1st Jan. 2008
Put your hand up if you can’t believe it’s the first day of 2008. How ridiculous! When we first arrived I remember thinking that the New Year was so far away it wasn’t even worth worrying about. Now it’s here. Today. In all of its glory.
In following on from our Christmas and Boxing Day entries where we introduced a few pics from home I thought I’d do the same thing again.
New Years Eve and New Years Day are both massive occasions for all walks of life. New Years Eve is all about night time parties, BBQ’s, seafood and cocktails. That’s if you’re staying home. If you’re going out it’s usually down to the harbour to join at least a million others in watching one of the most spectacular fireworks displays on earth. I have included some of the pics from this year’s show courtesy of Sydney’s number 1 newspaper, The Daily Telegraph (http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au if you’re interested).
For New Years Day it is all about the outdoors. Beaches, rivers, lakes, pools, picnics, cricket, Frisbee and anything else allowing for fun in the sun. A big favourite of mine, after coming back from Culburra with Kelly’s family, as mentioned a few posts ago, was to head down to the Georges River, not far from home to see my family. This usually involved another BBQ, plenty of Beer and my stepfathers jetski.
That and fishing from Kelly’s dad boat usually made for a pretty good few days around this time of year.
Here in Green Bay today we played in the snow for a little bit, worked some more on the website and went to Culvers for lunch. Tell me, if there’s nothing more Aussie than a BBQ in the sun, is there anything more Wisconsin than walking through the snow to eat a cheese melt in front of a wall of Green Bay Packer memorabilia?
Hope you enjoy the following pics. The first set is a few of the family from the last 3 years. The second set is The City of Sydney’s 2008 fireworks display:
Family, 2005, 2006, 2007
1st January 2005. It was so hot this New Years. Compared to the 20F high of Green Bay it was 110F in Sydney. Despite the fact that we lived a few minutes walk to the beach it way too hot to even consider it. Sure walking there is great, it’s downhill and you’ve got a swim to look forward to. The way back is uphill with no reward at the end. Instead i fashioned an outdoor shower by placing a watering can in a tree and running the hose through it. Beleive it or not, running the hose between the hours of 10am and 4pm is illegal back home thanks to the drought so doing this risked a fine of $400. It was very cool though.
First week of January 2006. Kelly and I were in town to spend the weekend with Marco. Ben, just a year old at the time, was with Kel’s mum. That was too bad.
New Years Eve 2007. A much lower key celebration than last year thanks to the little one on Kelly’s knee. With Luc’s addition we went out, had a quick dinner, bumped glasses and wished each other a Happy New Years. We were home just in time for Luc’s next feed.
NYE 2008 Sydney Style (Pics from http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au)
Celebrations kicking off above the Sydney Opera House
The Sydney Harbour Bridge before it becomes the centrepiece of the show
The beginning
I know the Bridge looks spectacular but check out the Opera House glowing in the foreground
The change of colour makes the water and the boats stand out
Gearing up for the finale
During the finale
Again, Kelly and I hope that a happy and safe 2008 brings you everything you could ever wish for. Who knows where you’ll be this time next year! We certainly didn’t.
