Last Day of 2014

In my younger (wild?) days, I used to always go to parties, and I mean parties, on New Year's Eve. With my group of friends, we'd go to a party of someone that one of us knew. Then when we got tired of that party, or we'd hear of another party, we'd leave. Certainly nothing like young people nowadays who want to attend macro parties with thousands of people and, in my opinion, horrible music.

Home is the best place to be, because there are too many noise makers going off. I feel bad for the poor animals who suffer from all the bangers and fireworks of these days. My Zara didn't want to go out at this time of year. The most she would go was round the block.

So here's my New Year's Eve now. While I'm preparing dinner, I have the annual Madrid Marathon on TV. It's a 10-kilometre run with both amateur and professional athletes. The race for the runners for fun starts well before the one with trained runners. This runner from Kenya won. I think it's almost always someone from this part of the world who wins.

While I'm preparing dinner, I set the table and drop a couple of candles in glasses of water to make the table more festive. At this time I also prepare my 12 grapes which are the custom to eat at the stroke of 12 a.m.

This New Year's Eve I tried duck a l' orange without the sauce since the duck I bought was already seasoned (yes it was a bit dry), and the orange is mandarin. I usually make a chocolate pudding cake for dessert, but this year I opted for just ice-cream. Then, of course, it was cider to toast the new year, which I prefer to cava (champagne).

So there you have my last day of the old year - not that I went to bed early. The only way to do that in Spain is to wear very good ear plugs. I spent some time on facebook and sending messages on Whatsapp, then reading until I got sleepy and things were quieter outside.

One unusual thing that happened on Christmas Eve during the King's speech was a fireball was seen crossing the Spanish sky from the south to the north. Then on the 2nd, two tragic things happened. One, a man from Somalia I think, pushed a 28-year-old national policeman in front of an approaching underground train, killing the policeman and the man who pushed the policeman is (or was) in serious condition, because he fell too. I usually stay away from the TV and the news at the weekends, so I don't know his condition. The second event was a man in the train station who claimed he had a bomb. It turned out to be just a water bottle the man with mental problems was carrying in his backpack, but it caused a great deal of panic and the station had to be evacuated. Two horrible acts that witnesses will not soon forget.

Tomorrow I think I'll start taking down my decorations. I'll have to start the new year with a new washer too. My washer of 15 years has said enough is enough. My intention was to get a new one after I'd had my flat re-done. Anyway, hope everyone who reads this had a good holiday and a good first full week of the new year.