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Anyway back to that hangover! Thursday brought the dawning of our day! When we arrived I suggested that I thought it would be nice to cook a BBQ for a few friends, then light a campfire, and with the help of Yuliyas cousin (yes the internet lifesaver) entertain everyone with a few tunes! Whilst walking to the lake a few days before I noticed a few pumpkins in a neighbours vegetable patch! Enquiring with Victor he told me he had hundreds of pumpkins as they are used for animal feed! So after breakfast, after we had net caught some bait for the afternoon fishing, Maia and myself headed to the pumpkin patch to find some specimens! We picked 10 different sized, coloured and shaped pumpkins! It was like an early halloween as we all joined in carving the pumpkins with scary, funny and glum faces, the centrepiece being three pumpkins saying UK, a love heart and Belarus. I found some breeze blocks and some planks and made some seating around the firepit. Later in the afternoon I strung some christmas lights up along the washing line and in the tree near the firepit. I had learnt my mistake with the shopping the other day so I left it to Tanya, Victor and Sergey to prepare the food! I really wanted to do everything and let them have a day off but it turned out to be the busiest day for them so far! Oh well they made the rules!
After lunch Victor, Sergey and myself headed out to the new quarry lake to fish! Beer in hand and with the small bait fish caught this morning in a bucket we headed down to the lake! There were no banks to access the lake and we had to wade in and fish standing in the water! To our horror we discovered that all but a couple of the bait caught this morning had died. Oh well we had a couple left. Sergey taught me how to put the bait on the hook! (By rehooking through its mouth so that it swims around underwater luring the hopefully bigger fish in to feed)! To cut a few hours short Victor caught 2 with a spinner and I caught 1 with the live bait! When I say I caught 1, at the time of the strike I was drinking beer about 5 metres from my rod and if it wasn't for Sergey making me aware of my rod sailing off across the lake I would have missed it and scored another fail in the eyes of Victor as his favourite rod was pulled into the watery depths.
Anyway back home we went to make final preparations for the party, I put the lighting up and continued to drink beer while Yuliyas mother did the rest of the work whilst shouting order at Victor and Sergey! Sergey was initially in charge of the BBQ and set about skewering pieces of marinated Pork, tomatoes and peppers on to spits to cook over an open fire! I helped out by drinking more beer. The table was put outside and everything was beautifully prepared, and the guests started to arrive. The kids were in their element playing with the other children and receiving all the attention from different family members. They played into the evening the type of games that are international- hide and seek and football being the main focus. The BBQ was delicious. The pork was succulent and tender, and I helped by drinking more beer but I also added into the equation some vodka. In Belarus there is a lot of drinking especially at parties. In principal this is quite achievable as long as you follow a couple of rules 1) after each shot of vodka have something to eat and 2) never mix beer and vodka! After a few shots I built up enough Dutch courage to start drinking the shots every 5 minutes or so! Jamie was put to bed and as we had finished eating, so we set out the pumpkins around the campfire and settled down for some entertainment! This was probably an evening-saver for me as I couldn't drink and play guitar at the same time! Sasha was awesome and we cobbled a concert together singing Russian and Westernised songs alternately, and attempting to join in with each others songs as best we could. On a few songs my ability to play waned, and songs I have been playing religiously for years slipped away from me after a few lines! I helped this by drinking some more beer and vodka and not eating anything in between! The party whittled down as it was a school night at about 11pm and the only 2 people up were Sergey and myself! We had a few more drinks but I became aware on my last shot of Vodka that not only was I having trouble swallowing, I was also on the verge of puking it everywhere! It was at this point that Sergey suggested a swim in the lake! What a great idea not only would it sober me up but I could sneak into a bush and be sick (which would have saved me the embarrassment of being sick in the house). Tania heard our plans and came out and gave us a b******ing! We appeased her and she went back inside the house and we then proceeded to sneak out giggling (like school kids), I can't remember much (Tania told Yuliya the next day) but I was crawling like Gollum below the fence line and Sergey was having difficulty standing up entirely and kept falling over! We were caught by Tania and dragged back to the house with her screaming in Russian at me! After a few minutes of pointless arguing I gave in and went to bed! As I lay there I remembered my main reason for the midnight escapade and ran to the toilet holding the urge to puke on the floor, only making it cause I managed to catch my projectile vomit in my hands and direct it into the toilet. Yuliya was not too happy! Oh well add it to the list!
What can be said about Friday apart from I really didn't feel very well at all! Yuliya kindly let me stay in bed for a while until she sent the kids in to wake me! Upon arriving at the kitchen I made boroca and salpadine to try to appease the vomit gods and drank some coffee! We went straight down to the lake for a swim which was wonderful! Sergey came with us and I am glad to say he was looking just as bad as me! I spent most of the morning reading my new Bill Bryson book. We nipped out to see some relatives just outside of the village. On the return journey we stopped by a field of sweetcorns and "stole" a few for tea! Victor saw I was struggling and gave me a bottle of beer! I managed a glass but had to force it down. Once Jamie was asleep I went back to bed and slept until 4pm, by which time I was feeling abit better! The kids played out in the evening sunshine as in the distance thunderclouds rolled by missing us again with their immeasurable violence. Everyone was very lethargic and they just sat around talking whilst I caught up on this blog. As I am writing this I am lying in bed in the middle of one of the most amazing lightning storms I have ever seen! Everyone around me is asleep. I gaze out of the window and can feel the electricity lifting the hairs on the back of my neck. The rain is absolutely bucketing it down, soaking into the sun bleached earth and giving the crops in the farm a much needed watering! The intensity of the storm underlines this first week in Belarus. I wonder what the next week will bring in this Belarusian adventure and how many reasons to get my list out will there be!?
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