Chinese New Year!!!

So, my friends who live in NYC tell me you would have to be a fool to go near Times Square on NYE, well shit! Apparently don't try to go anywhere in Sydney on the Chinese New Year! Now I know what you're going to say, Chinese New Year was Jan 26th right? First of all, you didn't know that.. Almost no American knows that.. Secondly, sure it was Jan 26th (I just looked it up) but apparently today is when the celebrate it in Australia. They closed off Pitt, George and Castlereagh between Bathurst and I don't know where, and the areas that people could walk in were friggin packed. People were buying things called "peek-a-view" which were mirrors in a long triangle shape so you could hold it up and look over everyone's head.

It wasn't all bad of course.. I got to see a lot of the floats and people standing around getting ready to start the parade which was very cool. I decided not to ask the guy at the hotel about steak houses because I wasn't sure anymore if that's what I wanted so I decided to wander. I walked all the way down Castlereagh (when it was open) to it's end and then walked down Broadway figuring I would certainly find something to eat on Broadway.. I know when you hear Broadway you immediately think of NYC and the gloriousness that is Broadway, but here Broadway means just that, it's a broad way.. There were no restaurants or theater houses on Broadway.. /sigh

I decided to walk back up George because there was a place I had remembered seeing the other day that looked interesting but I couldn't get there because I hit a wall of people and a closed street! OK, over to Pitt because I know there are plenty of good restaurants on that street, closed! Oh crap, now what? I could go over to Castlereagh and head up to where the block stops and then head back to Pitt to see if I could still hit one of the restaurants. Denied, Castlereagh was also closed! Well fuck.. Over another street to Elizabeth and up that? Elizabeth was open but also dead (hold your snide comments about Elizabeth being open and/or dead). I walked up Elizabeth (again hold your comments, I don't want to hear anything about "Cavernous" or "roomy") to the St. James train station and jumped the train to Circular Quay. The train station at St. James was empty, I mean zero people, I took a picture..

Anyway got out at Circular Quay and ate at City Extra which is a 24 hour dinner type place. I had fish and chips and a James Squire Amber Ale, that James Squire makes some good beer. The fish and chips were available in two sizes, I got the small which was four little pieces (about the size of a buffalo wing at the Courthouse) and a small amount of fries which was just the right size. Sitting there eating my fish and chips overlooking the harbor and Opera House I was reminded how much I love British colonies. You know everyone gives Dianne crap for being a, I forget the word for it, fan of Britain but she is right. I love my time in London and I love Singapore and Australia for their British influence, and no it's not because women with British accents are hot. Speaking of hot, I miss my women back home...

Back at the hotel hanging out with my good buddy James Squire.. Got another Amber Ale at the bar downstairs and am drinking this while typing this blog.

Well, it's time I made like a record and got out of here.. Till next time... :D

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Oh, one more thing.. I just did spell check and realized I wanted to say something else and instead of inserting it where it makes sense in the narrative I figure I'll throw it at the end.. They had that big TV running at Circular Quay with tons of people sitting and watching the Australian Open outside on the make shift stands. If you don't know what I'm talking about I posted a pic on flickr yesterday of a section of stands in the street, that was set up so that people could sit outside and watch the Open on a big-ass TV. It was kinda cool to see that many people watching an event like that on TV in the cool night air.. OK, I say cool but it was like 70 which is cool for here considering it was like 90 during the day today..