New Year's Eve Gala

The beginning of the big New Year’s Eve Gala came nearer, and so my Dad and I switched off the TV and started to get ready, too. I had waited such a long time to wear that dress now that I was happy to see myself in the mirror with my curled hair, the dress, makeup and my red high heels. I had some kilos more than I would like to have, but the dress was just wonderful and I would feel great this evening. I waited and took a million pictures of me while my Dad and his girlfriend got ready, too. It took a while because she wanted her hair to be perfect and was using about 100 different “tools” to form it. Finally, we were all ready, the memory card of my mobile phone was full (haha) of pictures of me and my dress in 100 different positions, and we left the house.

As usual, the weather had become the worst possible – it was raining and the water was freezing on the ground, because it had been incredibly cold before. So the whole streets were made for ice skating, but definitely not for wearing High Heels. So Dad’s girlfriend and I took a second pair of shoes for the way to the car in order not to break a leg or something. We started our way and stopped at another street to pick up a friend of Dad’s girlfriend. She had left his husband recently and needed somebody to spend that evening with, so they had invited her to the Gala, too. We drove to the village where the Gala would take place – the town where I had grown up, and picked up my aunt, who would come with us, too. Finally, we all arrived in front of the large gym where it took place and found a parking right next to the door, because it was still quite early and it would start in about one hour. But one could already enter, so we showed our tickets, received an ugly stamp on our hands and went to the wardrobe to give them our jackets. When that was finished we received a glass of champagne and could walk down to the main hall. I used to play basketball in that gym, and I had never attended an event in there before (even if there were many), so I was shocked how different it looked with the dimmed, red light, the tables in white, the large stage, and a small cocktail bar in the corner. It was really elegant. We looked for our table that was a bit outside the dancefloor, but still central. I already had problems to walk with my shoes – I didn’t wear High Heels very often, and I think I will never ever get used to it. But we sat down, so it was no problem. There were already some people, but it was still quite empty, so we drank our champagne and got up to take some pictures together. The light wasn’t good for pictures, because it really was red light, but the pictures were nice anyway. We were all dressed up so much, and I was looking forward to that evening. In the (high) price of the ticket there was included the entrance, the champagne at the beginning, a buffet for dinner and a buffet at midnight. So I really hoped that the food would be good and soon, because I was already a bit hungry. But meanwhile we ordered something to drink and talked about the other people that were more and more entering the main hall and looking for their tables. Some of them were dressed beautifully, others classic and some were dressed really weird and it was funny to watch them.

Then, shortly before the official start of the gala, the band began to play. At first they were doing some last light and sound checks, and then they played classic dancing hits in order to create some atmosphere. They were finally interrupted by the major who wanted to say some welcome words to the audience. Even if he usually tends to endless speeches, this time he wasn’t talking that long and it was okay to listen to it. It was even more okay because his last sentence was the permission to start to eat the things from the buffet that the catering company had finished in the meantime. But as immediately everyone was rushing to the buffet and our table was at the contrary side of the hall, we decided to stay there and wait until the first group had their food. But the queue didn’t get any shorter, so after a while we just went there and waited. With my shoes it wasn’t quite comfortable to stand for such a long time, I even preferred to walk, but I didn’t want to take them off after only 1 hour, so I had to resist the pain. After more than 30 minutes of waiting it was finally our turn and we took as much as we could in order not to have to queue up a second time. We went back to our table (I had to be really careful not to drop my plates with the shoes) and enjoyed the dinner. Unfortunately, it was a bit cold, because they hadn’t used warming containers and it was already at the tables for a longer time. But except that fact it was really delicious. There was something for everyone – salad, salmon, meat, soup, bread, potatoes, noodles, different sauces etc. While we had been waiting we had also seen the dessert buffet which looked delicious. So even if the time to wait was too long, it was a delicious New Year’s Eve Dinner and I enjoyed it a lot to eat it together with (half of) my family. After a while we went to the dessert buffet and wanted to try everything, so everyone took two or three different bowls, and in the end we had every single dessert at our table. As I adore sweet things, I loved the different things so much and could have eaten them for the rest of the night. But after a while it was finished and I also started to feel full and a bit sick, because honestly it had been a lot. But chocolate makes happy, and I needed some happiness if I couldn’t be with my boyfriend that night.

After dinner the band started to play music for different kinds of dancers. As I couldn’t even walk properly in my shoes and didn’t like dancing, I just sat there and listened to the music. It was a bit boring from time to time, because all the other members of my family loved dancing a lot, so several times I was sitting at my table completely alone. In the main hall you didn’t have a connection for your mobile phone, so I didn’t have anything to do than to drink and to watch people drinking, eating and dancing. But from time to time they came back, we had some cocktails and we laughed and talked a lot. Dad’s girlfriend and her friend went outside to smoke several times, and as they always had to go to the wardrobe, get their jackets and give them back afterwards, they were away for quite a long period of time. My Dad went to talk to other people he knew (so almost everyone in the hall) and my aunt and her boyfriend were dancing very often. I really felt a bit lonely in several moments of that evening, but as I was used to that, it was okay. Later on, the show program started – they had invited some professional dancers to show how dancing really could look like, and they were all really good. It was jazz dance, flamenco and some of their own creations and I was fascinated by their talent. I have already forgotten every single step from my dancing lessons 5 years ago.

When the shows had ended my Dad finally convinced me to try to dance a bit with him – obviously I really looked sad or bored, or both. I was surprised that I really wasn’t that bad and it was fun to dance with him. The last time we had tried that had been in my 10thclass, the final gala after my dancing lessons and it had been a catastrophe. But this time it went a bit better, so we kept dancing for several songs. When the band started one that was incredibly fast, we went back to our table and had a break. Or – he had a break and I just sat down again to stay there for the rest of the evening. So the time continued like that, until it was finally almost midnight. We all got ready to go outside and see the large firework they had organized at a field not far away from the gym. Before, we were eating the jelly grapes I had bought in Tenerife – each one had to eat 12 of them before midnight and you can wish one thing for each grape. That’s what people in Latin America and Spain do every year at New Year’s Eve, so I thought it would be nice to bring some foreign culture in that night. After we had all eaten our grapes and made our wishes, we went to get our jackets and to go outside. But we could have stayed inside as well – the weather outside was so bad that one couldn’t see one single piece of the large (and surely quite expensive) firework. It was a pity, but on advantage was that we could get back into the hall after only 10 minutes and stopped freezing. Furthermore, I couldn’t stand on my feet in the High Heels anymore, I was dying. But I didn’t want to admit that, so I suffered in silence and tried to walk normally (even if I was sure that everyone could see how my feet hurt). We got something to eat from the (poor and small) midnight buffet before all the other people would come back into the hall. When the band started to play again, we stayed for two more hours until we finally decided to get home. I was incredibly tired and also a bit bored, because that evening was more made for people that enjoy dancing. Furthermore, my feet were hurting so much that I was almost crying when we were walking to the car. Fortunately, we had found a parking lot right next to the entrance, so I didn’t have to suffer that much. In the car I took off the shoes immediately and took on my warm Adidas trainers. It had been a wonderful evening with my Dad and even if I was still missing my boyfriend a lot, they had helped me to forget that for some hours and to start the new year in a happy way. When I was finally lying in my bed I was thinking about the new adventures in that year 2016 and how curious I was to discover and experience everything life would offer me.

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