Author – Grant
Based In – Chapel Hill (North Carolina)
Today’s Photos – http://www.flickr.com/photos/32017704@N03/sets/72157611914911475/
Even on our very, very best days, the agendas of Kate and I rarely overlap b
ut on some days they aren’t even in the same galaxy. Today was the latter sort of day. Mine, quite predictably considering it was New Years Eve, was to get all the chores (dressing, bathing, dog walking, having breakfast…and that’s about it I guess) out of the way before midday and then to allow the drinking to commence. Conversely, Kate’s agenda was more focussed on staying away from anything that emits light or noise. Yep, a migraine had decided to make an appearance on New Year’s Eve of all days. That’s about as bad timing as being invited to an eat as much as you like buffet after getting back from the dentist. Still, we both knew that the only possibility of getting her out twelve hours later was to leave her to sleep / hallucinate in peace for the day.
As such, after breakfasting alone on my sad table for one and telling the hotel’s staff that my wife is a raging alcoholic and spends most mornings hungover in bed (well I thought it was funny) Molly and I set off for The Bluffs which is a chunky area of walking trails that local scruff-bag Bradley had told us about the previous day. Today was yet another incredible blue skied day although it was accompanied by a howling wind that took twenty degrees off the actual temperature and managed to scare the begeebas out of the hound. Speaking of the weather (I am British after all), we’ve noticed that it’s always good weather here. We heard that NC gets the mos
t sunny days of all the states (over 300 in fact) which came as a bit of a surprise as I’d have thought it was California or Florida. Given everything else the state has going for it (friendly, coastal, close to skiing etc), I think we could easily live here although I’m no doubt forgetting that they probably have sweltering summers here and hot weather and fat blokes mix about as well as migraines and New Year’s Eve.
Sometimes I do things and even as I am doing them, I know they are dumb. Take, for example, my plan to drive out to Duke University to soak up the atmosphere before they played a home college basketball game. We were going to try to scalp tickets for the game but Kate was still busy shivering under a duvet and I didn’t fancy it on my own. Still, Mols and I drove out there 30 mins before tip-off just to see what was going on. I’m not exactly sure what I was expecting to see (tailgating? hoards of practising cheerleaders? inter-school riots?) but, of course, all I saw was a major traffic jam. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
The plan to leave Kate alone to recover in peace (excluding several food deliveries) partially worked. By 7pm she was given the one-time-only offer to bow out of the evening which she bravely declined but she did make the decision that drinking would be unwise. Wait a minute, that means she can drive which saves us the trauma and, ironically, the headache of dealing with cabs on NYE…it’s a win-win situation. Leaving the hotel behind was no hardship as they were warming up for the Roaring Twenties party and most of the clientele that had already arrived looked like they had seen it first time round. Something tells me that party will be over long before midnight as curtains will need to be drawn…
Our reckie of town the previous day highlighted a few likely-to-be-lively venues (as well as a few bars not bothering to open…what are they thinking?) but a drive-by o
f the high street not much after 8pm gave us an early indication that there are limited numbers of students left in town. We chose to start in the busiest bar (Hams) where our server and his trainee (yes, someone was being trained on New Year’s Eve) plied me with copious amounts of beers, Kate with copious soft drinks and us with some good old American food. Chicken strippers with their house TNT sauce, a monster slab of ribs and a “salad” (in quotation marks because salad implies healthiness and anything containing fried chicken, cheese and bacon doesn’t really fall in that category) didn’t so much line our stomachs as coat it grease. After this not-so-light fare, standing was essential else sleeping would shortly follow and that didn’t fit into my plan. 
The UNC basketball game started at 10pm and Ham’s occupancy decreased by 30% (a table of 4 left) so we headed to Top Of The Hill which was clearly where it was happening as the place was mobbed. The main focus, however, continued to be the basketball and there were a few upset people when the TVs flipped to Times Square at 11:59pm so we could do a countdown which seemed a bit uncharitable given that UNC were winning by a laughably big margin. The rest of the night is both deeply predictable and a bit of a blur as I got more drunk and had to be dragged home by my wife and chauffeur for the evening. Which reminds me, I don’t remember tipping her for the lift home. Oops.
Based In – Chapel Hill (North Carolina)
Today’s Photos – http://www.flickr.com/photos/32017704@N03/sets/72157611914911475/
Even on our very, very best days, the agendas of Kate and I rarely overlap b
ut on some days they aren’t even in the same galaxy. Today was the latter sort of day. Mine, quite predictably considering it was New Years Eve, was to get all the chores (dressing, bathing, dog walking, having breakfast…and that’s about it I guess) out of the way before midday and then to allow the drinking to commence. Conversely, Kate’s agenda was more focussed on staying away from anything that emits light or noise. Yep, a migraine had decided to make an appearance on New Year’s Eve of all days. That’s about as bad timing as being invited to an eat as much as you like buffet after getting back from the dentist. Still, we both knew that the only possibility of getting her out twelve hours later was to leave her to sleep / hallucinate in peace for the day.As such, after breakfasting alone on my sad table for one and telling the hotel’s staff that my wife is a raging alcoholic and spends most mornings hungover in bed (well I thought it was funny) Molly and I set off for The Bluffs which is a chunky area of walking trails that local scruff-bag Bradley had told us about the previous day. Today was yet another incredible blue skied day although it was accompanied by a howling wind that took twenty degrees off the actual temperature and managed to scare the begeebas out of the hound. Speaking of the weather (I am British after all), we’ve noticed that it’s always good weather here. We heard that NC gets the mos
t sunny days of all the states (over 300 in fact) which came as a bit of a surprise as I’d have thought it was California or Florida. Given everything else the state has going for it (friendly, coastal, close to skiing etc), I think we could easily live here although I’m no doubt forgetting that they probably have sweltering summers here and hot weather and fat blokes mix about as well as migraines and New Year’s Eve.Sometimes I do things and even as I am doing them, I know they are dumb. Take, for example, my plan to drive out to Duke University to soak up the atmosphere before they played a home college basketball game. We were going to try to scalp tickets for the game but Kate was still busy shivering under a duvet and I didn’t fancy it on my own. Still, Mols and I drove out there 30 mins before tip-off just to see what was going on. I’m not exactly sure what I was expecting to see (tailgating? hoards of practising cheerleaders? inter-school riots?) but, of course, all I saw was a major traffic jam. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
The plan to leave Kate alone to recover in peace (excluding several food deliveries) partially worked. By 7pm she was given the one-time-only offer to bow out of the evening which she bravely declined but she did make the decision that drinking would be unwise. Wait a minute, that means she can drive which saves us the trauma and, ironically, the headache of dealing with cabs on NYE…it’s a win-win situation. Leaving the hotel behind was no hardship as they were warming up for the Roaring Twenties party and most of the clientele that had already arrived looked like they had seen it first time round. Something tells me that party will be over long before midnight as curtains will need to be drawn…
Our reckie of town the previous day highlighted a few likely-to-be-lively venues (as well as a few bars not bothering to open…what are they thinking?) but a drive-by o
f the high street not much after 8pm gave us an early indication that there are limited numbers of students left in town. We chose to start in the busiest bar (Hams) where our server and his trainee (yes, someone was being trained on New Year’s Eve) plied me with copious amounts of beers, Kate with copious soft drinks and us with some good old American food. Chicken strippers with their house TNT sauce, a monster slab of ribs and a “salad” (in quotation marks because salad implies healthiness and anything containing fried chicken, cheese and bacon doesn’t really fall in that category) didn’t so much line our stomachs as coat it grease. After this not-so-light fare, standing was essential else sleeping would shortly follow and that didn’t fit into my plan. 
The UNC basketball game started at 10pm and Ham’s occupancy decreased by 30% (a table of 4 left) so we headed to Top Of The Hill which was clearly where it was happening as the place was mobbed. The main focus, however, continued to be the basketball and there were a few upset people when the TVs flipped to Times Square at 11:59pm so we could do a countdown which seemed a bit uncharitable given that UNC were winning by a laughably big margin. The rest of the night is both deeply predictable and a bit of a blur as I got more drunk and had to be dragged home by my wife and chauffeur for the evening. Which reminds me, I don’t remember tipping her for the lift home. Oops.Tomorrow, I will be mostly hungover.
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