Karen's Millennium Photos
"It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine." - REM
New Year's Eve, 1999 — pre-fireworks entertainment.
Although we had a couple of hours to kill until the 9pm fireworks show, there was plenty of entertainment. For one thing, we had the band from the restaruant behind us to listen to. Also, we could watch the people on top of the Opera House prepping for the midnight fireworks display (the black figures at the tip of the roof in the photo below).
But the best entertainment was right in front of us. Bored, and probably drunk, people started jumping into the harbor (a courageous feat considering the water couldn't have been more than 50-60° F and the air temperature wasn't much more than that). Each jumper tried to out-do the previous one, to get a larger cheer from the crowd.
 |
 |
Surprisingly, the crowd was composed mostly of foreigners - I'd say less than 25% of the crowd was Aussie. Andrew and I decided that most Sydney residents probably figured they'd watch the fireworks on TV at a private party and avoid the crowds (since that's what some of Andrew's friends were doing). The bulk of the foreigners were from Europe. Sitting directly in front of us was a group of six very drunk Londeners, about thirty-something years old and dressed like they'd just come from a country club. Several of them had flown in just for two days and were flying back to England the next day. All six of them kept bragging about how cheap everything in Australia was for them (no doubt due to the low Aussie dollar compared to the British pound). One guy announced that he had bought a mobile phone to call back to the UK, "since it cost practically nothing," and planned to throw it in the trash before leaving the country. Andrew really hates it when people act decadent and was left fuming about their "it's so cheap to go holiday in the colonies" attitude.
We talked for a bit with a twenty-something Irish guy who had
a camcorder and wanted to know who we were and where we were from. When Andrew
said he was from Brisbane, the Irish guy said "No way! My friend is from
Brisbane too!" So he called his friend over, who was a twenty-something
woman with an Irish accent. She wanted to know where in Brisbane Andrew lived,
so he tried to explain where Wellers Hill (the suburb he lives in) is in relation
to certain landmarks. Meanwhile I chit-chatted with the Irish guy about the
weather and the crowd. After they left, Andrew said "Well, she couldn't
have lived in Brisbane for very long."
I asked, "why not?"
Andrew explained, "Well I was trying to explain where I live in relation
to certain landmarks, and she asked me if it was near the central business
district, because that's the only place she knows!"
We also passed the time by watching a professional photographer set up all his equipment, including an extra-tall tripod to look over the crowd with a step-ladder for him to stand on, and a laptop computer for who knows what.
