and so it begins

I am a firm believer of how you spend New Years Eve determines how you spend the rest of the year.

Call it superstitious or stupid or whatever, but it makes me happy and that's all that matters. Let's look back at the last few years and see how it plays out...

2011

I faced spending NYE as the third wheel to my friend and her boyfriend in Berlin and thereby being awkwardly alone under the Brandenburger Tor in snow with broken wellies, frozen feet and generally feeling miserable. Instead I ditched them and went back to London to spend a great night singing Barbara Streisand, making emu hands and generally having a good time. 

In London welcoming in 2011

2011 subsequently was spent making my own decisions despite what other people felt or may have wanted, moving back to Melbourne and then on to Perth, starting my first Masters degree and generally having a good time. 

2012
I spent a lovely, quiet evening with people [who are now rather good friends], eating, drinking and blowing up things. 

We won $40 with this lottery ticket

2012 was then spent getting to know these people more, making great new friends, getting myself into a great relationship, working hard on my first Masters and generally figuring out who I was and where I was going. 

2013
I spent in Melbourne with my then boyfriend and rather disappointingly we couldn't really see the fireworks, we didn't kiss at midnight and overall it was a shoddy night. 

[I don't have any photos of this night because either a) we didn't take any or b) I deleted them all when we broke up]

It's no surprise then that in 2013 we broke up, I had a really tough year doing two Masters degrees (I brought that upon myself really), I wondered who I am, whether I actually was listening to what God has planned for my life, where mistakes were made, and whilst there were some amazing times, overall 2013 was a shoddy year and I'm glad it's over. 

SO... going in to 2014, how did I see in the New Year? 

In a bar in the West Village of New York City with my amazing little brother and a whole bunch of other Aussie travelers we met at our hostel, drinking and kissing randoms and laughing so much and I don't really remember much after midnight other than the next morning I was disasterously sick, but in hindsight whilst I had a hangover I also had the flu (yes, the FLU, not some stupid cold, the actual flu. No, it's not laboratory confirmed, but trust me, it was the flu) which meant I spent the first day of the year relaxing in bed. 

Gotta love the cheesy hats!

Good to see I still have the hat on!

Here's to a fantastic 2014 - to making new friends, to working my ass off finishing my second Masters degree, to getting at least three articles published, to kissing, to drinking and to being merry.