CURSE YOU OLYMPUS
Happy 2009, all!
After a slightly shakey start New Year's turned out to be fairly excellent.
However, my camera's memory card seized up and died- I have never hated the "Card Error" trill more- so ALL pictures are gone, of which (since I gave it to Des) there were well over a hundred, and most were gems. I felt sick.
If anyone's found any reliable image recovery software out there, please please give me a shout.
As a result, this post really has nothing to hold it together.
Anyway! We decided we'd go to Chris's party up by the Phoenix Park. After an icy wander across town, we arrived to an incredible house (I had never seen velvet iguana-patterned curtains before. Now my life is truly complete.) and that awkward early stage of proceedings where there's only a handful of people and nobody's settled yet. Us Youth banded together uncomfortably, and it was all starting to feel a bit upstairs-downstairs.. When Halo appeared, like it always seems to, I despaired altogether.
But then James, Aíbhlín, Kev, Kelan and Paul appeared and brought madness with them, and everything was sorted.
Midnight itself was a lovely mess. With three or four minutes to go, we wondered whether there would even be a countdown- until Declan flew into the room- "A tv- THANK GOD" and frantically sought out a countdown, any countdown, as the entire party poured into the room. We counted- "DON'T FORGET THE LEAP SECOND" and everyone went nicely mental and swarmed outside to communicate through "YAAAAY"s with nearby by parties and gawp at fireworks.
...Then realised it was FREEZING and shuffled back inside.
Completely forgot the whole kiss-at-midnight idea- the room was just too fiend-infested. Ahhh well!
There was much singing. A dancing-and-yelling-along circle formed in the half-dark kitchen: Love Shack, This Charming Man, Gold, etc etc. You haven't heard Let's Go Crazy (always with the Prince..) until you've had Declan grab your hand and declare passionately "IN THIS LIFE- YOU'RE ON YOUR OWN!!"
There was also Kevin and Andy's moving take on Nessun Dorma, which seems more and more inevitable the more I think about it.
Much general silliness. James rode Chris's bike around (also fairly inevitable) and Kevin managed to stuff Des, Declan and James into an alarmingly small cupboard by a clever ruse.
..Actually there was no clever ruse, he pretended Rufus from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (James) was "at the door" and had them go up and clink glasses and speak faux-Italian together, and then shoved the next victim in. They went surprisingly willingly, although there was much screaming once they were actually inside.
..And so it went on.
Almost best of all was the end: we took off to Kelan's house and slept in his various incredible spare beds as opposed to the hardwood floor.
His sister's cat, who is quite insane, was staying over too, which, predictably, made me very happy.
One day I will make a worthwhile entry.
After a slightly shakey start New Year's turned out to be fairly excellent.
However, my camera's memory card seized up and died- I have never hated the "Card Error" trill more- so ALL pictures are gone, of which (since I gave it to Des) there were well over a hundred, and most were gems. I felt sick.
If anyone's found any reliable image recovery software out there, please please give me a shout.
As a result, this post really has nothing to hold it together.
Anyway! We decided we'd go to Chris's party up by the Phoenix Park. After an icy wander across town, we arrived to an incredible house (I had never seen velvet iguana-patterned curtains before. Now my life is truly complete.) and that awkward early stage of proceedings where there's only a handful of people and nobody's settled yet. Us Youth banded together uncomfortably, and it was all starting to feel a bit upstairs-downstairs.. When Halo appeared, like it always seems to, I despaired altogether.
But then James, Aíbhlín, Kev, Kelan and Paul appeared and brought madness with them, and everything was sorted.
Midnight itself was a lovely mess. With three or four minutes to go, we wondered whether there would even be a countdown- until Declan flew into the room- "A tv- THANK GOD" and frantically sought out a countdown, any countdown, as the entire party poured into the room. We counted- "DON'T FORGET THE LEAP SECOND" and everyone went nicely mental and swarmed outside to communicate through "YAAAAY"s with nearby by parties and gawp at fireworks.
...Then realised it was FREEZING and shuffled back inside.
Completely forgot the whole kiss-at-midnight idea- the room was just too fiend-infested. Ahhh well!
There was much singing. A dancing-and-yelling-along circle formed in the half-dark kitchen: Love Shack, This Charming Man, Gold, etc etc. You haven't heard Let's Go Crazy (always with the Prince..) until you've had Declan grab your hand and declare passionately "IN THIS LIFE- YOU'RE ON YOUR OWN!!"
There was also Kevin and Andy's moving take on Nessun Dorma, which seems more and more inevitable the more I think about it.
Much general silliness. James rode Chris's bike around (also fairly inevitable) and Kevin managed to stuff Des, Declan and James into an alarmingly small cupboard by a clever ruse.
..Actually there was no clever ruse, he pretended Rufus from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (James) was "at the door" and had them go up and clink glasses and speak faux-Italian together, and then shoved the next victim in. They went surprisingly willingly, although there was much screaming once they were actually inside.
..And so it went on.
Almost best of all was the end: we took off to Kelan's house and slept in his various incredible spare beds as opposed to the hardwood floor.
His sister's cat, who is quite insane, was staying over too, which, predictably, made me very happy.
One day I will make a worthwhile entry.