Friday, January 2, 2009

Celebrating the New Year


How was my new year?
See unlike the Philippines where me and my crazy cousins get a hold of Firecrackers and roman candles;
Running around crazy in the streets and lighting up the ” Sinturon ni Hudas” on our poor old dead mango tree
The jumping for cover like were in the Iraq war zone. Often getting blasted by some renegade cracker.


The US has a more non- pyrotechnic type of Holiday.
Just an FYI ” Sinturon Ni Hudas” is either a 10-20 foot long belt/rope of fire crackers with a short fuse at both ends.
It makes a loud crackling sound once lighted since the belt is fused with little but strong fire power. This is one of the most deadliest/dangerous Philippine fireworks that cause the most death and injury to children and people during New Years Eve.

Here in California, the closest I got from any fireworks was just watching then from the bay. The weather was very cold. I had a blanket and 2 jackets ( one from my friend) wrapped around me.
But before that, we dined in this authentic Italian restaurant called Piatti. Normally I would always order Fettuccini but strangely enough the didn’t have one in the menu. I instead choose to have this Baked Bass with asparagus and it was soooo goood. My firt time too having Bass.

After the countdown by the Bay, we decided to cruise down town. We saw the heavily paparatzi’d party at the Hard Rock hotel and we got stuck in traffic right in front of Bondi’s a very cool Australian bar/restaurant
I was able to see this girl nearly half naked being arrested. Such a shame she was very pretty but very drunk.
The poor cop, I feel sorry for him was trying to cover up her lower private part. She does not look like she was wearing anything underneath and since she kept squatting on the side walk, her tube dress was riding up. The cop had to pull her dress down while making sure she didn’t run into oncoming traffic. I tried taking some pictures but they were too blurry.

In the end it was a fun and quite Americanized style of New Years eve.
I didn’t get drunk like most of the people we saw downtown. Once home I used my Skype account to do a conference call to my Family in Manila. Calling using the landline was nearly impossible, with the rest of the Filipinos abroad jamming the international lines. Plus the quality was clearer. It was very Nostalgic, the girls ( my nieces) were all at home. Screaming their heads off as usual. They are drinking now liked I used too at their age, sneaking off for a sip of beer.
My Cousin Rela now had her 2nd baby. And yes I was getting the, when are you marrying question again.

But overall it was all good. And I enjoyed my first happy new year in a long time.

Happy 2009 everyone.

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