Flower Presentation

I was really looking forward to the presentation of flowers this year, as our little friend Marta, would be there, in her local traditional costume.

The Valencian costume is a full 'peasant' skirt, with a fine apron on top, and with hair tied into buns at the ears (Princess Laia style) with golden decorations.

As the day progressed, the heavens opened. In true spanish style, the rain came down as though someone had pulled the plug. But - the rain clouds kept moving about, swirling around the valley, so it was hard to know what to do. In the end, I decided that the event must have been called off, as the stage and chairs for the priests and dignatories would be soaked.

We didn't go. The next day, I discovered that it hadn't rained in l'Olleria! What? Although only 1 mile away, the rain turned out to be so locallised, that the town itself didn't get wet. Ah well - we will just have to wait to see the photos of Marta another time.

Desfila - Moors on Parade

Straight after the paella cook-off, we scurried to the high street, to see the moors doing their parade.

We managed to miss quite a bit of it, as we were late, but that was ok, as we got there just in time to see the people we knew and they saw us too. Phew!

I think it was a bit disorganised as many people were at the paella contest still. There seemed to be a huge gap between troups, while everyone tried to get themselves together. Still, everyone was having fun as usual.

Afterwards, we spotted little Marta, covered in soot marks too, returning from her adventerous night.

Paella Night

This year, we somehow managed to be a bit more organised!

We joined several friends, and actually arrived on time, being able to park easily! We actually felt quite guilty waiting to start, as many of the other competitors hadn't even arrived. We collected our firewood, and build our little mounds, ready to start.

When the time came, 3 of us joined the queue to get our goddies from the council! A bag full of; rice, oil, a red pepper, chicken, rabbit, paella spices, salt - only the water was missing. This is all provided free of charge. You simply go to the council and register your entry, then, with your entry ticket, collect the produce on the night.

We cooked 2 between us. Ed cooked a normal, traditional style paella, whereas Mark cooked a special hot, chilli paella. We all had great fun while this was going on, with Ed and Mark actually being on television later. I did wave at the cameras this time, but I don't think I made the cut!

When the paellas were ready, Tracey to their spicy one for judging. There were gasps of terror from the judges, as they all ran for glasses of water! Very funny. They were not amused. This was NOT a normal paella! We knew it wouldn't win anything, but it was worth entering it, just for the laugh!

In reality, it wasn't too hot, it was just that the judges didn't expect anything spicy. We all had a great evening. Once the pans had cooled a little, many people rubbed fingers underneath the smoke blackened pans, and marked their faces.

Sadly, we had to scurry away to see the next parade, anticipating seeing some other friends there.

Desfila - Fancy Dress Parade

Before the big parade, the different groups parade in their club uniforms. Christians one day, and Moors on another.

Unlike the scouts or brownies, these are costumes relating to the names of their groups or to traditional costumes of 600 years ago. The Pirates dress in lovely costumes, even though none of them look like Jack Sparrow, but other groups have simple striped tunics, with pointy slippers and leather belts. Either way, it is a much more casual affair, but everyone has just as much fun.

This time, everyone has the chance to look around at the spectators, and acknowledge anyone they know with a nod and a smile. (And, as it starts much earlier, they are not all drunk before it starts!)

The band with each troupe are dressed quite casually, but they still put every effort into their music. I'm quite astonished that the drums actually survive the pounding they get, even though that's what they are designed for. The grin on the drummer's faces says it all.

All Bull

As usual, we went to see the bulls most nights. We sat on the rails as normal, to get close to the action, but there wasn't much action to be had.

Many of the bulls (heiffers) were quite young, and had no idea what they were meant to do, and the older, larger ones were so used to the people around them, that they didn't do anything!

One night, one of the bulls knew how to get onto the table, which came as quite a shock to the people standing on it at the time.

To be honest, I don't think that the bull activities in the town are very nice. There seems to be little respect for the bulls, and the ring is quite small, resulting in little choice of movement for the bulls. If they could make tha area bigger, it might be better, but I don't think that the people would behave any nicer. One night, several of the lads had lazer lights, which they kept trying to sine in the animals eyes. (They did get told off for it though.)

Ah well - each to his own.

Horses for Courses

An event we hadn't been to before.

As part of the annual festivities, there is a horse show held in the bullring in the afternoon (before the bulls arrive)!

Although I am not a horsey person, it was fun to watch the control the riders displayed, doing figure of eights, and cantering around. I find it intruiging how they can get the horses to do their fancy steps, although I have seen our little neighbour training his horse to do it.

To be honest, this was quite an amateur show, and some of the costumes left a bit to be desired, but it was still good entertainment, and free!

September

Sincere apologies to all of you that follow the blog. Yes, September did happen, but, we were so busy, that somehow, despite my intentions at the end of August, I didn't manage to upload anything!

However - I'm (reasonably) up-to-date with my paid work, so hopefully I'll soon get up-to-date with this too!

Keep reading,
And please keep commenting on the posts.

Thank you
B