Thursday, January 1, 2009

Sure Beats the Ball Dropping!

We saw some fantastic fireworks last night! The whole day was a bit surreal. I woke up (grrr at 3:45 am...just love getting used to the time zone changes) and put on shorts and a tee shirt. Shorts on December 31st. Just cannot get used to that. Did some quick grocery shopping in the city (after six weeks in the states, the cabinet was a bit sparse, to say the least.) I can now say that I've ridden in a taxi while surrounded by my bags of groceries. Weird.
On the ride back to the apartment, it didn't look like I was going to be able to get all the way back since the road closures for the fireworks had already begun. But the nice policeman who stopped the taxi took a quick look at me in the back seat surrounded by my bags of groceries and let us through. Thank you, kind sir!

I'm sure I looked comical enough if anybody saw me trying to grab all the bags in one trip (didn't happen...had to make two) from the taxi to the door of the building. I won't even mention trying to hold the door open and get all the bags into the lobby (that took three trips). I think that one may have rated a video on You Tube.

To say that the New Year's Eve fireworks in Sydney are popular is quite the understatement. People began lining up around the harbour area with their blankets, towels, umbrellas, and coolers of food at 12:00. That's 12:00 noon. Yep...these crazy people were willing to bake outside in the sun for a full 12 hours to get a prime spot to watch the fireworks.

But I think we had the best view! There was a mini-firework show at 9:00 pm for families with kids who wouldn't make it until midnight, a lighted boat parade, fireworks shot off of the office buildings next door, and of course, some great fireworks off of the Harbour Bridge and two barges in the harbour. We invited our pastor and his family from the church we attend here to join us and had a great time. If the idea of pulled pork sandwiches ever makes it big in Australia, you heard it here first, that the Lankfords brought it over from the states. They were a hit as well as the lasagna that I made. (No, Faith...not my famous pepperoni lasagna. I can't find pepperoni over here.) Here's some pictures of the night...enjoy!!

Part of the 9:00 pm show

Part of the boat parade (if you can see it in blurry picture...sorry about that)


Fireworks off of the tops of the office buildings next door

Part of the finale

2 comments:

David Rudd said...

it's like you guys live at disney!

Mary said...

it looks like they are bowing up the city!!!!! lol, wow! very pretty....