Happy 2005... and the events preceding it...

Only a few days ago, an Earthquake and Tsunami occured. And now, we are in a new year. It didn't feel right, but the festive mood was undampened by alcohol and crazy people. Its now two days into the new year. One more day of holiday and I'm back to work. But I did manage to go out to watch the fireworks on NYE and come back very late the next day... Let me tell of my story (whatever I can remember)...

Dec 31st, 2004

I wasn't sure if I was going to watch the fireworks. The noise, the people, THE CRUSHING. Its always a charged up event, no matter how you look at it, you might get crushed when the throng of masses decide to surge towards the front of the shore. Certain places simply has no room - you will be standing for a few hours. Other places you can actually enjoy a picnic style seating arrangement. The standing area is usually just around the bridge... and places where people just decide to stand up... otherwise u can just sit down and rest/chat for a few hours... wake up at 11:59pm... count down... and go back home. And that marks a few hours spent celebrating the new year. Now I have to write "05" in every signed document... I think some of us might still write 04... since you do spend around 365 days using 04. It just might take you a few days to adjust...

I woke up the usual time... 11am... bummed around, hopped online to see if anybody has any plans (in syd). My colleague didn't come on till very late (I checked the logs). So I wasn't sure. Anyways, at around 3ish my bro comes back. Previously, he wasn't coming back until the new year... but today he just came back, along with his road trip people. 3 girls (one is his gf, the other two are in his faculty). At that time, I was using my new laptop... installing some software for my parents... And he goes 'you wanna come to see fireworks with us'... hmmmmm... I ain't anti-social... but I don't know... the crowds do go crazy. (And I wasn't proven wrong). My last experience of the crowd crushing was in 2001 or 2002... I was in circular quay with my mum and auntie... and we were watching the fireworks... and this drunk guy just tackles me. Like wtf... I wasn't doing shit, this guy just takes me down... he mutters sorry, and squeezes through the crowds... and I was just... hurt. And my mum didn't even see it happen... So I was considering if I should go or not. In the end I just said why not... couldn't possibly go any worse. And lucky nothing bad happened.

We got into the rent-a-car my bro hired for the trip... he went down south through country towns and went to Melb, and to see some penguins on phillip island or something, and then comes back. (Did 2,997 km in 7 days...) I sat in the front with him, the three girls were in the back. My bro dropped his stuff first, and then we headed off to USyd to drop off the girl's stuff... (we were gonna crash at the college there later...) and returned the car. By that time it was 5pm. Then came the decision... what to get for dinner. I was hankering for some Subway... but the closest one was about 10 mins walk... so in the end I got Hungry Jacks. Its not very satisifying, since a Subway can fill me up for dinner. A burger is too small. :P Bro and his gf got something from Woolworths, the girls got sushi. And so we made the walk to the Botanical Gardens.

Botanical Gardens. A weird place to be revelling in the new year, but with 50,000 other people there it might not be wrong... We got there in about 30 mins... just before 7. Apparently there's a special reserved section for fee paying people with tickets... and we lined up along with about 300 people... then somebody asked what was the deal with this queue... and we found out, and got out of the queue... and found out the gate for the free access closes at 7:20pm... so we were lucky...

We actually walked through and around the massive crowd of people and it took around 20 mins to walk to the end of the gardens... where there were already approximately 1,000 people or so crammed under some huge trees... And there were 2 'sets' of toilets... about 20 toilets in a row... and people were waiting in a big group to use them... -_- My bro tried to call his friends but none of them picked up. So we were tring to find space for 5 people. We found a place... and sat down... and when my bro looked up, 3 meters away... there were his friends... all playing cards... WTF. haha they didn't hear their mobiles and 3 of them had many missed calls... Talk about coincidence. :P Anyways, we still sat 3 meters away since there were no room... And then we waited...

Waiting is no fun when all you got is your bro his gf... the other two girls were also 3 meters behind us, since there were no space... so I passed the time with my camera, which was bought back with many pics... so it was nearly out of room :P. Tried to take shots of this and that... but since the light conditions were dark... hard to take good pics... so didn't take any good pics at all.
9pm came... The fireworks were alright... 10 mins or so... after that, it was very dark indeed... Punctuated by flashes every couple of seconds (digicams)... and incorherent singing, shouting, and other behaviour. Digicams are very popular now... almost one in 3 people have one... or even 1 in 2... as later I will describe. 3 more hours....

11:30pm... We decided, as along with couple of hundred people, to stand up and move towards a better vantage point. This of course, is met with staunch resistance from the old drunks who think that since they've been sitting there since 3pm, its their turf. No, who gives a shit what u think, its not your turf, soon people will be standing up all around you, and you have to stand up too. But there were some shouting matches because of that... but as time goes on, more and more people get placated... and there was a minute of silence with a lot of 'shhhhh'...

11:59:40... "The Cult of Raised Arm" appears. Thats the term coined by my bro... when he turns around and sees all these raised arms with digicams in the air.... and the light show at the ends of the bridge starts counting down from 20 - 1. I was one of the cult members :P Lots of clapping, wooing, and screaming Happy New Year! This lasts for approximately 20 mins...

1st Jan, 2005. Happy New Year folks... now its time to head on home. Or to a 24 hour pub. or whatever...

00:20amIt gets very crowded here... and the air is very thick... like seriously thick... all the smoke from the fireworks drifts across the city in a yellow haze. We follow the crowd... takes 40 minutes to walk (when entering, it was about 15 mins) in the crowd to the exit of the gardens... the crowd is just massive. Pity I didn't take a pic of the crowd... its just a mass of party people.

1:00 - 1:40amWe make it to a bus stop and catch a bus to the college and crash there...

2am.Sleep is good. Unfortunately I was deprived of it -_- (7 hours sleep)

9am.Wakes up with sun in my eyes. We head off to Central station after saying goodbye to the girls. Of course, we didn't sleep in the same place. In a empty room ok. Its still the holidays for uni students :P It's a co-ed college :P Caught the train up north. Since it goes via the bridge, I managed to take a snap of the Disco ball hanging off the coathanger. (The harbour bridge :P). Amazed that it turned out clear, since we were in a moving train :P

11am - 3pmGets to bro's gf's place. Played some table tennis... had lunch (pasta). Bro + gf washed the dog... I just sat around... Then bro decides to help them set up a LaserDisc player that somebody gave them... that took about an hour... all their setup and cables... Then we got to the car... its been very very neglected... :P A week under a tree and under attack by birds and such :P

4pmBack home... tired and ok... and thus its a new year. Yay :P And still got some more time before going back to work. Its all good :P

I guess its not much... but I think its been an ok NYE celebration. Lets just be glad it only happens once a year? :P