Damn, Dudes and Dudettes!
Just like that more than a month went by without a single post! In spite of this, life was full of events and "happenings" worthy of, AT LEAST, a line or two!
Firstly, Happy New Year to all of you! I hope that your holiday season was fabulous, whichever holiday your religion/culture/capitalistic-belief celebrates (if any), full of joy, love, companionship and gifts! I also hope that you are all keeping up your new year resolutions, for as hard as they might be!
My holidays were great! 3 weeks of doing F all, resting, playing basketball, going out with my mates, seeing my family and eating momma's food (OH MOMMA'S FOOD!!!!), what else could I want?? =D Xmas was great and Santa was VERY generous and for it I am Oh so grateful! Bottom-line, by the end of this month I will be 100% debt free! :D
The New Year's party was awesome too! I and a whole bunch of my dearest friends went up to one of them's (Kuadrado) country-house in a small town/village called Caminha. It was great fun! We listened to loads of music (most of it was horrible popular Portuguese music, but with great entertainment and comedy value), had a great laugh, drank lots of
caipirinhas (brazilian drink made with limes, brown sugar, crushed ice and cachaça, the brazilian equivalent of firewater) - of course, not for me! I went hardcore on the Coke! =D - tossed around, had a lovely traditionalPortuguesee meal and then headed down to the village's centre for the fireworks spectacle (quite impressive, actually, for such a small town) which was fired at exactly midnight!
Personally, the very first seconds of the year weren't exactly pleasant, cos as soon as the church bell hit midnight, some moron, who was standing immediately behind me, opened a bottle of champagne and proceeded to celebrate the new year in the true Formula 1 tradition, pouring half of the bottle down the back of my shirt!! Lovely!! Specially for someone who HATES to smell of booze... But, that only lasted a whole 20 seconds and soon it was all forgotten and the festive feelings were back, instigated by the
lovely live music that followed thefieryy show! It was the naffest, cheesiest popular traditionalPortuguesee music you can imagine, horribly torturing, but magnificent for taking the piss and having a laugh, dancing in the streets like crazy headless chicken! :D A few injuries arose from such celebratoryasynchronousd movements, including the stomping of some lady's foot and my slicing of a finger on a traffic sign, but it was all for the new year and for the good of the party, so, none of these situations actually deterred any velocity from the party-train that was already steaming away! :)
The party went on til the wee hours of the night and, to quote
The Monty Python and The Holy Grail, "there was much rejoicing!".
After another week at home, doing the same activities as before but also including putting up shelves with maDad!, the eve of the day of the return to Her Majesty's Kingdom, was upon me. But, such a holiday season could not end without the now traditional Emigrant's Get-Together, which was now the 4th, or, in my native and proud language,
O 4° Encontro do Emigrante!
This is a dinner-party that I always organize for all my dearest friends (those that can make it) and with every party the number of attendees has risen steadily, always with new ones and a handful of "usual costumers"! This time we went to a city next to Oporto called Matosinhos, to a restaurant named "Requinte" to have their city-wide famous Francesinha (Little French Woman - wanna know what it is?? ask me! ;D) and I can say that those Frenchies were, indeed, OH SO F'ING TASTY!!! Thank you, Araújo, for suggesting it! Good call, buddy! :D
So, for this event, on January 5th, 2006, there were 14 famished mouths, if my memory serves me right! They were, in no particular order, Cristiana, Pedro, Araújo, Nuno, Miguel, Catarina, Me, Daniela, Constança, Nelson, Luísa, Ana Luísa, Bernardo and Teresinha! Later Helena and Kuadrado joined the over-fed gang, but did not indulge in the french women devouring ritual! :) Their presence did, nevertheless, further sweeten that already marvelous event! After all french women had been sacrificed to the gastric gods, the party moved on to a chilled out little pub/club called "31" for some "ambiance" music, some more drinks and lots more socializing and chatting! Some of the partiers didn't make it to the club, but these "fallen warriors" shall remain nameless, for their excuse was the working day that followed, eventhough many of those that perpetuated the event in the club were in the same situation! (Just joshing, guys, I totally understand!... I'll never talk to you again, but I totally understand! ;D). On the way to the club we picked up yet another awaited member of the fun gang, Mariana, who finished the count of people participating in the event. The total was a record 17 people! Well done, guys and gals!! Well done!!
That night I got home was about 1:30/2am and started packing for my flight the following day. At around 4am, I decided to check email before going to bed and found out that my flight had been cancelled and postponed to the following day, due to the airport fire department being on strike! Surprise, surprise, a strike in Portugal! hehe Anyway, got an extra day in Portugal for free, which wasn't bad.
I've been in Bristol for almost 2 weeks, now, and I am proud to say that I am still keeping up my new year's resolutions, which, amongst other things, include doing more exercise (I'm back in the gym and running on a regular basis), change my stupid (but still sexy ;D) mullet, improve my eating habits (I am now eating loads of fruit and veg and have not had any junk food yet!) , and work on my music and my guitars!
By working on my guitars I mean that I have resumed the work on the guitar I am building (almost finished the sanding of the body yesterday, and new parts arrived today on the post) and have acquired myself a new guitar, a Vintage Reaper 3000 DPF at less than half price!
Hail to Ebay! :)
Here is a picture of me, with my new look, holding my new guitar and one of the guitar :
hehehe
Also, today we're taking the team photos for the Salisbury Suns basketball team, so I shall post them here soon so you can see how good we look in our new kits and warm up t-shirts! :)
Anyway, thats about it for now. Life is good and the days are getting longer, so I can't complain! :)
Stay Beautiful, Gringos and Gorgeous Gringas!
Space too and See My Photos!