Welcoming 2025 With Friends And Barbecue | No Fireworks Were Allowed
Happy New Year to everyone except for the ones who are suffering in Gaza.
I hope the year that has passed has brought you peace, happiness, and joy while the rest of the world is still suffering. I chose to mention this because I care for all the sides that are suffering, and I truly stand with the suffering civilians of Gaza.
This year was pretty hectic for the people of my country. Especially at the end of the year as we have witnessed political turbulence that overthrew a fascist government. To reform the old ways, strict measures were taken to rectify the damage made, one of them was to prohibit the use of fireworks.
Recently, we have witnessed a surge in crime in the streets and the fireworks would only worsen the situation as many properties are accidentally caught on fire due to the lanterns that fly long distances before knocking on some poster or shop and setting the entire area ablaze. Therefore, this year the police asked not to use fireworks as it could make the users end up in jail. So, we abided.
Now that the primary issue has been addressed, I would love to show you how I spent my new year this time.
Without further ado, let's begin!
The Plan
Let me begin the juicy journey by saying that this barbecue plan was supposed to happen with another group of my friends but for some unknown reason, they were reluctant to answer and ultimately we did not celebrate with them.
Fortunately, my other group of friends had a plan and invited me out. Now that was an offer I could not refuse. It had a total of 5 guys where 3 of them were juniors, my friend, and his elder uncle.
The day came and we headed to the markets for the ingredients. My friend, Ishti, brought the chicken, butter, and coal. A junior from my school, Adib, brought a mashed onion mix and a fantastic spice mixture to marinate the chicken. They arranged all of it, I had little to do since he had things under control, I only participated in the grilling, and boy did it turn out well.
After gathering the stuff, we started heating up the coal at around 10:30 pm. It took us about 20 minutes to get the fire going while the others brought chairs, 2 1-litre Clemon and Rc, a huge JBL player, a hand fan to get the fire on, and scavenged for dry wood in the area to heat up the coal faster.
At midnight, the neighborhood saw multiple fireworks going off, even though it was looked down upon this time. Usually, in other countries, this is done with pride and joy, but here, due to the dense population, the animals and businesses are harmed more often; therefore, it is not a good practice.
Yet, my friends and I enjoyed the time as we reminisced about our school years, updated each other on life, and discussed how our views about certain topics evolved all while our juniors single-handedly took care of the cooking process.
It was pretty simple and serene and the light mood was set by the small nicotine dosage from my friend's vape. The strawberry flavor was amazing in the nice n cool weather. This is where I realized I should've trimmed my beard and hair. My friend kept complaining that it was cold... not for me it wasn't.
There was no alcohol as it is not permissible in our religion or other intoxicants.
Fast forward to 2:00 am, and we almost grilled all of our chicken. We unintentionally slow-cooked the chicken as we feared it being raw and only turned it over every 15-20 minutes. The coal used was in small amounts thus the flavour of the chicken was bound to be divine. That is why, it took us almost 4 and a half hours to complete the barbecue.
We prioritized the doneness of the inside rather than the color of the outside. Usually, people go for the golden brown or ashy brown color, we went for the black color in advance as that ensured that the inside would be fully cooked.
A few of my batchmates came back this year round but we still did not have enough time to meet them. Funny how we went from seeing each other every day to every year now. In the years to come, I'm sure we won't be able to meet in decades once we get our own families.
Yet, in this turbulent era of who said what to whom and who did what to whom, I managed to grasp this little friend, a group where I knew we had each other's backs, have my parents' health uplifted as my mom started yoga and dad's walking strength was getting better, my varsity life went quite well as I ended up with 3As and 1 A- at the end of this semester and made a few new friends and went on a journey with them which I have yet to post. So, overall, this year did start as good as I wanted it to but the end was even better. Not many people can say this, given the number of wars and unrest happening almost everywhere nowadays. That is what I am thankful for this year. And, as for the middle of the year... WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED, no idea.
As we started this year with a more hopeful year, I plan on getting a job this year while actively searching for a partner. The colors on the final pieces were too good to be true. To make sure these were properly cooked, we decided to poke them with a fork and knife to see if they went through easily or not. To our unsurprising advent, it was properly cooked and it was easy to peel off. Couldn't wait to gobble it up.
To summarise our barbecue, 2 of the juniors kept messing things up while the other one did the entire barbecue by himself and his mom made us the spice mixture, and boy did it have a nice smell. My friend kept complaining that it was cold af yet he continued to guide him and showed him how and when to flip the meat.
At 3:00 am we finally got our deserved meal. We heated the naan bread on the over and drizzled the famous white sauce we bought that these restaurants make, somehow, afterward. The taste was too good, to say the least, everything was cooked to perfection except the bone's white springy part.
As for the after party, I brought my PS4 and controller and did a friendly FIFA tournament.
P.s: I asked him if I could share his pic.
We all played a round before this guy decided to sleep off... in a guys' hangout. You know what that meant. His friends drew a few lines across his eyes and the black mole, my friend drew that black spot between the eyes XD, and the lines on his lips. A perfect wifey look, in black lines except for red lmao. We used a simple marker to do it. He had great skin, an oily one. Therefore, we knew that it would all go away in one swipe from his hand on his face.
Hopefully, he will never try to sleep off again in front of his friends XD. It was 6:00 am.
My friend and I chatted for about 3 hours about games, girls, and the movement of students and their aftermath before I decided that it was finally time to head back home. Now that it was this early in the morning, about 10:00 am ish, I can also say that it was cold. Finally, the true winter experience had begun.
Thank you, guys, for reading this far, I hope you all had fun last year, hopefully, this year brings you joy, peace, and comfort!