Day 5 and the 12 grapes

It was a good day. Two more hours with Dr. Woo, who is actually Dr. Wu but it's too late now - he'll always be Dr. Woo to me - acupuncture treatment and massage and reflexology treatment and endless pearls of wisdom. "You need to relax." "Your brain is too active." "You need to be calm and happy." And my personal favorite, "Sweet foods are good for you, good for your liver." And my least favorite, "Alcohol is bad, very bad." And my response, "Even red wine? That's really all I drink, well, that and champagne, and isn't red wine supposed to be good for you?" His response, "Yes, a little bit is good for you. But only little bit. 10 ml a day."

Ok, for those of you still using the imperial measurement system, 10 mililiters is .33 US ounces, which is like, what, a couple of tablespoons? And he was serious.

Anyway, after Dr. Woo, I window shopped and went to Hamley's to buy presents for the boys and came out with nothing because everything I found and wanted to buy was way too heavy to bring back in my suitcase. As it happens, they have a website and ship everywhere so I won't have to carry anything.

Then dinner at Beth's and out to a bar up the street. Where everyone was drunk but us. Seriously, how drunk do you think 10 ml will get you? Which is fine, I've never been big into New Year's and even less into getting drunk for New Year's Eve.

And now we come to the grapes. Nuria brought three cans of 12 grapes each for all of us. Because in Spain, you're supposed to eat 12 grapes while making 12 wishes in the 12 seconds leading up to midnight. But we weren't paying attention to the clock and no one in the bar was counting down so we actually didn't get started on time and I don't know if you can imagine eating a grape per second but it's harder than it sounds. So I only got in two wishes blessed by two grapes. Luckily, those first two wishes were really good ones.

Happy New Year to all of you. I hope all of your wishes come true.