Clever Uncle

About.com is number 48 in their 101 most useful websites (click Here). Strangely rubber stamping didn't get a specific mention - however I'm not sure about their comment...

"The internet's version of that clever uncle who always seems to know the answer to your questions. There are few subjects the site doesn't tackle, though the coverage can be superficial. A good starting point for idle research."

Photos of Semana Santa in Zafra 2008

I've posted the photos from Semana Santa, because if I didn't time would move on. Near the end is a pic which looks like I have taken a pic of the floor. What you need to look at here is the feet of the men carrying the float.

Also, further down, there is a pic of the man carrying the cross (not Jesus) and you get a real feel for the size of the cross and the fact that he carried it in front of him for 5 or so hours, not even taking any weight on his shoulders.

Remember (I think) that you can click on a pic to make it full sized) - press the back button to get back to normal size.

Semana Santa Pics

Pics2

Photos Semana Santa

Asparagus

It does seem to be a custom that we wander round saying 'no asparagus here' as other people are filling bags full. Luckily people do take pity on us and share their asparagus with us. Ian has been given a 'secret' for cooking the asparagus, and that is adding a spoonful of water to the olive oil and it really does make a huge difference. We've also been told how to freeze it (cook it with the eggs first) and when we get enough to freeze we'll have a go.

This weekend in Zafra is the fiesta of Quasimodo - really. This actually sounds quite interesting. It is a very old fiesta where people dress up in their finery and 'walk and sing' to the country. People also go on horse back and in carriages. It falls every year the weekend after Easter and I do wonder if it might be a bit of light entertainment after the intensity of Semana Santa. We might go along and take a look, as it does sound interesting. There are some verbs in Spanish that we don't have in English. One of these is the verb used to share and participate in food at fiestas. We'd say share, I guess, however this is specifically for these occasions. We have also learned that there is a word to describe people who don't participate in other people's food, and this might explain the look when we said no to a cake on Easter day.

Sam is still doing well, he is still on his low protein diet and no-additive diet. Bob and Sam have bonded. There does seem to be something about Bob that all other dogs seem to like him and he does have a lot of patience. He and Sam play all the time and it is nice to see.

There is the beginning of a feeling of Spring or early summer. It is now staying light until 8 ish and poppies are just coming out in the fields. It is light in the morning now quite early too (by Spanish standards). The weather today and yesterday, however, has been miserable and very windy and cold. The clocks change this weekend so we'll soon be into summer hours as far as the shops are concerned.

I'm enjoying my About (click - rubber stamping) work, I have had my first mini-review and it seemed to go ok. The only negative comment was that one of my articles assumed a higher level of knowledge than my target readership. I have no idea how that happened!

Not an Easter Bunny in Sight...

I have not had time to edit this, so I thought I would post it complete with wobbly and out of focus bits.

We went to the parade in Zafra - we thought that Seville was a bit far to go as we weren't sure about the weather (it looked like rain and the parades get cancelled if wet). So we went on Thursday, which was the fourth day of parades. We went in effect to the matinee performance at 8 in the evening, as there was one later starting at midnight. So baring in mind that Zafra is not touristy - nor is it known for its Semana Santa parades, AND baring in mind that there had already been several 4 or 5 hour parades before this one, you can see how amazing the whole thing is. Different brotherhoods are responsible for maintaining different Christs and Virgins, each brotherhood has its own parade. So the one we saw would have had different statues and different hooded men. If you look closely you'll see that they have a sort of medalion around their neck and this says what brotherhood they belong to.

Check out the lady walking past near the beginning wearing a mantiquilla (?)-you just see the top of her head when we are watching the band in the square. Also look at the man carrying the cross (towards the beginning) and see how it carries it. There are two handles, one each side and he takes the weight of the cross in front of him. He will keep this up for 5 hours - no wonder they keep stopping! Also look at the soldiers goose-stepping (right in front of the float at the end of the vid), again, they will keep this up until the early hours. The 'paso' with Jesus on it came out first (carried by men underneath, taking the weight on their shoulders), the second with the Virgin followed. My battery went flat just as Jesus arrived in front of me (there's a message there I'm sure). There was as many people again - if not more behind, between Jesus and the Virgin and again behind her.

The crowd went silent as the Virgin passed which felt very strange. There were people with bare feet following her, and a lot of genuflecting. Every so often someone would start singing (wailing) and this voice would eerily float over the crowds. I've got some still pics as well, which I'll sort out and post here.

We had to go home and watch Life of Brian to remind us what the church is really all about...

I know the video isn't very good, but I can put it onto a cd if anyone would like to see a bigger version, it gets shrunk quite small for the blog.

For Olly

About Semana Santa

Click on these links and this will take you to pages that have more info on Semana Santa - look at the pics and you will see what I mean about the costumes and KKK.

CLICK About Holy Week
Click About Semana Santa
CLICK - Cajasol ther is a short video made from old photos on this site

New Computer and Easter

Well I am very excited, I've bought a new computer. It's got rams, buttons and gigathingys - however it is also PINK. It's also got a built in webcam, so that is something you can look forward to. I have finally wrestled the computer from Ian and am typing this on it. It is a Spanish keyboard and operating system, which is taking a little bit of getting used to (and I've still not get spell check set up so bear with it). I´m spending so much time writing, it made sense to get a new laptop which I can use anywhere. Interestingly, I bought this with less than a months earnings from my writing. My first colour laptop cost more than a months salary as managing director a few years ago, and that would have had much less power than my Palm.

We were rather shocked last night to hear the village band - we thought it had been disbanded, however there was certainly something happening. It was remarkably bad, so we are wonding if the old band were the ones that were disbanded and this is an all new band.

The weather this week has been extraordinary. Monday it was so cold that we put the gas fire on and huddled in my office. Wednesday it was too hot and we had to sit in the shade and since then we could have eaten tea outside late in the evening if we wanted to - it has been so warm during the day the heat has stayed at night.

In our class on Wednesday we were talking about Easter. I think part of the reason why we think nothing goes on at Easter is because it does not happen until late. Next week there are Semana Santa parades every 'day' but they start at 9 and go on until 2 or 3 in the morning. This does sound a little hard core, some people parade without shoes on, for 5 or so hours over roads and lanes as they have made a promise to God. And people sing or wail as the parades go past. The parades start Monday and go on, I think, to Saturday. This is in Zafra - in Seville the parades go on all through the night. The people carrying the saints are dressed in outfits not unlike the Klu Klux Klan (surely its not spelt like that...) - I'll find some pictures at it is really is similar. It was very interesting talking to our tutor, she and her husband will go back to her mother's house afterwards for something to eat at 3 or so in the morning as her mum can no longer take part but wants to hear all about it. It makes our easter eggs pale into the background somewhat. We will try to go to a parade - either in Zafra or perhaps Seville.


Sam has not had a fit now for nearly 3 weeks. He is sticking to his low protein diet, which is probably one third meat, two thirds rice or pasta and veg. It isn't costing us too much as we are not giving him too much meat. We don't know if all this is co-incidence, whether it is low protein, lack of additives or the fact it is wet food and not dry - however it seems that something has happened to slow his fits. We've also had Guncs and Black Beard neutered this week. Ian pointed to BB's slightly black chin to explain why we called him Black Beard. The vet just made that slightly glazed stare that we are getting so used to now and rushed off to operate on a cow.

We've also started giving the dogs a spring trim, we had to buy some new blades, so they missed their last trim. Sam was very easy to trim, but doesn't he look thin now - look at him in the pic above and that was taken today. He has put on a lot of weight, so it does remind us of how skinny he was when we found him under all that matted fur. With his new close cropped look his legs are really emphasized - they really are very long compared with his body! We had a nasty moment today - he has just learnt to jump on his back legs and is so gangly, he keeps falling over. Anyway, he fell onto his back and the thud jolted me as well as poor Sam. He howled, bringing Ian running, however I think he had just winded himself. Poor little fellow is still quite wobbly in some ways.

Crisp and Dry Confiscated

They confiscated my Crisp and Dry - the 2 packs of 500gms of solid fat that I was bringing back from the UK.

Happily I was allowed everything else of the 5 kilos that I was over my luggage weight - including this little lot on the table.

I did have to wear both of my out door jumpers and two tops as my case was full which meant that stripping off for customs (they made me take my outdoor layers off) was a bit of a palaver as well as a surprise for them as I came out from under my layers at a fraction of my original size. The trip was like clockwork - in fact if I knew how smooth it was going to go I would have panicked.

Naturally we had a flat tyre on the way down to the airport, however this really shouldn't have surprised us!

The pile on the table is the results of a shopping trip to Hobbycraft - I managed to get everything on my shopping list (plus a bit(lot) more). I now have plenty to write about for the next few weeks.

Oh yes, in case you are wondering why I had a kilo of vegetable fat on me- it was because I want to make some soap and I need palm or coconut oil to go with the olive oil. Palm oil is found in the solid frying oils, however as they are 'bad' oils to eat (although great for soap) they are less easy to find.

Hamish / Sam

Much to everyone's confusion we've decided to rename Hamish, Sam. The reason for this is 'Hamish' and 'Henry' sounds similar to doggy ears so when we call one, we end up with two. So now all we need to do is to remember that we have changed his name to Sam. At the moment we are a bit random, which isn't helping with any confusion.

Sam hasn't had a fit since we've changed his food.

Today is really hot - we had to move into the shade at lunch time. We're going out asparagus picking this afternoon, but will wait until it cools down a bit. There is a local fair too, in Llerena promoting local produce - so we'll go and be amazed by the vast array of things that can be made from pigs, assuming it is still open later. I'm hoping that perhaps I'll be able to find a glass or two of bellota - the spirit made from acorns.

We're going to look into grants, as we might be able to get a grant to help us with the work.