Not so long ago we've heard a two-year old got hit-and-run in China. Twice. Run over by twodifferent cars. Completely been ignored by eighteenbypassers. She died in the hospital a week later. A blurry disturbing CCTV recordings were available online. I couldn't get my mind straight while watching how the drivers and the bypassers treated this little girl as a kinda invisible rock.
Last Sunday we've heard a two-and-a-half-year old was hit by a car in Jakarta. A car driven by a drug-drunk driver. Killed the boy, along with the other 8 people. Hurting 4 more people. Amateur videos showing the aftermath were available online too. One particular video was not only graphic with all the bodies and blood scattered on the street. It was also heart-breaking, showing a desperate attempt of a father trying to save his little son. It was hard to know if the boy was still alive by then, but we could see him irresponsive, expressionless with his eyes and mouth half-open .. till we saw a hand of a stranger touching this little kid forehead and sounding a prayer for him .. then we knew this kid was dying. Been haunting me for days now.
Sometimes it doesn't make any sense. How could people record this .. why couldn't they put their recorders down and give their hands out to help instead? Why they had to share it for the world to see? And why are we digging and watching this? Why we keep on watching, unable to turn our eyes away from whatever it's showing there no matter how difficult it is to take?
Sometimes we thank the people who provide us with these kind of videos so we can get clearer pictures of what happened. To show us a little bit of humanity in the midst of terrible maths. We saw a samaritan stopped and helped the little girl in China, how a rubbish collector could care more than the apathists.
We witnessed the relentless love of a father. How he held his son while checking on the rest of his family who got hit as well, how he never gave up trying to feed him with a bottle of milk, how he checked his heartbeats, how he kissed him ..
.. Everytime I see that picture, I'm longing to kiss my son ..
We thank those who posted the videos online. Reminding us that life is so short. Reminding us to appreciate people. Reminding us to spend our time loving our beloved ones while we still can.
Mat and Mom were walking across a playground on the way to home. There were poles planted at one end of the playground for kids to kick their soccerball through. Mat pointed at the poles and said, "Mom, let's go that way."
As Mom and Mat walked through the net-less poles, Mat bursted out a cheerful exclamation, "GOALLLLLLL!!!!"
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 .."
