Friday, December 31/2010

New Year's Eve. We're out at midday and pass several of the traditional barbecues held outside workplaces on the last day of the year. It's an all male ritual and it's dying out. Ten years ago, or even less, these were everywhere, with generous amounts of wine, halloui, sausages and even lamb, chicken and whisky - bread and salad greens on the side. And it was the custom to offer plates to customers or evento hail passersby to join in the celebration. Now you see much smaller gatherings - four or five men by a shop front - though one group we pass has a couple of half gallons of wine near their grill. Another has taken advanrage of a street corner just past our bakery that is equipped with two park benches, allowing the men to barbecue and eat in comfort. And in the air the smell of briquettes as people light up the grills on their balconies as well.

Our intent is to go down to the beach for midnight where there will be fireworks and free wine, beer and nuts as well as a concert. We wouldlnèt actually have stayed for the concert - very late, very loud, and standing only, but it's a nice atmosphere, with everyone from babies to the elderly, locals, foreign workers and tourists, and then the fireworks. But by eleven thirty we're feeling pretty warm and comfortable inside (though it's only dropped to about 15 degrees outside!) and inertia wins the day - not, one hopes, our symbolic mode for the coming year. So we pour a wee dram and watch the fireworks from the couch in our own sitting room,actually a pretty good view despite one building of more than ideal height. They only last about three minutes. Surely, we are agreed, it was longer than that on previous years.