I made a quick trip to the Silpo supermarket yesterday and bought what we needed for the New Year dinner. About 7 p.m., we put two geese in the oven and tidied up the apartment. At 9 p.m., I went to fetch my parents. It took my father a long time to climb to the third floor; he had to stop for several minutes on each landing. Asthma. Mum too had trouble with the stairs, but she went before Dad out of principle and was the first to reach the apartment door. Then our friend Natasha arrived with a salad and a cake. About 10.30, my brother’s wife, Larisa, rang our doorbell. She brought two dishes: a Macedonian salad and a mimosa salad. Misha showed up soon afterwards. We got the geese out of the oven at 11.30. The children switched the television on. We sat down to eat, with the TV mumbling in the next room.
Suddenly Yanukovych’s voice echoed loudly, wishing a happy New Year to the Ukrainian people. I jumped up from my chair, changed the channel, opened the champagne, and I had barely finished filling our glasses when the chimes of midnight sounded from the television. We clinked glasses, but without much enthusiasm. At least we had managed to buy a tree, though, and even to decorate it.
About half past midnight, Misha, Larisa, Natasha and I went out to the Maidan. The square was packed. There was music, and thousands of people celebrating the New Year, drinking champagne, taking pictures of each other in front of the tents and the barricades. We walked around for a while and then went home. And suddenly, the feeling of celebration died once again. Usually at that sort of time, I get phone calls from twenty or thirty friends, or I call people myself to wish them a happy New Year, but last night there were very few calls or texts.
This morning I took Grandma Raya and Grandpa Yura to Borshchagovka, and Misha and Larisa to Nivki. I parked the car and we got ready to catch the train. Now for our holiday in Crimea. Last year, our holiday there was wonderful. But the weather was milder. This year, the forecast is gloomy. Grey skies, rain, temperatures around freezing. We have a sixteen-hour train ride ahead of us, in a sleeping compartment. We have packed a supply of food, with a bottle of wine for the adults and fruit juice for the kids. We are going to continue the New Year’s celebration as we travel, just the five of us. Theo and Anton are already fighting over who gets to sleep in the top bunk. Gaby wants to sleep in the top bunk too. But there are only two top bunks, so one of the boys will have to give up his place.