Pages

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

An overdue new year wishes

Fireworks5

Hello everyone. It's well overdue but a belated Happy New Year to all and to all a good year!

Sorry for the absence but I sort of lost my blogging mojo for a bit after that long and exhaustive Christmas post. There has been a fair bit on my mind lately that came to a head since the 2008 rolled into place.

Being in a new country and starting everything from scratch is not as easy as everyone makes it out to be. We're knee deep at the moment looking for new employment and a place to call home. It's sort of a catch 22 - work and home. If you're not employed by the time you find a nice new pad, you're faced with the likelihood of having to dish out a minimum of 3 months deposit. If you 'are' employed before you find a new pad, then you find that you don't have any or enough time to find a place good enough to call home. Ahh how it sucks. I haven't had to go through unemployment and look for a home since 2002. =(

Anyway, please forgive the rant. Normal transmissions will resume soon. I do have lots of backlogged posts to share, like our trips to Luxembourg and Bremen, a tale about the chocolate creme de pot recipe that I made as part of our christmas lunch feast, muffins and loads more.

For now, I'd like to share with you some images from new years eve in London. From our "pre-new year" drinks at the Pizza Express in Lambeth (because our initial plan to queue up at Waggamama for a late dinner was foiled by crowd controllers who closed off access to South Bank at 7:30)....

drinkies

to Waterloo Bridge where we waited, some-what patiently in the drizzling rain with hundreds of other Londoners for the new year to roll in.

Waiting in the rain..

We reminisced about how quick the year went by. The new friends that we've made and the old friends that we've caught up with again. The trips that we've been to and reminisced about our favourite singers and bands of the past like NKOTB, Backstreet Boys and Westlife.. amongst the many that we imitated and their hits that we sung to whilst keeping ourselves occupied until... 3 mins to midnight...

5min to Midnight

and before we knew it, the crowd was already counting down the seconds left of 2007.....28, 27, 26, 25....

Countdown at 25 secs

10...
Countdown at 10 secs

...3, 2, 1 and we all roared.. Happy New Year!!

Fireworks1


Fireworks2


Fireworks4

Fireworks3

and before we knew it, the fireworks displayed started to disappear and slowly became invisible because of the thick smoke that resulted from the rain drizzles touching the sparks from the fireworks display... and so because there was nothing else to see (although we could still hear the fireworks going off behind the smoke), we gave ourselves a pat on the back, a kiss on the cheek and then we all headed home...

The aftermath..


I hope you all had a memorable new years eve celebration as we did and I wish you loads of yummy goodness and all the very best for 2008. =)

Cheers!

Lovely Bubbly

12 comments:

K and S said...

Happy 2008!

Manggy said...

Happy new year!!
Re: work and home... yeah, I don't know how anybody does it :) I don't know how I will, at least!

Anh said...

happy new year! (though it's late!). I love those photos of yours. very nice indeed!

And all the best for your travel. I will be a great!

Chibog in Chief said...

Happy happy new year to you dear!! wishing you all the best and more delicious kitchen adventures for this year!!

Anonymous said...

Happy belated new year hon! I need more posts on Olde London Town dude, keep 'em coming, I need to live vicariously through you! :P

Ellie @ Kitchen Wench

thanh7580 said...

Happy 2008 to everyone.

Wonderful fireworks photos Iling. And the photo of the bottles on the ground is very thought provoking.

ilingc said...

Kat, Manggy, Anh, Dhanggit, Ellie and Thanh: Happy New Year all!

Manggy: Yah, House hunting and job hunting really sux. But I guess it's like a rite to adulthood. A little bit of hard work will eventually pay off in the long run.. :) at least thats what I keep telling myself now anyway! LOL

Anh: Happy traveling to you too Anh.

Ellie: Sorry hon, I haven't been out and about in London much coz it's been raining. I promise to do more posts about London soon!

Thanh: The last photo with the baileys and champers was a group standing about 5m from us. They got there before us and were already drinking! What I was really aiming for was for a shot at this group of 4 in front of us who popped a bottle of champers just as everyone was leaving and they were all taking swigs off it. But the photos didn't turn out too well :|

Truffle said...

What gorgeous photos! Happy new year!

Jen said...

I know the year is hardly new anymore, but just wishing you a great 2008. Superb photos!
I'm heading over to London later this year and will probably be staying for at least 12 months. So I can't wait to see more of your London posts.

Anonymous said...

Happy 2008!!

Gorgeous photos.

IronEaters said...

Happy New Year n Happy CNY. love the pics. really really nice =)

ilingc said...

Jen: Hey, you're coming to London! That's great. I will try and put up a lot more London posts so you know what to expect when you get here :) Happy belated New Year to you too!

Kitchen Goddess: Thank you and a Happy belated New year to you too :)

IronEaters: Hiya, Thank you and Happy CNY! :D