BBQ

So, the neighbours had their annual BBQ this year, and it was a lot of fun. Since I am technically part of the nieghbourhood, I got to invite someone and also to hang out and eat and drink with these fantastic people. So, here's some pictures from the BBQ.

This is one of the neighbours (The wife/girlfriend of Nola, I think??? I'm terrible with names) enjoying hot sangria. No, don't ask me why it's hot. I don't know.

We all enjoyed the very cold weather, while eating soup, which Sum and um, (dang it can't remember names) the Romanian neighbour of ours made, and Patrick bought all the meat, which was sausages and hamburgers. So we had a regular style winter cookout. Very homey. Felt like Canada in some ways.

All the kids got sparklers, and since I was a Canadian, that's equivalent to being a kid at the neighbourhood BBQ, I guess. On the bright side (har har) the children who ran around with flaming embers on the end of small sticks from the fire did not manage to poke anyone's eye out. And this after Patrick took all that care not to have sharp objects and cleaners and what not in the children's reach. (It was kind of ironic, really.)

The man in the back is my Romanian neighbour, the man who started all these neighbourhood parties. Very fun, and a very good time. I made the mistake of accepting something which I thought was some sort of speciality drink from his wife/partner which I thought was just a kind of lemon drink. Well, it was, it was hard liquor made with lemon extract. Ralph laughed at that, but our Romanian friend pictured behind one of the many children that were there told us that he would give us all a taste of Romanian alcohol, and that I HAD to try some. Normally, I would never do such a thing, but I thought to myself that I should really try all these things, and even if I don't like, them (and I don't have to) I'm certainly missing out in some ways. So, I drank a glass of paint thinner, and a glass of paint thinner that tasted like someone squeezed a lemon in it. (Seriously, it was about 65% alcohol, no taste.) For someone like me that never drinks, I thought it was pretty great that I wasn't really drunk at all. Well, as far as I could tell...I don't know what being drunk is like, so I guess I have no idea.

This is Ralph and I somewhere near the end of the evening, both looking rather tired. The glass in Ralph's hand is the Romanian alcohol that we were given. We were told that women in Romania drink that stuff like a tall glass of water. That scared me. But, apparently, that's what happens in Romania.

Anyways, I am very sick today, not from the alcohol, but that I stayed up too late, and I had only slept for 4 hours the night before, and it was a really exhausting night in some ways, and Montseratt is probably right, that I got sick from wearing nothing but a t-t-shirt, jeans and sandals all night outside in the cold...although I didn't feel sick until much later when I was REALLY overtired, so I kinda did it too myself. Patrick, on the other hand is convinced I have a hangover. I have no idea. I feel fine other than just exhausted today is all. VERY exhausted, but that's because I'm sick. Nothing like it.