Category Archives: holidays

gibraltar, here I come?

12 Wednesday Dec 2007

Posted by in christmas, clothing, holidays, life stuff, retail therapy, trips

≈ 3 Comments

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Will it be third time lucky???

As I mentioned on the travelling plans post, my friend Carmen has very generously offered to drive me to Gibraltar to buy underwear at Marks & Spencer, but the date has been moved up to this Saturday instead of the 22nd. And really, not a moment too soon given the very sad and sorry state of my knickers. Of course given my bad luck with having tried to get to this place twice in the past (mentioned here and here) I probably won’t believe it until I’m actually through passport control and walking through the M&S front doors on Saturday morning.

Anyhow, I’m getting quite excited and also plan to stock up on mince pies if they have any. And maybe a sweater or two. Oooh, and some socks. . .

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o christmas tree

09 Sunday Dec 2007

Posted by in christmas, holidays, retail therapy

≈ 10 Comments

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It’s our new little wicker Christmas tree!

I also have a little cardboard cutout Victorian tree, but this new tree is quite a bit bigger and perhaps with some eensy lights and a bit of tinsel (though it does have silver sparkles all over it already) it could end up looking rather festive.

You see, for years I’ve never been able to have a proper Christmas tree because of the cats. Instead I’ve put little white fairy lights around the balcony doors, put out my cardboard tree on the table and hung up a few bobbles here and there. But this year Nog & I decided we would look for some sort of Christmas tree that would be ‘cat proof’ and I think this one might work out quite nicely. It’s about 50cm tall and there is space on the wee table to put a gifty or two on Christmas eve, yet there is nothing dangly and tempting to interest the cats. I actually like it as it is, but Nog thinks it needs a bit of tarting up, so we’ll see what we can find.

So … just back from the first Sunday Shopping Sunday in December (in Spain Sunday shopping is only allowed in December and one Sunday each when winter and summer sales begin) . AND IT WERE HELL. All the stores had their heating turned up to maximum even though it was a balmy 18ºC outside, and then there were multitudes of screaming kidlets everywhere . . . gaaaaaaah!!! So after finding the tree and doing a bit of other basic shopping we stopped in at Ay Maricrú! for some much needed refreshment before heading home.

For those of you who don’t know about the issues concerning cats and Christmas trees, check out CUTE with Christmas.

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el puente

07 Friday Dec 2007

Posted by in culture, holidays, home, life stuff, sevilla, spain, tapas

≈ 5 Comments

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Today is the ‘puente’, or bridge day, between two public holidays: Día de la Constitución (December 6th) and Inmaculada Concepción (December 8th). Lots of people also take today as a holiday in order to have an extra long weekend, and many businesses choose to remain closed as well (like my gym, fer instance, grrr…).

Until a few years ago the night of the Inmaculada was traditionally when the Christmas street lights were turned on but this been changing, so that anytime after December 1st you’ll see lights on (though they still all get turned off on January 5th – Epiphany – which I think is a good thing).

The madrugada of the Inmaculada (that’s tonight from midnight till dawn) is also the night when the various tunas get together and sing & play to the Virgin statue in one of the squares next to the cathedral. Tunas are groups of traditional minstrels belonging to the different university faculties and on this night there is something of a competition as they all take turns out-tuna-ing themselves for the Virgin. The last time I went out to see this spectacle was a few years ago (going out after midnight has becoming a rarity) so Nog & I had been planning to go tonight, as he has never seen them in this setting. But since we are both feeling ‘coldy’ we might not make it. It’s not a huge deal if we don’t go because there are often tunas playing at the bar across the street so we actually get to hear them a lot. But this night is actually quite special and apparently it’s also the 25th anniversary for the Biology tuna, so big things are expected . . .

Can we stay up long enough to go out tonight? Eep!

The bridge pic came from here … played with it a bit.

travelling plans

29 Thursday Nov 2007

Posted by in holidays, life stuff, nablopomo, trips

≈ 6 Comments

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Suddenly we seem to be going everywhere! (well, maybe)

Yesterday I mentioned that Nog & I might be going to Granada over the holidays. Since then even more travel ops have turned up! f_bigeyes.gif

Today my friend Carmen said to me that as her husband will be working on Saturday 22 December, she thought this would be a good day to drive me to Gibraltar so I can finally buy some underwear. It’s no joke – ever since Marks & Spencer closed I’ve had to get my knickers sent to me from friends in England as M&S doesn’t deliver outside the UK. My two previous botched attempts to get to the M&S store in Gibraltar have been mentioned here and here. But Carmen has never forgotten my plight and so it looks like I’ll be getting new knickers for Christmas! f_somersault.gif Oh, and also see Gibraltar.

Then another friend Paco told me he’s going to be driving to Lisbon the weekend of December 28-30 because he wants his girlfriend to see the city in winter all decorated for Christmas. And Nog and I have been invited along because Paco knows how we fell in love with the place when we went there last June.

The planned Granada trip is also going to be with Paco as he and his girlfriend often go there to ski during the winter, so apparently we’ll have several weekends to choose from. Paco says they can just drop us off in Granada on Friday evening before they head up to the mountains and then pick us up Sunday on their way back to Sevilla.

And then, while I was talking about possible ways to sell some of our natural clothing stock this spring, it was suggested that I go down to Marbella. Carmen said she was there not long ago and there were several boutiques selling similar looking stuff, so I might have some luck there. And I remembered that my friend Manolo had offered Nog & I the use of one of his holiday apartments in Marbella for a weekend (well, as long as it isn’t booked) and said he might even be able to drive us there and back as he often goes to Málaga at weekends.

And so suddenly there are four possible trips to think about, none of which should cost much. In fact, all of them together should cost less than our Lisbon trip did. And since we’ll only be away two nights max (and no nights when we go to Gibraltar) we won’t have to worry about a cat-sitter. Ohhh, this is quite exciting! Hope it all works out as this would certainly make the coming winter months a lot more interesting. 🙂

todos los santos

01 Thursday Nov 2007

Posted by in holidays, nablopomo, religion, sevilla, spain

≈ 8 Comments

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Today is Todos Los Santos (All Saints Day), which is a public holiday in Spain.

Traditionally, people visit the cemetary and decorate the graves of their loved ones with flowers. Apparently this Christian holiday was moved from its original date in May more than ten centuries ago to offset the pagan autumn festivals.

Here at casa az it’ll be just a pleasant day off, with plans to go out for lunch and finally my swap summer/winter wardrobes. It also means I get a four-day long weekend! f_wow.gif

Nog isn’t so lucky as he has to work on Friday. He says that in England they always move bank holidays (other than Christmas, New Year and Good Friday) to the nearest Monday in order to avoid long weekend ‘bridges’. Is it the same where you are?

It’s just after midnight so this is my first NaBloPoMo post. Off to sleep now and looking forward to checking in from my cosy bed in the morning . . . f_zzz.gif