HAPPY NEW YEAR ~ 2011
Wow! Fell into glorious sleep around 11.00 pm tonight, however was woken at 12.10 am by thunderous sounds of pyrotechnics over downtown Melbourne. The splintered boom and crackle, rise and fall of fire works carried through the still, night air, echoed over hills and vales to Hawthorn. Awake now ~ hot cup of tea by my side, no New Year's resolutions, why bother, they're almost always broken. The slow, languid, heat of the day and the predicted storm just a memory. It's still 24.5 degrees and I think of the masses in the CBD struggling to get on public transport to make their way home, or those who refuse to even think about leaving the city, still shouting 'Happy New Year' to each other and kissing anyone within striking distance. I've been there, under Princes Bridge, trapped by the crowd, hands over my ears watching the spectacle unfold in the sky above, bright light fall-out reflected in the still, dark water of the river below; and then later, much later, asking myself why I'd exposed myself to the trauma and splendour of the event, unable to move because I was boxed in by people in front, back and either side. Maybe it was to do it, just once, and yet there are some who negotiate it year after year to celebrate the last day and then see the new year in.
It seems that the instant people like Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle are elected to council they somehow morph into event managers. I think cramming a half million people into a small space for a ten minute firework show and expecting them to line up for hours in orderly fashion for public transport home in the middle of the night is crazy.
ReplyDeleteAgree! The one and only time that I actually ventured into the city to see the fire-works, as opposed to watching the display from a distance in North Melbourne, it took me an hour just to walk back over Princes Bridge and along Swanston Street to Elizabeth Street tram because of crowd density. Then, because trams were so packed it took about another hour and a half to get home. I will never do that again. I'm currently watching the displays from various cities around the world on ABC 24 television (finally got HD set top box yesterday) and of course the spectacle it's absolutely amazing, but at what cost. My favourite is footage of Moscow NYE ~ fireworks over white snow covered buildings and blue sky.
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