_eve_a\/"},"modified":"2005-12-31T11:20:57","modified_gmt":"2005-12-31T11:20:57","slug":"new_years_eve_a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/?p=193","title":{"rendered":"New Year’s Eve at Anglesea"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Updated 8\/1\/06]<\/em><\/p>\n

8am<\/h3>\n

It feels like it is going to be quite a warm day. I head out for my walk
\nabout 8:20.<\/p>\n

9am<\/h3>\n

I’m walking along the main beach and the wind has freshened up from the South
\nand is quite cool. There are also threatening dark clouds inland. I wonder
\nwhat the weather is going to do today.<\/p>\n

The South end of the main beach is where you see most of the surfers and
\nlife saving surf ski riders. I was watching a young woman riding a wave in
\nand how comfortable she was with her ski. It was like watching an accomplished
\nhorse rider and her horse. Just as she finished riding the wave she jumped
\nup and put her legs over the sides, moving her body to control the direction
\nof the ski until she was ready to turn it around again. Then I noticed that
\nthere were about four or five girls all on surf skis. All equally comfortable
\nwith the water. When the last one came in on a wave, they all turned their
\nskis around, jumped up on their knees and paddled out again. It’s great to
\nsee a group of girls. The surf is dominated by packs of male surfers.<\/p>\n

11:30am<\/h3>\n

Most of the dark clouds have gone now and although there are still clouds
\naround, it is getting warmer.<\/p>\n

12:30 pm<\/h3>\n

It’s getting sunnier, and the breeze has moderated but it’s still quite cool
\nin the shade. The weather bureau is predicting 42 for Melbourne today with
\na change that will drop the temperature by 10 degrees in 10 minutes. That’s
\nMelbourne for you.<\/p>\n

We have come down to The Surfing Albatross<\/a> [Yes I know
\nthe link doesn’t work – I’ll fix it when I get a chance. I’m on holidays for
\ngoodness sake. I’m allowed to have broken links].<\/em> As always they are
\ntaking forever to make coffees. The people behind us left after waiting half
\nan hour. I got my long black after five minutes but I think that was a mistake.
\nIt was meant for someone else.<\/p>\n

Karen<\/a> [another broken link – just be patient, I’ll fix it as soon as
\nI can*]<\/em>, the new owner, is doing her best but the staff are all new and
\ninexperienced. Karen is also doing a great Cougar Girl impersonation. When
\nwe finally got our coffees she served us. She had her mobile phone stuck between
\nher boobs. Not too many people I know would be happy to do that.<\/p>\n

When I tell people I’m going to Anglesea for summer holiday, many of them
\ntell me how nice it is down here but they prefer to come when it is not so
\nbusy. I love it when it’s busy. There is a fantastic buz around the place
\ntoday being NYE. This must be the busiest day of the year for Anglesea.There
\nare people everywhere. Being a nice day, everyone is dressed for the weather
\nin bright colours with lots of shorts, t-shirts and singlet tops. The buzz
\nis fantastic. I love it.<\/p>\n

2:30 pm<\/h3>\n

Down to the beach. It is sunny but not too hot. A lovely afternoon with people
\nreally enjoying the beach weather. Colour was everywhere. People lying on
\ntowels all over the beach, people frolicking in the waves. Lots of people
\nplaying Cricket and other ball games while others just walked lazily along
\nthe shore line. It is incredibly envigorating and relaxing to see so many
\npeople enjoying themselves.<\/p>\n

3:30 pm<\/h3>\n

A significant change came over Anglesea between 3:30 and 4:00 pm. At first
\nit was just a few brief periods where the sun went behind a cloud and it was
\nquite a bit cooler. But soon the whole sky became overcast and the temperature
\ndropped a few degrees. The atmosphere on the beach changed quite rapidly as
\nwell. People stopped sun baking and put t-shirts or other tops on. At first
\nthe change was sublte but then became quite obvious. One by one, groups of
\npeople packed up and left the beach. Those that were left were huddled up
\ninto groups rather than lazing on the beach. It was amazing to see such a
\nchange in such a short time.<\/p>\n

I did some body surfing, Judy met me at 4:30 and we walked for half an hour
\nbefore heading back to the house.<\/p>\n

6:30 pm<\/h3>\n

It’s just started raining. Quite gently just now. I wonder wether it will
\ndevelop into something more. So far the shower lasted only a few minutes and
\nit is fine now.<\/p>\n

10:30 pm<\/h3>\n

The rain didn’t amount to anything and it is now a pleasantly warm evening.
\nJudy and I are having a quiet one as we do most New Year’s. We watched Polar
\nExpress<\/em><\/a> which was a bit of fun and perhaps just a little more. We
\nnow have just over an hour left of 2005. It is a year we will be happy enough
\nto leave behind. Not the worst year of our lives by any stretch of the imagination
\nbut a tiring year. Stressfull for Judy and a year of transition for me. We
\nhave our hopes for the new year and we are both taking a leap of faith. What,
\nI wonder, will happen?<\/p>\n

Midnight<\/h3>\n

It was amazingly quiet at midnight in our street. For a moment I thought
\nour clocks must be wrong. I walked down the street to go down to the river
\nand I heard the people on the corner counting down that last seconds to midnight.
\nYep, the New Year has arrived. It was a really balmy night. It felt like the
\ntemperature hadn’t changed since 6pm. I walked all the way down to the beach
\nsaying Happy New Year to shapes in the dark. It was just beautiful. A great
\nplace for some brief reflection. Just to stand at midnight on a moonless night
\nand look at the ocean. A profound experience. I’ve never done that before.<\/p>\n

[* Regarding broken links, I have two problems. One, my server went down
\na couple of weeks ago and I haven’t set up all my blogs on the new server
\nyet. So I can’t link to my photoblog or my Melbourne blog – they aren’t there
\nyet. Second, I’m doing most of the posting through my mobile phone. I don’t
\nwant to upload photos from the phone because it would cost a lot. So please
\nbe patient. The links will be fixed sometime.]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Updated 8\/1\/06] 8am It feels like it is going to be quite a warm day. I head out for my walk about 8:20. 9am I’m walking along the main beach and the wind has freshened up from the South and is quite cool. There are also threatening dark clouds inland. I wonder what the weather […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}