New Year’s Eve at Ida’s last night was not quite the party we were expecting but a nice night!

Gerry (the Brit who is here for 6 months and told us about where to buy fresh pies in Cavellosim!) had bought the fireworks for midnight so it would have been rude not to hang around… unfortunately, it became a firework fiasco as the box he bought turned out to be a dud! As I’ve said before, they are not big on health & safety over here & things got a little scary when the guys from Ida’s (the chef & his assistant!) kept going back to the box which had failed to go off 😱. At the point where, just after they had tried to jump-start the box by putting fire-crackers underneath it… 😳, they decided to set fire to the whole thing using a box of matches & some newspaper, we retreated to the relative safety of the restaurant! Sadly (although I think luckily seeing as they were stood over the thing as the packaging caught light… 🫣) there was not even a little poof (as Julian Cleary might say 🤣…) and Gerry was very upset! For us, there were plenty of other fireworks going off everywhere so it was not a problem… we kept going from finding the whole situation really funny to being terrified that someone was going to get seriously hurt!

After firework-gate, we headed back to the apartment around 1am but on leaving Ida’s I managed to twist my ankle going down a rut in the road and so managed to get battered even though not a drop of alcohol was consumed! Ooo, my ankle really hurt and, having landed hands down in the middle of the road, I had a small puncture to my right hand and scraps to both (which really stung at the time) – the fall was a bit of a shock & I had Ida on one side trying to pull me up and Pete on the other trying to get her to stop until I’d assessed whether I thought I had really hurt myself! It was all very embarrassing 😳😩 but I am glad to report that apart from a slightly swollen & bruised ankle there is no lasting damage and the only thing really affected is that my NY resolution to exercise every day has already been scuppered! 🤣🤣🤣

On arriving back at the apartment, approx 1.15am, there was a big party going on downstairs so we decided to chill for a bit before heading to bed… fortunately, the party wound up about 2-ish – it was actually quite nice listening to the Indian music!

We woke late this morning and spent an hour or so reading, catching up on the news etc until going out for a scooter ride… we had already decided we were going to head over to the other side of the river Sal and head North as we’ve not been that way before… it wasn’t far (according to the map below, about 14.5 miles) but it was a lovely drive around and provided some great photo opportunities! With it being New Year’s Day, the roads were relatively quiet too which was nice 😊

And the things we saw… 😀

We saw a couple of birds that we’ve never seen before which is always good! Top left, according to the Net, is the Lesser Whistling Duck which is also known as the Indian Whistling Duck or Lesser Whistling Teal. They are nocturnal feeders that during the day may be found in flocks around lakes and wet paddy fields – which is exactly where we saw these… although not sure what they were all looking at! 🤣

Bottom Right is a pair of Cotton Pygmy Geese or Cotton Teal which, according to the Net, is a small perching duck which breeds in Asia / Southeast Asia… they are among the smallest waterfowl in the world and are found in small to large waterbodies with good aquatic vegetation. They are usually seen in pairs or larger groups of pairs, roosting and nesting on trees near water.

We were out for a couple of hours and had a great time before heading back to the apartment for some lunch and a relax in front of the box… a perfect start to the New Year!

Last night, following the “firework fiasco”, Ida had decided she would get fireworks for today instead to make it up to Gerry who was planning to go back to Margao and demand his money back from the people he bought the duds from 😕! So, we headed there this evening for dinner (our first curry of the New Year!). The bonus tonight was that we didn’t have to wait until midnight for the fireworks, and only until Gerry turned up (he usually arrives about 10ish as Ida’s is his last stop on his daily visits to various bars around here! He told us when we first met him that he only eats once a week and drinks the rest of the time… if you can believe it!)… The other good thing, as there were not loads of other fireworks going off at the same time, I could film it!

If you listen carefully to the Firework vid above, you’ll hear the debris from them falling on the tin roof of the house next door to Ida’s & also us! 🤣 🥵 I’ve put the one of the fountains on to give you a sense of how daft these guys are when they set off fireworks… these being at the entrance to the restaurant – about 5 metres away from where we were standing… fortunately, no burns or other injuries tonight – phew!

So, that’s the start to our 2025 New Year – hope yours has been going to plan wherever you might be in the world, and you’ve had a nice day whether you’ve been lucky to spend it as you wanted, or if you’ve been working! Thanks to everyone who has sent messages!

❤️ & ✌️, night night xxx