Continuing with the NYE day…
17h00: The crowd was focusing the part where we were sitting, and started packing up there. The ‘safe event‘volunteers were looking at us with a worry from the beginning itself and at last they asked us to leave that areas. The Sun was still giving an afternoon shine. We left our bags in the blanket booked on the meadow and went for a walk around for keep away from the Sun. That gave us a glimpse of the crowd, the
long queues for drinks and toilets (remember the bucket toilets in South Africa in Soweto. I saw the same here with a petname ‘mobiloo’).17h30: We went to the other side of the meadow, the best view portion at the top is been fulley occupied by photographers and it is full of tripods. I forgot to take my tripod from India, and I think I will have no big chance of getting good pictures of the fireworks.
The water part was getting filled as well. With a lot of boats, some anchored in the middle from the morning itself (Pictures). 
19h30: Back to our blanket. It has become very dirty being on the soil. But all our bags and all are there safe. Crowd had increased and there were people in the place where we were evacuated earlier (anyway, they were chucked out later. So the system was fair).20h00: Anish and Lakshmi also joined us, with some cheese spinach stuffed roti of turkey. They brought one for me too. We had had brought some rice for Krithi with us. We had the supper and waited… The sky was getting dark…(Picture)
21:00: The first set of fireworks begins- they call it family fireworks. This one was not involving the Harbour Bridge. It is synchronised at two points and will be triggered simultaneously. So for us, the same cracker goes up and blows at the same time behind and in front of us! It lasted around 18 minutes. A heart appeared in the middle of the Harbour Bridge at the end of the show! Suddenly most of the people started moving off. We thought we will have a cool time with not much rush for the grand finale! But later we found that they all went to stand in the queue and fill their glasses! None seems to leave, in our area, at least.
22:00: The heart in the Harbour Bridge is becoming concentric getting one layer after each hour (Picture).
23:00: The females sitting in front of us started changing clothes top-to-bottom to the shock of Krithi and Anish’s wife Lakshmi. Anish was commenting we should video this and take it back to India J. Ironically, the guys were taking their clothes to the shade for changing! What a wonderful World!
23:30: The gang in front completes their dress change and make-ups and with filled up glasses starts taking snaps. They requested us to take their snaps and then they joined us to take snaps( Picture).24h00: The grant finale begins! Two light beams blink towards the centre of the bridge from either sides, and they collided and the bridge burst out in to fire! It was full light, and the fireworks also started from behind the Opera house and behind us. It was an event for lifetime!
The crowd cheering at the fireworks, as the earlier areas also start sending glitters to the sky. I was in a dream, trying to capture the whole in my 15 minute limit for the movie clips, in my digicam. I was trying to keep them in 30sec- 1min clipping. I tried to take some snaps, but all look good in thumbnail size, all got shakes due to my standing position and no tripod(Pictures).
00:30: It is all over, the crowd is walking back. Most of the drunk fully, but very harmless though they sometimes push among themselves or sometimes just dropping down, and you have to watch out for that.
01:00: We are at St.James station after a long walk. The rail stations were alerting all to be patient as a huge crowd is waiting for trains. They were also trying to tell that the frequencies of the trains are high to make sure all can travel comfortable and fast. We got a train to Central. It was, to our surprise, not packed, though crowded.
We changed at the Central, again it was not packed and every two minutes there was a train to our direction. We were standing at first, but an Indian family gave some space to us taking their kids sleeping on the seat, to their shoulders. But after two three stations, none was standing too!
02:00: We got down at Parramatta station. We were thinking that we will have a crowd to accompany us till home. But all vanished at the station itself! By the time, we entered our street we were alone. We came back home dirty being in the Sun the whole day! I had put the Sunscreen over the soiled legs to make it worse. We have no choice but take a bath at 2:30am before sleep.
It was one of the longest days for us, but it was worth the show at the end of the day !
