A flashback...

On New Year’s Eve 1999 my blonde hair was streaked with blue and I was dripping. I was also somewhat anxious. I didn’t completely understand it, but I could pick up on the building anxiety of my parents and their friends as midnight beckoned ever closer. There was a hint of it behind their eyes when they smiled. It became harder to detect as empty wine bottles began to spring up all over the place, but it was still there. I wasn’t watching them all night, though. For most of the Eve I was busy trying to impress Amanda and Kelly by bagging/wrestling/competing with my younger brother Mark. It was fun and at the time it was all that really mattered to me. Next year I’d start school, become a teenager and get a Nintendo 64 – I knew these things, Y2K didn’t factor. Still, that night, for the first time in my life, I didn’t sleep.

We got to the Reed’s house at 6.30 for dinner. I probably ate some sausages and picked at my salad in a picky way. Mark probably did so in a lamer way. Kelly always made sure our drinks were refreshed. She was a really good host like that. In terms of monitoring our sugar intake on the other hand... Maybe not as good. Mark and I drank a fair amount of coke at the Reed’s place.

Upstairs the TV was always on. The four of us sat infront of it for a while, either playing car racing games or watching DVDs. We caught an erotic scene of an SBS movie late one night which was incredibly awkward. Mark probably didn’t get it though. The box helped pass the time somewhat, it must’ve been about 10.30 by the time we’d become sick of it (for the second time). We tried our hand at pool – Mark and Amanda v Kelly and I – but I don’t think we finished the game. Probably fluked three balls in over half an hour.

A tall person approached with blue hairspray so we grabbed towels and raced outside. Moments later I was looking at myself in a reflective window, thinking that blue really was more becoming on me than it was on Mark. Next we jumped in the spa. We played a game where one person hid two small discs somewhere in the spa and the person who didn’t find one lost. That person had to grab a nearby saucepan and wooden spoon (I’m not sure why they were nearby) and bang the two together as they walked a lap around the decking proclaiming that they were a loser.

We jumped out of the spa as adults approached with sparklers and party poppers.

FIVE! (Gee it’s cold...)

FOUR! (Hey Mark’s making a cool pattern with his sparkler. I should do a better one...)

THREE! (Dad looks really drunk...)

TWO! (I wonder if a plane will fall on us?)

ONE! (Is Amanda looking at me? Ooh, she is! Better smile)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

A couple of party poppers hesitantly popped and everyone paused. Nothing. Then: clonk! clonk! clonk! “Daaaaale’s a loserrrr, he smells baaaad”. Mark had gotten the saucepan and wooden spoon and was marching about like a drummer boy. And he was outplaying me. Touche Mark, touche, I probably thought. Amongst other things.

Eventually everyone got tired and found places to sleep. I’m not sure why I didn’t. I could put it down to deep contemplation about what might have happened, or I could put it down to drinking too much coke. Either way, I thought a lot that night. A lot of it was “this sucks, why am I not sleeping?”, but that wasn’t all. I think it was the first time that I took stock of where my life was at.

I’m glad it happened after the activity and general fun-ness of the night though. Kids that age shouldn’t have to think like that, they’d miss out on too much if they did.

Anyway, that was the night of December 31, 1999. When the world waited with baited breath and I was a kid with blue hair.

On January 1, 2000, I did a fair bit of sleeping.

Dale.