New Years 2020, in Arequipa, Peru

I was totally unmotivated to do anything to celebrate New Years this year. I did decided that I would make up a nice meal to be noshing on when the new year came in. I gave myself, as a New Years’ present the complete series of M*A*S*H. I was surprised that all 11 seasons were only about $70 USD.

Just as I was setting up my dining table, my landlady messaged me to let me know that she was coming down with a present for me. I quickly grabbed one of the boxes of chocolate I had in the kitchen and put it into a the fancy bag, which my wine had come in, and had it ready when she got here. Of course her present to me was chocolate as well. I added some of her chocolate to my table.

For the first part of my meal, I made a cheese-melt to eat on crackers. The melt was made with emmental cheese melted over chopped unions. I served it along with a boiled sausage. The sausage was chicken based so I had white wine with it. After finishing my dinner I left the table set but added The wheel of cheese to warm to room temp before midnight.

I had been looking at a small wheel of Manchego cheese at the market for quite sometime and finally broke down and bought it. I like mixed nuts, but don’t really like the way they normally only put a few good nuts in the mix and bulk up the package with peanuts. For my celebratory meal, I bought individual bags of brazil nuts, walnuts, and pecans, to make my own mix. A glass of red wine and two kinds of olives rounded out the meal.

I watched one episode of M*A*S*H after another while playing games on my iPad. I replaced the white wine with red, since I like red wine with stronger cheeses. That is how I passed a very quite evening.

When midnight approached, I logged onto one of the American news channel’s websites and watched the New York countdown to midnight since that is my time zone. I had considered getting Champaign, but I reminded myself that I really didn’t like Champaign, so I welcomed the New Year in with a nice red.

As midnight struck, I heard the fireworks start. Walking outside my apartment I saw that the local regulation against private fireworks didn’t bother anyone. There were big fireworks in every direction. It was a really nice show. Later I realized that I hadn’t bothered to take photos. Well, I guess that is just a bit of 2020 hindsight.