Goodbye 2009, Hello 2010!

It's been a hectic couple of days gone past, I've finally had some time to go through the photos I took of NYE. Let's start with a teaser, Sydney sure does know how to do a firework display... the new decade definately came in with a blue bang.

But i digress, let's recap from the NYE day. My sister offered to host NYE dinner at her house where we were treated to sashami, oysters, lobsters, salads and we managed to polish off a bottle of Brown Brothers Rose Zibibbo Champagne (yum) and 3 different types of sauvignon blanc wines. Picture of food below

Good photo of mum & dad enjoying the food

We managed to see some of the fireworks from my sisters balcony, but I didn't get any great shots - so heres smoke instead. Top photo is taken by Simon and is what you can usually see, bottom photo is the 9pm fireworks in action.

Then we decided to take some silly photos to kill time before the midnight photos using my new tripod and lens. Here are some of the funnier ones of everyone on the night, starting with mum & dad. Had to get them to pull some faces...

It was easier getting funnier poses out of Malinda & Lan. Check out his guns! Malinda was obviously not ready for the first photo so was a bit taken a back by the forward movement.

Simon and me were a bit more creative, not sure which one I like more, the vogue or the glasses...

Needed to get to Cahill Expressway by 11:50 to attend the midnight session. Thanks to Phil for giving us the tickets to the session. Thanks to the RTA for balloting the session so it wasn't so packed. We were in a posing mood, so this was us waiting for the bus. The black and white photo was taken whilst we were on the bus. Not sure why he was walking around with an empty case on his head - strange.

We started the walk from Hyde Park towards Cahill Expressway, we stopped off to pose at the giant chessboard. Atmosphere on the street was quite festive, with the road closures, people were just wandering aimlessly and generally having a good time.

It was a bit strange walking on the Cahill Expressway, since I've driven on it so many times - v. cool though. Took the opportunity to take some shots I would never be able to get -

When we got there, after a bit of a port-a-loo debacle (ahem) the crowd had definately formed. It was pretty packed by 11:45pm and we just muscled our way to the quasi front. Some people had definitely gotten into the spirity of the 'blue' theme. We waiting patiently for the countdown to begin, our view was pretty spectacular.

Unfortunately, the photos I took of the fireworks weren't great - mostly smoke. Next time I know to bring a tripod and leave the flash at home...but here are a few that are ok. The first set is supposed to be blurry ...really.

 

We had a really good view of the other participating city skyscrapers that had fireworks launched off their rooftops. The AMP building looked especially good with the blue I thought.

We didn't take many people photos during the 12 minute firework display, but here are 2:

The finale was quite spectacular, although I got mostly smoke - I thought the colours were really nice.

Aftermath of the fireworks below - people cleared out within 20 minutes. We hung around to take a few photos. Smoke cleared up within 10 minutes which was pretty quick.

Finally managed to get to the front when the spectators had vacated the prime spots so we took some happy snaps

We departed and we were swept in with the masses battling the public transport system to get home...

We took a scenic route and posed for a few pictures before arriving at our bus stop. Heres the view from the top of Bridge St

We moseyed on to Martin Place where it was quite packed, people were ready to flood the bars. We took the opportunity to pose on Pitt St - the road says 'US' .. ha ha.

This photo is to show you the wrist band we had to wear to get into the Cahill Expressway area and the top photo is of a bentley...i think.

We then walked to King St where I wanted to take a picture in the middle of the road. Apparantly I wouldn't hold still, and then came the traffic, and then I got scared because I heard the fire trucks - hence the 'running'

Anyways, we got home by 2am ish so it wasn't too bad. All in all, a memorable NYE for 2009. Here's hoping that the new decade proves to be better than the last. Hoping that your twenty ten is filled with happy and memorable adventures.

Bye!

mw