2009: no fireworks but with "car fires"

I welcome you all to this new year of 2009! All hopes and dreams are revived at the beginning of each new year... and they we wait 365 (or 366 days) to review the initial to-do list! eheheh

Yes, I survived cold from last night so it means I've started with the right foot so far! Most of the people prefer to stay at home or at private parties. I like to go outdoors, to see people celebrate, to cheer and to see the fireworks.

The problem in Paris is.... they don't have fireworks at midnight. When the clock reaches 12 the Eiffel tower lights up with some blinking lights. People stay along the Seine river and on the bridges just to watch these lights and open a bottle of champagne! ;-) But like I said on my previous post, I open a special bottle! eheh

It's sad to receive the new year without a small pyrotechnics show. I think they save budget for the big fireworks show for the 14th July, France's national day.
Ah, right... there's another type of "fire show", it's called "let's burn cars". Usually this happens around Paris city limits and is done by groups of people from these regions, usually immigrants from the poor and minority communities.
It's a very weird "sport", because each year the record of burnt cars is beaten! eheheh This year journalists say around 450 cars were burn in France, but the last official number is 1150! Yes, you read it right.

We have to agree this problem has its advantages: fewer cars means less polution and for the auto industry means more sales!
Who knows if in the future we'll have a special model: Auto Flambé! eheheh

Happy 2009 and keep up the spirit!

I want my car back!

Usually I never forget to pay my bills, specially when most of them are automatically payed via electronic deduction from a checking account. But, for no special reason, I pay in person for car parking... and I never thought I could cause so many problems!

Unfortunately, last month, I forgot to pay. Well, I went to the car parking two days after the deadline... only to find out more problems. The parking management, for security reasons, had called the police to tow my car... even without calling me!

The parking is very close to the city hall, and because my car's licence plate is still portuguese they took security measures and removed the car out!

In result, I had to take one day off work in order to go to the police. Accordingly to them, I was lucky, because they were about to "gently open" the car and search for "threats"!
After paying **** euros (censored! eheheh) and filling a dozen forms, I managed to arrive home almost at midnight!

I hope I wasn't flagged as terrorist! :-P