dotinthesky: (Default)
Dot in the Sky ([personal profile] dotinthesky) wrote2008-01-01 02:06 pm

The New Year from Our Balcony

From my eleventh floor flat, I can see almost the whole of London. I can see Canary Wharf through my kitchen window, risen like the Land of Oz. I can see the Gherkin from our balcony, lit up like a spaceship ready for interstellar travel (though some people prefer to see it as a giant dildo.)  When midnight arrived, a cold drizzle was falling on the city; but that didn't stop us from stepping outside, many feet above ground, and watching the colourful mushrooms explode across the landscape.

Some fireworks were set up on the rooftops of buildings (surely illegal?).  Others used their backyards as launching pads.  They shot into the sky and exploded like those galaxy birth simulations you see on science shows.  Birds, flying in panic, dodged from left to right as if they were the targets.  People shouted Happy New Year at each other.  Beyond the Gherkin, it looked as if downtown London was getting bombed, such was the ferocity of its bright red explosions.  Afterwards, a white mist hung over the city, much like the aftermath of a Guy Fawkes night.

We (Kevin, [profile] woodsrule and I) drank our pink bubbly to the New Year.  We'd spent nearly the whole day together - first at the Rich Mix's coffee shop, where we watched a Q&A with David Lynch on her laptop; then at my place, where we watched David Lynch's The Straight Story[profile] woodsrule slept over and accompanied us this morning to the only cafe open on Roman Road for a giganormous fry up.  There were many groups of young men digging into their eggs, some still drunk.  Two girls arrived in their pyjamas, trousers tucked into their boots.

I feel like drinking many cartons of juice today.

[identity profile] millionreasons.livejournal.com 2008-01-01 03:45 pm (UTC)(link)
Sounds like a perfect NYE. You can see the Gherkin from our (3rd floor) balcony as well, and the London Eye, but Canary Wharf seems always to be hidden by a giant anti-terrorist cloud, or something.

[identity profile] commonpeople.livejournal.com 2008-01-01 06:03 pm (UTC)(link)
I'd feel nervous to have the London Eye as a view; I'd always imagine it rolling away down the river, with screaming tourists trapped in it.