Rocking Your World 2018; Week 51

Week 51. My word, where did that year go? One more week and I'll be changing my header to 2019. I am really sorry I didn't manage a post last week It was such a busy week and there was just no good time to do it. I didn't even manage to visit anyone, but I will do a double catch-up this week, and now I am back on track.

This is an incredibly busy time, and I always seemed to be rushing off somewhere, but as so often happens when life is a bit hectic, I didn't actually remember to take many photos.

But I will go back to a week ago last Sunday. We have two Spanish red days in December; days when shops close, schools are out, and most folk have a day off work, so much like bank holidays in UK. These two are just two days apart, December 6th is a secular day - Día de Constitucíon, and 8th is a religious day - Immaculate Conception. Schools and some other places will have the day between them as a holiday too. They call it a bridge day. But because this year the 8th fell on a Saturday, some people had at least half a day off on Monday as well, so it was a bit hit and miss whether shops would be open etc.

We do not usually have a public celebration for 8th, so we were surprised to hear rockets going off and then band music. In the end our curiosity got the better of us and we jumped in the car for a quick drive round. Following the sound of the music we ended up in the rambla where it curves around the top of the village. There is an old sandy football pitch there that was used by the village until the new sports pavilion opened up at the top on the other side of the rambla. The old one is now used by the Ecuadorian group in our community. There are  quite a lot of them, and although they are quite friendly, and will speak if you pass them in the street, they do keep mainly to themselves and stick to their own folk socially. They come from all around on a Saturday night for music, food and dancing, and have set up little booths around the football pitch. And it became clear that for them, Día Immaculada is a day for parades, music, food and dancing. When we arrived, we just caught the end of their parade and there were some amazing costumes. I have seen them dressed up before and noticed that some of their masks border on being ugly or gruesome. But they also like bright colours.

This man had a pretty impressive mask on.

When they had walked, danced, shuffled, around the square they gathered in a small marquee with some religious pictures, and flowers, for a short ceremony, but I didn't understand much of it, so we left them to their partying.

We have had some parties of our own, or at least some lovely lunch gatherings. On Tuesday of last week my house-group and our partners had a meal together down on Mojacar Playa. It was a restaurant that we hadn't used before, and it was very good. It was a little more expensive than some, but we would go again for a special occasion. 

The next day I was out again with my sewing group. This was a ladies day so we left our other halves at home. We always go to the same place and they treat us very well. There was quite a gang of us and we had one long table down the room, but we still moved around and chatted to everyone while enjoying a lovely meal, and plenty of wine and Christmas cheer. I sat with my friend Joan, who is 83 now and still manages to join in with most things. Other friends sat opposite so we could chat easily, and it was nice to get together in a different way before several of them travelled back to spend the holiday with family in UK.

While on the subject of food, we had a good collection for our food bank at the church. Two recent arrivals in the congregation, Keith and Peter, have taken on the running of the food collection, and with the help of Hazel, they put together twenty five bags of food to take up to Zurgena Town Hall for distribution to the needy. Every bag cantained the staple foods, rice, oil, pasta and dried pulses, as well as tinned meats and fish to make meals, and this time there were biscuits, sweets and other Christmas treats in each bag as well as a card from the church. It is good to be able to spread a little love into the community in this way.

On Thursday night Chris and I went to Simon's bar, just around the corner from our house, for the final quiz evening of the year. We don't go to the quiz very often unless we have visitors to make up a team, but we sometimes go round later for the card bingo and other games they do at the end. The couple who run it also do a raffle every week, so we buy into that as well. For this special week, there was new local choir there singing some of the old favourite Christmas songs and carols and they were good. Then we had mince pies and mulled wine, and a Christmas themed quiz. We teamed up with another couple for that but we didn't do all that well, but at least we didn't come last! Chris then won a bottle rum and box of Malteasers in the raffle, and we both won 22€ as joint winners on two of the bingo rounds. So all in all it was a good night.

Last Friday one reason why my blog didn't get written, was that I had a practice at church for a song we have been learning ready for our carol service, and then I rushed home to get changed and collect Chris, and rushed straight back up to Albox for my choirs Friends and Family concert. This is always a popular event, and again we were singing to a crowded hall. It all went very well. Here we are in the purple dresses we had for our trip to London last month. It makes us look more professional when we are all dressed well.

We sang a few songs from our London repertoire, and then some Christmas songs and few carols for everyone to join in with. It was a good evening.

Last year the village started a new tradition of a local trade market in the big marquee that goes up on the car park each Christmas. We went to this last year and there was a good range of stalls selling clothes, food and Christmas flowers. In the evening there was a carol competition with choirs from all the villages around. It was the same format this year, but in the morning we were off to the airport to collect our grandson Mikey who has spent the last four Christmases with us, so I just popped over to the village square to look at the preparations before we had to leave.

It was all looking nice and bright and festive, and I knew those chairs would all fill up for the singing that evening. I bought some sweet breads, and then we set off for the airport. Mikey had a good flight and arrived on time, so we were soon home again.

We went back in the evening and watched one choir, but we didn't stop because we were invited to a birthday party in the evening so we went straight on to that. We have an English friend who is a mechanic and always looks after our cars, and it was his wife's fortieth birthday. They had taken over a big restaurant on the edge of the village and there were over a hundred guests there. We had some lovely food, and there was a very good singer who entertained us all night and kept the dance floor busy. It was a great party, but again I didn't get any photos.

Despite the party, I managed to get up for church the next morning and Mikey came with me. It was our crib service, and we always invite some local children to join in. Father Vincent was there to bless to the crib, and then the children helped with a little nativity play that our church warden, Janet, had organised. One of the congregation , Darren, was the inn-keeper and he was very funny. We all enjoyed it, and the children have already asked if they can take part again next year!

This week has been relatively quiet but we did have a special evening on Tuesday when it was out carol service. We usually have a congregation of around thirty people, but on that night we managed to squeeze 140 people in! I was singing in the little choir we had formed especially for this service and we were originally sitting up at the side of the altar, to leave more space down in the church. But some of us ended up in the anti-room, clustered around the door, so that some late arrivals who had children with them, could squeeze into our seats. It was wonderful to see so many people there, but sadly a few turned up and saw how full it was, and went away again, so we think next year we will have to do it on two nights, or find a larger venue!

We had to share service sheets and carol leaflets, but I think everyone enjoyed it. It was a bit scary when all the candles were lit for the last carol, in such a crowded space, but we have never had an accident with them, and we had buckets of sand and water at ready, just in case...

Our little choir had learned a Spanish lullaby to sing and I think everyone appreciated it.

We are always looking for something to make each year a bit different, and this year a lady suggested we made some tableaux to go just outside the church that people would pass as they arrived. I was asked if I would make one of them and was given a big plastic crate to put it in, and I said I would do the first one - The Journey to Bethlehem. It was a difficult space to work with and in the end I made it in a cardboard box which was easier to fix things to, and slotted it into the plastic crate with a card surround and a cloth wrap to hide all the workings. It was lit with a string of battery operated fairy lights around the inside, and behind the scene. Here is the one I did. It was too dark to get a very good picture, but everyone liked them and I heard lots of comments so it was worth it.

Two other ladies were persuaded to do the other two, shepherds and kings, but it was not something they were used to, so I cut the characters out for them on my computer cutter - silhouette cameo - and one of their husbands helped with the construction.

Now we just have a last little bit of shopping to do this morning, before our usual Friday meal at the campsite, of Fish and Chips. 

I am very grateful to our grandson Mikey who spent yesterday painting our kitchen ceiling. We had a new dropped ceiling with recessed lights put in when the kitchen was done earlier in the year and Chris had put a quick skim of paint on it at the time, but neither of us are good up ladders, nor at bending our necks up to work on ceilings these days, so Mikey did a good job for us yesterday and it does look nice.

I have at last written a post about my few days with my son Tom in his home town of Aarhus in Denmark. It is a very photo heavy post but if you are interested, do look at the post below.

Here is a funny picture of our little campo cat Luna. She rarely sits in the house, being a semi feral cat who likes hunting in the green zone. She does always come in for her meals, and when it is cold she will occasionally curl up on a chair or even share one with Paco, but I have never seen her sitting like this before.

Yesterday Mikey spotted a little visitor in our garden. We did see him once before. You may remember we failed to get a photo of him then. I had no idea he was still around, but yesterday the men came and rotavated the land next door so they probably disturbed him.

But this time he was walking along the concrete drainage at the back of our house, and then he disappeared into the green zone. He will hibernate if it gets cold enough, but after all the rain we have had this autumn, there is no shortage of food for him, and he seemed quite awake still. Mikey was surprised how fast they can move when they want to. They are a protected species here and you can be heavily fined for moving them to keep as pets, but Mikey did just pick him up for a closer look, and then put him back in the same place. Like most folk in England, he has never seen one in its natural habitat before.

And finally a lovely sky photo. How else would I end my year!

So all that is left is for me to link up with Rocking Your World on Virginia's blog. Thank you for 'keeping the faith' and visiting me each week, and I wish you all a very Happy Christmas and I hope we will continue to walk through 2019 together.