trademark are still my number 1 band!

the sergios of this world will come and go, but my love for trademark will remain. for those of you poor people who haven't discovered them yet, trademark are a wicked little trio pioneering the revamp and return of electro/synth pop (is that accurate paul??) and they're really good! i may be a little bias as my friend is in the band, but maybe you should all see/hear for yourself. website is www.trademark-online.co.uk and if you follow links to their myspace page, you can hear some of their tunes. "Come to Love" is a fave of mine at the mo! keep it up boys, i'll be winging my way to a gig as soon as i'm back in the rainy old homeland! xxx

my sergio love bubble

i have a new crush - sergio contreras. he's pretty famous over here - a kind of rap/pop hybrid (yes it is as dire as it sounds!) and he was the special star at the end-of-fiesta concert on monday night. yours truly was down at the front with all the twelve year olds having the time of my life!! how sad. mostly caught him on video, but there are a couple of photos here for you to enjoy. the concert was actually really good - brilliant dancers, flame throwers, some great singers and of course the man himself. the only slightly surreal moment was half way through when sergio took himself off to the dj booth and started playing the prodigy's "smack my b*tch up" whilst two male dancers wearing nothing but tight trousers and big metal chains started chaining up a third guy. the bemused look on all the teenyboppers' faces was classic. not quite sure what their mums thought!! it all seemed a little out of place! once the concert was over, the festival ended with an amazing firework display which must've cost a fortune, all set to dramatic classical music - it was a really good night.

its that time again...

...fiesta time! yep, mojacar is party central for a 4 day weekend in honour of their patron saint San Augustin and it is LOUD! went out last night with the boys - meant to be saving ourselves for a biggie tonight as no work tomorrow, hooray! thing is, in order to get any sleep during fiestas you have to knock a few bevvies back so that you can go straight out when your head hits the pillow, and not care about the music and revellers and fireworks right outside the window!! so i did! took a few pics for your enjoyment - more to follow from tonight - could get messy! xxx

get well soon daddy

firstly apologies to all the many emails i still haven't replied to - i'm rubbish i know! i'm working through them slowly but surely so i promise i'll be in touch with you all soon. hope everyone is well. for those of you who don't know, i'm sad to report that my dad has been diagnosed with cancer. i was home in marlow last week (managed to get a last minute flight as i wanted to be with my family) and the good news is that a tumour has been successfully removed, so now dad just has to get through a course of chemotherapy. all these words are a bit scary if i'm honest, but dad seems relatively perky so we are all just staying positive. the last couple of weeks have been surreal and a bit stressful, hence no emails! there were lots of much worse photos i could have posted (tubes, scars, hospital stuff) but dad would kill me if they appeared in the public domain and besides, i thought these were nicer! so everybody send positive vibes my dad's way and hopefully by christmas we'll be well on the way to blasting the b*stard!! the cancer that is, not my dad ;o) get well soon daddy, love you xxx

it's been too long...

over a month since i updated this thing - and i couldn't even log in at first, had forgotten my username AND password! luckily i'm back to update you all on the various happenings in my life. well, alicia came to visit me for a week which was fab - we had a great time, lots of laughs as well as some very serious chats (we refer to them as doom and gloom chats as that seems to be how they ended up!). leece got a good tan, and i managed to wangle enough time off work to enjoy myself - especially in the last weekend. i don't think i've laughed that much in ages. it was just so nice to have a friend here to go out with, really talk with etc etc. i've got some hilarious videos on my camera but i'm not clever enough to post them on here! besides they're not really funny to anyone else - "had to be there" type stuff! found a great club that was still buzzing at 7am when we were too worn out to dance any longer, so god knows what time it goes on til! it's all outside too, so nice and cool, which is bliss considering how baking it is here at the moment!

sorry

hi everyone, huge apologies for not posting anything sooner - my internet connection has been temperamental to say the least! all is well here in sunny (and extremely hot at times) spain - except for the football result that is. for those of you who missed it, spain crashed out of the world cup last night at the hands (and feet) of france - a 3-1 thrashing i'm sad to report. so all hope now rests on england - oh dear.

had a fab weekend but was having way too much fun to actually take any pictures so apologies for that as well! it was the festival of san juan which basically involved huge bonfires being burned all along the beach, and each beach bar had its own beach party and live music or djs, which created one massive beach party! it was great. the best part for me was dancing on a ramp and watching the sea appear out of the darkness at around 6am - it was amazing!! then sunday evening myself and the cafe boys went off to watch the football. i had my first ride on the back of julian's bike (was terrified at first, but soon started to enjoy myself!). on the way back we were in celebratory mood and were tooting all the english fans on the beachfront - naff i know, but fun!! we headed back up to the village and consumed many many drinks! i have a new beverage to add to the ever-expanding repertoire - tinto de verano - its similar to sangria but consists of red wine, martini rosso and casera (a sugar free lemonade drink) - its yummy and incredibly drinkable, as my monday morning headache was to testify!!

will write again soon - hopefully with pictures for those of you with a short attention span! lots of love xxx

the procession

the culmination of the whole fiesta is a huge procession that snakes through the streets of the village and down towards the playa. it incorporates hundreds of locals, beautiful costumes, lots of music, horses, floats and fireworks. it is amazing to watch but it goes on FOREVER! i watched 2 hours before i could take no more and went off to watch the football - i believe it was still going for quite some time after!! apparently at the end of the procession the "king and queen" of the procession appear on a big float with hydraulics and lots more fireworks but i don't feel that i missed too much! although many of the groups in the procession put on a show with dancing, drums, sword fighting, acrobatics etc, the majority of the groups just shuffle along in time with the music and there's only so much of that you can take! at least you guys can enjoy the pictures without a numb bum and aching legs!x