Thank You!

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thank-you

 

Just about one month ago I launched my crowdfunding project to try and raise funds for a PR campaign that will help raise the profile of my book, and also the profile of alpacas as an alternative farming lifestyle. I did not really know what to expect, I had spoken to other people who had tried crowdfunding, and not achieved their target, and therefore not been allocated any funds. I was hopeful that if we set the target at a reasonable amount, offered up some nice rewards, and managed to get it in to the the public eye we could make our target.

We started really well, and a couple of great supporters quickly snapped up the weeks holiday and the two available adverts in the back of the sequel to Seriously Mum, What’s an Alpaca? that I am currently writing.

Slowly, slowly we picked up pace, and for about two weeks I wasn’t sure whether we would even get close to the target. Then, an article I had submitted to the Expat Telegraph about the project got published and we gained some fresh momentum. You can see the article here.

From then on we didn’t really look back and we reached our target with days to spare. Even on the last day someone invested £80 to get themselves an overnight stay at our farm with BBQ and breakfast, and we finished on 113% of our total. A great achievement. The next step is to start the PR campaign. I have instructed a PR company and hopefully we will be up and running for July through to December, and we will pick up the holiday and Christmas sales for the book. Of course, you never know, keep your eyes open, maybe you will start to see a few alpacas on TV, and maybe I’ll be with them ;)

Shearing 2013

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Last week was shearing week for the alpacas in Andalucia, Spain. Here at our farm our few alpacas were sheared on Wednesday. It is incredible to see the alpacas go from cute fluffy animals, to skinny little alien creatures, who hardly seem to recognise one another. James Dixon, our wonder shearer is an Aussie who comes over to Europe for three months a year and shears huge numbers of animals. This year in the Australian summer coming up he is shearing the whole herd of EP Cambridge, the biggest breeder of Alpacas in the world. Their Australian farm has about 2000 animals and it will take him about five weeks to get through them. To keep himself in shape during jobs of that size he practises yoga in the evenings. Here are some during and after photos!!

If you would like to get your hands on some of this remarkable fleece, for spinning, crafting or knitting, please get in touch with me.

Just to keep you up to date, with 16 days left of our crowd funder project we have already hit the 70% funded mark. This is great news, and there are still a couple of overnight stays on our farm left, plus a weekend break. Why not have a look at the link, see if anything tickles your fancy.

http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/bloody_hell_whats_an_alpaca

 

Crowdfunding – Your chance to get involved!

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Have you ever heard of Crowdfunding? I hadn’t until recently. Crowdfunding is a new idea, that gives you an opportunity to pitch an idea, so people can invest a little or a lot, and receive a reward based on the level of their investment.

I released Bloody Hell, What’s an Alpaca? in November and it has been selling pretty well. In April 950 copies were downloaded worldwide. It has been sitting in the animal charts on Amazon just behind A Streetcat Named Bob for weeks now, and has just been removed from No2 position by Clare Balding. So I am hoping to be able to raise a little investment to fund a PR campaign, for both my book, and to raise awareness about alpacas.

So with that I am announcing my Crowdfunding project here – http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/investment/bloody-hell-what-s-an-alpaca-1930  you can get involved by investing anything from £1 up to £150, and all the proceeds will go directly to the PR campaign and raising awareness for alpacas.

If you would be interested in investing here is a list of the rewards you can collect, some of the rewards are limited in numbers, so if you want a particular reward be quick -

£1 – a listing of thanks in the acknowledgments page of the sequel to Seriously Mum, What’s an Alpaca?

£5 – a free, before release digital copy of the sequel to Seriously Mum, What’s an Alpaca?

£15 – A photograph of one of our beautiful alpacas, signed by me, Alan Parks, plus the top two rewards. Only 5 available.

£25 –  (If you live in Spain, or are here on holiday) A free chance to meet the alpacas, plus the top two rewards. Only 2 available.

£30 – A signed copy of Bloody Hell, What’s an Alpaca?, plus the top two rewards. Only 5 available.

£50 – A signed copy of Bloody Hell, What’s an Alpaca?, and the chance to name one of next years cria, plus a lifetime sponsorship of that animal, plus the top two rewards. Only 3 available.

£75 – (If you live in Spain, or are here on holiday) An overnight stay with BBQ and breakfast and the chance to meet the alpacas, plus the top two rewards. Only 2 available.

£75 – An advert in the back of the sequel to Seriously Mum, What’s an Alpaca?, plus the top two rewards. Only 2 available.

£100 – A free weekends accommodation at our farm in Spain, for you and up to 6 people (flights not included), plus the top two rewards. Only 1 available.

£150 – A free weeks holiday accommodation at our farm in Spain, for you and up to 6 people (flights not included), plus the top two rewards. Only 1 available.

Below there is a video to promote the project, please get in touch if you have any questions, or are interested in investing. All money must be paid through the crowdfunder website.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isipVsCGIJ4

April Sales Drive!! Get that Cat!!

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I have decided to have a sales drive for the month of April. The kindle version of Seriously Mum, Whats an Alpaca? has been hovering behind The Street Cat named Bob for a while now, and I am hoping that a good sales drive and bit of wind behind us and the alpacas might be able to give that cat a kicking!!

You can download your copy of Seriously now for only 77p in the UK, or $0.99 in the US and €0.89 in Europe. Less than £1. What can you get for that these days?

So if you have some spare change in your pocket please put it towards the ‘Team Paca’ sales drive and see if we can hit No 1!

Here is the link for you for Amazon Uk - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bloody-Hell-Whats-Alpaca-ebook/dp/B009X9VE1I%3FSubscriptionId%3D0V4JT1H35KWYMF0SKQR2%26tag%3Dnovelrank-21%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3DB009X9VE1I

and Amazon US - http://www.amazon.com/Bloody-Hell-Whats-Alpaca-ebook/dp/B009X9VE1I%3FSubscriptionId%3D0V4JT1H35KWYMF0SKQR2%26tag%3Dnovelrank-21%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3DB009X9VE1I

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Saturday and Sunday

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My last post was ‘Stranded’, about our car, Frank, and we were off the road, and unable to get out. After nearly three weeks, our good friends who had been ferrying us around were going back to the UK, so we needed to sort alternative travel arrangements. I found a good car hire deal on line, and we caught the bus in to Cordoba, and enjoyed an afternoon in town, it was good to get out.

A few days later, we were going out to feed and water the animals, there was a car parked outside, and a man was trimming his olive trees. Next to Frank, who was outside the fence, there was the strangest looking little puppy. He was ginger and white, and had long legs, with massive feet, and half floppy ears, probably the result of some strange campo dog breeding experiment.

We naïvely assumed this little puppy was with the man outside, and went about our business. After a couple of hours of the dogs going mad, as they are prone to do when there is another dog outside, I went out to check on things, and the car was gone, but lo and behold the puppy was still there. After much too-ing and fro-ing I decided I could not leave him outside overnight, it was too cold, and he might die, so I brought him in, fed and watered him, and set up Geri’s crate as a temporary bedroom for him, in the barn.

As I left him, he let out the most horrendous wail, like a child throwing a tantrum in a supermarket, and of course all our other dogs could hear him crying. After a while in the darkness I guess he must of settled down, and I vowed to speak to the local farmers in the morning and try and find out where he came from.

Puppy No1

Saturday

The following morning even before breakfast, I headed out to speak to anybody who was around, about this little fella. I had a terrible feeling in my stomach, and although I knew we couldn’t really take in any more stray dogs, I was trying to figure out a way we could help this little guy. I even came up with a plan where I could get people to donate through Facebook, and we could have a naming competition too at least that would help with the finances. I spoke to Rafa, our neighbour to the right, after a gruelling hill crossing trek, and he said he was nothing to do with him, I should ask the other bloke, over there. He said to me (in as much as I could understand), if I didn’t want the little fella, I should just kill him, this is Spain after all!! I spoke to the other man, who of course denied all knowledge, and said to ask Rafa. I trudged back in to the house, feeling at a loss at what to do.

As I was thinking, and gazing out of the window, Miliko was going mad on his wall, and I could see something moving down near the river. Another dog. Bloody hell. I watched and waited for a while, and when a couple of cars passed him by, and he chased but then came back, again I decided I couldn’t leave him out there. It is one thing driving past a stray dog in town, but when they are outside your house, you have to do something. So I went out and picked him up and introduced him to the other little guy, fed and watered both, and put them to bed for the night. At least that had made the decision easier, there was no way in the world we could keep two new dogs. As soon as Frank was back on the road, I vowed to take them to the animal centre in Cordoba, they were both young and it was their best hope of finding a home.

Puppy No2

Sunday

The following day, I let the pups out to feed, water and clean them out, and when I put them back in their ‘holding’ crate, the noise was incredible, double the tantrum, which of course wound up the ‘biggies’ Blue and Arthur. At one point Arthur actually managed to break through a gate, by force, and get out to see what was going on. Luckily I was walking out of the barn and managed to hold the door shut so they were unable to get to the pups, they may have eaten them!! Auntie Jean, the chicken had a very lucky escape as she was being chased by an angry Arthur, she managed to clamber her way up to higher ground, and then jump in to the alpaca girl’s stable for refuge.

After that, things did settle down, but it was a full week before Frank was back on the road, and the crate would not fit in the hire car, so Lorna spent the week, going around the back way to avoid coming in to contact with the pups and therefore falling in love.

Finally, I was able to load the pups up and take them to Cordoba. This is the third time I have taken dogs there and I hate it every time, I don’t like not knowing what has happened to them, but I do feel it is the right thing to do, and better than dumping them somewhere or over someone’s fence. This time, the place was louder than I had experience before, I guess the crisis has made the dog problem worse, although I did have to wait ages as there was a couple there collecting a new dog they had adopted. I was given the third degree by the veterinary nurse on duty, about where I lived and where they had come from. I had to lie, and say I lived in Cordoba City, otherwise they would not have taken them, if I said I was from Montoro, they would have turned me away, and told me to go to the ayuntimiento in Montoro, and they should deal with it, but from the number of strays in town, I know that would not happen. In  turn this would have forced me to dump the pups somewhere, only adding to the problem, catch 22. So with a heavy heart I handed the pups over and made the drive home. I hope they find good homes, I really do. I also hope Spain can one day sort out their stray dog problem, it is a real downside to living here, and a real heartbreaker.

 

Dog Day Afternoon

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After  being stuck at home for nearly three weeks, waiting for car parts to arrive the last thing we needed was animal related, emotional turmoil, but that is what we got.

On Saturday, Lorna and I went out to clean a cut on one of the alpacas ears, and there was a van outside, and a funny little puppy. He was ginger and white, with big paws, and folded over ears. We didn’t think much of it, imagining he was with the man in the van, who was working on the olive trees.

As the afternoon went on, I noticed him following another car up the track, and the people in the car got out, and he seemed to be with them. They drove up the hill with the puppy chasing the car, which we didn’t like, but we have seen people exercise their dogs like this and then let them in at the top of the track. Sadly no, five minutes later the puppy was back, and the van outside was gone :(

After an hour or so of hoping that the little pup would make his way home, to wherever that may have been, it was starting to get dark, and I didn’t want to let him sleep outside, and wake up in the morning to a dead puppy outside, so I brought him in, gave him a little food and water, and put him in our dog crate, in the barn. At least he would be warm for the night, and in the morning I could go and speak to a couple of farmers, and see if he belonged to any of them.

The following morning, I took the camera out, and took a couple of photos of the pup, to help me describe the situation to the farmers. I first made the hilly trek up to where our neighbour Rafael was trimming his olive trees. He said the pup was nothing to do with him, but maybe it was the other man working on the olives on the opposite hill. We did have a bit of a conversation about castrating animals, but it went over his head, however he did say to me, using actions, if I didn’t want to keep the pup, that I should kill it, and bury it. No mas problema! I tried to explain that that would not be happening and set off back across the hill to ask the other farmer if he belonged to him. Surprise, surprise he was claiming no responsibility either, but suggested I ask Rafael!

I trudged back to the house, trying to to think of a way we could afford to keep this new little puppy, but I was struggling to justify it. The best course of action would be to try and find him a home through the use of Facebook, and sadly, if no luck with that, he would have to go to the animal centre in Cordoba, where they do at least open to the public, and re-home some animals. So I let the little fella out a couple more times, to take photos, for Facebook, and clean his crate. The worst thing is he wails like a small child when you leave him, and this was upsetting the other dogs, which were baying to get out to see what was going on. At one point they broke through one of our gates, and Arthur nearly took the head of a chicken, which through a mixture of running and sort of flying managed to get away. This frenzied action, was also affecting the boy alpacas who were having a real frenzied fight, so we were trying to get dogs back, stop alpaca fighting and herd chickens back to their house. I’m not sure the little fella realised the problems he was causing.

Well after all this, we were sitting in the upstairs apartment, taking stock of the situation, when Miliko started going mad, barking and yelping from the top of the wall. This is normal for when the alpaca boys fight, or there is something or someone at the bottom of the track. We looked out expecting the alpacas to be fighting again, but no. At the bottom of the track was, you guessed it, another little puppy!!

This little one was sitting by the big tree, and wandering around, but there was no one in site. Now what to do? I went out to see him, and he was nervous, but soon let me pick him up. I decided to put him in with the other pup, they would at least keep each other company. It did, to be honest make the decision with what to do with them a little easier, because there is no way I can justify keeping two little pups, so if we have no luck finding a home for them, I will take them both to the adoption centre in Cordoba, it is there best hope.

It can be no coincidence that two puppies appeared outside our gates in two days, somebody must have thought ‘The English people will have them’. The Spanish seem to be under the impression we all have lots of money and are able to take in every waif and stray we see, but sadly it is not the case, and it is a sad fact of living in Spain, that you will see far more needy animals than you are able to help.

 

Stranded!

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Our car, Frank, has been making a lot of noise recently. Sometimes, when we get to the top of the hill the noise is so loud, it feels like we might take off. I was under the impression that this was a problem with a bearing on the propshaft, but thought it wouldn’t cause us to break down, but would need replacing at some point. How wrong I was! 18 days ago, on the way home from Zumba on a Tuesday night, just as we were approaching the turn off on the motorway there was a clang, a scraping noise and then quiet. The engine stayed running, but we had lost drive, and we drifted slowly to halt.

Now, we didn’t panic, we have breakdown cover on our insurance policy, so we phoned the company and asked for a pickup truck to come, and take us home, and we would sort out the car in the morning. Ken, our good samaritan would come and have a look in the morning.

The man on the phone was very nice, and he arranged for a local ‘grua’ to come and collect us. After half an hour, our telephone rang and it was a Spanish man asking for directions. I really struggle with my Spanish on the phone, but I managed to explain where we were, and after another 15 minutes waiting, we saw the orange lights on the tow truck casually meandering towards us. The man got out of the truck and grunted towards us, I think maybe we disturbed him in the middle of a football match, he didn’t look happy to be there. He looked under the car to see the problem, and made me sit in the car while he winched it onto his truck.

After a few more minutes, tying the car down, he ushered us in to the cab, and he said he would take us into town, to a garage. It was by now, 10pm and if he took us in to town we had no way of getting back home, so I said to him we wanted to go home, to the campo. He was not very happy with this, and phoned his head office, to confirm with me, that we wanted to be brought home and he wasn’t going to have to come out the day after and collect us. In actual fact, the man on the phone said they would be able to organise the car to be collected and taken to town if necessary.

So, we set off, in silence, but with Lorna and I sniggering to each other over this grumpy mans demeanour. As we reached our track, he huffed, sighed and pulled the truck over to the side. He took out his mobile phone, and phoned somebody, from what I could understand, it was his boss. After a few minutes, another huff and sigh, and we set off again, it looked like we would get home. We crawled along the track (which is very good this year, and half concreted), as the man didn’t seem to want to dirty his nice truck. Another 30 minutes later, the car was lowered, outside our fence, and he grunted at his paperwork to be signed, and off he went. At least we were home…

grumpy_man

Although this is a picture of a grumpy man, it is not the Grumpy Man who picked us up!

The following morning, Ken came to look at the car to confirm the diagnosis. Yep, definitely the propshaft. Cheaper to get one from the UK and get it sent out, but we would be stuck at home for a few days. So I set to work on ebay, hunting out the correct part, and emailing the sellers to confirm it would fit. Would you believe I found one in Eastbourne, and managed to arrange courier collection and delivery to our PO Box. It meant having to cancel a couple of zumba classes, but we hoped to back on the road within a week.

The following Thursday the part had arrived, but not a seal we needed to complete the job. We had already cancelled two zumba classes, and we did not want to lose the momentum we had built up, so we called Ken, asked very nicely if he could give us a lift in to town, and we asked some other friends if they could bring us home. Ken agreed to come and meet us, so he brought the part with him, slid under the car, and guess what, it didn’t fit. Panic stations now, as it would take another week to get the part resent, not to mention the money we lost. We went into town for the Thursday zumba classes, and took the little laptop, so I could use the hotel wifi to try and find the correct part. I sent out about 8 emails, but only two people got back to me, one of whom had a part that was from the same model car, so should of course fit. I emailed to confirm on the Friday morning, asking when he could send it out, and he said if I got back to him before 12 he would send out that day, so I got immediately back, but to no avail, he never answered until Monday, when it eventually got sent. I paid for 24hour UPS delivery, but after looking on the UPS website the international delivery takes 1-5 days!

As we were still stranded we have been calling on our good friends Kev and Sue, who have been amazing, coming and collecting us, taking us to zumba, and bringing us home with some shopping. On Friday, when we were finally expecting delivery, I received an email from the tracking service to say there was  problem with the address, so it had to be changed and will not be delivered until Monday now. We are so keeping our fingers and toes crossed that the part fits this time, as we cannot be stranded any longer, we need to buy food for the animals, and ourselves, and get organised as we have guests arriving next weekend for two days.

Please, everyone keep your fingers crossed for us, we will be back on the road by Tuesday :)

And… by the way, this weekend only, my book Seriously Mum, What’s an Alpaca? is available to download on kindle for only 77p in the UK and 99cents in the US. This offer finishes on Sunday, so get it now, it will never be cheaper.

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Amazon UK link

Amazon US link

 

Facebook Art Competition

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I was really pleased with the response on my Facebook page for people to enter their paintings or drawings of alpacas to try and win a free copy of my ebook, Seriously Mum, What’s an Alpaca? We had a number of entries, and I could not choose a winner, they were all so good, I awarded free ebooks to all the entrants. I wanted to share the entries with you here, so here they are, in no particular order.

Andrea

Andrea Rosenfield Cote

 

annnweir

 Ann Weir

Chantal

Chantal Versleijen-Van de Winkel

 

Cheryl

Cheryl Bakas Ryberg

 

Denise

 

Denise Reiling, by her brother Joseph Patterson

Kim

 

Kimberly Provost

Leah

Leah Duclaud

noemi

Noemi Gambini

di

Di Worthy

gay moller

Gay Moller

sandy barrettSandy Barrett

vivien

Vivien Laycock

 

And, somehow I missed these two entries from some younger people. They are the children of Chantal, who entered above.

Gaby, 9 Netherlands

Gaby, 9 from the Netherlands

 

Sten, 8 Netherlands

Sten, 8 from  the Netherlands

John, 5 years old Australia

and this one was entered after the closing date, but is a very fine effort from John, in Australia, who is only 5 years old :)

 

24 Hours Off Grid in Andalucia

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Alan Parks and Lorna Penfold live off grid, with only solar panels for electricity, so if the weather is a little cloudy for a few days the electricity is limited.  Here is a rundown of a fairly normal day, off grid for Alan and Lorna.

8.30am Look out of the window to see it starting to get light. Clouds again, and the electricity is off for now, who knows when it will come back on.

8.35am Dogs wake up and start mooching about. Alan gets up to let ‘the boys’ out. Geri is sound asleep. Back to bed for a quick snooze.

8.40am Hear movement. Lorna gets up to find Geri mooching about having pooed on the move all over the floor and weed as well. Geri gets thrown out. Might as well get up. (Geri is fourteen and doesn’t care what people think)

8.45am Electricity still not on, and the weather is threatening rain, but the dogs are excited as it is walk time. The two big Spanish mastiffs are first up (with five dogs we have to do two shifts). Alan has Blue and Lorna has Arthur. Keep an eye out for stray dogs or fresh horse poo, just in case we are pulled this way and that.

9.15am Return and swap dogs. This time it is Geri, Carlos (a stray who found us) and Miliko (thrown over our fence as a puppy, with a dislocated hip and broken jaw from being hit by a car). Wait for Miliko to calm down, and stop running in circles.

9.45am Return from walk, and have to drag Miliko past the alpacas, who have been here since here arrived, as he will not walk past them. Electricity still not on.  Have some breakfast, porridge to warm up, as there is no central heating and no carpets on the floor. Cold.

10.30am Still cloudy, but electricity comes on for a while. Try to turn on laptop, to make sure all is ok in the world and with the family. Alan goes out to feed alpacas and let the chickens out of their house. Chickens are already out of there house having had the door blown open by the wind. Two are in the hay barn, and two are outside the fence desperately trying to find a gap to scramble back in. Alan goes out to round them up, two cars go past just as chicken makes a mug of Alan and evades capture.

11am Alan returns with clothes covered in mud, but no solar electricity to do any washing and no sun to dry anything so keeps muddy clothes on.

11.30am Electricity goes off again, as sun still has not made an appearance. Spain in the winter can be cold and horrible.

12 midday With no electric we resort to manual tasks, cleaning, digging, gardening, maybe writing using an old fashioned pen and paper.

2pm Dogs barking madly. Chickens are out again. Go out in to the rain to round them up. Two sit down waiting to be mounted by a cockerel (me I guess), but the other two run away. Corner them eventually and grab hold of them, throwing them unceremoniously over the fence. Turn to walk back to the house to find two old Spanish farmers parked in their car laughing at me. Nod acknowledgement and retreat in to the house, post haste.

6pm After an afternoon of intermittent electricity, we decide to use the generator for the evening (costs too much in petrol to run all day), and allow ourselves a bit of television. Watch the news to find the UK has ground to a halt because of a few flurries of snow, and laugh at the irony.

10.30pm Go out into the rain, to turn of generator, and using a torch negotiate way past the evenings dog poos, and turn of generator and go to bed. Dogs are settled.

1.30am Something disturbs Arthur who is on guard at the front of the house. All the other dogs hear Arthur and decide something is up. After five minutes of shouting at the dogs to ‘Shut up’ in all sorts of language, they settle down again.

1.37am Ok there must be something up, Arthur is going mental, so Alan gets up, grabs a torch, puts on three layers of clothes and goes to investigate. After looking thoroughly around the property, Alan decides it must be that the alpacas strayed too close to Arthur’s area and he was telling us. Nothing else untoward going on. Shut Arthur in kitchen which means he is ‘off duty’ and settles down. Wide awake now, Alan lays in the darkness, unable to read or to go to sleep.

3.30am Having drifted off for a while both Lorna and Alan are awoken by the sound of a dog vomiting. Both grab torches and jump out of bed in the vain hope that they might be able to get to it before it happens and throw dog out. Get there to find dog standing staring at vomit on sofa, considering re-eating it. Shout, wave arms about and throw dogs out. Geri is oblivious. Remove cushion and cover, and throw cushion cover out. Wash hands and go back to bed with the smell of dog vomit in the nose. Lay awake for a few more hours.

8.30am Hear Geri jump down from sofa, jump out of bed to find more poos, spread about the room, but manage to throw her out before she wees. Go back to bed.

8.45am Alarm goes off, here we go again. Clouds in the sky, no electric. Bring on the summer and the unbearable heat. Please.

Christmas and New Year at the Olive Mill

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Christmas is a difficult time of year here at the Olive Mill, there are grandkids and festivities going on back in the UK that we just can’t be part of, we have to be here for the animals. So normally we just close ourselves in and ride it out. This year, however we decided to try and visit the beautiful city of Cordoba for the celebrations as this is our fourth Christmas here, but we have never experienced it.

Firstly, thanks to a Christmas donation from my Mum, we treated ourselves to a lastminute.com deal at a top secret hotel in the city. This meant we could enjoy the luxury of a warm room and heating for the night. We paid £36 for a night, but you don’t find out which hotel until after you book, so it is a bit exciting. We fed all the animals and headed in to the City for a late lunch at El Corte Ingles, the best burgers in Cordoba. Then we checked in to the hotel, the NH Armistad based in the ancient walls of the city. Perfect location for checking out the Christmas celebrations.

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We then spent a lovely evening, in temperatures more akin to a UK spring, wandering around the city taking in the Christmas lights, and visiting the ‘belenes‘, nativity scenes set up in all the churches. Some photos below.

 

So, while we were in Cordoba, we read that there was to be a New Years Eve concert, in the Plaza de Tendillas in the centre. It was to start at 11pm. So we left the house at around 9pm, thinking we would get there early, have a drink somewhere and chill for a while, but when we arrived in the city, there was not a soul anywhere. The place was like a ghost town. Even the bars were closed. WTF. So we headed to the concert area, and sat on a bench, with our eight layers of clothes on. Gradually as the time got later, the place started to fill up, and by midnight there were thousands of people jumping and singing along to the music. At midnight, as expected all the Spanish popped their grapes in to their mouths on each ‘bong’ of midnight, followed by lot of kisses, drinks and fireworks.

 

And finally, we went to watch the parade for the arrival of the three kings, which is the Spanish equivalent of Christmas Eve and therefore a time of much excitement for all the boys and girls. On the way home, we warmed ourselves with gorgeous churros and chocolate.