new year countdown right at my doorstep

for the first time since i moved to bayan baru 10 years ago, we had a new year countdown party right at the community field just below the flat i’m staying.

it started with a food fair at 7.30pm, which was in aid of the pusat harian harapan bakti in balik pulau, penang (a home for the mentally challenged children). i went with my mum and sis and we bought RM50 worth of tickets to spend.

the food fair had the usual hawkers food stall e.g. curry mee, tom yam mee, murtabak, pizza, nasi tomato and so on. the only special stall i saw was the taiwanese fried chicken and taiwanese something potato. i brought the chicken which was at RM6 a piece but it was a very big piece. very nice! of course i did not only ate the chicken (which was shared by the 3 of us) but i also ate curry mee and ba chang kueh (pancake).

while the food fair was going on, there was a karaoke session going on. mainly there were 2 singers, one who sang english numbers and one who sang mandarin numbers.

after taking the food, which was about 8.30, i went back to my flat unit for a rest. but i can hear clearly the singing and the announcements.

at 10.00pm, the show started, with guests arriving and the usual speeches and presentation. that was the time that i went down to the field again. there were 50 lucky draws and among our 5 tickets, we got the 39th prize. it was only a hamper that is worth about RM20. no luck to get the top 10 (with prizes like TV, fan, buffet dinner, hotel stay). at least 39th better than nothing at all.

there were 2 line dancing performance and cultural dance of the 3 main ethinic groups, malay, chinese and indian. after the 3 groups had their dance, all of them came together for a ‘muhibah’ dance. all the dances were very nice – lively and fast. there was also a performance of diabolo by the phor tay school students. that was the first time i heard of ‘diabolo’. had no idea what it was at all prior to that. well i google for it after the show and found it was kind of a spool with strings to pull it…. some what like a yoyo. the students play the diabolo to the tune of music. i can see they were very skillfull indeed as they twirled and turned and threw high up the diabolo.

2 minutes before midnight, we all sang auld lang syne and rasa sayang. then fireworks lit up the sky. this was followed by a free for all dance but i see that everyone were shy and nobody went up to dance. heh. guess it was kind of like a family outing with old and young, not the usual young or yuppy or elite party goers in nightclub/disco, so they were shy.

have a look at some of the pictures here. i had the pictures of all the 3 ethnic dances plus the ‘muhibah’ dance. i took the diabolo performance too but it was too far away thus it was not clear. took many photos of the fireworks in action but only 2 came out good! i should not have use the ‘fireworks’ feature i think because for using that feature, i need to slowly press the shutter and with steady hand but i was doing it all exaclty opposite – fast and shaky! well the fireworks wait for no on so i have to quick capture it when i see some nice ‘pattern’.

well it’s a good thing this ‘majlis malam ambang tahun baru 2009’ was organised as at least it let me out of the house for a countdown – as been years i always stay home during new year’s eve.