Happy New Year!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Mmm hmm. Yup. It's new year!

I would like to take this moment to wish a very sincere and personal Happy New Year to all my supportive readers. Thank you for dropping by my blog every-so-often since the creation of my blog two months and eighteen days ago. Thank you, and Happy New Year.

...And that's it. Happy new year hype usually lasts for half an hour for me and then dies out quick. But, today's New Year switch-over was rather unique, because... well, where to begin?

Tonight, I happen to be in Kuala Lumpur, the pearl of Malaysian cities. Do I go on too many vacations? Yes, definitely. Anyway, because of this happy coincidence, we were able to enjoy the grand new year fireworks show at the KLCC Park! It went like this...


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There I was, in the throng of people gathered outside the famous KL twin towers. It was approaching midnight, but there was not a visible star in the sky - the glare of the light set up from the plaza canceled out the shine of the stars of space.

We were there, the five of us, together with my baby sister. It took a great effort to get anywhere near the grassy area of the park, for there were so many people. And it is a universal rule, in any universe, that 3 hours prior to New Year's at least, it is compulsary that where 10 or more people are gathered, one of them has something to make noise with. The newspaper, it would turn out the following day, said there were about 50,000 people there that night. Calculate the ratio of noisemakers yourself.




In short, yes, it was noisy. The fountains nearby were putting on a water show, slightly out of place at this time of night, but suitable with the occassion. I was watching this quietly, when all of a sudden the whole multitude, from end to end it seemed, gave rise to a united cheer. Looking around me, I noted that everyone was looking skyward.

I followed suit, but failed to see anything enlightening. Yes, there was the sky up there, which would at any moment be filled with the flash of a dozen-and-hundred fireworks, but for the time being it was relatively blank and unassuming. Looking up, there was also the famous KL Twin Towers, which were the highest in the world for some time long ago. For the first time in my sixteen-year existence, I realised how majestic the building looked at night.

 And then something caught my eye. What's that on the top of that building there? Is it a clock?

 Yes... Everyone was looking at the clock, cheering at each minute approaching New Year. The recent cheer, it appeared, marked the ticking of the clock into 11:59!

As is custom approaching the final seconds of New Year, some of the audience tried to assemble a shaggy countdown. But this wasn't the kind of clock that greeted second-by-second accuracy with a warm smile. In the end, the final seconds went something like: "Seven... six... five... four... threeWHOOOOHAPPYNEWYEAR!!!"

The clock was silent, but the ring of the figurative tower bell resonated in everyone's minds as we hit New Year's Day. And turning around, what should we see but a single stream of light sailing up into the heights of the sky, like the stalk of a rapidly sprouting plant, which bloomed beautifully when it reached the peak of its ascent. Punctuality is the courtesy of kings. Before long, the sky was filled with beautiful lights.



A standard, burst-type fireworks, to get the show started.



And look, an army of streamer fireworks, which leave long trails of light before silently winking out! These strangely remind me of missiles.



What's ironic is, the armageddon probably won't look a whole lot more different than this. I suppose that's a very glass-half-empty point of view, but it might be better than someone who looks at a nuclear explosion and is reminded of fireworks.

There was also this kind of firework which rose high into the sky, then erupted into these streamers which fell lightly back down. It was quite unique, and got a cheer or two from the audience.



And, of course, image-type fireworks. It doesn't matter if it isn't even a particular image, as long as its an image-type firework. In this case, it looks like one of those planets, which one is it now, the one with the rings around it.



Towards the end of the show, it occured to me that my handphone took videos too, and that a video of fireworks might work better than photos. I switched to video camera mode in time for the grand finale. My handphone can take about 12 seconds of video at a time, and this is that much of the grand finale.





Through all the explosions and cheering, my baby sister slept like a lamb. I'm not sure why I had to take a picture of it.



And look, the show lasted for nine minutes. I took a picture of the clock as we left, so that I would remember what the time was. Yes, I'm a bumpkin.

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This post glitched up when I was adding the photos. Happy new year to you too, glitch.

The inconsistency of the capital letters in the words "New Year" in this post unsettles me, but its midnight (duh) so I can't be bothered to reread everything. What's new?