at first, the phone rang at about 12.15pm. naturally, i wasn't going to answer it. firstly, i don't speak the language, and secondly, who would be calling me!? it wasn't 5 minutes later that my friend rushed into the room to wake me up and say, "come on, my friends are waiting downstairs. we're going to the beach for a BBQ!!"
i was half asleep, trying to make sense of what was going on. so, i jumped into my shorts, put on a shirt, grabbed my sunglasses and was ready to go! few seconds after that, his mates drive up to pick us up and go to the beach. but, naturally as is with every good BBQ party, we stopped at the marked to get some supplies.
with everything packed in the car, we head for the beach, and my friend starts to explain the reason for this BBQ party; there will be fireworks! it's an annual thing, so this had been organised for quite some time. i just happened to be at the right place at the right time.
nevertheless, got to meet some lovely crazy people up for a good time. had drinks, had some food (great as usual), and finished up going to shinax... a typical karaoke place, where each group has their private booth. we were a big group, so it got very wild. people dancing on the table, going mad... even i sang a few songs... trust me, you don't want to be there when i'm singing.
now the funny part; there is a service for drivers here, so that you can actually go out and drink. what happens is, when you are ready to go home, you call this place and they send a driver to drive you home. normally, this driver is driven to where you are and is then picked up by someone else. but last night, we were waiting next to the car, and this guy pulled up on a little scooter, mumbled something that neither of the guys i was with understood, and drove off again. and there we were, waiting for the driver to show up, tired and desiring bed. so, one of the guys decided to call and find out where our driver was. two minutes later, the guy on the scooter shows up again apologising, as they do here. i was just thinking, "right, where will you leave your scooter? will you take a taxi to come back and get it..?" got into the car, not wondering anymore about the driver's scooter, just waiting to set off. some 5 minutes later, the guy apologises again, and at this point i was just thinking, can we go, please!? all of a sudden, my friend turns to me and says we need to make some space for his scooter in the car... ???? excuse me!? and not a second later, this guy is carrying a bag. he actually folded his scooter and it was about the size of a suitcase. talk about efficiency.
backtracking a bit in the evening; the fireworks, or "flower-fire" as they call it (direct translation). i'm not the kind of person that really enjoys fireworks, but this was surreal. it went on for about an hour and it was exciting, beautiful, dramatic, unexpected.... it started suddenly, without warning, very subtly. one, two... big lights followed by big bangs. then the show started. it's actually difficult to put into words what i saw, but it looked like the creation of the cosmos. explosions sending new stars in every direction, chaotically, yet so elegantly. and many times it came to a halt, when i thought that i had ended. but again, suddenly something happened. an upside-down shower of lights, followed by a main shot up in the sky, which did indeed draw a flower... a flower of light, a flower of fire.
it started and stopped raining a few times, but i was in awe... the rain couldn't bother me, even if the sky fell upon me. i just sat there, like a little child with opened mouth, admiring the show of lights.
don't really need to get into too much detail about the karaoke... not really interesting, just fun. the opportunity to be ridiculous in confined and private space.
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