Happy 2009 and a half...

It's New Year again in Berchules, the neighbouring village to our own, where they've been celebrating Noche Vieja on the first weekend of August for the past 15 years. The midsummer Hogmanay thing regularly draws about ten thousand people to this village of perhaps nine hundred residents, and the resulting night-long revelry includes the uvas de la suerte, various silly performances (in the shot above, it's three queens corresponding to the three kings at Christmas), lots of noise and plenty of alcohol. This year the fiesta was somewhat subdued due to the wildfire which has been raging below the village - it's apparently still smouldering away, although it's now under control. Here's a shot of the hillside provided by our friends Carol and Stan; the fire got very close to homes and hundreds were evacuated.

Easy rider

Most places, when huge gangs of guys on customised motorcyles roll into town, they lower the shutters, lock up their daughters and play dead. In Juviles they put a few kegs of beer in the church square and start frying eggs. Pictures and video of the 3rd annual bikers' rally on the town hall website here. Notice the lovely weather for late september.

Well, what would you put on an apron?

In Britain, they sell novelty aprons with lingerie printed on them so that middle-aged men can project a hint of the risqué while they're ruining some sausages on the barbecue. Not in the Alpujarra. A specially customised apron around here carries the image of what really matters in life. Ham. To dispel any possible ambiguity as to the subject matter, the one on the left bears the word jamón in careful embroidery, above the picture of the cured hind leg of a pig. The one on the right curiously has the ham off centre, as if there was meant to be another image on the other side to balance it out, but the apron-maker just got fed up and stopped. I wonder what it would have been? A string of sausages, perhaps, or a couple of nice big black puddings?

Elsewhere in the impressive exhibition of work by the Juvíles library adult education group last month were these intriguing creatures, which might be cats. I'm not even going to attempt to think of something funny to say about them.

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?

Thrilling video action from Juviles

Here, courtesy of the town hall's website, is some video footage of the San Sebastian procession in Juviles from late January. They take the statue of said Saint out of the church, walk it around the village a bit, and then put it back in the church again. Anyway, if you watch it, notice how nice the weather looks. Most folk are in shirt-sleeves and it's January.
Part one will have you on the edge of your seat:
http://www.juviles.net/Videos/2008/Procesion%201/index.php
And here's the nail-biting sequal:
http://www.juviles.net/Videos/2008/Procesion%202/index.php