Everywhere we went on New Years Eve, we were asked if we were going to the "Ring of Fire".
"What's that"?
"It's really beautiful. Everyone goes down to Birch Bay and sets off flares and the whole bay is like a ring of fire. There will be fireworks as well."
So we dutifully armed ourselves with some flares (which we had no idea how to set off), bundled the kids into the warmest gear Brisbane has to offer (it was still snowing/sleeting/raining and BLOWING) hauled ourselves out of the sick bay and headed down to Birch Bay for the festivities.
At 7:00pm we set off our flares, with some help from the people around us and waited for the action. But that was about it. Someone set off a rocket of some sort further around the bay but I think the sleet claimed it prematurely. You can't say we didn't try.
All the pics I took were crap. I had to pull one of the flares out of the ground to use as a light to try and see what I was doing. Not that it mattered much anyway since my hands were frozen and I couldn't change settings.
So I thought if I was going to post a crappy photo, I might as well use one where the lens was covered in sleet and at least try for an abstract effect.
The cloud in the top right is coming from the Cherry Point oil refinery where Sally, daughter-in-law, is working.
