My New Year's Day Punishment

1st January 2010. The first day of a new decade. My brains whir into life. I open my eyes, smiling. Then, the pounding in the head began it's torture (which, unfortunately for me, was to last for a long, long time). Suddenly, the memories of the new year's eve celebration the night before came zooming through. And horrifyingly, there's an entire chunk which I could not, for the life of me recall. How the hell did I end up back in bed, naked? In a panicked state, I shook MOH who was snoring next to me. A mumble.
"What happened last night?" I asked, as the throbbing pain in the head continued.
"I'll tell you later." More snoring.

I closed my eyes and tried my hardest to recall.
The evening's celebration started off rather lamely. We had a home-cooked meal of chicken & pumpkin porridge. It sounds like a poor man's meal, sure. But it was so yummy and tasty, MOH and I had a great time eating dinner at home. I think it was generally a happy meal because we both could enjoy such a simple dinner in each other's company. Then, we stayed in watching chinese drama series, passing time till it was time to walk over to the FCC for the countdown.

Over at the FCC, DJ Illest was spinning - always a good thing. It was of course packed with revellers shaking their booties and throwing back shots after shots. We both hung around near the bar with our drinks and started people watching. In general, it was fun and in my mind, I thought we'd stay till countdown, watch some fireworks and then walk back home and crawl into bed. The mood was generally quite good. For me, the year ended on a really good note despite some last minute scares during the week. And I was looking forward to the brand new year ahead. So many things to do and a world to conquer!

And then my local partner and best friend, Ashley showed up with some friends and one of our clients cum my newfound friend from Orange County - Sean. This was when the plan for "go-back-right-after-countdown" went out the window. We had the countdown right at midnight and stayed on for a few more drinks. And then, we hopped over to the Riverhouse lounge - for more "partying". It was too noisy and crowded so we went downstairs instead and sat down like old folks with a couple of bottles of wine. One would've thought that picture quite tame. Except - I had no idea what compelled me to stop counting my drinks (Of course, now that I am sober enough to write this, I am going to blame it all on Sean). The last thing I remembered was watching the swimming leg of the triathlon on ESPN at the Riverhouse. And then, what else followed after that was a COMPLETE blank. Oh My God.

I rolled myself out of bed, forcing myself to get up. Perhaps a shower would do me some good. I jumped into the shower, head pounding and my whole body felt like I had just been through a train wreck and came back out alive. Every muscle was shaking, head pounding. I groaned. This was not how I imagined spending my first day of the year. The time - a little after 12noon. Crap. We missed New Year's brunch at Hagar's too. But I didn't feel like I could eat anything. Aaargh. I swear, I can't remember the last time I got this drunk - voluntarily. These were stuff juvenile delinquents did. Not an adult woman. Aargh. Aargh. Aargh.

MOH woke up and I pressed him for last night's details. Apparently, we even went for Midnight Porridge - which nobody finished the meal since that was when I was asking to go home. And apparently, I could not even stand up by myself nor walk up the stairs to my apartment. And starkingly horrible - in between laughs, MOH told me I was sleeping on the toilet floor while he tried to shower me and I was throwing up - you know, all the usual stuff a drunkard did. Aargh! Juvenile. Juvenile. Juvenile.

I threw up one more time after I showered in the morning. I could still taste the sickening alcohol in my mouth, my breath. I had to sit down with my hand propping my head up and I was still feeling rather drunk. Not just hungover - but drunk!

MOH, ..... I think what I really want to remember of New Year's Day - 2010 - the first new year's we celebrate as husband & wife is how MOH had relentlessly, patiently, taken care of me the entire night and the whole of New Year's Day while I recuperated. He got me a range of beverages to fight nausea and dehydration. He stroked my hair, he kissed me, he laughed at me. And all I could think of was imagining the sight of me lying on the toilet floor. That would've been grounds for divorce if ever there should be one! But not only did he not scold me nor lecture me, neither did he say anything mean to me. He made some lunch for me at home (I'm sorry we missed New Year's brunch! I really am!) and after lunch, I went back to sleep.

I woke up close to 5pm still not feeling much better. In fact, I felt rather sorry for the state I was in and of course, ruining the day for MOH too. But MOH - ensuring he kept to his wedding vows, just loved me, come what may. He said we should both get out for some air and he said we should go for a nice dinner as it was after all, New Year's Day. I relented - since it was because of me, we missed New Year's brunch. I changed in pain, my entire body seemed detached from my brains.

But we did get to La Volpaia for a nice Italian meal with Insalata Caprese and I had the Squid Ink Pasta - which was really tasty. MOH even had the cheek to asked me if I wanted a glass of wine. If my head wasn't pounding too much, I would've smacked him one. But all I could do was stick my tongue out at him. After dinner, we even went to Bayon Supermarket's grand opening and did some groceries - it being grand opening, we got a 10% discount off our total bill and a free large tin of chocolate wafers. So, considering all that, not a bad first day of the year. If only my head would stop pounding.

It had taken me two and a half days to recover - and I still feel a little lethargic. Seriously - gone through war and back. I've even got cuts on my arms which were unaccounted for! God knows what really happened! I guess, the body is no longer as young as I thought it was. I remembered a time where I could entertain any clients, mix my drinks and drink anyone under the table - yet, get to work bright and early. Ahhh, to be young again. But I stopped drinking when I started getting serious with my athletic performance. The alcohol slows everything down. I can certainly vouch for that - I was this close to getting alcohol poisoning 2 days ago :P The body is in such shock. I bet my liver is still upset with me. I can hear it bitching about me.

But you know how they say - there's a good thing that comes out of a bad thing. Just watching how MOH had patiently taken care of me and loving me through my drunken stupor had made me feel really lucky. Yes, thank God he was there and IS there for me. Otherwise, God only knows who would I be waking up next to - naked. *Gasp!*

Moral of the story : Don't ever binge-drink again. I don't know how some people do it weekends after weekends. But frankly - I think it is a very good thing I am now repulsed by the sight and smell of alcohol. It is now time to start my training again. Once again - a Happy New Year to all!