The extension of dining restrictions coupled with the official cancelation of New Year events, meant that all New Year's celebrations would be confined to small gatherings on private premises. Despite the colder-than-usual weather, I decided to take advantage of my rooftop and host New Year's at mine. Equipped with enough meat and blankets to feed and warm a small village we managed to usher in the new year by watching the midnight fireworks in Sydney (at 9 pm HKT) followed by the midnight "virtual" fireworks in Hong Kong. The night was chock full of eating and wine ending up with an intense session of board games (read: Nertz).
Despite only having 6 people over, the combination of grilling, baking, boiling left a solid amount of clean up work. So after the crowd had left, I spent a good solid 45 minutes tidying up, cleaning wine glasses, wiping down the oven and vacuuming up crumbs. The moment of pause, silence and reflection. The post-party clean up reminded me of when my parents would host New Years back in Sydney and we would spend the hour or so after tidying up, drying dishes, wiping down tables, cleaning up the Eski.
In any case, the year that was 2020, has finally come to a much needed end. I start 2021, with a fridge full of leftovers, a half eaten packet of Tim Tams and boundless expectation. It's time to shine, 2021.
