Portland's Eve

Devoted to Eva, because of her birthday... and everything else! 

Things were easier to handle before. We usually got there, chat a little bit to each other and then sat in a table with three or four more people until midnight. Now all has changed. We get there and, in a blink of an eye, we found ourselves surrounded by friends. Old and new friends. English, American or Spanish friends. Friends already made and friends to be made. The more the merrier, of course, but due to we speak English we need to pay special attention to the words and due to we need to pay special attention to the words we can't attend to everybody. Eyes are always looking for the eyes, ears are always looking for the sounds of the mouths. There's no place for speculation. Yesterday I arrived to Portland's very early. I had been all the morning studying and, in the afternoon, I felt tired and I decided to play hookie and go to the cinema instead of going to my English class... But it wasn't a good idea. I didn't enjoy the movie as much as I use to enjoy Elisa's classes. At least, I was able to be in Valencia just in time to go to Portland's at 8 pm, find an empty table from the very begining and not to have to fight for a sit like a tiger in the dense jungle. When I arrived I saw Silvia's friend guy, Nacho, who always cames to me to say hello but this time we didn't have a conversation. A few metters deeper I found Sara all alone. Because of things to happen and people to come, we decided to sat together in an empty big table at the far end of the pub. We were speaking for a long while about ourselves, about our siblings and about our place in the world. Sara is a very nice girl and quite a party one. She likes going out, meeting up with friends, talking with them and listening to music... Heavy metal music, to be more specific. We also spoke about English and shared some interesting vocabulary. False friends like "argument" or "parcel", words that don't have anything to do with "argumentos" or "parcelas". Then her friends Davinia, Majo and Ana made it and also Kumy, a London girl who works as an English teacher here in Valencia and has acquired her teaching skills after a really hard training with Richard Vaughan's people. Afterwards, the rest of the bunch finally arrived and, with some new and special guests, our empty table turned into a crowded and noisy table. We had to leave soon but it was for a good reason: TODAY IS EVA'S BIRTHDAY! As soon as the new day came Alex and I congratulated her by phone and, some minutes after, we gave her one and two kisses respectivelly in person. We had a really good time with the lovely her and the no less lovely Carol talking about dancing penguins and people who survive after falling on a plane out of control. Who would care about football having such good friends? HAPPY BIRTHDAY EVA!