New Year´s Eve. We´re reminded of the old Cypriot custom of barbecuing on the street. Shopowners used to barbecue meat and halloumi and share it, along with wine and spirits and pitas and salad with their customers. One still passes the occasional shopfront barbecue but mostly they´re just intended for staff now.
Buying frenzy in the supermarkets, both for New Year´s meals and because the annual sales on liquor are coming to an end.
We work a bit at staying awake through the evening but 11:45 sees us bundled up - it´s an astonishingly chilly +5 C and windy - and down to europa Square on the waterfront. It^s only a block away, so we don^t need much time to get there. Plan B would have been to watch from the roof as Inger said she would do, but the waterfront is livelier and, as J says, it´s probably warmer at ground level. Crowds as usual. There is free wine, beer and zivania, all in plastic cups, but the disincentive is the need to remove a hand from a warm pocket to wrap it around a cold drink. The first salute comes from the deep tones of the ships at anchor in the bay as their horns greet the New Year. Then the fireworks, accompanied by terrified cross-flutters of birds that had thought themselves safely at roost for the night efore the big bang. The fireworks are set off on the beach and we´re standing about 200 feet away, so the bursts of colour and light are almost above our heads and we´re looking straight up at the cold black velvet sky. We don´t linger long when it´s over. Back to the warm studio and a New Year´s rusty nail.
JAWORSKI TRAVELS