The week after Xmas went oh so slowly, and I kept busy by taking Ermioni down to Dorah's private gym, and the little girl enjoyed my antics on all the apparatus, and also liked to be taken onto some of the things. I felt a lot more positive towards the Ya-Ya, and the jersey she knitted me was absolutely gorgeous and fitted me like a glove.
And then it was new year's eve! I knew that I would not be part of the festivities this year, and I was quite upset, as Dorah had said that after Ermioni was in bed, I could go out and meet my friends. The Ya-Ya was adamant that I could not go out, and it wasn't long before the reason became apparant.  I was just making myself comfy in front of the television, having made peace with the fact that I would not be out amongst the fun, when the Ya-Ya told me to wake Ermioni up and gave me a blue velvet dress to dress her up in. I was aghast, tried to remonstrate, but the old woman was adamant, Ermioni had to be dressed, and when I completed that stupid command, with Ermioni showing her unhappiness by screaming to high heavens, I was told to also go and dress up. By now I realised that either we were going out, or we were getting visitors. I soon knew what was what as a very dour Petra arrived, and after she and the Ya-Ya had one amazing battle of wits, we went down and got into the car, and I was wondering where we were off to. From what I could make out, Petra said that the roads were congested, and that to try and get anywhere by car was almost impossible, but Gran just jutted out her chin at a dangerous angle, and stood her ground. We slowly made our way to Kiffisias rd, and then, with the Ya-Ya giving instructions and Petra trying to concentrate, her lip by now very thick from disgust, we stopped and started until we were almost at the junction where Kiffisias runs into Vassilissis Sofias. And then we were stuck. Luckily, or so we thought, there was a small road to the right that led to Oktovriou Pattision, and Petra turned, and we made some progress, but just when we thought we were going strongly, we came to a standstill again, and this time there was no getting out. Petra got out to enquire about the state of the traffic, and came back looking murderous indeed. She was told that Oktovriou Pattision was blocked, and as there were now cars behind us for as far as we could see, we could be there for the night. Och, the fight the two ladies had! And inbetween all this, Ermioni suddenly sat up and said as clearly as I would: 'Ya-Ya, ta rat a tat, ta rat a tat!', exactly as I taught her! Gran stopped her abuse of Petra in mid-air to glare first at Ermioni and then at me, but I just sat trying to look innocent! So there we sat, Ermioni at long last fell asleep, and then suddenly people started getting out of their cars, all of them with bottles of wine or champagne, and I realised that it was almost twelve midnight, so Petra and me also got out, and when the sky was suddenly lit with thousands of fireworks, people started kissing each other, giving swigs of their drinks to the ones that had nothing! Never kissed so many strangers in all my life, and when I saw the Ya-Ya taking a swig whenever one was offered, I was so surprised I almost sang a balad, but all was spared that ordeal when people started dancing, and I was grabbed and tossed and turned and made to do steps I never thought possible, and gasped when I saw Petra and The Ya-Ya do the same! It had started drizzling lightly, but nobody cared, and it was getting light when most people got into their cars, too tired to dance any further. We all slept until the cars at last started moving!