What: 2016-17 Countdown

When: 31 December 2016

Where: Labrador Park

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Bi Hui, participant:

What can my end / beginning of the year be like when there is no event to attend? That was probably my thought as I was too used to going to Rui En’s countdown event, and celebrating it with RBKD members for the past few years. Then came a message asking me, whether if I’m available to countdown with the rest at a park…

Fast forward to the day of countdown, the festive mood was there, and I am glad, I’m celebrating the New Year with RBKD members! It was a little special since it was my first time celebrating at a park, and going to a park around 10pm till 12am. I wouldn’t have done that in my life if it was just me hahahaha!

What really amazed me was how many people gathered at the same place to celebrate the new year, and the best was when we could see fireworks from 2 places…for free! As we started to settle down after taking pictures of the fireworks, suddenly, we heard an unfamiliar sound, and soon after we saw something that was shot to the sky (we could just see the smoke), then a few seconds later, a few red balls.

“What is that red thing in the sky?”….
B:”hmmm…I think it’s kites with lights on them”
C:”Wait…I think I saw some smoke trails…”
………
B:”OMG IT SEEMED LIKE IT’S COMING CLOSER TO US!!”
*after a long break and staring at the red balls”
A:”I think that is the SOS signal from the boats. Probably shot just for the New Year.”
B, C and the rest “Ohhhh….”

That was my first time seeing the SOS signal.

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Xinyi, participant:

This was our first countdown in 10 years without Rui En or RBKD. So we decided to hang out together, for a quiet session, after so many loud ones all these years. Yea, where in Singapore can we find a quiet place for countdown? That’s what Rui En said too.

Nonetheless, we went to Labrador park as we thought it would be quieter and there’s still fireworks at midnight. True enough, the crowd present obviously thought the same as us. So the usual story goes for any “quiet countdown”.

The interesting thing was when we saw red lights rising steadily towards the skies, from where the yachts are berthed. “Is that a drone?” “What’s up? Why is the drone only going up?”

Took us a good few minutes before we realised they were red flares, shot from the emergency distress gun of a yacht owner, amidst all the honking at 12 midnight. Guess, we learnt something?

Ended with a quick supper at McDonald’s after a long walk in almost total darkness along the 1km boardwalk towards the MRT. Everything was so simple and quiet, it was just peaceful and perhaps, a little memorable too.

IPC