Holiday photo soiree at Maite's

It’s only been a couple of weeks since our return from Mexico and the US of A, but it already feels like absolute ages since. So we decided to organize a photo session to revive our memories. Actually, I think it was more of an excuse to do what we like doing (or I like doing at least): drink, eat and chat. (they don’t call me como todo, tomo todo for nothing, you know!). Maite (who also did a Mexico/US trip with Marie a couple of years back) kindly offered to host the occasion, Marie supplied the photos, and we supplied some wine. Food and more drink was supplied by other participants.

Apart from the hardy travelers, the other usual suspects also came along: Antoine, Claire and their children, Guillaume as well as Julie and Aurelien. And we also got to meet Maite’s Italian boyfriend (too bad I only found out about him being Italian afterwards – what a missed opportunity to practice my Italian). We even had JayJay present virtually for some time all the way across the Atlantic – thanks god for Skype eh?

It was, as always, a great night. Things kicked off in promosing fashion with some arm-wrestling (I struggled heroically but lost to Hector and Mathilde, but just beat Celian - and thing only got better from then on.

The idea was, I found out eventually, for me to provide the commentary for the slide show together with Celian (I think the work split was supposed to be that he talks about the wild life and me about the “other stuff” – like drinking tequila and eating a lot). In the end, we got hit by a bit of stage fright though, so Marie did most of the commentary. A lot of pizza was consumed (I did my best to keep up my reputation, but struggled a bit towards the end, I have to admit), and a rather respectable amount of tequila as well. I found a fellow drinker in Maite’s daughter’s boyfriend, who has Polish origin (one can always trust the Polish not to, as we say in Swedish, “spit in the glass”).

All in all, a great time was had by everybody, then! And my head wasn’t even hurting THAT badly the next day… Thanks for Maite for another great party!