Happy new year
Wednesday, January 1st 2003, 0914 hours
Location: park bench, Boston Common, Boston, Massachusetts
Weather: mild
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Last night New York City was just a little crazier than it normally is: thousands of people (some say up to five hundred thousand) everywhere, yelling, selling, spitting, singing, dancing, throwing up and generally milling about as the celebration went on. I wasn't in Times Square; police had barricaded the area, and admission was (once again) by ticket only. But a huge crowd gathered in Central Park, jostling and climbing trees to get better views down the long, straight avenue, and I was among them. And then the new year, and trumpets were going off, and fireworks, and people were leaning out of upstairs windows yelling to the crowd. I wasn't able to meet up with any of my friends, but that didn't matter so much: after all, it was midnight, and 2003, and New York City! Now that was an experience. And after that I wandered the streets of New York (safer than usual at night, thanks to the huge crowds and massive police presence), felt hungry, and ducked into an Italian pizza parlour for two gorgeously huge slices of New York pizza and a Dr. Pepper. And the TV in the corner was playing Dick Clark's Rockin' New Year's Eve, and they were singin'
Give me the beat, boys, and free my soul / I wanna get lost in your rock and roll / and drift away...
Yeah. Hell, yeah.
Eventually I got tired of walking, popped into the bus station, made a few calls to Singapore, and joined the huge queue for the Boston bus. And when I arrived back in Boston it was a clear, gorgeous morning, with the sun shining, and now here I sit while people walk by with their dogs, and fat pigeons poke around in the ice.
Another year gone. 2002 gets the name Journeys; not just because of all the travelling I've been doing, but also because I've spent much of the year trying to discover new directions for myself. Things like teaching creative writing. Being a museum guide. Participating in an archaeological dig. Helping organise an art exhibition for disabled artists. And what have I learned, at the end of it? That there is more I can do than I once thought. That there are opportunities out there that I never even saw. That there is a land there, over the rainbow. And that it's actually possible for me to lay down my arms and live in peace. I don't know how much of all this I'll bring back to Singapore with me. But I hope it's enough.