Christmas Catch Up

I haven't written a blog post in a while, and this has started to bug me because i've done a mountain of things I want to write about, so it's high time I started catching up.

I spent Christmas and New year out here in Ecuador. Obviously this was a big tough for me as at my tender age I had never spent the Christmas holidays away from home before.  Saying that it was definitely a new experience for me!

Christmas itself was nothing too much out of the ordinary, we ate Turkey (although it was with rice, as everything is in Ecuador), exchanged gifts and watch kids films, even though we are all adults. The meal and gifts themselves happen in the night on Christmas eve, but this isn't so peculiar world over.

Don Luis bought a remote control helicopter as a kind of general use gift, at about 3ft long it was pretty flashy, so christmas morning we went out to the little park next to the house (it being about 25 degrees on christmas day, now that was weird!) and Luis Jnr took the controls to give the helicopter first try.
And then within 1 minute the helicopter was out of site and never seen again. True Story.

Like I said, the temperature was pretty warm here around christmas (as it always is). For me it did not feel christmassy as I'm used to it being rather a bit more fresh around that time of year, christmas shopping in the freezing cold and the dark, drinking mulled wine or Bailey's hot chocolates to warm up after a stint in the (i'd like to say snowy) but i really mean wind and rain. Although there is something magical about the miserable winter climate in the UK, it gives us an excuse to light up the dark streets with twinkling lights, and drink absolute galleons of heated alcohol beverages and wear a mountain of brightly coloured woolen clothes. This I missed more than anything (apart from my friends and family, of course!).

There was something that made me feel more christmassy. Here in Ecuador I am very lucky to live in a nice, house, with plenty of food, safe water, a comfy bed and all the rest of the luxuries of the western world, (Cable tv included). Unfortunately not everyone has the same and the level of poverty is much worse than anything in the UK. Obviously we over compensated on the food, so after we'd eaten we put a mountain of christmas dinner in take away containers and gave it to the homeless man who lives nearby.
I have to admit in the UK i'm not usually the 'giving' type, which I am not proud of, but seeing one mans appreciation just to have some good food on christmas day and someone actually think about him, made my feel warm and fuzzy inside like i've never felt before. This for me is true christmas spirit, and although it was only something small, it reminded me to appreciate what I really have.

So Merry Christmas (yes it's march but a little christmas spirit goes a long way)

and Ciao

My beloved Brighton at Christmas, I missed this for Christmas 2013.