I’ve only just recovered from the new year’s eve party (and subsequent manflu) to be able to blog about it. The credit crunch bit hard towards the end of last year so despite doing 2007 in Shanghai and initially planning for Bali for 2008 we all ended up partying in London instead of somewhere exotic.

I do like London but in a cold December it’s not my favorite place in the world so it’s just as well the company was excellent as usual. Shak organised the evening with his typical fusion of eye to detail, pure class choice of restaurant and club venues, combined with military timing to ensure everything went smoothly, Palms were greased, heads nodded, ropes lifted and entry gained without waiting in the cold, why Shak dabbles in internet stuff I don’t know.. he would do very well at event organising nights out for sheiks etc.

We all met up at Nobu Japanese restaurant and the party was from a mixture of backgrounds such as internet entrepreneurs like Shak, Myself, Champagne Jimmy and also Daniel Ek of Spotify, Josh from e-conversions and two great guys who are social dynamics/dating coaches (like Hitch but so much better and more fun) as if that wasn’t an eclectic enough group for a night of stimulating conversation Shak had invited six Norwegian ladies (Cindy, Rafea, Kine, Camilla, Anne and Helle) with diverse backgrounds from commodity brokerage to marketing so to say the conversation was widespread and very interesting is an understatement.

I’m no big fan of Japanese food or sushi but Nobu is just something else entirely and proved that I’d just had bad quality sushi before as the food is simply amazing, I’ve never tasted such a fusion of flavours and textures in one sitting, words are useless, in fact it was the first time all night that the ladies were quiet ! .. you just have to eat there to experience it. The food was washed down with hot saki, which flows easily but is deadly, I had a wobble on after just a couple.

We left Nobu and headed to Home House, a private members club in Portman Square, for a drink at their new years eve fancy dress party, they’d put some effort in for sure, loads of staff in quality outfits and no shortage of members making a good effort, free champagne and nibbles and DJ’s in various rooms etc. all very well done and I’m tempted to join myself as it’s a cool place to hang out when in London rather than have meetings in the hotel lobby or dingy meeting rooms.

The hour or so passed quickly and it was time to be convoyed over to Jalouse, this is a swish members only night club (I think Shak is quite connected of late lol) that the likes of Britney and Paris etc. frequent when in London although it looked more like a Ferrari dealership outside it than a club so whilst the credit crunch may be biting hard it’s not affecting everyone, tables in the club were pricey with a minimum spend of a few thousand yet one can only imagine the Ferrari drivers were partying on soft drinks .. so a few thousand to drink cola seems excessive for the sake of being able to let the italian horses loose at 4am when leaving but hey ho .. each to their own.

As the clock ticked towards midnight the table was cleared and the Krug arrived, at 12 fireworks went off, bells were rung and we let in the new year with a toast, everyone was still partying in fine style at 3am when I slipped into a drink induced coma, I left around 4am having enjoyed myself a little too much.

It was good to hear that despite the economic slowdown that everyone is still doing well online and whilst we all agreed that 2009 will be challenging nobody is putting the storm shutters out and hiding in the bunker, Daniel’s Spotify is rocking (how can it not.. it’s simply awesome!) Shak’s new venture CardSmart is about to launch, the PPC arena is opening up this year due to the end of best practice funding so I’m sure more opportunities for PPC management will come there and the dating coaches are very busy, it’s still exploding both online and offline for them so they have a very busy year ahead of them for sure. I think that regardless of the climate that switched on people will continue to find opportunities and do well from them.

It was great to catch up with the usual suspects, and a pleasure to meet new faces, Thanks again to Shak for organising .. it was a very memorable and enjoyable night but very cold so suggestions are welcome for the 2009 annual internet new year’s eve party locations.. the only criteria is that it MUST be above 20 degrees centigrade, sunny all day long and a party town, current suggestions are Buenos Aires, Bali and Punta Del Este so please feel free to suggest where else is worth looking at.