Niewe Jaar

Last night went off without a hitch. It was very nice. The duck was almost perfect - lots of fat, but then the recipe called for draining off almost all of it and adding chicken stock and red wine and then reducing for a wonderful sauce with wedges of cooked pear - substituting for quince, whatever that is. Then I made garlic mashed potatoes. It was really good. This is from a "30 minute recipe" book. The desert was also great and will probably be repeated in a higher form for our group dinner coming up on the 8th.

We watched Kill Bill 2, which is a really good movie. I bought F the set in Ohio and gave them to him for Sinter Klaas.

At midnight, the city errupted with fireworks. Apparently they are illegal except for the last three days of the year. So the skyline at the front of the house and the back of the house were lit up with fireworks. Plus there were people on the square and people in the courtyard and people on the roof shooting them off. It was pretty wonderful. We watched for ten minutes and then went back to the movie.