Of randomness and missing my Sun

These three here were lighting up night-sky lanterns carefully. They know the paper lanterns are fragile; the wind, a tease.

People were out in the street, shouting to the sky and to each other amidst the boom and light-splash of the fireworks.

Everyone greeted everyone else.

Randomness has always charmed me. Faces you have no names for, hugs and embraces from just about anyone who recognizes the thrill of celebration and the promise of a new year.

Probably because I come from a country of a hundred and million plus people walking about in the street - sometimes angry, sometimes selling just about anything, sometimes holding hands with friends out to discover something together, sometimes with only coins just enough for a jeepney ride home, sometimes with plackards shouting curses at the government, sometimes looking forward to a nice meal with the family, sometimes buying candles in the street to offer some prayers for that evasive prosperity, sometimes jaded...
but always bringing with them this unabashed laughter unique to a people whose country is almost like a small continent in itself.

I miss my Sun, of course. And about half the time that I've stayed here in this winter country, I think about sunrises and sunsets that take my breath away.

But as it is, I love randomness and invite the idea that there is no such thing as a comfort zone.

I greeted the beginning of the year with my bestfriend T last night, crazy enough to pose in front of a mammoth for a drunken photo, and strong enough to carry me piggy-back style in a snow-laden street with lamplights pointing us home.

And it was a beautiful last day of 2011 and a silly first day of 2012 :)

>>> more pictures HERE