Covered in mosquito bites, slightly more brown than usual and finally rested, I am writing this from my living room, watching my brother play Red Dead Redemption (it looks awesome). However, a couple of days ago I was in Lake Eildon with "The Guys". Indeed, the first day of 2011 was spent nursing a roaring hangover and struggling (then failing) to keep my breakfast down while I dismantled my dusty tent.
Organised by Bob, and featuring an extended cast of pals and girlfriends and a lot of beer, the weekend was spent with the fifteen or so of us strewn over three campsites at Lake Eildon. I suppose that if the party that comes with the new year is a farewell bash for the year just gone, 2010 got a pretty good send-off. In fact, that should be my excuse for ending up the token drunken prat of the crew; I was just giving 2010 the farewell it deserved! After all, there's no denying that 2010 was a pretty huge year for me. It was filled with things and people and places. A few wins, some fails as well.
I can't say I like the idea of trying to sum up 365 days in one concise blog post. I just think that anything I try to write here wouldn't do the year just behind me any sort of justice. In short though, these are some things I did:
- I emerged from the haze of university with a degree but not a clue.
- So, I continued interning at Portable. That meant I worked on a fashion film showcase to coincide with the 2010 L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival. I acquired films, I emailed directors, I dealt with rude record company types. It was hard work, but it was immensely rewarding.
- I started a job in which I invaded peoples' homes and convinced them to leave their electricity billing company and join the one I worked for. It was a completely absurd place to work, but I am bolder and more confident for it.
- I got off my red Ps and now I'm on my green Ps. Most of my friends are on their full licenses. Better late than never!
- I only let myself go to about three gigs during the entire year. It was painful. But I saved money, and that is a good thing.
- What did I do with the money I saved? I went to Europe. It was amazing.
- I acquired a bit more confidence in myself, I found that I'm quite resourceful, and that I'm an Interesting Person. Thanks, Europe.
- I also gained a shit-tonne of weight thanks to the copious food and beer selections available in Europe. Europe, get effed.
- I had a few European flings. They were both fun and educational.
- I tried my hand a couple of times at having A Relationship throughout the year, to varying levels of success. What did I learn? That I can Get What I Want, but mostly, that I prefer smartass, cynical nerds over conventional, nice boys. Also, that there is a lot to be said for having common interests.
- I saw a lot of good movies.
- I edited some videos for Underground Cinema.
- I adjusted to having my two best friends many hundreds of kilometers away from me.
- I started blogging.
- I made some new friends, a lost contact with some old ones. Mostly though, a good year for friends, and fun with said friends.
- I finally read the Harry Potter series.
Anyway. As I only took a plastic camera I got for Christmas on the trip, all photographic evidence of Eildon exploits will be a few days away. At any rate, I have a sneaking suspicion a large number of the photos will be incredibly blurry or underexposed or just plain...bad. But them's the breaks I guess, if you go on a camping trip with many boys.
I had never been to Eildon before, but I'd heard it's quite pretty. Which it is. We swam in the lake, we took the boat (that stopped working) out in the water, then quickly brought it back out and carried on swimming. We chatted, hung out, drank beer. I barely wore shoes the entire weekend. I discovered bugs don't bother me nearly as much as they used to. I had a fantastic time with the guys. In fact, we played Wizards. Wizards is a game played with cans of alcohol, in which one duct tapes every new can one drinks on top of the old cans. So, after a few cans of beer, one is in possession of a slowly growing wizard staff.
I am a level 12 wizard.
Unfortunately, I am also a bit of a twat. A twat who needs to re-learn when to stop and accept that the wizard staff should not grow any taller. I have a vague recollection of the countdown (we were by the lake?), I remember trying to call Mitts (there was no reception), I remember not being able to find the zip for my tent (I then began to panic), then I remember stumbling around for a while. Apparently I was also yelling about a lost torch, and apparently I punched Dave in the sternum twenty seconds into 2011. A good start.
I woke up with the sun beating into my open-zipped tent, with a spinning head and a body completely bitten by assorted insects. I emerged, bleary-eyed into the sunshine and staggered to the toilet block. "Heyyyy!" waved some of our neighbouring campers with a knowing grin. "Oh god..." was my only thought. Enough of a prat to incite laughter from the neighbours? Good form. Very quickly into the morning Tim explained to the others exactly how annoying my lost torch lamentations had been. I put on my sunnies and felt sorry for myself. But then I thought of how much fun everything that weekend had been leading up to my wizard-ing failure and felt little better about myself.
Then we drove home, and I staggered into the house, exhausted and covered in a layer of dirt. As I finally clambered into the shower, it somewhat occurred to me that 2010 was over, and 2011 had just begun. I won't make any New Year's Resolutions. That seems somewhat lame. I will say though, that I'm tentatively optimistic about the century reaching adolescence. Watch this space, we'll soon see.
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