The Jo Guest Posse – Christmas and New Years Eve

The idea was always to spend Christmas in Sydney and have Christmas dinner on the beach but this plan evaporated when we got to Brisbane, It was decided that we would stay where we were.  We had work, a place to stay and had got to know quite a few people by now.  With the Beer Bash bringing all of the hostels together we had made friends in other backpacker’s hostels as well as our own.  We also got on well with the people who worked in our hostel and Ian had actually started seeing someone who worked at Aussie way, this was just around the corner from us.  A few times had spoken about moving hostels but after visiting the place we renamed it Mozzie way and decided to stay put.

Having Christmas in a hot country is weird.   The Christmas cards still have snow and Robins and a fat guy in a red suit but when you look outside at the people in shorts and sandals something doesn’t compute.  It was around 30 Degrees in Brisbane in December, Beach weather.  The fact that Brisbane isn’t on the coast must have been a real problem to the city council as they had decided a few years before to actually build a beach on the banks of the river.  South bank was a lively park of Brisbane just outside the city and as well as the man made beach it had Markets, cafés and bars and the occasional music festival.  We used to go there just to escape the city at times, the beach itself wasn’t huge by any standards and you had to walk past the bars and restaurants before you got to it but you could be assured that you’d have a good day out. 

It was agreed with the people at work that we would take part in a “Secret Santa” for Christmas day so that at least we would have a present to open on the day.  I still remember what I got. I was given a new travel companion, from here every time I got to a new hostel I would inflate my little doll and place her in pride of place.  I named her Lucy as she was based on the Peanuts character of the same name.

Christmas dinner was going to be a big event, the hostel owners had arranged for us to use the outside area of the Bar beneath us and we were having Christmas dinner down there.  The patio was set up with picnic tables that seated about 6 people and the food was served up in plastic bowls so we all helped ourselves to what we wanted, it was a good atmosphere and everyone was in the Christmas sprit.

When the desert came out all hell broke loose.  All of the food was brought out by the people who worked in the Hostel and one of the lads slipped while he was carrying a tub of ice cream, as the lid was off the ice cream came out of the tub and landed in someone’s lap.  He looked at his lap, scooped up a load of Ice Cream and rubbed it in the guys face; he looked like the Phantom of the Opera.  Someone else reached their hand into a container of Mashed potatoes and threw this over the patio area hitting the guy with the Ice cream lap and that was it….FOOD FIGHT!!  There was mashed potato, peas and sweet corn flying through the air, ice cream had now been completely emptied over heads and the floor was now covered in left over food.  The clean up took ages but everyone got involved in this, some got brushes or dust pans and scooped the food into the bins while others hosed down the decking to clear up the remaining bits.

With Christmas day done we needed to start planning for New Years Eve.  There was a big event at the Story Bridge Hotel, they were doing a fancy Dress competition and had to go dressed as our favourite rock star.  The prize was a Keg of Beer so we started hatching a plan on how to win this and we decided on our characters.  As 3 white men it seemed obvious that we should go as Diana Ross and the Supremes.  Kev came up with the idea so he had earned the right to be the leader.

We found a fancy dress shop that we could hire the dresses from, Kev had a white one while Ian and I had matching blue dresses, I think we had the long curly wigs from the same place.

The day soon rolled round, Ian and I had been working during the day of the party and got back to find that Kev had really embraced the theme and had taken some old newspapers, cut them down and rolled them up.  He had then covered them with Silver foil so we had microphones.  I thought this was a great little touch but then I saw my Flip Flops had also been covered in silver foil. We now had the elegant footwear befitting of our rock star status.  We also had a Canadian Guy named Pat who had offered his services as our minder.  As we pulled up outside the venue in the taxi (The Limo was in for repairs) Pat got out, opened the doors for us and ushered us through the crowd.  Instantly we were the centre of attention and had to pose for photograph after photograph.  It has to be said that the standard of competition was very low and we appeared to be the only ones who had made much of an effort. As suspected we were confirmed as the winners just before midnight.  We were over the moon.  All we had to do was arrange to collect the keg.

As was expected for New Years Eve, getting a taxi home was a nightmare. There were huge queues outside the venue with the odd taxi turning up whenever they felt like it but this was not really making the queue dwindle any.

In the end I was wandering around chatting and watching the shenanigans then popping back to the others but by doing this I totally missed the taxi, Ian and Kev say they looked for me but I wasn’t anywhere to be found. After waiting a little while for another taxi I ended up making the decision to walk back through the centre of Brisbane dressed like a dishevelled rock star. Luckily there were quite a few others that had the same idea so I tagged along with these and we made our way back to the hostel.  It probably only took about 45 minutes to get back but I certainly attracted a lot of attention.  You would think the Australians had never seen a man in a dress before.

After we had got out of the main city I thought I was safe but I had not counted on the Fire Station just by the hostel, as it was new years eve (Well, by now it was new years day) all of the firemen that were on shift were gathered outside with buckets and were collecting spare change for charity.  As we approached they nudged each other and pointed and as I passed by the all stood up and applauded as I went past.