#don'tdancewithbeasts

...when Luca and Beth went for a swim. After days of people telling me I would DIE in the water, I was CRAZY to even suggest it, HONESTLY THE BRITISHNESS IS TOO MUCH! Well, we finally just got on with it, and honestly, it wasn't bad. Here's the proof for anyone who hasn't seen it and in this picture, you can see me laughing as Luca stuggles for breath thanks to his minimal body fat and altogether too Italian mindset.

We didn't die. In fact, afterwards we had a nice walk with our spectators up and down the Christmas market on Viale XX Settembre and got one of the super sausage wraps, which was about all I needed to feel warm and festive again. 

Then a couple of days later, we decided to get even more Christmas feelings going with Philipp's famed Feuerzangenbowle. If you're still wondering what this ridiculously long word means, here's a photo. (By the way, these are both Blandine's photos: I was otherwise occupied in the water and my camera was out of battery for the Feuerzangenbowle. Thanks, Langlet!)

IT WAS SO COOL! Thanks to Caro Göttzfried and Cara Türlich for putting it together. We did three of these bad boys and they were strong, delicious and utterly festive. Coupled with Stille Nacht and a plethora of other Christmas tunes, only Father Christmas and a bucket of bread sauce could have made me feel any more warm and fuzzy.

Unfortunately it left Anastasia and I a little worse for the wear in the morning and waking up to the smell of mulled wine permeating everything within a mile of the event was not welcome. 

But really, if you know a German person or can find a satisfactory recipe and you don't have too enclosed a space for a pile of FLAMING SUGAR, then I highly recommend you get yourself on the Feuerzangenbowle train. Welcome aboard. We're all here and it tastes like Christmas. 

(If I'm using a lot of photos and gifs, I'm not sorry. I won't apologise for Bernard ^)

At work, the lovely ladies made us go all gooey inside when they gave us a chocolate Santa each for San Niccolò. According to Nico, he's the saint of the sea and people only celebrate it in Trieste and Bari, so we felt surprised in a lovely way to get a little present for it. 

The Coroneo Arena has had a festive do-over too. We got an artificial tree from our landlady, but she didn't give us any decorations. So, we had to improvise. For a few days, there were just things that we could hang up on the thing. It looked like the saddest excuse for a Christmas tree the world has ever seen. So Michela and I bought some lights, tinsel and baubles, and although it's still pretty butt ugly, it does at least resemble a normal tree. 

Wow. Scuzzy quality there, but you get the idea. Keyrings, earrings, clips, paper snowflakes and cranes. Anything we could attach within reason. 

Salsa of course, was a feature of the week, although this time it was less carnival spirit and more swearing through my teeth. This new move where you have to turn 2 and a half times while moving forwards with both your hands holding onto the man's and all in time (quickly) proved to be a smidge more difficult. And Luca La Bestia Rosolen isn't a patient man. So it was a bit more stressful than it should have been. But we got it in the end, by George. 

And the most exciting news of the week was the arrival of my cousin's little baby, Hector. He is super SUPER cute and I can't wait to meet him. It's the weirdest when people your age who you've known for your entire life have babies, but at least we won't have to do what we did when we were kids and had a new cousin. The process went something like this : "Sit right back on the sofa and someone will hand you the baby when they're sure you aren't going to drop it on its head and stunt its cognitive development." I think I have the baby holding more or less down now. 

I also got to Skype my wonderful friends in Bristol - almost all of them in fact. Luke, Chris, Wigg, Sam, Sherriff, Liv, Becky and Gablar. The internet was a cruel mistress, so our conversations were less than perfect, but boy was it nice to see them, however grainy.  My mum sent me cracker supplies in the post, so soon my uneducated flatmates will see the joy of crappy gifts raining from homemade toilet roll n' wrapping paper contraptions. 

Only the British, eh?

The last thing to report is that last night we had a 21st birthday party for Daniel our Spanish amigo because his birthday is actually on Christmas Eve and this was an event that didn't deserve to be overshadowed by Chrimbo. We got a little tiddled on fruit punch in our 80s garb, played Pasapalabra and went home relatively early, but very merry indeed. I hope he enjoyed his birthday extravaganza!

However, we three from Coroneo are required to do our best "Bitch Please" faces at every party we attend. No matter how good it is.

I know Megs will say this was too short, LIKE ALWAYS, but it's already a day late and I don't want to keep you kittens waiting another second.

Hasta luego!