Happy New Year!

Well, it's now 2009! How weird does that look?

It's been a good few days but I am soooo glad it's all over. Work has been really busy and full on but things should start settling down a little bit now.

I had been dreading doing the PM shift for New Years Eve. For the last month, all the managers have been saying "it'll be really busy, you'll be weeded, it'll be tough" and basically freaking everyone out. Luckily, Matt decided he wanted to work the PM as everyone said the money was really good so I traded. I was an AM instead.

The AM shift was really busy and I felt so glad I'd traded. It turns out I made the right decision too, as I made more on my AM than Matt did doing the PM. After work, Kevin, Vikki, David and I got changed and exited the park. We were told that we had to leave and come in as guests. I thought it would be wayyy too busy but we got back in with no problem. Only trouble was it was 5pm so we had 7 hours to kill. The park was really busy so we didn't bother with any rides. We just mooched around. At 7pm, we went back to the UK pavillion and did a countdown to 7pm (which is midnight back home). Everyone that was at work came out into the street and we all hugged and wished each other Happy New Year. The Americans around us all thought we were nuts!

Later on, we decided to head over to Norway to see Rene. We got halfway round world showcase when we ran into a huge crowd of people. They were stationary and we couldn't move forward. We stood in the huge crowd for about 10 minutes then tried to back out of it. At that point there were people behind us as well. We couldn't move at all. I looked left...people, I looked right, more people...I'm a little claustrophobic in crowds but I closed my eyes and tried to imagine there was no one else there. Kevin tried to lead me out but as soon as he put his hands on my shoulders I shrieked, "DON'T TOUCH ME!" We couldn't move anyway. In the end, I couldn't handle it, I felt like I couldn't breathe. I lunged for the railing and somehow (I don't remember this part) got over it. Then I sat on the grass trying to get enough oxygen. It was awful. I sat there for twenty minutes or so, then security came and helped me backstage. Once I was out of the crowds, I was fine. I still can't believe I got over that railing. Kevin is over six foot and he had difficulty! Guess adrenaline did most of it!

At around 11pm, we were back in the UK pavillion. As a joke, Kevin asked if there was any availability in the restaurant. There was! Colin said if we didn't mind the cold, he'd take us on his section. It had been empty all night because it was cold outside. We were fine to sit in the cold so we had a table right on the waterfront for the New Years Eve fireworks. It was brilliant! I had a Baileys hot chocolate and we all shared lots of different types of food. It was a brilliant way to ring in the new year!