Christmas Eve, Christmas Night...
Very strange things has been happening to me in the last two days.
First, last Wednesday I have finished work around 11 am and was about to go to my friends and my God Daughter to Dublin. I have wrapped the presents, packed my thing (few bits and bobs I'd need for one or two nights with them), toiletries, undies, socks, mobile phone charger. And eventually I left to Dublin.
The journey was pleasant enough, thanks to the another motor way being open on the end of Carlow bypass that connects directly to N9, very smooth journey. I arrived there between 5-6 pm. Immediately after I arrived I realized I have left all my stuff at home. My phone was dying, and eventually the battery had gone completely flat, and with no watch (I stopped wearing one after the Camino) I have felt a bit lost.
Especially that I wasn't able to call anybody to say 'Happy Christmas' because my friend don't have any Nokia phones to borrow a charger. Pathetic, this is how I felt.
Anyway, after a Chinese takeaway and putting the fire in the chimney I felt quite content. However, the next day, Christmas Eve which in Poland is the main day of Christmas celebration, came up with new challenges.
Firstly, fasting... We don't eat anything until we sit down to have a traditional Christmas Eve Supper, usually when the first Star appear on the sky.
Secondly, Christmas Tree.. We needed to find one but there was no place you could have got one. Eventually after doing a lot of driving we came across (thanks to Peters great skills of connecting facts and events) a place when a very nice man was selling the trees. And we got the bigger one.
Thirdly, way of transporting the tree... After a while of thinking the christmas tree ended up on the top of the roof of my Opel. It was looking quite comic. I pulled out a towing rope from my boot and I have opened the windows on the back and we tied down the tree to the roof of the car with the rope and a little bit of a string attached to the bottom of the tree going across the car in the front.
Fourthly, the back boiler... After shopping and coming back I put the fire in the chimney, just to realize that it has a back boiler and that there's a pump which should distribute the heat in the house and heat the water. Unfortunately after the fire was blazing in the fireplace and radiators turned out giving away a good heat the boiler began to overheat. The pump wasn't working. Finally we managed to calm it down, mainly by pouring out the hot water from the immersion and changing the draft in the chimney. It need some work now.
Finally, late but great we sat down to the Christmas Eve Supper which was beautiful, and peaceful. We said a prayer, we shared the bread (wafer) and we began our feast. Herrings, Red Borsch with small mushroom Dumplings, Carp and fried Cabbage with Mushroom, Noodles with Poppies, Racuchy (deep fried sweet east dough).
By the end we started to open the presents, and joy and happiness sprang, my God Daughter was jumping around and looking at things, playing with them.
Everybody was looking content, and so was I, even though that was the first time since I remember that I missed a midnight Mass, which in Ireland was changed anyway from midnight to 10 pm, due to a great number of people turning up drunk.
Now when I'm writing this words I know that shortly I have to leave them and go back home, and I feel a bit sad. But I have to be back for a Christmas Dinner I will celebrate with my best friend and his sisters and families, and as last year I know it's going to be fantastic...
So, Godspeed, Buen Camino...
First, last Wednesday I have finished work around 11 am and was about to go to my friends and my God Daughter to Dublin. I have wrapped the presents, packed my thing (few bits and bobs I'd need for one or two nights with them), toiletries, undies, socks, mobile phone charger. And eventually I left to Dublin.
The journey was pleasant enough, thanks to the another motor way being open on the end of Carlow bypass that connects directly to N9, very smooth journey. I arrived there between 5-6 pm. Immediately after I arrived I realized I have left all my stuff at home. My phone was dying, and eventually the battery had gone completely flat, and with no watch (I stopped wearing one after the Camino) I have felt a bit lost.
Especially that I wasn't able to call anybody to say 'Happy Christmas' because my friend don't have any Nokia phones to borrow a charger. Pathetic, this is how I felt.
Anyway, after a Chinese takeaway and putting the fire in the chimney I felt quite content. However, the next day, Christmas Eve which in Poland is the main day of Christmas celebration, came up with new challenges.
Firstly, fasting... We don't eat anything until we sit down to have a traditional Christmas Eve Supper, usually when the first Star appear on the sky.
Secondly, Christmas Tree.. We needed to find one but there was no place you could have got one. Eventually after doing a lot of driving we came across (thanks to Peters great skills of connecting facts and events) a place when a very nice man was selling the trees. And we got the bigger one.
Thirdly, way of transporting the tree... After a while of thinking the christmas tree ended up on the top of the roof of my Opel. It was looking quite comic. I pulled out a towing rope from my boot and I have opened the windows on the back and we tied down the tree to the roof of the car with the rope and a little bit of a string attached to the bottom of the tree going across the car in the front.
Fourthly, the back boiler... After shopping and coming back I put the fire in the chimney, just to realize that it has a back boiler and that there's a pump which should distribute the heat in the house and heat the water. Unfortunately after the fire was blazing in the fireplace and radiators turned out giving away a good heat the boiler began to overheat. The pump wasn't working. Finally we managed to calm it down, mainly by pouring out the hot water from the immersion and changing the draft in the chimney. It need some work now.
Finally, late but great we sat down to the Christmas Eve Supper which was beautiful, and peaceful. We said a prayer, we shared the bread (wafer) and we began our feast. Herrings, Red Borsch with small mushroom Dumplings, Carp and fried Cabbage with Mushroom, Noodles with Poppies, Racuchy (deep fried sweet east dough).
By the end we started to open the presents, and joy and happiness sprang, my God Daughter was jumping around and looking at things, playing with them.
Everybody was looking content, and so was I, even though that was the first time since I remember that I missed a midnight Mass, which in Ireland was changed anyway from midnight to 10 pm, due to a great number of people turning up drunk.
Now when I'm writing this words I know that shortly I have to leave them and go back home, and I feel a bit sad. But I have to be back for a Christmas Dinner I will celebrate with my best friend and his sisters and families, and as last year I know it's going to be fantastic...
So, Godspeed, Buen Camino...
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