New Year's Eve

Dinner with friends at Susan and Bill's home on Sunset Island, Miami Beach tonight was a happy-go-lucky affair. This was the last party for this decade, (and there was some argument around the table whether the new decade starts today or in 2011), but it is definitely the last party on this trip to Miami. Should I sound relieved?

Susan hasn't changed one bit since we first met and worked together in New York in 1975. In fact, I took my mother Connie for afternoon tea on the front porch of her brownstone in Grammercy Park when she visited me from Brisbane all those years ago, and she was most disappointed that the 'lovely Susan' was already married. I'll let the slideshow tell the stories of the other guests.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! (and best wishes for the start of the new decade, if you're one of those who believe it is this year).

Vic and Pat arrive in Miami for New Years

Edmundo hosted a wonderful dinner party last night to celebrate the arrival of Victor and Dr Patrick from Australia. Champagne flowed; hands were read (Victor was so 'closed', Todd had to read his eyes instead!); and José gave a rousing rendition of Handel's "Creation March" for the guests - a little recital likes days of old - before repairing to the dining room for Regina's delicious repast.

Edmundo's surprise helicopter tour of the Beaches and Bays had to be abandoned at the last minute but the guests enjoyed the cruise past the homes and boats of the rich and famous on the islands just as much.

uno (oo-no), dos (dose), tres (trace)

After three weeks of repeating after Edmundo's Cuban trainer, Osmany, as I lift a weight or count the repititions of exercise routines, I still have difficulty in counting to ten in Spanish unaided. My 'right brain' must be atrophied or something like that. I've now resorted to the children's dictionary to give it one last attempt before the final training session prior to departure for Havana on Sunday.

uno (oo-no), dos (dose), tres (trace), cuatro (kwat-ro) . . .

Osmany's stretching routines seem to work every muscle in my body and it leaves me with an amazing sense of 'walking taller' after every workout. I know what's on my agenda for 2010 back in Sydney, Lee.

Christmas Day Dinner 'at home' with Peggy

Crab claws and Gulf shrimp with Peggy's homemade mustard sauce with a whole 2oz can of Colman's dry mustard! What a way to start the evening repast!

After a traditional exchange of gifts around Peggy's Christmas tree, we sat down to a splendid home-cooked repast - starting with seafood in the Italian style. Unusual to me were the accompaniments for the roasted milk-fed veal - whipped sweet potato with banana; wild rice with pecans and dried cherries; and a five mushroom ragu.

Susan's traditional home-made nut cake with frosting topped off the happy evening.

The wines were absolutely delicious and even after the many glasses of Billecart Salmon Brut Rosé Champagne during the exchange of gifts around the Christmas tree, I woke with a clear head.

Sangria

And now to party!

Click here for the secret recipe that I finagled out of Edmundo's caterer: http://stories.michaelmus.com/SANGRIARECIPE.doc

Under the Tree on Christmas Morning

Like the kids at the Cuban Christmas Eve party last night when Santa Claus arrived with a sack of presents, I was taken by surprise this morning not exactly to find a gift under the tree in Edmundo's living room, but to see what he had arranged through a little Artisan Shop in Mexico City. What a surprise to find photos from Our Remote Africa trip last year printed and captioned by hand in a leather bound Album.

I then raided the 'frig and had some left-over cold roast pork (with prune stuffing) on a slice of toast with my breakfast cup of tea.

Happy Christmas!

Cuban Christmas Eve - In Exile

Hosts Fausto and Alina entertained their extended 'Cuban' family in the garden under five huge old oak trees on Christmas Eve.

The centre of the festivities was the 'Lechon Cubano', a 60 lb pig that had been marinating in sour orange, garlic and cumin since the night before, and then cooking in the 'caja china', a US invention to replicate the earth oven of old in Cuba. All the guest arrived in time to see the cooked pig being turned and the burning coals placed back on top for an hour to crisp the skin. The crackling was the best part of course!

While it's Christmas Eve here in Florida and I'm enjoying the festivities amongst a very close-knit but extended Cuban family, for many of my own family it is already lunch time on Christmas Day in Australia.

My sister Anne is at my newly engaged nephew Danny's on the Gold Coast of Queensland with all her family; and my brother Mark is at his daughter Lucy's new home in Brisbane with his four children and their families (including son Tim who is visiting from Japan with his wife and new son).

My thoughts at this time are also with my older brother Tony, who hasn't been well. He has his son Jonathan visiting with his wife, Birgitte from Copenhagen, while his youngest and seventh child, Jacqueline is on Long Island, New York in the snow with her Indian fiancee, Satye. Jeremy, one of Tony's other sons is in Khartoum in the Sudan with his Sudanese/Jamaican partner, May.

Whereas the Cuban families here tonight seem to stay very close to home, mine is becoming very far-flung, and I pause to wonder what my late parents Connie and Les would make of it all!

The following group picture is taken at the Christmas lunch festivities with brother Mark and Jenny Musgrave's families, in Brisbane, Australia.