Monday December 31, 2012

Monday December 31/12  update #328

We waited all day but the stove was not returned as promised.  Now we won’t see it until at least Wednesday for sure.  This is not a problem because we are eating out these next two days anyway.

This year we decided to try Joe’s for New Year’s.   The offering this evening was 20 Tapas dishes served like hors d’oeuvres throughout the night.  Some were tasty, like the champagne jello and the crème brule, but overall this was not my kind of meal, being a meat and potatoes kind of guy.   I was still hungry after.

At 7pm (New Year’s at GMT in London) we toasted the year in and shortly thereafter they burned the effigies in the street with all the ills from 2012.

They sang Happy Birthday for a gal whose birthday was Dec 31, then they sang it for me as well as a Jan 1 baby.

Finding a cab was tricky for the trip home but we shared a taxi home with Regina who lives a little beyond us.  We had to get out near the Monay mall because the road down was blocked off for a street party which was jammed with about 500 people.  We went home and I changed clothes to go back to watch the celebration which included comedy sketches with many guys in drag (a New Year’s tradition here) and then a darn good band called the Rumba Kings (their spelling).   At midnight the sky exploded with fireworks all over the city, another big tradition here.  Next year we will attempt to photograph this spectacle from a nice vantage point.

I wandered the area and noted they had one booth selling food so I had salchipapas, which are French fries with a half of a deep-fried hot dog, for 50c.   They had another small trailer selling liquor and pop which was also doing a brisk business.

I was watching the band from the side when the fellow next to me offered me a shot of Zhumir, a kind or rum liqueur, with an equal shot of lemonade.  That was so nice of them that I went over to the liquor booth and bought that same combination and brought it back to them as a gift.   It cost a whole $4.25!!  anyway we drank up, danced as a group and bought some more.  I don’t know what time I got home exactly, I think it was sometime around 3 or 4 and I was very wobbly, but a good time was had by all.    I haven’t had a hangover in a few years and I am glad it is a relatively mild one.

THANK YOU to everyone for the Happy Birthday wishes.

That was today’s excitement.   Hugs to all.   Please see all photos at http://souvenircuenca.blogspot.com/