Saturday Question: What Are You Doing For New Years Eve?

/ AustralianPerfumeJunkies

.

Portia

.

Hello Fellow Fumies,

At APJ we have a Saturday Question. Everyone gets to chime in with an answer, chat with other responders and it’s a fun event each week. Taking sides never means taking offence and everyone keeps it respectful and light, even though we can sometimes trawl the depths.

The idea is you’ll see it on the weekend or chime in through the week. Hopefully you will come back regularly and see if anyone has responded to your comment and you can reply to them. The aim is to generate real conversation and connection even though we are scattered around the globe.

Over 100 responses I will draw a Secret Scent Sample Pack (from my collection)

Last Weeks Winner: Hajusuuri

eMail me at (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with your address please

Saturday Question: What Are You Doing For New Years Eve?

One of the biggest world celebrations each year. Billions of dollar spent on fireworks, booze, parties and fun. You can celebrate in New Zealand, then fly to LA and celebrate again there. So much opportunity for revelry. Sydney is famous for its Sydney Harbour celebrations. Millions of people come from all over to enjoy our foreshore and shipboard extravagances.

My personal pick of Sydney’s Best New Years Eve celebration is

Celebration NYE 19/20
hosted by Points of Difference Travel & Events

It’s the only LGBTQI New Year’s Eve party on Sydney Harbour and everyone is welcome, as long as they are friends to and of our community. Held at MCA Cafe & Sculpture Terrace: Level 4, Museum of Contemporary Art, 140 George St, Sydney you get a brilliant view from the Harbour Bridge, over the Opera House, up the Harbour and all the way around to Sydney City. All inclusive buffet and drinks, there are DJs and the best view of the fireworks in town. I was lucky enough to be the hostess for the first few years in the early 2000s. AMAZING! It’s not cheap but it is 100% worth it.

My Answer:

Normally I would be working New Years Eve. Last year I had my first one off in decades and LOVED it.

This year I think I’ll do pretty much the same. Jin is working.

Maybe I’ll have a couple of BFFs over for dinner. Celebrate how much I love them with food and chatter. Nothing posh or glamorous. Maybe just a bowl of pasta, some garlic bread and red wine. Fruit salad with cheese platter for dessert and cups of tea till we are full to the ears.

Fragrance wise I’m thinking it might be a good night for Sang Bleu by Le Galion. It’s high summer here so something refreshing yet dramatic feels like it might be a perfect fit.

My Saturday Question to you is:

What Are You Doing For New Years Eve?

122 thoughts on “Saturday Question: What Are You Doing For New Years Eve?”

  2. Like every year we will have a small family gathering at my youngest sister place with dinner and some drinks. We drink champage and eat 12 grapes at midnight as a sign of good luck and prosperity for each month of the year. It is more a tradition than a real belief. We also keep the tv on all night to watch the New Year’s celebration all around the world. We stay up very late chatting and also making and receiving phone calls from friends and family members who are away. I have never been in Times Square to join the New Year’s celebrations here in New York. TOOOOO FREAKING COLD to be standing there for hours and not able to use a toilet. Portable toilets or public restrooms are not available. Once the barricades are up you are not allowed in or out. I have always dreamed about welcoming New Year in a different country each year. Australia would be my first destination, without any doubts. Hopefully, some day!

    Like

  3. So glad you asked, I am spending 6 hours travelling to see my 93 year old parents in lovely Canberra. The ones who don’t cook any more but will present me with Lean Cuisine. Will be in bed by 9pm. Can’t wait.

    PS this may sound cynical, I actually love my parents!

    Liked by 3 people

  4. This year i’m gonna stay at home with my family, eat some goodies, spritz some spicy perfume, a nice glass of old wine 🙂 Sometimes is the best thing to do :)))

    Like

  5. Woo hoo! I will email you shortly, Portia. Thanks for your generosity!

    I am spending New Year’s Eve in Mexico City. For the past 12 out of 15 years, I spent NYE outside of the U.S. I travel with The Newark Museum of Art and with a core group that joins the tours, we’re family!

    Like

  6. We will be returning from family Christmas in Arizona on the 30th, and I have to work all day on the 31st. I haven’t gone out for New Year’s Eve in many. many years. I prefer to stay home and rarely stay awake to welcome the transition into the New Year. I’m not a late night person, it’s too cold to be out watching fireworks, I’m not a party person, and I don’t want to be out driving anywhere. New Year’s Day is for celebrating at my house. We have friends and family over and cook black eyed peas for good luck along with other food, and drink bubbles and wine.

    Liked by 1 person

    • I am not a late night person either, unless I work until very late. I struggle on Christmas Eve and New Years Eve to stay awake. When I hosted the holidays gatherings at my place, by 12:30am I was already in bed and my family would leave at whatever time they wanted. Now that we celebrate the holidays at my sister’s I stay at her place until 1:30- 2am. It is very hard, but I also think that we don’t share much during the year.

      Like

      • Agreed, staying up very late is a struggle. I hope you don’t have to drive home from your sister’s at 2 am! I’d just put myself to bed in a spare bedroom!
        I am up all morning before 5am, therefore late nights just don’t work for me!

        Like

        • Fortunately, my sister lives just 3 blocks away from me, so no driving involved for me. If I can’t keep my eyes open anymore, I can always walk back home and collapse in bed. I am up at 4am every day, so like you it is kind of a punishment to be awake for almost 24 hours in a row.

          Like

  7. Oh, I also like your perfume choice for New Year’s Eve Portia, and your dinner plans at home. Great choices! Le Galion perfumes are amazing, my favorite is Sortilege. I thought about it, and think I will wear vintage Coco Chanel. It will feel elegant and luxurious to elevate my uneventful staying in night!

    Like

  8. I will be at home with the husband and the dog, watching fireworks and parties on TV. Will have my yearly glass of champagne and go to bed long before midnight. I’m going to try all the good luck charms (grapes, lentils and yellow underwear) as I need all the luck and prosperity I can get. 2019 has been tough. I am planning to wear Chopard Wish. 🙂

    Like

  9. Congrats hajusuuri! We rarely go out for New Year’s Eve. Preferred option is to host a small dinner at home with close friends, with a menu that can stretch out over the whole evening. I have a couple of cookbooks with holiday menus like that. It’s really fun, everyone is in the kitchen helping and/or drinking, and we eat separate courses spread out over the evening, with plenty of champagne!

    Like

    • That sounds like a lovely, fun dinner evening with ongoing menu OH. I’d like to try that; however, I’d be afraid of how the latter courses turned out after everyone drinking champagne all evening, lol!

      Liked by 1 person

    • WOW! That sounds amazing OH,
      If we had more than two in our kitchen I would expect a stabbing at the very least. There are probably only three people on earth that I can cook with in this small space. It was different in the house, there was rom for plenty of workspaces.
      What a fabulous idea.
      Portia xx

      Liked by 1 person

  10. I am quite superstitious about New Year’s Eve, as I have had too many disastrous ones. One example: being invited to a party and then finding the hostess not there -she’d been given concert tickets and buzzed off- so I was left alone with her strange boyfriend for the first hour. Staying home is much much safer, and if I’m alone I can go to bed before midnight if I wish.

    Liked by 1 person

  11. We will make a nice dinner for two, drink a bottle of champagne (we have a special bottle from a wine Abonnement to try) and maybe stay awake and watch the fireworks from the balcony

    Liked by 1 person

  12. No idea. I haven’t even dealt with Thanksgiving an Christmas yet. Probably nothing. My group of friends has dwindled or are scattered. I don’t have a partner or children. No family other than my mom.More than likely we will do a little nibble spread together at one of our houses with olives, salamis, homemade pizza, red peppers and garlic in oil for luck, pickles, nuts, etc. On New Year’s Day we always have pork with sauerkraut and dumplings for luck but as another poster said it doesn’t work; so, it’s more about tradition. We turn on the TV and watch the New Year’s Eve music shows with all the celebrities and singers that we no longer know who they are and their music is terrible. Low key. My days of wild are done. Probably drink a bottle of Prosecco.

    Like

  13. New Year Eve (well, night) is my most favorite holiday. For the past couple of decades we always celebrate it with another couple of close friends. I mean, we never do it just 4 of us, it’s always some larger company (at least one more couple if we’re traveling to somewhere or bigger if we’re staying in our area), but always these two.
    This year we’ll be gathering at their place with other 6-10 family members and friends. We’ll do late dinner (around 9PM), then do champagne toast at 12 (with TV in the background), then do a gift exchange (our traditional gift exchange is for the NY instead of Christmas).

    As much as I like the idea of celebrating this holiday somewhere “outside” and publicly, the logistics of it scares me – restrooms, crowds, transportation, etc. So, I prefer something more relaxed at home (last year 6 of us did a PJ party at our friends’ house in Texas) or we’ll-organized for the limited number of participants (e.g. dinner cruise or party at a resort where you’re staying).

    Like

      • Undina,
        Never fear. Jin will cook traditional Korean Dumpling Soup on New Years Day and we will welcome it together in a very quiet way. He is not about show or events (HOW did we end up together??) and will enjoy it being the two of us infinitely more.
        Your New Years friends and celebration sound perfectly suited to you and how you’d like to have it. That makes me really happy for you.
        You guys deserve all the joy in life that there is,
        Portia xx

        Liked by 1 person

  14. This year we will be in Brussels with our friends. We have gone away for the past three NYE. Our hotel is very central so we will have an early dinner and then go out and about. We will have our Champagne well chilled and bring it with us to wherever the fireworks are happening. Will be well wrapped against the cold. Afterwards we will find somewhere to have a boogie. This will be the last year we can get away at this time, as work schedules for the next few years won’t allow for travel. When we’re at home either I or one of my friends or family will have a party at home. Don’t much like going out around here as everywhere is thronged and getting a cab home is almost impossible.

    Like

  15. Nothing if I can help it. I’m not really a fan of NYE at all. Crowds, long lines, no toilets, no transport, drunk people everywhere, staying up late…I haven’t really enjoyed it since I was a teenager 🤷🏻‍♂️

    Like

  16. My husband has to work and we have kids. so likely we will stay up late–but probably not until midnight–eating popcorn and watching Animal Planet!

    Liked by 1 person

  17. We take about a 40 minute drive from Seattle to visit my sister in Tacoma. Tacoma has a downtown with some very beautiful old theaters and building. On New Years Eve, they shut down about a four block area for their First Night Event. They have live acts in some of the stunning 1920s/30s theaters, along with other performances, music, outdoor events – all for about ten dollars. So easy and so fun! They didn’t get funded last years, but it seems to be on again this year!!! Add to that some amazing bars and my favorite chocolate shop and its a great way to start the year 🙂 Unfortunately, no perfume because my sister is allergic 😦

    Liked by 1 person

  18. When I was a kid we used to go to my aunt and uncle’s house. We’re talking a Czechoslovakian and Dutch affair. The kids got home-made European cookies and chocolates to eat. The adults drank copious amounts of slivovitz and ate traditional NYE food. Lentils representing prosperity. A pig’s head was for luck (and probably to gross out the children) and fried carp for health.
    We have been going out with friends for several years now. One of Montreal’s comedy clubs puts on a late show that includes a nod to NYE. The past few years the comedians had obviously been drinking and put on some terrific acts. We’ll have dinner at someone’s house (I think it may be my turn) get in the ‘spirit’ of things and head out. The champagne and toasts will happen after the show.
    No idea what perfume I will wear, but there’s a good bet it will be some variation of Shalimar. Body cream followed by ultra-vintage EDC and topped with vintage perfume.

    Like

  19. Nothing

    OR

    Some years we go see friends out of town, hang out, have a nice dinner at home, watch the one of us who wakes up every morning at five fall asleep on the couch, take slightly embarrassing pictures of her, go to bed. I always wear perfume but for this option I pull out something really good as these friends are perfume complimenters!

    Like

  20. Nothing

    OR

    Some years we go see friends out of town, hang out, have a nice dinner at home, watch the one of us who wakes up every morning at five fall asleep on the couch, take slightly embarrassing pictures of her, go to bed. I always wear perfume but for this option I pull out something really good as these friends are perfume complimenters!

    Like

  21. Absolutely no idea. It’s sort of embarrassing that I spent decades working in project planning and now I can’t even plan my life six weeks ahead. 🙂

    Last year we watched a couple of films, wandered down to the park to watch the midnight fireworks, and then came home and drank some champagne. Probably the same this year; it depends how mobile my wife is by then.

    Like

  22. Here is a ban on private fireworks in the city, so not such a lot to see usually. We do marvel at the Sydney display on TV! Also, I try to avoid the city centre because of the binge drinking going on, even worse than on a normal weekend. So I hope we will celebrate NYE at my father’s house or the cabin. It is a pain getting hold of a taxi at 3 AM, so it is always a plus to be somewhere with enough beds for everyone!

    Food is usually near-authentic blinis with sour cream and caviar (not the Russian kind, but made from other fish roe), smoked salmon and later a roasted turkey. This is accompanied with champagne and other wine and then more champagne at midnight. In my mother’s family it was seen as a bit vulgar to clink glasses, but now I’ve had to get used to it, given it is so usual in my stepmother’s Austrian family. The turkey is also a recent thing, neither my father nor my stepmother much care for the special mutton or lamb roasted ribs so traditional in Western Norway (and it is good not to be in a food coma the next day). Real night owl here, so no trouble staying up late!

    Liked by 1 person

    • WOW! So much to unpack from one comment.
      Yes, SO GOOD when you can party and crash at the same place. That way you also get to brunch together.
      BLINI!!! We had them on the Trans Siberian with chicken inside. So yummy.
      HA! Clinking glasses IS vulgar but it means you get tamale real eye contact with everyone,. so I love it.
      Also, Jin hates lamb and mutton. we would be turkey people too.
      Portia xx

      Like

  23. I will be lucky to stay awake for the ball drop. We used to go to a neighbor’s house for a party in our old neighborhood- could walk home – but now we stay home. I sometimes make it to midnight.

    Like

      • I am very confident he will not be in the Oval Office beyond 2020. Americans are not going to repeat the same mistake again, especially those who did not vote and severely underestimated the consequences of not participating in a democracy.

        Like

        • Well… I’m afraid it’ll depend on who’s the other guy/girl. I’m far from politics, and in all years I voted for democrats but if certain candidates get nominated, not only I’ll vote unthinkably, but I’ll rally against those candidates. I’ve lived under socialism already – no, thank you.

          Like

          • Undina and Kathleen, I get where you are coming from but there is a difference between socialism and democratic socialism. There is no economy that is pure capitalism or pure socialism. While capitalism works well and is better than the alternatives, it does not mean it is perfect and has no shortcomings….case in point… the healthcare system in the US as compared to other industrialized nations and the recent financial crisis of 2007 that speak volume about the weakness and shortcomings of socialism. I also feel fortunate to live in the US now but I think it is a mistake to assume that capitalism is perfect and surpasses the alternative systems in every single aspect

            Like

            • I agree with you on many points, and I’m far from idealizing the current state of affairs, but my personal experience doesn’t allow me to align myself with the most radical democratic candidates: unlike most kitchen socialists, I lived once under the results of the attempt to fully demolish the old World of Repression and build a New World. What can I say? They succeeded in the demolishing part. Let’s change things but do it gradually and aiming at “fighting poverty” instead of “sticking it to wealthy.”

              Like

              • I feel privileged to live in Canada, a country that respects diversity, rule of law, and provides medical care to all its people. It feels more civilized to me than the US generally.

                Like

                • I think that for my taste Canada might be a better place than the US (theoretically, I mean, not that I plan to move or know enough for a qualified opinion) though, as you’re probably aware, many people in your country do not like many aspects of your life, including healthcare. But Canada is still a capitalistic country. I might not mind if the US adopted some of the nicer sides of our northern neighbor but I don’t want any drastic changes within one presidential term – that’s why I won’t be voting for those candidates who seems to be aiming exactly at that.

                  Like

            • And just out of curiosity, which political system in which countries are, in your opinion, superior to what we currently have in the US? I mean, a real existing system/country as a complex, not theoretically imagined or combined out of what’s best in different places?

              Like

              • Undina, I think the Scandinavian political systems such as in Norway and Denmark are pretty good. They make sure everyone has access to basic rights and services so even most of the low-income citizens are not homeless or barely struggling, the taxation system is more progressive than the U.S., there are more rights for women to overcome of the disadvantages they have in career (women are traditionally burdened to assume more responsibility for raising families and workplace discrimination against pregnant women is greater in US than in scandinavian countries). Similarly, their political system has less room for conspiracy theories (check the response to climate change by republican party and compare it to scandinavian countries), the criminal justice system there focuses more on re-education and re-training rather than punitive measures and so on, and there is a thicker wall between state and church in their political system than it is in the US… It is a long debate but there are few examples that came to my mind.

                Like

            • I appreciate, value, and enjoy reading your thoughtful posts Fazal, fragrance and otherwise. And agreed capitalism is not perfect. However, I think the US is the best and most successful country to live in, and as a non-citizen/legal resident I am honored to be welcomed here. I never take for granted the blessings and privilege that working and living in the US provides. xx

              Like

              • Undina, it’s not about sticking it to the wealthy. The simple fact is that the wealthy have long benefited from a favorable treatment and have manipulated the political system in their favor. Any efforts to improve the country do require the wealthy to pay their fair share instead of just reaping the fruits but not paying their fair share. It’s not sticking to the wealthy to ask them to pay more in taxes and stop manipulating the political system in ways that benefit them but at the expense of the rest of the country.

                Kathleen, I am in quite a similar situation like yours and acknowledge my fortune to live in the U.S. I agree with you that overall I will take US over any country any day. However, there is always room to improve and just because overall I may prefer US, does not mean I start pretending US is perfect and better in every single regard. There are lot of ways US can improve and learn lessons from other countries such as healthcare lessons from Canada and scandinavian countries, education lessons from countries like Finland, gun control lessons from Australia and more recently New Zealand, and so on….And similarly, we can say there is a lot other countries can learn from the U.S., too. When I say US should learn from other, I am not implying US is messed up; I am just expressing my desire that it is a wonderful country but it can become even better by borrowing few lessons from other countries who have done better than US in those particular aspects.

                Like

  27. scatty. I want to start over in 2020! And the number 2020 is so soothing – rounded, symmetrical, solid, so I am taking that as a positive omen for a good year.
    I would love to do a big, over-the-top New Year’s Eve one year. But all of your examples sound so good! I hope you all have a wonderful time, whatever you’re doing.
    As you can imagine, I have no idea what perfume I will be wearing. Oooh, maybe one of of Al Manle’s new ones. I am impatiently expecting samples in the post.

    Like

    • Sorry: WordPress misbehaving!

      Very impressed to read how organised so many of you are! I have no idea at all where we will be for New Year. In recent year there has been cricket at Adelaide Oval on NYE, and a lot of our friends go to that. Last year we had a dinner out with friends, about 10 of us plus our daughter. It’s hard for her to be the only kid at an adults’ dinner!

      Before NYE we have my daughter’s graduation from primary school (middle school I guess in the Northern Hemisphere), which includes a dinner, Mass and assembly, plus my daughter’s 12th birthday four days before Christmas, and a few events with friends.

      My parents are elderly and I’m their main carer but feeling like I’m not doing a good enough job and sinking under it all. Things are a bit fraught with my brothers at the moment, so I doubt it will be a family New Year celebration! I lack patience I think and I find it very hard to be organised, and this has risen to unbelievable, almost paralysing heights this year. It’s hard to explain, but more than just being a little
      scatty. I want to start over in 2020! And the number 2020 is so soothing – rounded, symmetrical, solid, so I am taking that as a positive omen for a good year.
      I would love to do a big, over-the-top New Year’s Eve one year. But all of your examples sound so good! I hope you all have a wonderful time, whatever you’re doing.
      As you can imagine, I have no idea what perfume I will be wearing. Oooh, maybe one of of Al Manle’s new ones. I am impatiently expecting samples in the post.

      Like

Comments are closed.