It's Raining Fireworks!

December 2011 is coming to an end. A blessed month filled with joy, love, warmth, laughters, hugs, kissses, twinkling lights, colors of red-green-golden-white, dancings, carolings, prayers, fireworks, gifts, snow, rain. A perfect month to go on travelling and shopping. A wonderful month to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, marriages, being singles. A memorable month we experienced deaths and births of our loved ones. Let's wrap today with resolution to bring forward all the good things and leave all the misery behind us. And start saving money for the next December. Happy New Year's .. Eve!

I posted on Facebook on last Saturday morning.

Now let me just emphasize on FIREWORKS, SHOPPING, MONEY. December is definitely the season of fireworks, season of midnight sales, that in no doubt can make people bankrupt faster than reindeers taking off to the sky. And it's absolutely becoming strong in trend year by year.

People has left the tradition of staying at home on New Year's Eve. Gathering in a feasty family dinner or barbeque will probably be quite a privilege as people are now more individualists. People tend to look for events held so they can feel the merrier festivity, even if that means they have to celebrate it together with total strangers. In the past, shopping centers and restaurants were closed before evening, so that their employees/storekeepers could spend the new year's eve with family and friends. Now they run all-night-long to accommodate the die-hard shoppers and practical diners, milking the very last profit they can get to close the year.

Am I happy with this? Hell, yeah!

Er .. Sorta.

Once again we find ourselves enmeshed in the Holiday Season, that very special time of year when we join with our loved ones in sharing centuries-old traditions such as trying to find a parking space at the mall. We traditionally do this in my family by driving around the parking lot until we see a shopper emerge from the mall, then we follow her, in very much the same spirit as the Three Wise Men, who 2,000 years ago followed a star, week after week, until it led them to a parking space. ~ Dave Barry

Andri followed this trick to get a parking space at Summarecon Mal Serpong that New Year's Eve. We went there to dine and to catch the firework show.

And to shop? No. It's in my blood that I'm rather immune to sale. I can't find good things on discounted price. I can't afford the ones that appeal to me. So, I just gleefully watched and forever wondered how those tasteless things could attract the midnight shoppers.

I preferred to wait for a table in a famous Chinese restaurant who had dead ducks hanging at their display window. See, my family were with me, and this was one of the rarest opportunity I could drag my dad out of his room to dine outside. I would not let that table go. Ninety minutes later, we were secured inside the restaurant, eating till we dropped.

We saw people keep streaming into the restaurant (and the mall) at 10 pm. Most of them were chasing the two firework blasts that would only start at midnight.

I'm a sucker for fireworks. I don't exactly know why or how. Maybe because it's still difficult to see firework show around here. It's not something we can easily find without any special occasions. Not even on our Independence Day we can get to see some. Here we haven't had theme parks that can show fireworks every single night. (Believe me or not, the very first firework show I saw was the Hong Kong Disneyland's Disney in the Stars in 2005. It's the only dancing and musical fireworks I've seen live so far). The best ones usually set and widely spread for the New Year' events. And because it's rare (and oftenly not free), firework shows always attract massive number of spectators.

That's what we got in the evening. The mall was so packed in and out by people waiting for the fireworks. One gate was closed for public, they had special performance from local artists, we would not be able to watch the fireworks from closed distance. So we'd been informed to go to the other gate, right outside Starbucks, because from the roof of that cafe, fireworks would be set off. We literally digged our way out to the center of the crowd.

waiting for fireworks show at Summarecon Mal Serpong, with thousand of people who act like never seen any fireworks in their lives before.

We were surrounded by trumpet sounds and all-around fireworks shot to the clear sky by the neighbourhood. Everytime, in every directions we looked up to the sky, it was filled with colorful sprinkles. They became the opening acts of the upcoming celebration.

Then, situation was intensified. There was no countdown. Nothing. But we could feel it's coming .. I got my pocket camera ready ..

.. and late by seconds cause the fireworks appeared with a bang. Right there from the roof of the mall. It was loud, huge, and it was so close we got shell debris raining onto us .. and into our eyes. There was no music but random choreographed fireworks. It was far below London, Dubai, Sydney, Hong Kong, or any other countries that have never failed in setting off the most gorgeous fireworks in the world. But this one was awesome nonetheless. Some were that unique, some were shot so tight, the bigger shells left us breathless with their approaching effects. Almost looked like they were about to touch our hairs. Some had these marvelous patterns and colours, they filled my camera lens up as if seen through a kaleidoscope.

We forgot the fact, it was all money burnt up in the sky.

Here's my recording result, with no zoom lens and no tripod. I put all efforts in holding my camera still above my head without me looking directly toward the flares at some points, and I had to pan to catch the ones bursting from the opposite gate. Pardon the camera shakes. It was a good 10-minute-plus exercise for the arms and neck, by the way.

Editing notes:

• I put Katy Perry's "Firework" as a background song, I just felt it's suitable with that "oh, oh, oh" and "boom, boom, boom".
• I intentionally kept the original audio from the recording with 50% volume off to add some effects coming from the spectators without sounding too noisy.
• I added two footage of Mat's fireworks. Yeah, I wouldn't be as much as a sucker had I not bought our own fireworks. By the time of the recording, there was one biggest shell of 16 continuous shots saved the best for last at home.

"FIREWORK"
Performer: Katy Perry
Writers: Sandy Wilhelm, Mikkel Eriksen, Tor Hermansen, Katy Perry & Ester Dean

Do you ever feel like a plastic bag, drifting through the wind, wanting to start again?
Do you ever feel, feel so paper-thin, like a house of cards, one blow from caving in?
Do you ever feel already buried deep? Six feet under screams, but no one seems to hear a thing
Do you know that there's still a chance for you? 'Cause there's a spark in you
You just gotta ignite the light and let it shine
Just own the night like the Fourth of July
'Cause baby, you're a firework, come on show 'em what you're worth
Make 'em go "oh, oh, oh!", as you shoot across the sky-y-y
Baby, you're a firework, come on let your colors burst
Make 'em go "oh, oh, oh!", you're gonna leave 'em all in awe, awe, awe

You don't have to feel like a waste of space, you're original, cannot be replaced
If you only knew what the future holds, after a hurricane, comes a rainbow
Maybe the reason why all the doors are closed, so you could open one that leads you to the perfect road
Like a lightning bolt, your heart will glow and when it's time you know
You just gotta ignite the light and let it shine
Just own the night like the Fourth of July
'Cause baby, you're a firework, come on show 'em what you're worth
Make 'em go "oh, oh, oh!", as you shoot across the sky-y-y
Baby, you're a firework, come on let your colors burst
Make 'em go "oh, oh, oh!", you're gonna leave 'em all in awe, awe, awe

Boom, boom, boom, even brighter than the moon, moon, moon
It's always been inside of you, you, you
And now it's time you let it through-ooh-ooh
'Cause baby, you're a firework, come on show 'em what you're worth
Make 'em go "oh, oh, oh!", as you shoot across the sky-y-y
Baby, you're a firework, come on let your colors burst
Make 'em go "oh, oh, oh!", you're gonna leave 'em all in awe, awe, awe

Ryan Seacrest posted this on Facebook on December 30, 2011 1:49am

How are u guys celebrating new year's eve around the world? Where are the biggest parties? Brasil? Indonesia? にほん?

then posted a second message mentioning Indonesia on December 31, 2011 at 11:03pm

Selamat tahun baru! Best wishes in 2012 to all my friends in Indonesia, Philippines and Malaysia. How are u celebrating?

I replied to his second message:

Selamat Tahun Baru, Ryan. We're celebrating with watching firework show and getting stuck in the parking lot for hours =)

Right. That was how we celebrated the new year's eve. Just like a pessimist staying to make sure the old year had truly left, the mall simply didn't let us go easily.

Been stuck inside SMS parking area for almost 2 hours now. My ancient Blackberry can't handle the network overload, so I'm hurting my thumb texting via the always reliable Nokia phone. Posted a reply to Ryan Seacrest's new year wishes to Indonesia, Philippines and Malaysia, written in Indonesian. (or in Malay as the Malaysians claimed). I think this is the first time someone out there recalled Indonesia and forgot Singapore =D.

We spent two and a half hours queueing inside the parking area, squeezing through the bottle-neck situation along hundred of cars. Watching fireworks encore sprinkling from the neighbourhood. Listening to Adele's "Rolling in the Deep" over and over and over till it stuck in my head and couldn't get out of there, "We could have had it aaaaaallllllllll .. rolling in the deeeeeeeeeep .."

Trip to home only took 10 minutes.

Happy New Year 2012!