Party, party, party…
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Saturday, 30th October 2010
Posted by Judith on 31 Oct 2010 | Tagged as: Party, party, party..., Trying, but failing, to fly
It was a gloomy morning and we decided not to bother going flying, as it would be an action packed day and adding flying to all the other stuff we had to do would just make it a bit stressful. I went shopping (it’s a holiday weekend and all the shops are closed Sunday and Monday), and as I got to Olot, the sky started to clear. Having not flown yesterday, we thought we could fit a quick flutter in, so headed out to Santa Brigida. The wind in the villages on the way was mostly north (with a southerly forecast that’s not that usual), but as we got to Amer, we could see someone flying and getting good height. However, as we got to the foot of the hill we could see how far off to the west the wind was. He decided to come in to land and we had a chat. It had moved more and more west as he was in the air and he decided to come down. We considered it for a while and if we hadn’t had an appointment at the airport, we would have waited it out, but as it was we decided to go back home, dump our gliders, do some more work and then go to pick Wayne up.
I had it in my head that he was coming at 4.30pm. Turns out his flight arrived at 3pm, so I had a lot of grovelling to do to explain why we were two hours late. We went straight to the fiesta de St Narcis in Girona. The Saturday of the fiesta is one of my favourite nights of the year. We started the evening at the fair, first going on the Ala Delta (hang glider) ride, which was a mini-rollercoaster. It was just like the real thing (not!). Then we discovered a new ride that hasn’t been at the Girona fair before. It’s a chair-o-plane (the carousel with the swings on chains) that slowly went higher and higher. You got the sensation of the big wheel with the excitement of swinging round all at about 75m high. I don’t mind heights, but have to admit, I started pushing myself back in the seat. It all seemed a bit flimsy when we got high, and it was windy up there too. I would have been happier in my paragliding harness!
Next was a look round the other rides and food and then off to see the castellers (human towers). This year it was Salt v. Terassa, both in blue shirts. The first tower was a six level tower, with another one inside, which they left standing while they dismantled the outside one. I love watching castellers. It’s a show of bravery, organisation, co-operation and community spirit. To be able to build the towers you need people of all ages and strength. All have to trust each other and work as a huge team. The competitors all join in and support the base of the opposing team’s tower, assisting them to make it a success. I’m sure it’s excellent for community building, although somehow I can’t see it being adopted in the UK as part of the Big Society. The fourth tower the Terassa guys built collapsed as they got to the sixth level and the tiny child that goes up last had just got to the top. The collective gasp from the crowd is huge and it’s horrible to see the mess of arms and legs and seeing people carried out of the melee. Luckily nobody seemed badly injured, although a number had ice packs on necks, eyes and arms.
Next was the highlight of the evening… correfoc! In the UK hoodies are nearly illegal, but here they’re positively encouraged; so suitably kitted up with hats, hoodies and old jeans we plunged ourselves head first at the fire-wielding devils who swirl fireworks at head height and who chase you with fireworks, trying to make you jump and skip, so you don’t burn your shoes. It’s mayhem! This year they had home-made flame throwers which they fired over people’s heads at intervals.
At one point we got separated and by the time we had negotiated the crowd to get back together we were at the back with the more reluctant spectators. Getting forward was impossible for a while – we got into one of the narrowest streets in Girona and had to wait until the bottleneck cleared before we could progress to the grand finale. That’s when more of the craziness takes place, with devils wearing helmets with fire works attached and fire seeming to spray out of their heads. Globes of fireworks had been attached to zip lines and they flew over the crowd, showering us from above. Brilliant.
Halfway through the correfoc my SD card suffered a meltdown, so I have lost all my photos from yesterday evening, and I’m gutted. [Edit: Geoff, the techie genius, managed to find some recovery software and I have some of the photos back – unfortunately not the best ones from the fair.]
See Wayne’s video of the correfoc.
Friday, 24th September 2010
Posted by Judith on 25 Sep 2010 | Tagged as: Party, party, party...
A rainy, cold and extremely windy day. Any time I did have to go out (like to the garage), I scuttled back indoors as soon as I could. First couple of boxes are packed…
In the evening we went to the Station Inn at Marshbrook for the Adam Bridger do in aid of the air ambulance. Adam is a singer and broke his back in a paragliding accident in spring. Whilst he’s made a full recovery, he wanted to raise some money for the ambulance guys to show his appreciation. Ellie did a brilliant job of putting the event together. It raised a staggering £500.
Sunday, 19th September 2010
Posted by Judith on 19 Sep 2010 | Tagged as: Party, party, party..., Work
After going to the Michaelmas Fair in Bishops Castle last night, we decided to do some work today, but we needed some shopping and headed back to BC this afternoon. Needless to say, we stayed rather longer than expected. First we watched the end of a show of a company of jugglers. Then we could hear drumming up the hill and went to watch Siyaya, a band from Zimbabwe. They were amazing. Great music and incredibly energetic dancing. I was most impressed by the fact that they could do incredible footwork whilst keeping their upper bodies completely still.
As we walked down the hill there was Morris dancing. We’re usually quite scathing about this, but they really put their heart and soul into it. Next we saw Savage Skills, a freestyle bike stunt team. They did leaps and jumps; bouncing around their colleague; crushing cans from a great height; high jumps and finally pin-point precision jumps with only one wheel.
All the museums were open today and we went into the house on stilts and Geoff was right, well worth a visit. Eventually, we did go back home to do more work and had I known what news I was going to get on my return, I would have bought a bottle of bubbly at the supermarket. The keynote speaker I was hoping for has confirmed. Harlan Lane is going to be taking part in the SDP conference. When I first started working with deaf people in 1992, his book ‘When the Mind Hears’ was the first one I bought about deafness and deaf history, and it is still a seminal work on the topic. He is still at the forefront of his field and I’m very excited about his presentation and his discussion at the conference.
Saturday, 4th September 2010 (UK)
Posted by Geoff on 06 Sep 2010 | Tagged as: Flying, Party, party, party...
Geoff writes: I decided to go to the Peak District – partly because I thought the flying would be better there, and partly because it was the Derbyshire Soaring Club’s summer party on Saturday evening. It was a good call. The wind was SSE – no chance of a significant XC flight in that direction from the Peaks, because of airspace, but then it wasn’t really an XC day. It was, though, a lot of fun, doing the ridge from Rushup down to Lose Hill. It’s not quite as mindless as just doing the Mynd ridge run, you have to work a little bit more, not least to get around Mam Tor. And there were plenty of thermals, in spite of the cloudy sky.
The evening party was excellent, and I caught up with a lot of people I hadn’t seen for some years. Makes a change for me to have to do the talking. I usually leave that up to Judith.
Friday, 27th August 2010 (Spain)
Posted by Judith on 27 Aug 2010 | Tagged as: Competitions, Party, party, party...
Today was the last day of the Women’s Open. Because we had three valid tasks the reserve day isn’t needed. The wind forecast was for a gale, and so it turned out to be. It’s a hot wind, augmenting the already roasting temperatures here. Instead of a task we had a talk on psychology from Ruth, who is from Barcelona. Very enlightening and it gave me a few surprises on how I see myself and how others see me. Then off to run some errands and now preparing for the end of comp party. Kirsty has won and Ruth is top in the sports class, so we have plenty to celebrate. Shame our team didn’t win, since we were beaten by the French pineapples. It would have been nice to make Doc proud.
Saturday, 14th August 2010
Posted by Judith on 15 Aug 2010 | Tagged as: Party, party, party...
Day Two of Farmer Phil’s Festival. After a shower and BIG breakfast we headed back out to the festival. Geoff and I were keen to see Nikki Rous and The Daughters in the acoustic tent. Both were excellent as usual. The other act we were keen to catch was Rodney Branigan, who plays two guitars simultaneously.
There was lots of sheltering from the rain again as it poured off and on all day, but in the afternoon, the brilliant Weapons of Sound came on the main stage. They play percussion on old recycled stuff, like sinks, traffic cones, pipes and shopping trolleys. They were lucky that the sun was out for their whole set. The Zimbabwean band Chimanimani were less lucky. The dancing was interrupted by a massive rain shower and they found themselves playing to an empty mosh pit. Not sure about the logic of putting Hazel O’Connor on at 8.30pm, since she was a bit mellow and jazzy, and people were in a dancing mood. All the lightweights disappeared early on, but Wayne and I partied the night away, dancing to Greenland Whalefishers (a kind of Pogues tribute band) until I was so tired (and a little tipsy) I couldn’t stand up any more.
Friday, 13th August 2010
Posted by Judith on 14 Aug 2010 | Tagged as: Party, party, party...
If there’s one thing that can guarantee it will be bad weather it’s Farmer Phil’s Festival (Ged on moi land!). Given that the BP Cup and the BCC final are also on, the weekend was doomed! We were hopeful that the forecast would hold true and the rain would clear in the afternoon. We managed to get there to see Mark Leavesley’s band The Mouths open the festival. They were unlucky in that it started to bucket down as soon as they started the first song and two of their numbers were interrupted by power cuts. Good set though.
It poured off and on all day, so frequent scuttling into trade tents and under the marquees was required. We ate, drank, danced and made merry and had a nice day. Best band of the day was Elephant Talk, with and amazing singer. Best band of the night was The Amigos, who rocked the place and had everyone dancing at midnight. Geoff wasn’t drinking, so we came home to be able to get a shower and breakfast in the morning before heading out for more groovy music in the rain.