Feliz Ano Nuevo

Feliz Año Nuevo - that's better,  we've got the wiggle (otherwise known as a tilde accent) over the 'n' now!  For some reason it doesn't work in the title box,  computer people who use a Mac might know why.....

So,  Happy New Year to all of you,  hope you had a good celebration.  We watched some of the fireworks from around the world on tv,  saw more pictures in the paper the next day,  not really the paper in a paper sense but the online version.   We stayed in and cooked,  we always cook I know,  but  we try to make it a special meal so we had bought a small cooked lobster which I left for John to prepare while I made the sauce for Lobster Thermidor as our starter,  then we did a duck breast, roasted and thinly sliced served with small crunchy  roast potatoes  and mushrooms cooked in moscatel.  And to finish,  turrón icecream and lemon sorbet,  coffee and liqueurs. 

Feet up,  glass of wine,  we sat and talked intending to go outside at midnight and see if the fireworks from Mecina Bombaron or Yegen were visible,  it has been quite cloudy some nights and cold too so we weren't expecting great things or to stay out long.  But - probably due to eating a bit much - we fell asleep!   I woke up and heard fireworks but didn't bother going outside. 

We had bought a mango to have with our sorbet but didn't need it,  so yesterday I made a jar of mango chutney as it was feeling quite soft,  but strangely it wasn't juicy like I expected.  In fact it was really difficult to get the flesh off the stone.  But I'm sure the chutney will taste just fine - it needs a couple of weeks to mature and we still have some from the last batch I made.

Today,  grey and cloudy.  Not the sort of weather to tempt us outside, so we've lit the woodburner and aren't doing very much.  Except I have caught up with the  huge ironing pile - huge for me -  those who know me will know that I iron as little as possible but there were a lot of pillow cases from the last fortnight,  plus t-shirts and shirts,  jeans and trousers,  we must have been dressed a little smarter over Christmas.

 Space ship type clouds hovered around yesterday morning....

The rising sun shining towards El Golco.

A busy fiesta month coming up - 12th night on Sunday,  Epifanía del Señor on Monday with everything shut,  Yátor celebrates San Sebastián Martir on the 20th so I would imagine fiesta weekend will be the 18th and 19th,  although they start on the Friday night so make that the 17th 18th and 19th.  Dates to be confirmed next time we're passing through the village, but it tends to be the 3rd weekend of the month.  Don't book flights based on my info!