Writing Topic #9
Webheads' Plans for the Millenium New Year's Eve

December 4, 1999

As usual, Michael starts us off ...

Well what's happening with everyone out there? It's pretty quiet on the Webheads list. Are you all slowing down and getting ready for the end of the year? I know many countries don't celebrate New Year on December 31st, but I'd like to know what everyone is doing on December 31st.

THIS WEEK"S TOPIC

What are you going to do on December 31st? Are you going to celebrate the new millennium? Maybe you're just going to stay home and watch TV or go to bed early? Or maybe it is just being ignored in your country?

Write and tell us if you are going to do anything special for New Year's Eve to celebrate the millennium. And tell us how you will celebrate.

I look forward to reading your replies. And let's see if we can't get everyone writing this time. This is an EASY topic!

About Michael's plans ...

New Year's Eve is huge in Australia, and this one especially because it's the end of the millennium. What am I going to do? Well what I wanted to do was go out in the desert and ignore the whole thing but no one would come with me. So I have 2 choices:

1) go to a party at the house of some old friends who always have a New Year's Eve party

2) go to my local beach and watch 3 lots of fireworks. Lots of the beach suburbs will have fireworks so if we're sitting on the beach at 12 o'clock we should see lots of fireworks.

I'll probably go to my friends' party first and then get back to the beach for midnight.

Do you think I should take my laptop?

December 5, 1999

Felix writes:

Yes, New Year is celebrated in Brazil. I plan to go to Cumuruxatiba (http://www.geocities.com/zanibon/) and spend about 15 days there

... It will be awsome..

Michael's reaction: Come on Felix. You can do better than this! Why will it be awesome?! What will you do there? Who'll be with you? etc etc!

Vance's reaction: What a stickler that Michael is! But on the other hand, yeah, the more we learn about each other, the more interesting we all become. So what about the rest of the Webheads? At least Felix was quick to reply! (Good going, Felix!)

Felix's reaction: ok ok Michael you won!!!

Generally I celebrate New Year's at the beach, with some friends.. We have drinks, foods (like roasted turkey), but mainly it's only drinking. This year I will be celebrating it at CUMURUXATIBA (http://www.geocities.com/zanibon/ ; now the url is correct). We are planning a get-together at a friend's beach house with about 40 more people (all of them are friends) then we are going to see the fireworks at the beach. Then dancing, dancing, drinking, drinking ic, ic, ic, ic.... Then a hangover. My wife is going with me this year (that's good) because she's Protestant and her religion doesn't allow her to celebrate it with drinks, dances, music, etc... But I convinced her to go (I think she's kind of afraid, you know, because after some drinks we are not THAT responsible for ourselves hehe).. But I hope it will be fun.

Felix

December 6, 1999

Vance writes:

I'm going home for the holidays. I'll visit my parents and my wife's family in Houston. It will be a Christmas with my wife and two sons and all the sons' grandparents, and others from our family as well. Then we'll fly to California to spend New Year's Eve with my eldest son, who lives in San Francisco.

My plans are quite special. Ramadhan is about to begin in the UAE. This is a month where Moslems fast during the day, and westerners in Moslem countries are expected to refrain from eating or drinking anything in front of fasting Moslems. As a result, everyone tires easily at work and the workday is shortened.

However, I will be flying to Milan and Rome and then on to Caracas tonight. I will be in Venezuela for one week and the following week I plan to go to Tobago for diving. The diving is supposed to be very good in Tobago.

On December 23 I plan to fly to Houston where my wife, Bobbi, and both my sons, Glenn and Dusty, will join me. Bobbi and Dusty will be in the UAE until school is out for them (Bobbi is a teacher and Dusty is in the 9th grade). They will arrive in Houston on the 23rd as will Glenn, who flies in from San Francisco where he attends college. We will visit Bobbi's parents and mine, who all live in Houston. It will be the first time we have enjoyed Christmas together in years. I can't even remember the last time.

During the next week, Glenn, Bobbi, Dusty, and I will fly to San Francico where we plan to be for the New Year Celebrations. It will be crowded in San Francisco. There are many people in the streets, especially at Union Square. Not all these people are polite. In fact, some are violent, so it pays to be careful. Still we will be together as a family for New Years and that will be the most important thing.

In the next few days Bobbi and Dusty and I will return to Milan and spend a few days in Milan. We hope the weather will be warm and sunny when we arrive (hahaha). At least it will be warm and sunny in Abu Dhabi when we return on the 10th of January. This will be right after the Eid celebrations at the end of the month of Ramadhan. I should get home just in time to go to work.

I may not be back in touch until Christmas. I'll try to come to the Palace on Sunday Dec 26, though that's about 5:30 in the morning in Houston, and on my birthday too, so I don't know if I'll be up for it. I may not be back at the Palace class until January 16 because on the 2nd it's the same time in Houston, and on the 9th I'll be on an airplane.

But I'll read your emails when I reach Houston and send you a message now and then.

Let's see what other people are doing:

THE MILLENNIUM CALENDAR is a European Schools Project (ESP) in which Students from schools in Europe and elsewhere express their hopes and predictions for the new millennium in words and pictures. Links are revealed as the calendar progresses towards the end of the millennium. Like an advent calendar past and present links remain open, but links in the future won't open until the dates shown on the calendar.

ESP is an Internet-based network organisation of teachers, mostly within secondary education, throughout Europe and worldwide. THE MILLENNIUM CALENDAR, and a link to ESP Teleprojects where you may find classes interested in your Y2K postcard project, is at:

http://www.wordskills.com/esp-millennium

December 8, 1999

Maggi writes:

Michael wrote what he would like to do on New Year's Eve and had two possibilites in mind and asked if he should take his laptop...

...well

Since he is ahead of most of us I think he should just so the rest of us have advanced warning that they went down, down under. We would still have time to do something....LOL

There may be some problems but the best is we just enjoy the quiet and stay off the phones so the lines are not overloaded with people checking to see if they work. Sleep on it first.

I have just spent a lot of energy and money to move so I will spend it at home. It is also a tradition here to shoot off fireworks and I expect people will outdo themselves this year. I will join them and hope it isn't so cold. I am not going anywhere then. Just enjoy the moment....a big party is too much trouble and mess. I would rather sleep. :-)

I wish everyone finds what they seek this next year....

Maggi

December 8, 1999

Felix writes again:

I don't know if I will come to the Palace for a good long time, because I will be on the beach from New Year's celebration to January 15th.

After that I will start my new job in another city and there's no computer there. So I plan to take my computer there but I will only be online during the week cause on weekends, I will be heading home where my family is (the same city I am still living in now). So when I get home there will be no computer for me and I think I should spend time with them cause it will have passed a week I won't see the brats.

hehee

Anyway, I will be in touch with you by e-mail...

December 9, 1999

Eileen writes:

Y2K is coming! I guess everybody will all have some good dreams in the new year. But this new year is such a particular one, that is Y2k. That means the beginning of new century, and the next thousand years are coming. A great celebration will be made in many countries.

In China Decenber 31st is a very important day. The great celebration party will be given on TV stations. And many department stores will stay open all night. I think there will be many people drinking and partying until next day.

But for a computer engineer, this night will be so terrible. The Y2k bug will happen in the first second of January 1st of 2000. I guess many people will not be able to sleep in this night.

In a word, I will open my eyes wide to see the year 2000 coming on that night. It will give me a nice memory in my life.

Thanks

- Eileen

Michael responds:

Eileen - hello! How are things? I like what you say about 2000 giving you a nice memory.

When I was much younger - younger than 20 - I remember thinking that I would be 45 at the end of the millenmium. It seemed so far away and 45 seemed so old! And now it's here and I am 45 - hard to believe! I know now that it's not so old and that I want to live a lot longer yet.

Can anyone else remember doing that? Looking forward to the year 2000 and thinking that was way off in the distant future?

Anyway it's great to be here and be alive at the turn of a millennium don't you think?!

- Michael C.

Eileen replies:

Hello Michael,

I guess many people all have the same feeling at the turn of a millennium.

It is so nice, because we live in this time. One my friends has said the same as you did. When we were children, our teacher said when the year 2000 came, we would just be in the prime of life. At that time, we all thought that time was so far away. But it will happen soon. Everybody all feels the time pass so fast.

And we anticipate the new life to come.

Best wish for you

- Eileen

December 11, 1999

Choi writes:

It seems that everybody has planned something to do at the end of 1999.

Yes, I have a plan too. My husband and I will watch TV!! ONLY?!!

Hi Everyone,

Yes! Last year Dec 31 1998, we had just got married, and we went to the famous beach to see the sun rise. We had a little sleep and woke at 2 a.m. and started to the beach. Wow, the traffic jam was terrible and the speed of car was less than 20 KM/Hour average. Finally we gave up and turned the car home. It was almost 6 a.m. when we got home. When we turned on the TV, the sunrise on the beach we had been heading for was on the air. In bed we watched the first sunrise of 1999 cozily!!

This year TV will broadcast views from all other countries overnight including the famous beach's sunrise. I will not make such a stupid trip again.

Save time and energy.

I am going to have a glass of wine with my husband for BRAVO 2000!!

Bravo everybody.

Michael responds:

Well Choi that seems like a sensible plan! Many people here are saying the same thing. They think it will just be too busy to go out on New Year's Eve and they would rather stay home. Some places that have organised millennium parties are saying that they are disappointed becasuse they haven't sold enough tickets.

Maybe most of the world will be home watching the new millenium come in on television!

December 13, 1999

Moral writes:

Actually topic #9 is easy for those who have plans for the New Century's Eve. But frankly, I haven't had any ideas about celebrating the coming of the new millennium. Maybe I'll be with my friends. Maybe I'll just stay home and watch TV. Anyway, it is a good reason to celebrate the new year, the new century and the new millennium. Usually, I will decide how to spend the Eve a couple of days before it.

But I do know what I will be doing on 20th Dec - celebrating the handover of Macau. Macau will return to Chinese rule on 20th Dec, 1999. Let me tell a brief history of Macau.

Read about: Welcome Home Macau

December 21, 1999

José writes:

José from Argentina

I want to put this very clearly:

There is not a millenium. Every century ends at the very end, and our century ends at the end of 2000 and not at the beginning of it. So the new millenium will begin the first of January 2001.-

The marketing is encouraging us now to buy everything to celebrate the millenium and at the end of December 2000 they will repeat the formula, and will we buy it again?

What we are really celebrating is the 2000th anniversary of Christ´s birth, and this is the real deep significance of this Xmas and new year.

So my prayers are with you all and my glass will be up to cheers at midnight with all of yours.-

MERRY, MERRY XMAS, AND MY BEST WISHES FOR A GREAT 2000

José María

Argentina

December 22, 1999

Chotima writes:

Dear all,

Merry Christmas and Happy New year. I hope everyone have a nice day in millenium year.

On New Year's Day.. I think I will stay home in the night for our family gathering and go out with some friends on the day and the day after. That would be cool for the millenium year... Sorry that I haven't contacted everyone for so long. However, have a nice day na ka..

Love,

Chotima

December 22, 1999

Maggi writes again:

Hi everyone :-)

Like most of you I am staying at home and just relaxing...maybe the next year when it is really the Millenium I will celebrate...

Next year is my year...I remember thinking that my son will become an adult in the year 2000 and I will be almost a half century old. Now it is here.

Time flies when you aren't looking but I enjoyed every minute of my son and will hopefully send him out to make a life on his own well prepared. If he gets hungry he knows where to come...:-) Although he can cook and bake very well.

To all of you I wish a peaceful, happy and relaxing time with the people you most want to be with. Till the next time...

Maggi

December 25, 1999

Webheads write:

Merry Christmas and Eid Mubarak and Appropriate Greetings to all Webheads this Millenium Season.
Please click here for a seasonal message from Webheads to you.

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Writing Topic #9 Webheads' Plans for the Millenium New Year's Eve

Last updated: January 17, 2000

Writing Topic #9
Webheads' Plans for the Millenium New Year's Eve