Happy New Year 2009

I can't believe it's 2009 already. I feels like the whole of last year was only a couple of months long... Honestly, 2008 was the shortest year ever. 2007 was quite short, but not as short as 2008, and 2006 was definitely a bit longer than 2007... Hmmm, I'm starting to see a pattern here, but let's not go there.

Like every year we celebrate the new year (or mourn the year just gone) in one way or another. This time someone (not me!) had an interesting idea. Rather than meeting up with loads of people, watch the fireworks, eat and/or drink, why not do the same things, but with just a few friends. Why not?

So on the 31st of December the six brave souls (Antonio&Saray, Emilian&Alina and Georgi and myself) who decided to take part in the experiment took a short drive along the A44 and were delighted to be welcomed by a beautiful little house made with Cotswold stone that quickly reminded me that probably some Middle Earth family of Hobbits must have lived there once upon a time. However, when we got inside we were not so delighted to find out that one could easily use all the bedrooms as storage for frozen Alaskan salmon (picture for illustration purposes only :) ). The problem was quickly sorted by Antonio and Emilian who started a fire (in the fireplace) and made sure it was safe to take off our jackets. Meanwhile, the girls started to cook a festive dinner. La piece de la resistance was Saray's world famous courgette soup (Emilian has been waiting more than a year for this moment) which according to Antonio didn't have the right colour. :) Saray told him he's got colour blindness (maybe bichromatic or trichromatic) and we all agreed with her. At the end of the day she's the medical expert. So while the girls were cooking and the boys were playing with the fire, I was... errrrr, oh yes, I was talking with the boys about the Universe. I must say I also had a very important contribution to the success of our dinner: I switched on the oven!



We had a lovely meal with enough food to feed 20 hungry rugby players, and then THE GAMES started. We played a Romanian version of whist (card game) and I think I've finished last every game except once when Antonio managed to "beat" me.



At midnight we followed the great Spanish tradition of eathing 12 grapes in 12 seconds. Not only that I've managed to do it, but at the end I've kissed everyone and wished them all a Happy New Year. I don't know if the Spanish think the 12 grapes bring good luck, but I can certainly say one thing: "no te preocupesssss".



The New Year triggered a moment of reflexion for all of us. How was 2008 for you? For some it was a big jump (Alina and Emillian got married), for others an overall positive experience (Saray is really happy with her new job, with her Masters...), an interesting year (Antonio lost his job, but he soon found a better one - I'll say some more about this one day), or an up and down year (Georgi has a great postive attitude about everything). How was it for me?... well I guess I had some good moments, but this can't posibly balance the loss of a great friend. To put it like Queen Elisabeth II, 2008 was my Annus Horribilis. More to come...

Back to our party... We've played another "couple" game that was supposed to check how well you know your partner using all sorts of questions... It was great fun. I learned so many things about Georgi, about myself, but even more about the others... :)) I'm only going to share with you one thing: to the question "How would you feel about your partner going out with the boys to a strip club?" the girls answered unanimously "uneasy". Not upset, mad, crazy, depressed, silent for a month, etc. etc. etc, but just UNEASY. Good to know. :)
And so the hours passed and we ended up going to sleep at about 5.30 in the morning not before playing a game of UNO which made my pulse go up to 120. TAKE TWO!!!!!!!

The following day we woke up very late (I was the last one), had a great afternoon breakfast and continued with some more games. TAKE TWO MORE!

Later on, Emilian got himself some brownie points by making some delicious pancakes (his own recipe).

And when the first 24 hours of 2009 passed, we had to pack, put out the fire and say goodby to our little house. Duty calls!
The interesting thing is that the story doesn't stop here. We've had such a great time together that we want some more.

Guys, you're great! Really!



Have a look at some of these pictures.

The three brave couples:

Antonio and Saray

Emilian and Alina

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Cip and Georgi ("What did you put in this, darling?")

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"Hola!"

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"Hola to you too!"

Yum Yum, this food is delicious!

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"I won! I won! I'll text my mum and tell her I won!"

"We're tired. Let's go to sleep!"

"I'm tired too. Emilian, can you please carry me to bed?"

"Ahh...Pfruuuu...ahh...pfruuuu...ahh...pfruuuu"

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"I had a dream with Jackie Chan."

"What? Leave me alone! I want to sleep!"

"- I told you, Ciprian. The iPhone is not that smart."

"- Yes, but it can say 'MEASUREMENT'. :) "