October '09

The Diamond Wedding

For my parents was last month, but the party was at the beginning of October. So we flew back to the UK for a splendid bash at the Phyllis Court Club. I think there were 80 people there, including lots of family as well as their good friends. It was all very Scottish, including the table themes and lots of kilts were being worn by the guests. My sister Tamsen worked for ages on a brilliant slideshow of images from their lives together. My brother David wrote and read a specially commissioned poem. There were also some excellent speeches, all of which demonstrated what special people and wonderful parents Mum & Dad are. After all they have put up with my idiosyncrasies for the last 55 years. ;)

A special mention goes to the Three Sirens, who I am sure will shortly be entering modelling careers.

Flyboy is back

Spraying pesticides to try to kill the flies, however, they seem to be winning the war. The close-up picture hasn't been cropped, he likes to pop down below the ridge execute his turn then rip back up and straight into a 70ft high spraying run.

In the middle of the month we gave our permission for a pastor to bring his flock onto our land. there were about 80 sheep and a group of small goats. The whole lot was bossed around by the biggest domesticated goat I have ever seen. Have a look, it's standing next to the tree in the right hand picture.
Boris is growing rapidly, but still size zero, partly explained by the fact they spend their whole day racing around after rabbits. PG managed to get this rare picture of them all lying down.

Halloween Catalan Style

Ximo (Our landlord) invited us and our Irish friends Richard & Mary to their Halloween party in their garage below our apartment.
We have been to quite a few of these bashes now and know the score, but it was a first for Richard & Mary, who loved it all but seem slightly bemused after the event.
During the afternoon the dads set up the garage while the ladies prepare the food. The party starts around 7.30-8.30 when all the kids gather to play, show off their costumes while their meal is set up so they eat in a group before the adults. Generally, the meal for the adults doesn't start till around 10'ish when a salad, embotits (dried sausages and other meats) olives and bread spread with tomato and olive oil, starts you off. The main course is usually bulk meat cooking, this time it was braised pigs cheeks and you're not likely to get anything else with it. Pudding is usually individual icecreams or more often, little sponge cakes and chocolate things.

Then comes the piece de resistance, Ximo makes a vatfull of cremat. A potent and as you can see hot tipple, to help the digestion. By now the clock has usually passed midnight and quite often 2 or 3 am. These guys enjoy their get togethers. I think we hade it to bed about 2.30'ish.
Lets hope we hear from the Dept. Urbanisme soon.