Fireworks on the Yarra RiverWell here we are, on the first day of the new year. Surprisingly, I didn't even get a drop of alcohol last night. After a early dinner with Ka-Meng, Jensen and Siew Yee at La Porchetta in South Yarra, we made our way to the city at around 7pm. Having parked in Crown, we walked down to Federation Square where there was a live concert going on, but it was too crowded so we parked ourselves on a small patch of grass by the river, behind Fed Sq. and were chatting, playing Scrabble on my PDA, and getting chilled by the slowly dropping temperatures. The spot we chose happened to be where lots of parents decided to bring their kids and it was like a daycare center with kids playing, screaming, singing, dancing all around us. Come 9:30, the first round of fireworks were launched and the kids around us were ooh-ing and ahh-ing. When it was over, we made out way to Southgate, grabbed some hotdogs because we were getting a bit hungry, and then found a spot on the Queensbridge. At the time it was still pretty sprase but from 11:30 onwards it was already pretty packed. There wasn't any countdown where we were, but we knew it was the new year when the skies and the river was lit up by the fireworks exploding above us. It was a beautiful 15 minute long display, and whenever there was a break everyone on the bridge would turn around and watch the fireworks going on at the Docklands behind us. We made our way back and hung out at SY's place after the celebrations and chatted way into the night. All of us being in the same boat - that is, unemployed PRs trying to make a living here - had the same primary New Years' Resolution, that is to get a job. Once that happens, everything else would just fall into place. Here's to the hope that 2004 will be a much better year than the disaster- and tragedy-wrought 2003. PS. I have uploaded photos of the NYE fireworks over the Yarra River in Melbourne.

Two Thousand and Four