New Years

Well its now 2010. I hope everyone had a fun, safe, new years.

Little change up on the island here. We had three of our good mates bolt after an 'incident' occurred last weekend. Two of the bartenders and one of our cooks. Sad to see them leave, cause they sure as hell were great blokes. But even worse news is now the island is down all bar staff and a cook. Sooo what happens??

Insert the golden child: yours truly. I obviously showed the owners and management that I was capable of running the cafe' and more...so they gave me the grand responsibly of running the bar, including the exciting games I will organize for the guests. So something new and exciting I get to take on. Bad news is that I now had to work New Years. I wasn't too upset, though it wasn't quite how I planned to spent it. Yea, working on new years did have its draw backs, but I undoubtedly managed to create my own fun. The bar was as crowded as I've ever seen it, with a DJ pumping some classic Aussie dance tunes. The drinks were flowing and everyone was in good spirits. The night went on without a hitch. (I'd like to think that was due to my intangible bar managing skills) And after my 15 hour day of working and getting out of the bar at 3am, my night wasn't over.

New Years is a time of celebrating and spending some time with Jim (Beam). He was my only southern American gentleman around, so I hung out with him all evening (including Christmas, which is another story in itself). He even convinced me to watch the first sun rise of 2010. It wasn't as glamours as it could have been because of the overcast sky's and the limited view from our room.

"Why not get a closer look on the Jetty?"
"...while we're there, lets take a dip."

So we did, all 5 of us took the hike down the long jetty to get a great overcast view of our 2010 sun.

It was low tide, which means the water level was about 5 metres lower than normal. The jetty is a large one, it regularly sits at least 4 metres above the water during high tide. So here we are, celebrating new years in 2010 on a jetty off the coast of Australia. We had to jump in. The roughly 10 metre high jump looked intimidating at first...

"Do a flip off the jetty.." Someone encouraged. "Too easy" I said, "...I'll do a running back-flip".

My flaming ego was rawring so loudly that I even thought just a simple feet first jump would be lacking in excitement, I HAD to do a 'running back flip'. 10 metres off the water...there wasn't a possibility I couldn't make the flip. (Seeing how we do standing flips into the pool all the time).

I'm brave, I'm a big tough guy, I'll jump in the water after talking it up for the past hour. I couldn't turn back, but the thought of jelly fish and feeding sharks were rushing through my noggin. Please don't let there be a jelly fish or shark under me, just waiting on me.

Here I go, please no jelly fish please no jelly fish please no jelly fish...I get a 3 metre head start run. I'm blazing up the boards on the jetty with my Reggie Bush speed, I start my leap...yet as my right foot is the last to leave the jetty, my right toes punt the wooden curb of the structure. When I say punt, I mean a full forced 'David Beckham kick' to the curb while attempting my running back flip.

Immediate pain ran to me and I yell out falling 10 metres down...did I at least make the flip?? No..the momentum of the kicked curb absolutely 'Newton lawed' my body into a facing-the-sky back flop into the ocean. Boy was I in pain, my back was lobster red, my toes were bleeding, and my pride was severely damaged. I immediately hobbled my carnaged body straight to bed.

So as I'm writing this now my toes haven't stopped oozing a bloody mixture... and one of them resembles that of a boiled peanut. I'm walking like an 80 year old man with 4 hip surgery's.

Last night I took a moment to think about what I did for new years in the past, and boy, this one will be fresh every time I put on my shoes for the next couple weeks.