El Andalous - Christmas 2020

 

Pre-Dinner Drinks

I forgot to wish everyone an enjoyable festive season in my last blog, so I’ll say it now, even if it may be a bit late. It’s strange to think that this is my last blog for 2020 and, as everyone’s saying, let’s hope this coming year will be better, at least by this time next year (I guess the first few months are going to be difficult with the new highly-infectious coronavirus strain rearing its head and vaccines only just starting).

Anyway, a friend (hello Geraldine!) told me I really was living the dream and it does feel like that. I had a pretty good Christmas.

For the first time, they’d organized a Christmas Market in Sahl Hasheesh. Rather weirdly, it was held on Christmas Day but maybe they were thinking it would be good for the Coptic Christians. However, it was a good initiative and I really hope they hold it again next year. Sahl Hasheesh residents could have a stall for free, so I could have bought some of my own books and sold them, for example. However, we had only about a week’s notice.

But they did a great job of organizing it. There were food stalls, and if I hadn’t had a Christmas meal booked, I’d have eaten something. Two of my friends were selling items – one makes crafty items from shells and driftwood (I bought a shell ornament off her which I still need to hang on my wall) and the other owns a gift shop in the Old Town (SH) selling high quality items for presents. From her I bought a maroon antibacterial face mask and some fish serviettes.

Then I bumped into some friends and had a couple of glasses of wine with them, watching everyone enjoying the day, including a kid with a huge candy floss. After that, I met other friends as I was just leaving. It’s a small world over here.

An animation team dressed as elves, Santa, the Ice Queen, jugglers and probably more all roamed the street providing entertainment and added to the general festive atmosphere. It was a strange event to organize during the coronavirus, but it wasn’t too crowded, at least when I went there. However, it was good to feel fairly normal.

In the late afternoon, I went along for our Christmas Dinner at the Bar by the Bridge. Around twenty of us attended and I knew most people (all from Sahl Hasheesh, where we’re fairly protected from the rest of the world). The police turned up at one point – Christmas Galas are not allowed – but we got away with it (it was hardly a gala, and we all knew each other, so it’ was more like a gathering of friends).

Anyway, I had a lovely meal of mushroom soup, roast turkey and all that goes with it (no Brussel sprouts! I’ve heard they’re ridiculously expensive here if you manage to find them), and chocolate mousse. Christmas Day itself was a little cloudy, which is unusual, but with the Christmas Market and the meal, I’m not sure I’d have had time for a swim anyway.

All in all, it was a wonderful day, and very NOT 2020!