I’ve now brought in my second New Year under the fireworks in the Puerto Madero barrio of Buenos Aires. It’s one of the best places to see them, and it seems more and more people are discovering you can do that without spending a fortune on the expensive waterfront restaurants. In fact, because their music is playing loudly all evening, outside revellers can take advantage of it to dance along the edge of the water and across the bridge! If we need to go to the washroom, we just nip into the Hilton. My friend Lola calls this being “gypsies in the palace” — I like it!

I did shoot some video, for for some reason I couldn’t get any to load up to YouTube so that I could put them here. I did get one up on FaceBook though, and you can see it here.

Like everyone else, I’ve been pondering what kind of year 2017 was for me. Although of course there have been a few downs, there have been many more ups and on balance, for me at least, it was a pretty good year.

Over the past few years I’ve definitely been on board with the idea of spending my money on experiences rather than “stuff”. In fact, I’ve been actively reducing the amount of stuff in my life and that’s an eye opening experience in itself. It occurred to me that I live in Argentina for almost half the year in a tiny furnished apartment with no surplus stuff, so why on earth do I need bulging cupboards full of stuff at home in Toronto? The answer is that I don’t, and I’ll be actively working on that when I get back there in early May.

I began and ended 2017 in Argentina, and I hope to do the same in 2018, although I also plan a little bit more travel this year. That’s a much more fulfilling way to spend my money. Do you agree?

I’m having a bit of a lazy day today, and then I’m going to a friend’s house for even more champagne. And then tomorrow it will be back to normal. Although I do love Christmas and New Year, I’m always secretly relieved to get back to the work and leisure activities of my normal life.

I hope you are enjoying sharing my Argentine life through this blog and the occasional FaceBook post. Thanks for all your likes, shares, comments and emails. I’ll be back with more normal posts this week.

Happy New Year, Feliz Año Nuevo, y un 2018 prospero y feliz!

Helen