30 Day Blog Challenge Day 15: New Year Celebrations

For me , 2014 started off with me reading Fifty Shades of Grey, and being really excited and still on a high from having written the first draft of Spellbrooke, my first novel in November 2013. That was closely followed by Return to Spellbrooke: A Winter Curse (the second instalment of The Spellbrooke Trilogy) in April, and then in July I decided to write the first draft of my young adult novel The Secret Dreamworld of a Disabled Shopaholic. Also in April,I participated in Dewey's Readathon . In October I participated in that again. And in November, I wrote the final instalment of The Spellbrooke Trilogy. I hope that the first one can be published in 2015. I'll keep you posted about that.
This year has been difficult from the point of view of the ongoing personal saga Alfredo and I have of trying to find a suitable place to live, and also saving up for my new electric wheelchair. We have, and do often feel really demoralised about things, but are both hoping that 2015 will be a much better. I hope you as my family and friends on Facebook will have a great one too!

My goals for 2015:
Publish my novel
Move somewhere better
Buy my new wheelchair
Get married
Have children.

Spanish customs differ from those in the UK at this time of year because the Spanish will eat 12 grapes on the stroke of midnight: one for each chime of the clock. So far, I have actually never been able to eat them all.

 The belief is that if you can eat them all by the time the final chime sounds, then you will have luck in every month of the coming year. People will drink champagne and also cava or any alcoholic drink they want to have. During Christmas and New Year, they usually a lot of seafood and also a lot of serrano ham (like Parma ham).

Alfredo and I will just be having a Chinese tonight! We follow the tradition that they follow in Valencia which is to eat a segment of Satsuma that for every clock chime. This is simply because we prefer satsumas to grapes, and because we tend to have a lot of oranges and satsumas in the house during winter because of the vitamin C.

Before the midnight celebrations start, there is always a marathon in an area of Madrid called Vallecas  on the last day of the year.

After midnight, the party goes on until however long they want it  to