Great Expectations

---

So....2009 years since the birth of our lord Jesus Christ...WOW, thats a long time...approximately 106 477 weeks....5 weeks (time I´ve been away) doesn´t seem all that much in comparison.

...........But the s**t I´ve done!!!

So...I think we´re up to NYE...Sorry for the lack of input lately, but if anyone has seen my facebook, they´d have realised that although I´m planning on not getting stressed out this year, Windows XP Brazilian edition V 3.002 is seriously doing a good job at grinding my gears!!! At the minute, I´m actually on a computer in what´s suppost to be the third poorest country in the world (Bolivia) and this is the fastest connection I´ve had since I left bonny 122 Duncrue Street - Belfast Docklands!
So yeah...

Rio ( take 2)

North of Brazil....We´re done with you and your heat and pretty women! 3 tickets please to sit on a coach for 50 hours and get back to the capital for a bit more fun and frollix because apparently we didn´t have enough fun the first time!

My NYE consisted of Beer, Sand, Sunburn and 4 o clock the next day....O and a wee bit of the time of my LIFE life thrown in there too for a nice wee concoxtion!!!! But, lets start from the start...please read on:-

This time, we were staying in a hostel a wee bit further away from copa because we thought we were getting it cheap, but you know what they say - always read the brazilian smallprint! Turned out to be a cool relaxed wee place anyway so happy enough... (considering the place we originally stayed in ahd upped their price from 29 Realis to 145 Realis a night for the New year season!!!) And the difference a month makes. We hit the beach the day before new year and it was buzzing...You couldn´´t move. Half of BRazil and the rest of the world had all of a sudden decended on Copacabana beach, and because theyd erected a monstrousity of a stage, there wasnt even the same amount of room!

The night started off quite funny to tell you the truth. We´d flown half way across the world to spend a New Year never to forget. One of the most famous in fact, but alike all New Years, they have an element that suggests perhaps a letdown...The glass is always half full I say, and if not get the barman to bloody well top it up!. So it kicked off at 10 o clock when we were suppost to meet our Aussie pick up lockie ( as he was staying in a different hostel)...he never turned up. So Rob and I were hanging around for the guts of a good hour waiting for him...nice nice nice...time is a tick tock clocking away...another beer sitting on the wall - why not. Eventually aul lockster appears and our hearts suddenly started beating again....lets get them beating faster - TEQUILA TEQUILA TEQUILA! yum yum yum, and more beer. What now. BEACH? o shit I´ve just got everything wet...Robs fags, my baccy ...hmmmm. So off we dandered back through the neverending crazy crowd...All that we´d seemed to had done since 10 o clock was everything but sit back and enjoy the moment. We were on Copacabana beach for god sake...I think what we were looking for was someone to come and slap us around the face and tell us to wise up! And they did....eventually!

It was about 11 45 and we had somewghow managed to find ourselves back on the road at the top of the beach with the fireworks about to start in the middle of the sea. Pretty much guaranteed, wrong place at the wrong time situation...well for where we wanted to be anyway! So Mr Rob, (the wise man that he is) turns round and says...´lads, f**k this, lets get onto that beach now and start a new fresh page, get this s**t outta our heads and enjoy this! ´.....So....troops gathered, battle gear on, burnsie up front leading the pack in quite a military squadronesque manner...knocking down kids, trampling on bombfires, kicking over beer...desculpa desculpa desculpa (sorry)....but right now I don´t really care cos I wanna go into the sea when that sky lights up...and we were flying through them crowds at a hundred miles an hour!!! Eventually I could see the clearing in the distance, and hearing the wish wash of the waves battling off the sand....hand in hand we danced around, the page had been turned and with it came smiles of jot...Now this is what I was looking for. Looking out from the beach, about 6 cruise ships had gathered in the distance lit up like christmas trees and 6 barges were out in front waiting for the clock to tick tock 12 00....And before you knew it...BANG...firework time...the whole place went nuts and the sky lit up like nothig I've ever seen. Was watching that for about ...ooo... a good 2 mins when a swift roundhouse kick to the head off Rob sent me smashing into the sea...And so it started...about 5 mins of playfighting, beer in hand in the waves on Copa beach watching fireworks seeing in the new year... If I was being honest - I'd say this was pretty damn awesome! And so the night continued...After we got soaked...And thus can´t really remember much after this tell you the truth...I know there was a lot of dancing in the sea, and more beer was consumed, but memories after this included sunshine..So roughly 4 or 5 hours were lost...(but what a place to lose them!)

I think what made the whole New Years experience for me was new years day also....When usually I'm sat lying i me bed struggling to breathe and watching Lon King on DVD....I managed to get some kip on the beach early on and so recharged the cells to keep partying (well sitting in the sunshine) right up to 3 30 pm new years day! The suntan lotion guy walked past me about 5 times, but my money was for beer, not lotion! So it came as no surprise that Marco her and Rob quickly turned into Lobsters...ahhh welll...I can live with that! Add to that a sprained ankle from running into a wave pissed as a fart and you now have a complete parapalegic irish man stranded on a brazilian beach in the middle of New Years day singing Wild Rover...Why Not?¿

So yeah..all in all...as far as new Years eves go..This one was pretty mighty! A whole section in the memory bank created. Great Expections always seem to let you down, but on this occasion I reckon they were superb!.....

---