New Year Torre Style

New Years Eve, pretty chilly through the morning but now, at 2 o'clock, a mild 16C/60F. Today at 7pm I'm due at Tina & Barrys' for an Indian Takeaway. 7pm for aperitifs followed by the delivery at 8pm of a takeaway from a local Indian restaurant. Beryl & Randy are also invited and we've had great fun choosing our wants from the extensive menu the restaurant provided. The plan beyond the meal is to celebrate the New Year at the bar which Beryl is going to open at 11pm or so. As for me ..I have the day off, yippee, although if it gets busy tonight I have agreed to help out if needed. Which puts me in a dilemma of course, to drink or not to drink, running a bar is like driving...it shouldn't be done "under the influence". But there are at least 9 hours to go so I'm having a glass of Red Wine or two while I cook a lunch of Fried Eggs, Pork Sausage and Bubble & Squeak. Cecilia called in to the bar on Boxing Day and gave me a little tub of Duck Fat (or Grease as she called it) having, I presume, reclaimed it after her Xmas Day Roast. Bubble & Squeak should traditionally be made with Lard but Duck Fat is worth a try and that is what is going to happen here in my kitchen, using up the Xmas Sprouts that are just beginning to go yellow on the outside leaves and Potatoes that have not yet sprouted. One man and his plan again, using up rather than throwing away and the Scottish Butcher in Fuengirola Market makes awesome Pork Sausages which for me here in Spain are not everyday normalities but more of a Christmas/New Year treat. I actually wanted his Pork & Herb but he'd sold out on Xmas Eve when I went shopping. Talking of using up, yesterday I knocked up a good few litres of Vegetable Soup using the Xmas veg still left (saving behind a few sprouts for today's planned meal) and even included the last of the Turkey Soup for added flavour instead of a Chicken Stock Cube. It's the old, old story of course: on Christmas Day you really look forward to the first bowl of Turkey Soup but by New Year's Eve you've "had enough". The Marx Brothers had the right idea.

Last night Tina & Barry "surfaced" in the bar after disappearing since the last (for me) meal at theirs. We were all getting worried, I'd even suggested that Christopher Columbus was wrong and that they had fallen of the edge of the world, but no, they had family visiting from Italy over Christmas and their celebration was kept quite private. Tina sat next to me last night in the bar and told me in no uncertain terms to wear my waistcoat today. "Never mind what's been said, you get dressed up in that waistcoat again, you hear!!" Of course, today it doesn't matter, I'm not on duty, so I can wear what I want and if I have to help, well, we are within the normal hours of opening anyway. No problem. I am going to wear it, but I can't remember the colour shirt that Hilde recommended. Yes I can, but I haven't got one. Ooops, there could be "trouble" tonight if she turns up for a New Year drink at the bar.

Never must I forget that there is more to life than Torremolinos. There is also Omsk where a certain young lady will be celebrating the New Year AND her Birthday 5 hours ahead of us here in Spain. So, before I leave the apartment tonight my priority is to send an email which I know she will be looking for at, or just after, her midnight mark. When I say that I mean that she will check the timestamp, she will not be able to actually access the internet until she can get to a public access point in the morning because I know that she doesn't have immediate access at home. Check the timestamp?? Oh yes, last time she went home I went to America and the timestamp gave all away, remember?....so, she'll check, believe me, she'll check!!

1635 I've just had an SMS from Austen, he's on his way home, probably at the Dominican Republic's airport right now so he'll be in the air come midnight. "Happy New Years" are exchanged. Aaron is working but I'll send a txt anyway, he just might receive it on time if he is not too busy dealing with misdemeanors on the roads of Manchester.

1730 and the message to Larisa is drafted and waiting for me to press the send button. Midnight that side of Moscow is 7pm here so I'll send it just as I leave the apartment for the evening's celebrations.

And finally....The Indian meal with Tina, Barry, Beryl & Randy was good, and, despite being a takeaway, was up to the standard I've come to expect from that particular restaurant (the newest in Town and, arguably, the best) then along to the Bar at about 2245 to open up where we found that the mop was required to clear up an "old" touch of the floods in the loos. I popped across the road into The Ship to see the folk in there where I found quite a 'do' warming up but after one vodka I slipped back to Ana's to see the New Year in. Only trouble was that, despite a customer cracking open 2 bottles of Cava and sharing them round, there was not much, if any, of a party atmosphere developing so.....back to The Ship where I found Lisa cajoling, conducting and choreographing the assembled throng and generally setting a fun mood ready for 1am (or the English New Year). The radio provided the chimes, and with the crowd providing the cheer 2008 swept in on a tide of alcohol as usual. All good fun. Aaron sent a txt at 0330 to say that he was in "the office" with his first 'nick' of the year (a driver under the influence). I sent back that I was going to walk home, which I did and was in bed by 4am I think.