the year of ...

A guy with his horse and cart - pic taken out of our kitchen window

Winter in Constanta! A little snow and a little ice...


Unfortunately, 2009 continues to be Year of the Jet Lag for both of us. I thought I was making progress a few nights ago when I almost slept through the night, but it's a one step forward (sleeping four or five hours straight), two steps back (up all night long) thing. What kills me is that I had No Jet Lag pills with me (Steve claims they're placebos but I say they work), and I forgot to take them! So it's my own fault. Anyways... in wider circles, 2009 is also International Year of Natural Fibers, International Year of Astronomy and the Year of the Ox as per les Chinois. A few years ago the UN's Food and Agriculture department decided that attention needed to be brought to the importance of natural fibers, as a large part of many struggling economies are fairly dependent on the industry. The International Year of Astronomy is pretty neat - 2009 marks the 400th anniversary of the first recorded astronomical observations with a telescope by Galileo Galilei, and, well, space is just cool. Pretty much completely over my head (pah!) but... cool just the same. As for the year of the Ox, I don't have much to say other than that I read some superstitions during the New Year month (starting January 26th), and here are a few dos and don'ts...

It's considered good luck to... open windows and/or doors, eat sweets (for a sweet year - okay!), to have your house top-to-bottom clean (before the 26th) and to wear new slippers before (or for?) the new year.

It's considered bad luck to... buy a new pair of shoes (might be in trouble there), get a haircut (it "puts a curse on maternal uncles"), buy books (in Chinese, "book" and "lose" are homynyms), and to buy/offer anything in fours (the number four (四), pronounced sì, can sound like "death" in Chinese) - understood.

Who knows if this is the real deal - or if this information is genuine to the Chinese New Year and people's beliefs (if not, please excuse me - I really just regurgitated information from Wikipedia, but had to share - it was interessant) but... yup, interesting. Other interesting news (maybe) - Steve had two games this weekend - exhibition - in preparation for a Euro Cup game (against Belgium's Lennik) this Thursday, and Tomis won handily; the other teams in this Romanian league are no match for Constanta. However, some competition is better than none, and playing sure beats practising. What else... We just came back from an awesome dinner at one of our favourite restaurants, the Irish Pub, which, as I've said before, is NOT a pub but a restaurant. The calamari there is the best in town and I always get the same thing - cheese-stuffed chicken on a bed of spinach covered in a light white mushroom sauce... soooo good! It was a bit of a birthday dinner because tomorrow... is Steve's birthday! YAY! One of the best days ever, in my opinion. There were 11 of us, and people brought gifts - mostly clothing, which was very nice... but not quite as nice as (DRUM ROLL), a box of homemade chicken wings! In a KFC box. Strange but noteworthy touch there. Steve's trainer (the team's trainer), an American/Canadian guy, takes extreme pride in his chicken-wing-cooking-up-frying-up abilities - he even brought a four litre bottle of hot sauce (from home) and bought a moderately expensive deep fryer.... all for the wings. I'm not a big wing person so I can't attest to their yumminess but when Steve opened the gift bag at the restaurant and realized there was a box of warm chicken wings inside? Was he ever happy. I suggested sharing, which was clearly and emphatically (also quietly) nixed before I was even finished with the suggesting.

wings... thanks Jim!!

Okay... it's finally time for this blog to be over... I started writing this three days ago now? And have, each time, run out of time or brain power to finish it. I'll write again soon (birthday blog?), as the jet lag is (knock on wood) on it's way out. Cheers!!