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

yee-ha!

for some reason, there were people selling cowboy hats everywhere throughout the festival, so the boys and i thought we'd get in the spirit! on saturday night we went out after work and had a great time enjoying the street parties and the many sound stages dotted around the pueblo. for a little village, mojacar can make a lot of bloody noise - til about 5 or 6am - this was not the weekend to be working!! these pictures of the boys are classic - rich is always this smiley, whereas julian is very dry and bitchy - they're great fun!

moors and christians

this is the biggest fiesta in mojacar's calendar - and the spanish definitely know how to party. three days and very long nights of music, dancing, food, drink and general revelry! i had to work for a large part of it but managed to get some fun in too! loads of piccies - first ones are of the main square which was transformed into a medieval mix of street entertainment, falconry, food stalls and arts/crafts.

world cup fever!

england have got off to a shaky start but i hope i'm not tempting fate when i say i think they'll improve (second match is in an hour's time!!) the overly patriotic man is steve, a friend of rich and julians - and then there's the three of us. you can't see it very well but i'm wearing my england flag headband from the kind folks at brainteaser!!

gotta go to bed as have to be up early in the morning (for a run no less!!) but check back soon for photos of world cup fever and the moors and christians festival. will try and get as many on here as possible tomorrow. til then... xxx

i'm back!

hola todos! so sorry its been a while, have been without internet for nearly a week now and i've been pulling my hair out wanting to update my blog and email everybody!! loads to say, and lots of photos. firstly, happy belated birthday to my big bruv who had his birthday on the 9th - sorry i couldn't post something on the day, hope all is cool in the new house! also, happy birthday to the lovely miss rhodes - hope you're having a fab day sweetpea, looking forward to e-chats soon! xxx

to the liambey sisters...

...the watermelon you brought me is the nicest melon i've tasted in a long long time!! much better than the one we're serving in the restaurant right now! it's perfect - sweet and juicy - as melons should be ;o) so thank you!! xxx

cafe lala

welcome to june everybody - can you believe it?! just thought i'd post some piccies of the cafe, where i will be spending my days from now on. also my bosses - julian and richard - they're lovely, and we're having a good laugh together already. hope you are all well xxx