The new year grapes story

This is where this blog originates from. I told this story in Austria and got absolutely roasted by Barkers, Tim & Sam. Since I've been going out with my wonderful girlfriend Hannah, I seem to have lost any ability that I might have once had to spin a story into something that can hold people's attention. I think it stems from my admiration for the way that Hannah manages to squeeze every tiny irrelevant detail from any subject she's trying to tell me about. Often I get impatient and pre-empt where I think she's going, which causes her to lose her thread, thus lengthening her stories further.
Luckily, the opposite of being a killer wordsmith is hilarious and much more fun.

So anyway, Ricard from my work who is Spanish told us about the tradition which people in Spain partake in at new year. As the clock strikes 12, you have to eat 12 grapes as quickly as possible, or as each chime strikes on the clock, something like that. Anyway, so last year (new years eve 2008) one of Ricard's friends thought it would be funny to slip an olive into the bowl of grapes! As you can imagine, an olive with a stone in the centre would be quite a contrast to the other 11 grapes that have been chomped down at pace as the clock strikes 12.

Ricard was pleased to assure me that this year (new years eve 2009), he was a good boy and no such tomfoolery took place.

I told Ricard about how my friend Tim attempted to poison me with undercooked rice at new year, but that's another story for another time.