Happy New Year! We welcomed 2023 from the lawn at Marina Bay Financial Centre (MBFC). 🎉

It’s the first New Year’s Day countdown without restrictions on gatherings. Joining us were our former housemates from Pasir Ris. We met up at our apartment in Tanjong Pagar and walked over. That simple 😍

There was a Japanese fireworks event called “STAR ISLAND” happening but ticket prices were in the hundreds, so we skipped it. While making our way to Marina Bay around 11pm, we could hear the fireworks show. I think it’ll be fun to watch with parents or young kids. To learn more about STAR ISLAND, here’s a link.

Grateful we’re at this stage of the pandemic where people can go out safely. Singapore is adamant on moving on from the pandemic. After seeing the crowds, I think it’s a sign that citizens and residents are moving on. Families, people young and old, pets, migrant workers, everyone was out on the streets.

I can’t vouch for the best place to watch the fireworks since this was my first time. Obviously, it’ll be ideal to have a hotel room that is facing the fireworks. However, since I used to work at MBFC, I was familiar with the lawn on that side of the bay. It’s also elevated from street level. That’s where I brought the group.

It was already packed with people around 11:30pm. But there was a rare cool breeze in the city that night. It’s normally sticky and humid! There was a drone show (is that what they call it?). You can see the MediaCorp countdown stage at the Promontory but the speakers were far so we couldn’t hear the hosts do the countdown. I also couldn’t get a signal on my cellphone since… well… jam-packed. So watching the countdown over MeWatch was impossible.

The drones formed an “analog” clock which served as the countdown in the final minute of 2022. What a year it was (we always say that). I wrote about my favourite moments in 2022 here. The analog clock was also backwards from our vantage point, so when we counted 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… nothing was happening yet. And then, the fireworks.

We hugged each other and shared best wishes. I’ll say this… great to welcome the new year with the same group of friends I’ve been welcoming the new year with in 2020, 2021, and 2022. We are the pandemic gang (yikes) – these were the faces I spent most of the pandemic with.

Afterwards we walked back home and played The Werewolf Game for a couple hours. PJ and I were hosting our friends for the first time in our Tanjong Pagar apartment. PJ prepared “mango float” (an icy mango dessert in the Philippines), tuna pesto pasta, and some fritters. Our friends brought over carbonara, spaghetti (wow, we had three types of pasta) plus some desserts.

Happy New Year, dear readers and followers! ❤️

🔎 How did you spend the new year countdown?

Related: After 2 years of ‘boring’ New Year celebrations at home, crowds flock to Marina Bay to ring in 2023