It's 2012

Happy New Year!!!

I met with my cousins around 5PM and had coffee at Starbucks because I am feeling a little sleepy (see I still had to work last night and I only had a couple of hours sleep this morning). I woke up around noon and I couldn't go back to sleep anymore. After coffee, we decided to walk around Greenbelt but most of the boutiques were closed as early as 7PM so e decided to have dinner instead. I will talk about the dinner in another post.

For now, let me share to you the pictures I took from the Makati City New Year Countdown.

The Makati City 2012 ball was some sort of a ball drop, only it was on a zip line form and not a drop exactly for the countdown. We were actually joking that the city mayor will be on the line with the ball but he wasn't. Instead, he was made to appear on the stage by the magician who performed a show.

The Binay Family with their friends from China and Australia who opted to celebrate the New Year in the Philippines. The hosts gave the Vice President the microphone for a speech or something but the VP gave it to his son, the City Mayor. He clearly did not want to steal the thunder from the current Mayor. Note that before VP Binay was elected to office as such he was the Mayor of Makati.

The dropball passed by where I am standing and it scared me to bits. Thoughts about it malfunctioning along its course made me think of it falling and hurting people. Good thing, the drop (or in this case, zip) made it more interesting.

The countdown was well-attended by Makati City local residents and expatriates. The street party event was a tie-up with the newest television station, TV5. The whole stretch of Ayala and portions of Makati Avenue were closed to vehicular traffic. The program hosts were Iza Calzado and a few other TV5 stars.

I was not able to find the perfect setting for my camera and I did not bring a tripod too so please excuse the crappy pictures... I will be buying an advanced camera this year so hopefully next new year I will be able to capture better fireworks shots.

The ‘Magical, Musical Makati 2012’ countdown party featured the magic tricks of Jeffrey Tam and entertainers led by The Dawn, The Company, Antimano Band, Bloom Brothers and Silk Band. There were also mimes and clowns on stilt. The atmosphere at the venue was really very festive and fun.

The street party hosts with Makati City Jun Jun Binay who said that it took them six (6) months to plan this event.

The famous crooners of The Company, serenading the party goers with songs from the 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's and some other Top 40 songs. They were wonderful and a joy to watch.

The Dawn entertained the crowd as well with their music.

Jett Pangan, vocalist of The Dawn, rocked the stage...

The grand event was capped by a 15-minute spectacular pyro-musical show to usher in the New Year. There was another band who played for the party-goers after the fireworks but the crowd slowly dispersed. Me and my cousins were among the first ones to leave and we walked around Greenbelt for a bit to take some more pictures.