774 days ago
Just resting today after a long week of Christmas celebrations with friends around full tables and red wine to cheer us up.
Dec. 23 - with 4 Romanian friends, discussing postmodernism, poetry, Romania's entry in the European Union on January 1st, etc. up to 3am
Dec. 24 - Church in the morning and 9 different religions and nationalities people gathered around Jocelyn's Québec dinner table, I brought the Christmas tree and took it back home all adorned, we exchanged gifts and had fun until they started playin' cards and I passed out.
Dec. 25 - I entertained 3 friends with a Romanian lunch - turkey and sour cabbage, more gifts under my Christmas tree. Dinner at my French friend Valérie, on my way I picked José, our Peruvian friend, who was driving home
and had no plans. Most refined dinner: foie gras, oysters, Alaska crab salad, duck à l'orange and the great bûche champenoise d'Olivier.
Dec. 26 - just hanging around my place, Lucia and Richard came over for some mold wine and brought me a big piece of torrone made by her mom. Cedric came from Ottawa without calling me previously, so I hardly had the time to go fetch him at the station. What a nice crazy boy he is, we're having a great time together, we cooked and then stayed up until 3am, I didn't see him since last year, he left Ottawa for Vancouver now.
Dec. 27 - I went to the Plateau with Cedric who decided suddenly to go back to Ottawa the same evening to join his on/off girlfriend, we went to smoke a shisha and have a tea at Orienthé, then I took him to a chocolate and a tea shop, so he can fetch something for her. He's trying to do everything at once, which happens to me all the time too, but I'm trying to get better.
Afterwards I met my friend Marcela to give her the Xmas gift and I headed to Laurence's place for another Christmas and gift exchange dinner. I met some new interesting people, like Nigel from Trinidad and Jaby who works for the United Nations in Brazaville, Congo. I should probably apply for this kind of job when I'll be done with my master, in two years time.
Dec. 28 I went to Ottawa to see my beloved (and my mother's highschool)friend, Gabi, and her family: Cedric again and his sister Andrea, who's 20 and followed her boyfriend to Belo Horizonte in Brazil, where she will start her environmental studies this winter. I had a long walk with Gabi, then prepared dinner home, turkey and mashed potatoes again, a light salad, Linzer tart, chocolates and a great Croatian red wine. Her husband went alone to the movies, we gathered around the tree to open our gifts, Cedric brought the didgeridoo and Andrea her drum and improvised - a beautiful family warmth, I always feel like home when I go there. In the summer it was different, the kids were not there, the house felt emptier and I'm sorry for Gabi, who's so full of resources and positive energy.
Dec. 29 Gabi had to go to Toronto to her mother and sister (who lives in London, UK) and Cedric to his father, so I decided to accept another friend's invitation and go to her place. I met Lynne at flamenco shows and we are friends almost since I came here. We had lunch with Andrea, Cedric and his father then headed home, Lynne's hubbie is also very special, interested in all kinds of music, I brought them a few CD's to listen too. I was granted a full body massage by Lynne, with aromatic oils, she specialized in aromatherapy and reflexology and is a professional massage therapist. Their friend Paul joined us too, he sings a bit of flamenco, Brian joined him on guitar. We had a light, yummy dinner that I crowned with a tiramisù and we all watched a Brazilian Cinderella story about two musician brothers who made it from the favela to the top.
Today I came home around lunch and I might go see "Babel" with my Haitian neighbour and friend - Patricia. Tomorrow I want to go for a walk on Mont Royal, in the evening I will party with 9 more people at Palace, a reception hall in Laval, a northern suburb. Not my type of entertainment, but for once I could try it.
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