Leg 3, Day 53 – A New Year begins…….

Natalia Cohen By

As another year draws to an end, it is natural to look back over the last 12 months and reflect on what has happened. What you have accomplished, what has made you smile, what has worked well and what needs some extra attention. Where you have been and where you are right now, mentally, as well as looking forward to where you could possibly go.

This year has definitely been a special and unique one for me and my 5 new friends that I have had the fortune to share one of the most ridiculous, incredible and challenging journeys I’ve ever been on with. We decided to have a little New Years ceremony on Doris and I asked everyone to answer the below questions that my best friend Elisa sent me a few years ago:

What are you the most proud of achieving this year?
What brought you the greatest joy?
What mantra sustained you?
What did you learn to let go of?
What did you learn about yourself?
What are your hopes for 2016?

We all said the Row for the first question. It is unusual yet amazing to share the same answer to one of these questions and I think for all of us it has hopefully begun a process by which we will all be able to sit back and eventually realise the enormity of what it is we have in fact achieved.

New Years Eve is probably the only time of the year when I enforce 4 NYE customs I have developed over time on others. They are:
1. Have a small ceremony where everyone takes the time to fully appreciate the past year by asking themselves questions and then deciding what they are looking for from the following year.
2. Say ‘white rabbit’ three times as the clock strikes midnight as if you utter these words before any other words on the first of the month (so the 1st month of a new year is even more special), then you will have a lucky month (or in this case – year).
3. Wear yellow pants (underwear)! This is a tradition that I adopted from my time in Peru. You have to have the underwear bought for you (can’t buy it for yourself) and if you wear it through the new year, you will have a lucky year.
4. Be sparkly!!

New Years Eve on Doris
So…during the Coxless Crew double New Years Eve/Day celebrations (our local time and UK time) this is what we did.

Local time NYE
– midnight ceremony after saying white rabbit x 3 and whilst all wearing yellow pants on our heads
– toasting with hot chocolate and Baileys (that’s the last of it now)
– waving glow sticks and the stars providing the sparkle, woohooo’ing under the night sky in the middle of the almighty Pacific and hugging each other

UK time NYE (2pm our time)
– saying white rabbit x 3 whilst all wearing yellow pants and sparkles (glitter, face jewels and temporary tattoos)
– toasting Neptune and then each other with rum and enjoying a dessert creation by Ems and LP
– letting off party poppers and flying paper banners
– having a little dance, Wooohoooo’ing into the almighty Pacific and hugging each other

News Years is one of my favourite times of the year. It’s the perfect opportunity to start a fresh and write a new chapter of your life story. Although the beginning of every new day is filled with endless possibility, there is something even better about dreaming big, setting your intention for the start of the new year and making a personal pact to fulfil certain resolutions.

*~~~~~~~~ “If you want to fly, give up everything that weighs you down.” ~~~~~~~~*

So…as we enter into 2016, let’s all ask ourselves those questions, carry forward the lessons learnt and shed the skin of anything unwanted from the last year and fly spectacularly into the year ahead x

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE…with lots of love, happiness, health, travel, adventure, SPIRIT, laughter and sparkle….let’s make it one to remember x

New Years Eve on Doris

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6 Comments

  1. Simon TY says:

    Oh, no. No yellows knickers and certainly not on my walk this morning around rural Kent. I would have got away with white rabbits. Am I doomed ?

    How many New Years can you have ? GMT, yr zone, Cairns ? Or are you already on Cairns time ? Did you know that Adelaide is on a half hour time zone ? Weird or what ? “Call you at half past” must ruin many a social and business call.

    Xxxx S

  2. Simon TY says:

    Where is everyone ? Hung over ?

    Xx

  3. Christine says:

    Still here- just been looking for my yellow pants!!!

    Happy New Year Girls! Xxx

  4. TaniaB says:

    Happy New Year! Thinking of you last night and telling friends of your adventure. We played team games during our celebrations, my team was called ‘A boat called Doris’. x

  5. JG says:

    “Yesterday today was the future, today is a gift which is why it is called the present. Enjoy it whilst you can because tomorrow it will be the past and gone forevger.” (So said Mrs Brown) Every day consigned to the past is a day closer to the end of your journey.

    Yellow knickers – the mind boggles. How long does the ‘new year last’

    New years resolutions. I have never stuck to one, ever. So this year I decided on a different tack. I resolve to drink more, start smoking and put on weight and we will see how that goes. Hopefully my performance over the years will remain the same and I will fail in them all.

    Last new year my wife compiled a list of twenty things that I needed to get done during the year. As of today twenty one items remain outstanding. I said I would get around to it, at which she rolled her eyes upwards and said “A round twit ! So you know a fat handyman daft enough to help you!”

    The 4 Yorkshire Rows women are now doing well in the Tallisker Whiskey Atlantic challenge having had the race start delayed due to adverse weather.

    Keep safe girls and take care.

  6. Jim Andrews says:

    What strange little rituals and superstitions we adopt, through our lives. I have tried to abolish them all, but some have survived. I had a motorcycle accident in February 2011, when a still, half asleep driver, failed to see me with my twin headlights on dipped, heading merrily down the road at 30 mph. He, coming towards me then proceeded to turn right, across my path without indication. I had no opportunity to react as his turn coincided with my arrival at that point! The next time I got on a motorbike, some 6 weeks later I made an utterance to myself of ” Not Today s’il vous plaît”. I am now committed to saying this little phrase to myself, every time I get on my bike. Is that OCD?
    Yellow knickers indeed, what is the history behind that little gem? I have heard of the white rabbit at the beginning of the month, as well as the less pleasant “Pinch Punch, first of the month”. As a bit of fun, I see how they can amuse but some people seem to genuinely believe that if your Christmas Deccies remain up, after the 6th of January some awful stroke of misfortune will occur in your life. The mind boggles, who creates these ridiculous sayings. I think the latter was created to shock the bone idle into action, rather that leave the decorations up until Easter. Any way it creates an interesting or at least, time consuming conversation? I feel a sense of something beautiful coming to an end, like the final song of a really good concert, or the final chapter of an enthralling book. I shall continue to thank you all for sharing these past 9 months of your lives and hope you are enjoying every morsel of this fantastic experience, except the angry bum, claw hand, salty crusty skin. I’ll stop there. Stay safe. XX

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