Category Archives: holidays

christmas cards

08 Friday Dec 2006

Posted by in christmas, holidays

≈ 19 Comments

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Does anyone send Christmas cards anymore?

I used to send tons of them every year – at least fifty or so. This year Nog and I bought just ten pretty Unicef cards to share between us. 😕

I don’t know when or why I got out of the habit of sending out so many cards. It also used to be quite a special thing for me. At the end of November I’d put on some Christmas music, pour a glass of wine, and sit down to write all my cards …

Then I got a computer and discovered e-cards and so started sending those instead of spending a small fortune on postage and cards. But now I don’t even do that. I just send out the minimum obligatory family ones by regular post … I wonder what happened?

christmas day open house! (2006)

02 Saturday Dec 2006

Posted by in christmas, holidays, life stuff

≈ 17 Comments

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Calling all Christmas orphans!

Or really, anyone who would like to stop by at casa az on Christmas day for a bit of a festive get together. Nog and I will be home all day and although we plan to be quite lazy and probably watch a film or two between eating & drinking to our heart’s content we’ll also have both the laptop and the PC on if people would like to pop in and say hello.

Either here or on IM or Skype … up to you. Not sure if I’ll want to use the webcam or not, especially if I stay in my pj’s and am not wearing a bra 😉 . But anyhow, if you’d like to get in touch by IM or Skype and don’t have our contact names just email me and I’ll send them to you.

magical mystery tour

06 Thursday Jul 2006

Posted by in food & drink, holidays, photos, sevilla, trips

≈ 15 Comments

As mentioned earlier and elsewhere, our friend Craig (aka zoomer on h2g2) has been visiting this past week – and we’ve been having a wonderful time. And we almost went to Gibraltar too! (see M&S especially the original post and comment 24).

Anyhoodle, once we ended up with Plan E , I decided to make it a bit special and so, although Craig knew we’d be spending the night in Bolonia, we simply gave him directions as he drove along so he seldom knew what our actual destinations were going to be . . . a magical mystery tour! f_magic.gif

It was basically a tour of Los Pueblos Blancos and La Costa de la Luz

We started off in Arcos de la Frontera and then ended up in my favourite beach village Conil and had lunch in a chiringuito on the beach. Later we followed a small coastal road to Trafalgar and Los Caños de Meca and then spent the night in Bolonia

I’ve lived in Spain for 14 years now and have never had better chiperones a la plancha like the ones at my favourite restaurant in Bolonia.

Next morning after seeing the Roman ruins we went off to Tarifa for a bit of shopping, then zipped right past the-place-that-shall-not-be-mentioned though we did stop in a very pretty village called San Roque for a much needed beer break, which boasted a wonderful view of you-know-what.

Then we headed north to Ronda , had a fabulous lunch there, saw the amazing gorge, visited Spain’s oldest bullring and then after a short stop-off in Grazalema we passed through a few more white villages before finally getting home around 10pm . . . very tired but very very happy.

And so here are some photos I took of the magical mystery tour

Should be more added as soon as Craig gets his pics organized.

Isn’t it fabulous when friends visit and you get to be ‘on holiday’ with them? 🙂

corpus cristi

15 Thursday Jun 2006

Posted by in culture, holidays, photos, religion, sevilla

≈ 11 Comments

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Today is a public holiday in Sevilla, one of the few places in Spain that celebrates Corpus Cristi. And as usual the Sevillanos do it up big time. Arches are built in the town hall square, altars are constructed, balconies and shop windows are decorated (there’s even a competion for this) and the night before the procession route is strewn with sprigs of rosemary and rose petals.

All for one rather boring procession that lasts about an hour.

However, what is lovely is to get up early and walk the route before the procession starts. The rosemary is still fresh on the ground, there aren’t many people about and you can see all the displays and decorations before going for a fab brekky once the procession has started and the crowds have moved from the bars to the streets.

We got out a bit late this morning and the procession had already started, but we got ahead of it and managed to take some photos, which you can see below. The window display ones are a bit wonky because of the reflections – and you can usually make out Nog and me as ghostly shadows in amongst the holy relics, loaves of bread and bunches of grapes. I just wish there was a way to transport the gorgeous fragrance of freshly crushed rosemary in the cool morning air . . .

Corpus Cristi photos