October half-term availability

The English, Welsh and Scottish schools half-term holidays are fairly spread out this year, and we've currently got availability for the main English week and weeks either side. Currently the house is:

- Booked for w/c 13th (Glasgow and other perverse bits of Scotland)
- Free for w/c 20th (Edinburgh and most of the rest of Scotland)
- Free for w/c 24th (some rogue counties in Northern England and Wales)
- Free for week commencing 27th October (London and most of the rest of England)

Apologies to the Irish and the rest of the world, but I can't be finding everyone's holibags for them and presumably you've already got the dates red-lettered on your calendars anyway. As for the poor old Spanish, they don't get half-term.

So knock yourself out and book a restful week in a beautiful house in an authentic Andalucian hill village. The kids can practice Spanish with the villagers while you enjoy the breathtaking view from the terrace and indulge in a few glasses of the idiosyncratic local wine. Flights should still be cheap for most weeks if you book now.

Euro, Doh!

Thanks to Jurdy at SpainExpat's forum site for bringing this to my attention. A shop keeper in Asturias found this skillfully re-modelled Euro in a bag of change. Nobody knows who morphed His Majesty into Homer, but one theory doing the rounds suggests it's the work of a shadowy republican group planning to flood the country with similar hand-manipulated currency. I doubt that, as it's a job that clearly took hours, if not days. And a Euro won't pay for a single caña of Duff beer these days.

Spain's Olympians return from Beijing

I was sorry to see Spain losing out to the US for the gold in the basketball yesterday. The game ended in a very friendly mood, I noticed, with the players hugging and high-fiveing each other. This is perhaps not surprising, as most of the Spanish players (presumably classed as Olympian amateurs for the Games) play for million-dollar salaries in North America and knock about with their adversaries on a regular basis. Away from the basketball court, Spain did less well than expected, and remarkably less well than the UK. We British won loads of medals, which is hardly in the spirit of the thing and certainly not to be encouraged in the future.

Anyway, here is an exclusive pic of "Team Esp" on their return from China. Or it might be some more of the fancy dress from the Juviles fiesta earlier this month.

While we're on the subject, why do we have to say "Beijing" when Spanish speakers can still get away with calling it "Pekin"? Shouldn't they be referring to the Chinese capital as "Veillin" or something like that, just to be fair?

Semana Cultural

We got back from Juviles last weekend after a week of wilting in the heat and enjoying the highlights of the Fiesta and the preceding Semana Cultural or cultural week. Highlights included old men eating fritters. Or not really eating fritters, so much as sitting back and admiring them.

Although a lot of the "events" were comically underwhelming and eccentric, it was brilliant. Juviles, with only 200 people, has a smaller population than many blocks of flats, and for the village to hold dozens of little events plus at least two whole night-long parties (I say "at least" because we left for Malaga before it was over) was really quite something. There were activities specifically for little kids, old folks and what I tend to think of as normal people, i.e. of my age, but most events had something for everyone. The Fiesta last Friday in particular was an extraordinary mix, with everything from a bouncy castle and kids' fancy dress to dancers in schoolgirl outfits that would make the hot sixth-formers in St. Trinian's look positively frumpy.

Best fancy dress by far was a little girl of about six dressed as a traditional Spanish abuela or grandma. Grey hair, black dress, pinny, walking stick, and the killer detail, pop socks with one rolled up and one down. This is not a great shot (from the ayuntamiento here), but this is her with some pals: She won the "most convincing abuela" competition, with the ladies below coming second and third. They were furious, as you might imagine, and the atmosphere on the winners' podium was sour.

Coming soon to this blog, the ropey "Medieval Market", several bands, and the adult education group's handicraft exhibition. Sorry I don't have any pictures of the sexy dancing girls, but I somehow forgot where my camera was when they were on.

A Level Results Out Today!

No pictures of unusually pretty 18 year-old girls jumping in the air with results in their hands here I'm afraid, although if you're looking for those, you'll find them everywhere else in the media today. Just thought I'd try to grab your attention and ask you if you'd like to rent a lovely house in rural Spain during late August and/or September? A great place to relax for a few days before Freshers' Week/Gap Year. See the permanent site here.