Living in the Future

Boasting that I live in the future is a nice perk that comes with residing on the other side of the planet. Currently, during daylight savings in New South Wales, when it is 12pm on Monday in Sydney, it is 8pm on Sunday in New York and 5pm on Sunday in Los Angeles. That’s a good 13-16 hour time difference; which is a lot of time if you really think about it and in my opinion affords me the opportunity to tell people that “I live in the future”. So this year on New Year’s, while most of my friends and family were sound asleep in dream land, Kate and I were heading to a New Year’s eve celebration that won't be forgotten.

Sydney definitely prides itself on its New Year’s celebration. The entire city becomes a part of the spectacle as the skyscrapers in the CBD (Central Business District), the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge erupts in fireworks. It is truly an impressive show, definitely top ten, one of the best that I have ever experienced. This was not my first year spending New Year’s in Sydney but it was the first year that I had the opportunity to experience the fireworks show on the Harbour (harbor in American) on a yacht. What a great way to bring in 2011...

The “super yacht” was incredible. Imagine a stylish 100 square meter house with a roof deck and a small gathering of friends on it. It was both relaxing and exciting. We arrived at the wharf at 6pm and took a cruise through the bright blue water of the Harbour. It was a perfect day, 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit or so; I am constantly using a conversion calculator), blue sky, and a perfect breeze that cooled us down. We travelled under the Anzac Bridge and the Harbour Bridge, past by the Opera House, looking at the crowds and crowds and more crowds of people who were camped out along the water (I am pretty sure that they were cursing at us as we sailed by).

The skipper anchored the boat in the middle of the Harbour as we cooked, ate dinner, enjoying Mojitos and Bellinis. At 9pm we sailed as close to the bridge as possible to watch the 9pm fireworks, which are really done for the kids. It’s like an appetizer (or entrée as it is referred to here) before the main course. 

At 8am in New York and 5am in Los Angles on December 31^st it was 2011 in Sydney, Australia. The firework show began at midnight and being in the Harbour made it all the more memorable. It was ironic that Jay Z’s song Empire State of Mind was playing at the stroke of midnight as we reveled in the Sydney Harbour fireworks. When the show ended the sea of boats in the water sounded their horns in unison for a consistent five minutes; a true nautical experience.  

Kate and I had a giggle the next day as we had to deal with the realities of both a hangover and the fact that our 108 parcels had arrived from New York (and our apartment was a disaster). So as our friends and family across the Unites States—from New York to Los Angeles—celebrated NYE, Kate and I trekked to Ikea to buy and then proceed to build storage devices for all our NYC belongings…