Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! 2007 ended with the hottest day of the year (41 degree Celsius in Melbourne), while 2008 arrived with resplendent fireworks in Melbourne.

It's the first time I celebrate New Year's Day in overseas, so I joined the 350,000-strong crowd at the Yarra Riverside to watch the fireworks. Honestly it's not as nice as I expected, partly because we were standing right beneath the explosion. The couple in front of us who couldn't stop cumbu-cumbuing throughout the firework didn't help either. When people counted 10, 9, 8,... 3, 2, 1, they started kissing each other on the mouth. Haha.

The scorching heat also made me feel rather uncomfortable. At night, first we were having dinner in Brandon's house (whose cooking by the way was absolutely mouth-watering). We had already gone quite clammy inside his house. When we walked from Brandon's house all the way to the city, the temperature was still at the mid thirties even though it's 10.30 at night.

In the city, hundred thousands of people literally turned the whole Swanston Street into an open-air dancing floor. Whichever direction I laid my eyes on, there were people dancing, shaking and jumping and clogging the whole street. It's as though a party was going on except that there was no alcohol allowed. Interestingness aside, Melbourne's New Year Eve countdown is not the safest place you want to end up in. The crowd and the half-drunken people can make you feel rather insecure. Regardless, celebration in Melbourne is still much more civilised than Malaysia where people simply spray each other with ribbons and chemical snowflakes and pass it off as fun. It's annoyingly meaningless.

Let's hope that the year 2008 brings out all the best in everyone, and may we all live in bliss and content with good health! :)

Image Credit: The Age NYE Photo Gallery