New Year, New Friend, New Resolution

Joined a secondary school senior, his coursemates and their friends to the Hogmanay (a Scottish word for the last day of the year) Street Party on New Year's Eve.

Quite an international group as there were 11 of us, from 6 countries such as Malaysia, Hong Kong, Japan, California, Sweden and the Netherlands.

A group picture - some had wandered away somewhere - taken at the entrance to the Street Party

The festival was divided into different categories, with different ticket prices. There were a Garden Concert and a street party. The whole street was decorated with colourful lights on trees and there were stalls selling food, drinks and merchandise by the roadside. There were two big screens at both ends of the street, with spotlight (which reminded me of Gotham City :p) and loud music with guest deejays. The street was turned into a concert venue.

The screen at the centre taken from afar....

It was crowded. People pushed from all directions and it was thus difficult to move around. Some people sat on their friend's shoulders and their legs kept kicking at us accidentally. As I was too short, I could not see what happened on the big screen. A stranger (jokingly, I think) offered his shoulders for me :p

There was a small firework display (an appetiser :p) every hour counting down to 12.

People started singing along to the songs and dancing so we tried to join in. Unfortunately, halfway through the party, there were some technical problems with the screen and sound system. Some people booed, friends started complaining (guess there would not be a second time for us next year!), but worst of all, there was this drunken man who kept stumbling and stepped on my foot once!

The only highlight was the counting down and the fireworks display, with the castle set as the background. No, I did not take any pictures as I wanted to enjoy the moment :p

After that people held hands together to sing along to Auld Lang Syne. We left after that and decided to go for a drink. Most pubs were crowded and so we went separate ways as some wanted to attend their friends' new year party.

The best time of the night was when three of us (two Malaysians and one Hongkie) went for a drink on our own.

I find friendship with a Hongkie to be really interesting. Since we had the same Chinese root and both places used to be colonised by the British, we shared the same sentiment towards certain nations. But most of all, we spoke the same language that was Cantonese, grew up listening to Cantopop, watching Hong Kong film and TVB drama series, and had the same 'frequency' and sense of humour. The bonding was so easy (even easier compared to some fellow Malaysian Chinese!), he could pass as a fellow Kamparian! In fact when he first introduced himself, he tried to trick me into believing that he's a Kamparian and I actually believed him. But one thing betrayed him. If you have been watching Hong Kong films and drama series, you would have noticed that when they insert certain English words into their Cantonese, they always pronounce it in a certain 'melody'. And I had thought it only happened on TV :p

Before the night ended, we made some new year resolutions...... to watch some of the must-watch films that we had missed :p

P.S. Went to Glasgow for the weekend and came back to find the city covered in snow all over again!