ACE, ACE, Baby!:P: Hot Air Balloon Show

Ok, this is seriously belated but well, I have been bz:)

Anyway, during the National Day celebrations in UAE, there was some night time balloon show and we and our friends decided to go watch it. I am glad our frens suggested this because on our own, me and max wouldnt even know this event existed.. and this is something we have never seen in Singapore:)

Anyway, the event was held in Meydan (top left photo).. which is a building built for horse racing... and since it is illegal to gamble right, this horse racing place was built solely for them to use for events like these or for the one charity horse racing competition that is held once a year... And the building is BIG lor! Got land, really different lor:)

Anyway, as it is UAE National day, we saw a nicely decorated car in the car park...

When we arrived, we just saw alot of people and we didnt know if the event started or not since all the balloons were laid flat on the floor... ask the security guards they also dunno.. wah biangz...

Luckily we found our friends who had reserved seats in advance and even bought dinner for us to share! As the event was stated as 5-7pm.. we wondered wat time it will really start since it was already 6 plus..

You see, UAE is not very good at keeping time for events. An event like the fireworks might be slated to start at 8.30 every night... but leh, in some nights it would start at 8.15, in some nights it will start at 8.45..but it never starts at 8.30 as stated.. wahahaha:)

Anyway, the event only finally started at 7 plus!!!:P Which I tot was a pity if the balloons were going into the sky since sunset in dubai makes the sky really beautiful:) and tat happens around 6pm or so...

And finally at 7 plus, we saw the hot air balloons starting to rise.... they were blowing air into the balloons using fans....

So we just carried on with our dinner.. proudly sponsored by Uncle Gan... who actually did not buy our share but merely eat less to share with us cos the queue is too dam long in the food court to re-queue for more food...

As more of the balloons started getting inflated, there were alot of pple walking around in nice costumes.. and i am still wondering wat is going to happen next. Our fren, C, who does marketing and event management would joke and tell us..."If I were organizing this.. this wouldnt happen.." when we complained about things like dunno when it will start, dunno wat this event is and dunno wat the MC is talking about cos the sound system was so bad...But well, complaining is typical Singaporean behaviour and habit:P wahahahaha...

Tadah! Almost done... and they start to use torches to blow hot air inside and the balloons started to like stand up...

We noticed the balloons were all tied to cars... apparently the cars were used as weights to hold the balloon down...

We still did not know what to expect.. are the balloons going to fly? We saw some pple going into the baskets of the balloon but there was no announcement...

But it was a sight to behold though... even though Ace was too hungry to appreciate it:) wahahaha

My favourite is this balloon.. which is a birthday cake to celebrate UAE's 40th birthday...

Some 40 years ago, when oil was discovered in Abu Dhabi, the Shiek of Dubai go and jio Shiek of Abu Dhabi to form a constitution and then he went on to jio other shieks from other parts nearby to form their own "kingdom" so to speak. There were 6 rulers who joined and later and extra one joined and this created the 7 countries tat made up United Arab Emirates... This year, the tagline is called Spirit of the Union and the poster features all the current 7 rulers of Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Al Ain, Ajman, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah and Umm al-Quwain.

See my hungry son.. more interested in drinks and food than in taking pics:)

Once the balloons were up and there was lighting, we all took pics here and there:)

And then we waited for the balloon to rise.. but after these pple climbed in.. still nothing happen lor.. they just stood in the basket tat did not fly:P wahahahahaha

That is them giving the balloons a boost of heated helium:) beautiful hor?:P

And they turned off the lights and continued BOOSTING the balloons:)

Happy birthday, UAE:)

Somehow, cos Ace's first term subject is UAE, he has somehow gotten to know UAE quite well (I am ashamed to say, even better than Singapore) and he is always singing songs about UAE and always writing notes about how he loves UAE and how he loves Singapore:) wahahahaha.... National Education should buck up lor! get them when they are young, dun wait till primary 5!!:P wahahahahahaha:) Especially those PRs... so they dun leave sgp and still always think country of origin is their home... and REMEMBER to take good care of singapore and the greenery we have:) hehehe...

Anyway, that is the Shiek of Dubai and his son.. according to my friends, when Dubai needs money, their good fren Abu Dhabi will come and save the day.. so you will see Shiek Khalifa's (head of Abu Dhabi) face everywhere.... But once they dun need money, you will see the Dubai Shiek's pics everywhere again.. hehehe:) I also just found out tat the street in front of the mall where I stay is named after Shiek Khalifa too:)

In the end, only the Shiek's balloon was allow to lift off maybe like one storey off the ground... the rest were just deflated...

Still, it was not an anti climax:) Cos we started noticing alot of pple having these lanterns like the Kong Ming lanterns people use to make wishes in Taiwan.. the packaging on them said "Wish Making Lanterns" in chinese and I wondered if the other people who were not chinese here understood wat the lanterns are for..

As we could not find where they are selling the lanterns, we decided to make our wishes using other pple's lanterns.. wahahahaha:)

And then more and more people bought the lanterns and the crowd went downstairs to light lanterns lor.. actually I pity the people who clean up afterward.. the lanterns fly to the air and once they run out of fuel will drop down again so they will drop all over the race course lor.. which is a huge area to clean up!:)

There was an Arabic man who bought like 20 lanterns and gave them away freely and Ace got a free one from him:)

By then, Max also bought like 10 lanterns for all of us to share:)

This is Ace's wish on his lantern.. he wished for lots of money so that he can buy a ferrari and also a nice house to live in:) wahahahahahahahahahaha... I certainly hope his wish comes true cos he says he also going to buy a house for me and a car for daddy:)

When time came for me to make my wish though, I suddenly realized I actually dun have much to wish for cos I am contented with what I have now.. so I just wished for what I always pray for everyday... World Peace and that my family will be happy and filled with good fortune... I also prayed for good health for my family and for my good friends and sisters:) And also a dragon bb for my sis:) Since can pray, also pray for heavens to let me HUAT AH!!!:)

Lighting up the fuel first...

Bye bye lantern.. may you bring my wishes to the heavens above and ask help from Angels to make it come true:)

Sending blessings to the lantern and all the people I love:)

Max helping other people with their lanterns... we met a fellow singaporean there and were lucky to do so... hahaha.. they din have lighter.. we got lighter but din have pen to write on the lantern:) Hahahahahaa...

and only after he finished, he finally started helping himself with his own lantern...

Max wished for Love, Abundance, Health and Wealth to everyone around us:)