I always like to ask people how they spent their New Year’s Eve. I love listening to the different things people choose to do. From house parties, to going to really big New Year’s Eve celebrations to even just staying at home and watching fireworks on CNN.
For the past New Year’s, I make it a point to spend alternate years celebrating with my parents. Last year I was with Ming, Pierre and Shorty and all in Bangkok for New Years, so this year I decided to spend it in Penang.
The good news is that a bunch of my friends were up north for my friend Wilson’s wedding in Alor Setar. So after the wedding they came down to Penang for a few days that covered New Year’s Eve. So this year I got to spend it with some good friends AND my parents in Penang.
We had a bit of a Karaoke party. 10 years ago this same group of friends came to Penang and we set a record of 10 hours straight of non-stop Karaoke. By the end of it of course a lot of us were almost knocked out but still the singing went on until the last man fell in the 10th hour. This year we were determined to set a new record but I guess because of age we fell short at only 6 hours.
In between our Karaoke session though we made time to go up to a vantage point to catch a view of some of the fireworks around Penang.
The 16 of us were up there… on our own with this beautiful view.
One of the places we were overlooking was Penang Swimming Club, where we knew there was a New Year’s Eve party going on there. We could hear the dance music from where we were. At midnight though, we saw Fireworks from all the other places but not at the club. So we were kinda disappointed. Then about 10 past midnight we heard the party crowd at Penang Swimming Club do a countdown and when they all shouted “HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!” the fireworks started.
It was ten minutes late… but better late than never. We were not sure what happened. Maybe they had some problems getting their fireworks ready so they delayed the countdown a little but whatever it was…. it was beautiful.
This picture that my friend took of us watching the fireworks was the moment for me that night.
It’s not hard to guess which is Shorty and me in this picture.
Happy New Year everyone! May 2014 be a great year for you all in career, business, family and health.
Oh and to usher in the New Year, here is what I think is the cutest video of Fighter that I’ve ever taken.
It’s of Shorty singing and playing with Fighter. I’ve decided to post more videos of Fighter on my YouTube channel. So subscribe to me if you want to see more. (Timothy Tiah).
Timothy Tiah – Co-Founder of Colony, Kuala Lumpur Co-Working Space