In the spirit of blogging, I thought I would jot down a few thoughts about a night out on New Year's Eve. I should say at the outset that I am not (or at least wasn't until this year) a fan of New Year's Eve. Quite the opposite in fact. However, much to my continued disbelief, as midnight came and went this year I found myself in the middle of a rather trendy and extremely busy bar/club in the middle of Brighton, a little baffled as to how this had happened.
I have never been out on New Year's Eve before. When I say out, I mean out out - I have been to lots of house parties, but never out out ie. "on the town". However, when my friend said she would like to spend the evening with me and suggested going out, how could I possibly refuse? My first thought was London, but in the end (for various reasons) decided on Brighton - my stomping ground during 8 years of university.
The question, then, was what to do and where to go. Being a bit of a newbie when it comes to going out on New Year's Eve, I was mildly surprised by everyone's reaction when I told them I was going out in Brighton that evening: "Really???!!!". I guess, in my naivete, it hadn't occurred to me that the city might be a tad busier than usual. As it turned out, most people's surprise was unfounded - yes, it was busy, but I don't think much busier than a usual night out in Brighton.
My friend had suggested the theatre, which seemed like a good idea. Looking at the listings of the Theatre Royal, I saw that 'Priscilla: Queen of the Desert' was on that night. I'm not a massive fan of musicals, but she is, so why not? What a good decision that was.
The show began at 7:45 PM, so we had an early dinner in a nearby Italian restaurant, Pinocchio's. I hadn't been there for years, but it was as good as I remembered. Naturally it was very busy, but we had an excellent meal of a couple of pasta dishes followed by an enormous ice cream. It was clear that lots of other people were also theatregoers, because as the showtime approached a lot of people decided it was time to go. Fortunately the restaurant were clearly used to this, and we made it into the theatre in good time.
The show was excellent. Essentially it's a story about 3 Australian drag-Queens, who travel from Sydney to Alice Springs on a bus called Priscilla and obviously get into various awkward situations. It was extremely funny, very irreverent towards Australians (despite being originally written by an Aussie) and probably as camp as its possible to get. Virtually every (even slightly) camp and extravagant song you can think of was included - lots of ABBA, Elton John, Kylie and, of course, "It's Raining Men". The audience was well into it, and a good proportion of people were also dressed in drag. We weren't, however I don't think that spoiled the atmosphere and it was a thoroughly good show - and the perfect choice for New Year's Eve. I had rather hoped it would be a good introduction to Brighton (with all its connotations) for my friend, and it certainly surpassed itself and all expectations.
The show ended around 10:30 PM, and we wandered passed several pubs which were all packed. I had been unsure whether to book tickets into somewhere in advance or just hope to find somewhere, and in the end we did just that - a very modern bar/club, complete with metallic tables, purple fluorescent lighting, pounding music and an impressive cocktail bar. It wasn't that busy when we arrived but it certainly filled up - although, as I said, I don't think it was excessively much busier than normal night out in the city. The rest of the night is a slight blur, no doubt helped by lots of wine and numerous cocktails. I remember midnight which, as usual, was a bit of a nonevent - there was a countdown of course, everyone cheered, and then almost immediately forgot about it and went on with a normal night out. I have a vague memory of someone using the back of my chair as a pole to dance around/against, but she seemed happy so it didn't matter.
So, my first New Year's Eve out out. Certainly a night to remember…
