New Years Eve 2011 & A New Years Illness

Posted on 10. Jan, 2012 by Dan Collins in UK

For the sake of New Years Eve I’m jumbling up my travelling time line a little so this post doesn’t become too outdated. Consider this the ‘Star Wars’ phase of my blog. I’m going to the end before the beginning.

After a wonderful Christmas and upon returning from Paris it’s safe to say I was a little sick… and by a little sick I mean I was on the brink of pneumonia (according to the hospital) but that’s another story. We had plans for a house party at mine however some people fell ill, some couldn’t make it due to travel reasons and the rest wanted to do something but we weren’t sure what.

The local bars and pubs all required tickets for entry so we couldn’t get in there… the only choice was a trip in to the city. Chester was too far away to walk and getting a taxi on New Year’s Eve was near impossible unless you were willing to pay way more than necessary. Being the awesome friend I am I took the fall and drove us all in. Sure it meant I was unable to drink but feeling the way I was – I didn’t care!

Thinking it’d be busy we were in the nightclub for 9pm. “Rosies” possibly the most well known club in Chester with its infamous sticky floors, smashed up toilets and cheesy music. Surprisingly it was pretty dead. I spotted one of my work colleagues across the bar so I went over to say hi but got distracted by an ex girlfriend walking past. Rosies has 3 floors with 3 different types of music – the bottom floor is really old music – the type played at really bad weddings. The middle floor is dance music and the top floor is R&B. Naturally I spent most of the night on the bottom floor (ha ha).

While boogying away to some music I got tapped on the shoulder. I turned around expecting to come face to face with somebody but instead I was greeted by a face full of breasts. The tallest, manliest girl I have ever seen was looking down at me asking for a dance. Not one for turning down a dance we partied away for a while until she started to get a little too close for comfort. She asked if I wanted to go for a smoke but politely told her I didn’t smoke and then took the chance to run and hide before she clubbed me over the head and took me back to her cave.

Safe in the refuge of my friends on the second floor of the nightclub we danced to some pretty awful music until 11:55pm. The Black Eyed Peas “I’ve got a feeling” started playing and was timed perfectly to end at the 10 second countdown mark. All around the dance floor were screens with countdown clocks on them so we were able to keep an eye on the time too. At 10 seconds to midnight a booming voice sounded over the speakers “Ladies and Gentlemen, 10 seconds remaining..9..8..7..6..5..4..3..2..1..” the chimes of Big Ben rang throughout the club and the voice started again “Welcome to 2012… Let’s raise the roof, HAPPY NEW YEAR”. Before I could tell what was going on an Irish girl had grabbed the back of my head and pulled me in for a kiss. I wasn’t complaining but when you’re sober and can taste the alcohol on somebody else it’s not the most attractive thing in the world. After the kiss I joined in with the rest of the room singing Auld Lang Syne. I could tell nobody really knew the words as it was all a bit of a mumble until “for the sake of auld lang syne” part popped up.

During the song a very drunken guy decided to give everybody a congratulatory pat on the back but got a little confused and whacked me in the chest as hard as he could. Already dying from a pretty bad chest this made me a whole lot worse. My breathing took a nose dive and pain started to come with every inhalation. My head felt like it was about to explode and the sudden urge to go to sleep came on a lot faster. Before I knew it I found myself in hospital on New Year’s Day… it turns out the cough that had been plaguing me for a few weeks was far more than just a cough and was actually a case of “walking pneumonia”. What a great way to start the year!

Tags: Chester, New years Eve, UK