noadvertising | New year, same people, same problems

We made it into the new year a bit tipsy and almost sane. Our second guest, Mrs. Prosecco, did not show up. Instead came another lady, who is good friend to our friend already. Well, great, now I had one grumpy husband and two worrywarts in our home. We had prosecco (one bottle for three and a half (hubby did only nip), we had sandwiches and pastries with cheese and ham, we had spreads. Mrs. Worrywart number one, who swears that she gains weight only by looking at food, did dive into the snacks like starving. She must have skipped breakfast and lunch in exchange for free catering in the evening. Mrs. Worrywart number two only ate salmon sandwiches- and drank eggnogg with it. That combination alone made my stomach churn. We did talk a lot, unfortunately all the bad things that had happened during the year got chewed over- not exactly what I had hoped for. Outside firework rockets were illuminating the sky, which always makes me smile. People here are often rejecting commands if they concern tradition, and let´s be honest, Austria won´t save the climate by prohibiting two or three hours with fireworks, especially if you consider that we have a Green Party minister, who refuses to do conferences online and travels across the globe by private jet. We went out at midnight to watch the big firework done by the pyrotechnist up the hill, and whom did we meet? Mrs. Prosecco, who had spent the evening at a neighbour, who loves to drink prosecco as much as she does. Guests left after the firework and I poured myself a yearly ration of eggnogg, to get rid of all worrisome thoughts that tried to take root in my brain. It seemed to work, until Mrs. Worrywart number one called and told me that the sirens we had heard at the end of the firework had come from her apartment block. No, it had not been an errant rocket. It had been a Christmas tree gone wild. Good that the occupiers did not need much help to extinct the fire, or their flat might have been uninhabitable for the next weeks. The rest of my night got spent with sleeping and getting up to listen to the noise coming from the house at the bend of the street then sleep again. Turned out that the good-for-nothing son of those neighbours had used his parents´ flat for a big party, while they were on vacation. Poor parents! At six in the morning all was finally quiet, and I slept like a log until nine. New Year´s day is always a strange one- next to no traffic on the streets, the neighbourhood eerily quiet, no phone calls at all. Hubby did watch New Year´s concert on TV while I did traditional lunch-dinner- roast pork, dumplings and cabbage. We both did not eat much and have plenty leftovers for tomorrow. Will there ever dawn a New Year´s day, when I will be able to skip the meal that no one needs, and do the cooking next day? Same ingredients, only made one day later... But there was one thing that made me smile - some glue-experts had intended to wreak havoc at the New Year´s concert and had made it into the concert hall. Not so good for them that someone had blown the whistle on them, and they got arrested before concert was on. Now it would be nice, if the whistleblower would also reveal their next plans to glue themselves onto the streets. Working people would be grateful to make it to their workplace in time! It´s not only individual transport those idiots are blocking but public transport, too!