Feliz Ano Nuevo

It's a new day, it's a new dawn

It's a new life for me

And I'm feeling good

- Nina Simone, Feeling Good

So this is how 2009 starts.

I'm in the dorm, listening to the rain and typing on my laptop. John Coltrane's playing on youTube, and I'm waiting. Soon enough, that magical moment will arrive when my traveller's card ticks over and all those lovely euros pour from the ATM and into my wallet. My mind's half drowning with gluttonous thoughts.

Sevilla's not much fun with only 5 € in your pocket. 

****

It's 4:00am in Melbourne at the moment, so I imagine the birds have started singing in the pine trees behind my bedroom window. They start pretty early in the summer. In about an hour or two, the sun will rise. The inky blackness of the sky will bleed into a deep, intense blue, and then fade away as the first rays of the sun hits the atmosphere. The sky will turn a vivid pink, and then an orange and then will be all but forgotten as the sun crests the horizon and shines upon a new day. 

****

The rain's stopped, and John Coltrane's stopped, and I'm still waiting for the hours to tick by. It's been like this for about a day and a half now. It's certainly put a dampener of the new year. 

I spent the first half of New Year's Eve trying to figure out how I'd manage to stretch 5 € over two days. I wandered aimlessly through the mazy side-streets and peeked longingly into cosy little bars and restaurants. I stood in the Plaza Nuevo as the clock struck midnight, as the firecrackers burst, as everyone started sipping champagne and munching on grapes. 

I spent the second half of it trying to get drunk in a bar by the Alameda de Hercules. Met up with some people from the hostel who shouted me a couple of drinks. It's difficult when you're living on the charity of mates, and it's even tougher when you're faced with the distinct possibility that you're a pauper but for a single paper note in your wallet. 

It's doable, though. 

****

Had a look at the dashboard widget just before, and it's 4:30 in the morning. 

It's the 2nd of January in Australia, and it's almost time now - it's just a matter of hours before the dawn of the first business day of the year. I'm hoping it's the start of a new dawn for me as well. For you see, I transferred the fund from my bank account to the traveller's card a couple of days before New Year's. It takes two business days for the cash to get through to the traveller's card. And as the day dawns and the transactions start to flow, that longed for moment will arrive...

And I'll know how I'll feel.