Spanish Festivals

It would be easy to point at some of the annual Spanish traditions and poke fun at their eccentricity, and I must admit I was tempted, but then I remembered that I come from the country which has brought the world Cheese Rolling and Morris Dancing; I think most countrys have their little quirks and oddities and, although from a 21_st century perspective it can be easy to be derisive of these quaint old traditions, it’s important to remember that, almost universally these strange old customs sprang up for reason, which presumably seemed good at the time, and that their preservation gives us a glimpse into a past.

Moros y Cristianos
These go back to the battles between the Christians and the Moors during the days of the reconquista, and are actually observed, in some form or another, in lots of Spanish towns. The most famous of these takes place in Alcoy, Alicante, and, from what I’ve heard, is well worth checking out. The event commemorates the Battle of Alcoy (1275) in which the Moors, led by Al Azraq, were defeated, and forced to lift their siege of Alcoy, when, according to the legends, St George miraculously appeared to aid the Christian defenders. From the research I’ve done it sounds like the best way to take in this one is to sort out a hotel and car hire in Alicante, and then travel to Alcoy rather than base oneself in the town itself.
Unfortunately it doesn’t look like I’m likely to catch it this year, what with it taking place between the 21_st & 24_th of April. Still, it’s one to put on my “one day” list.

Las Hogueras de San Juan
Although this festival’s name translates as “the Bonfires of St John”, it actually pre-dates christianty, being a celebration of the Summer Solstice. Although the festival is celebrated throughout Spain it is especially well observed in coastal regions where it is traditional to head to a beach, light a bonfire, & party through the night. Alicante is particularly well known for its lavish celebrations on St John’s day (June 24_th), which include spectacular fireworks displays followed by the burning of large, wood and paper mache, figures in the city’s main squares and plazas. Although the 24_th is the focal point of the festivities Alicante’s celebrations actually run from 20_th to the 29_th of June with drinking, dancing and fireworks forming the core of each night’s revelries. This one sounds like a huge amount of fun, and is definitely something I want to experience, if not this year then certainly before I get too much older!

La Tomatina Tomato Festival
This event which takes place in the village of Bunol, near Valancia, in the last week of August each year, is basically a massive free-for-all food fight (tomatos obviously). The tomato fight happens on the Wednesday lunch time in the town centre and surrounding streets, such are the number of revelers, but the celebrations themselves actually start several days earlier. Unlike a lot of quirky traditions this one isn’t that old, and has only been around since the 1940s, when some youngsters started throwing tomatoes during an entirely unconnected parade. The following year they repeated the tomato fight, despite the local council’s best efforts to prevent it, and over the years it became an accepted event in its own right. These days the population of Bunol swells from ~9,000 to ~30,000 each year during the festival, making it a strong contender for the title of World’s biggest food fight.

Baby Jumping Festival
Yes, really, a baby Jumping festival! this is actually the town of Castillo de Murcia’s own variation on the catholic festival of Corpus Christi. The event involves men dressed as the Devil leaping over babies which have been placed upon the ground, a process which supposedly protects the newborns from the evil. Maybe I’m not being fair, or am missing something, but this one doesn’t really appeal to me that much, and I honestly can’t see myself bothering with it, it just sounds like an extremely unpleasant accident waiting to happen, but then maybe that’s because I’m old and boring.

I have to say that the first two are the ones which most appeal to me, and as I’ve missed Moros y Cristianos (this year) it’s looking like if I do visit Spain this year it’s going to be around mid-summer to catch the Las Hogueras de San Juan, that really does sound like my kind of party, and from the sounds of it Alicante is the place to be for that one. I haven’t made any solid plans yet (I guess I should get around to doing that at some point soon or it will be a mid-winter break, rather than a summer holiday, by the time I get my act together.)

Hardly a gardener's favourite, will the dandelion, and other wild flowers, soon be nostalgic memories?

Still, with most of the countryside given over to agriculture, the nation’s verges are one of the more common refuges left for the Britain’s wildflowers, and there are concerns that we may see some species disappear altogether if the Danish rampage continues.

If it was just the dandelion I doubt anyone would mind, but it would be a shame if, in the future, the only way to see some of the nation’s flowers was to order them from a florist.

Wrong sort of red shirts, apparently this type don't need to steal vans, what with living in space and all.

The news piece is actually about Thailand’s United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) movement, who are known as red shirts. It would seem that things are quite tense over there at the moment, with recent clashes between UDD protestors and soldiers at rallies held by the movement.
This obviously begs the question of why UDD members would be hassling reporters, generally, if you’re trying to be a popular movement you’d think it might be wise not to antagonise the media too much.
Actually though, that is exactly the source of some UDD members’ anger, claims that major news stations are being biased in their reporting of the UDD’s activities & heavily favouring the Thai govt’s position.

Anyway things boiled over at a UDD protest on Saturday and the media were asked to leave, but some of the protestors followed the media, and forced at least one crew to abandon their van.
However it seems that no-one was too badly hurt, and calmer heads soon prevailed amongst the UDD, with one of the movement’s leaders asking the media to continue covering UDD events, & urging UDD members to let the media get on with their jobs in peace.

So, sadly, there’s no point running to the Thai version of the Exchange and Mart to look for high tech bargains in the Used Vans section.

There certainly doesn’t seem to be any doubt as to the need to role out 4G mobile access as soon as possible; there are plenty of articles around which are talking about how the popularity of both smart phones and dongles are putting strains on the country’s current mobile broadband capacity! And although deals like being able to get hold of free sims, which themselves allow unlimited free Skype conversations, are absolutely great for consumers looking to save on call charges, it would appear that the popularity of the new technology has wrong footed some providers.

Although it does definitely have its uses, both business and pleasure, mobile broadband is only part of the country’s broadband dilemma, some would say that the establishment of decent high speed internet infrastructure is a bigger and more important challenge for the future, and that’s possibly why we’ve recently seen all the main parties come out with their ideas for how this can be achieved.
This article gives a pretty good overview of the positions of the main parties, and in my opinion is well worth a look if you want to get a quick, at a glance, summary of what each is proposing.
Of course, promises are easily made, and all the more so in the run up to an election, but are not always so easy to deliver on. There’s also the chance that they may suddenly become less urgent in the minds of our political masters once the next Govt is securely in power, and doesn’t have to bother with annoying little details like serving the electorate, or keeping election pledges, but we’ll see.
They certainly all seem to have plenty of ideas of how to skim more money out of us to fund these changes. The Tories would like to take BBC funding to bank roll their super fast broadband plans, while Labour and the Lib Dems are behind the idea of a land line tax, although it seems that the Lib Dems have thought a little more about the equitability of such a levy.
There are also differing approaches as to how to get the more remote areas of the country hooked up with super fast broadband; here the problem is that everyone’s agreed that it’s a good idea but no one really wants to pay for laying the cables.
Personally I’m not sure why the whole country should be clubbing together to pay for people who live in the arse end of nowhere to get a fast internet connection; If it was likely to make a significant impact on the country’s economy I’d understand, but if that were the case it would also likely follow that it would be a viable business move for some comms company to lay the pipes.
As it is, it seems to me that the whole country is going to be left subsidising a few, for no real good reason. Living anywhere has its plusses and negatives, that’s the nature of life; in the countryside you get clean air, beautiful views, less idiots and what would generally be considered a better, and more peaceful, quality of life compared to city dwellers. If people want to live there that’s great, good luck to them (I’m kind of jealous) but they should also accept that their choice to live in such a locale is also going to have downsides, like they might not have such a great internet connection, or may have to pay more to obtain one; I don’t see why that’s such a big deal, & I certainly don’t buy into this ridiculous idea that highspeed internet is now an essential utility, Christ! how soft is this country becoming?

In any case, although all the parties seem dead set on wasting an absolute fortune laying cables to the boondocks, it may be that decent 4G mobile broadband is actually a far more sensible option for the more remote regions of the country; sure it still requires its own infrastructure, and the speed aren’t likely to match the super fast connections which the politicians currently aspire to provide, but it’s surely going to be a hell of a lot cheaper for everyone, and perfectly sufficient for most home use. Ok, so maybe high tech businesses might not be able to operate out of remote areas, but maybe that should just be one of those facts of life, like inner cities not being the best site for a farm, or the Pennines not being such a great place to base a fishing fleet.

So, with the news that one of the UK’s largest van hire firms is set to renew 20,000 vans, a third of its fleet, in the expectation that the economy has/will pick up to an extent where the expense is justified, one has to feel that, assuming the money men at Northgate have done their jobs right, this has to be a good sign for the wider economy. Afterall, 20,000 vans are not going to come cheap and, even if the vehicles which are being replaced are so clapped out that they can’t be rented anymore, the implication has to be that the firm thinks it will need a capacity significantly greater than the 40,000 vans which it would have left.

A lot of Northgate’s business traditionally comes from businesses in construction and manufacturing, as opposed to private customers, so the firm’s commitment to renew their fleet strongly suggests that they have confidence in these sectors to flourish over the next twelve months, and if that’s the case then that would certainly be a good sign for the wider economy; particularly when one considers that the construction industry was one of the areas hit hardest by the recession, and the resulting crash in house prices.

Only time will tell whether or not it’s an astute move which will leave them well placed to profit from any recovery we see this year, but they’re by no means the only company to demonstrate optimism over the economy’s near future, and quite often the economy seems to function as much according to expectations as because of any real monetary factors, so, although my tendancy is to be wary, overall I’m thinking that the signs for recovery are looking hopeful.

The prizes are awarded, each year, by Improbable Research an organisation whose purpose is to highlight scientific “research that makes people laugh and then think”. They operate year round, bringing news of off the wall science to the masses (well, ok, maybe just masses of geeks,) but their big event each year is the Ig Noble prizes, where prizes are given out in a range of categories, much like the real Noble prizes.

The 2010 prizes aren’t due to be awarded until the end of September, but some of the highlights from the 2009 roll of honour include:
VETERINARY MEDICINE PRIZE: to the researchers who discovered that named cows produce more milk than unnamed animals.
CHEMISTRY PRIZE: to the team who synthesised diamonds from tequilla. (I knew there had to be some use for the vile stuff!)
MEDICINE PRIZE: to the man who cracked the knuckles on just one of his hands every day, for 50 years! in order to demonstrate that the activity doesn’t cause arthritis.
LITERATURE PRIZE: to the Irish Police, for issuing over 50 speeding tickets to one “Prawo Jazdy”, a Polish phrase meaning “Driving License”.

Life saving lingerie: a bra which doubles as a gas mask!

Really, I’m not making this up, SEE -even the BBC reported it!

I guess the idea is that most woman wear bras most of the time, which I suppose means that the “life saving” lingerie is always likely to be available, should the need arise, &, even better, each woman in the area of the attack would be able to offer a hand (or should that be cup?) to someone less well prepared.

My mother used to tell me to change my pants in case I got hit by a bus, which always struck me as odd since I imagine that, even if the pants were clean that morning, the no doubt frightening ordeal of being hit by a large, heavy vehicle would ensure that they were no longer clean by the time the paramedics arrived.
In the future are young woman going to have their mothers telling them to make sure their underwear is clean? Just in case there’s a gas attack and they’re forced to share half their bra with a stranger -imagine the embarrasment of having to offer a stranger a slightly soiled bra-come-gas mask! never mind that they may be more concerned by life threatening gas, or somewhat distracted by the spectacle of women around them frantically removing their tops!
In fact it might end up making gas attacks a somewhat salacious affair, which I suppose, in it’s own right, might not be a bad deterrent to the evil doers of this world, or at least those who hold strong views about women showing as little skin as possible.

I also wonder if this lingerie-lifeline is merely the tip of the iceberg, in future are we to be treated to a whole range of everyday items which double as emergency equipment? Maybe household furniture which can be quickly converted into a nuclear bunker? (scarily not so far from official govt advice, during the cold war era, as to how the public should protect themselves in the event of the 4 minute warning sounding.) Or perhaps M&S will start stocking little black party dresses which, in the event of a terror attack, quickly convert into a full NBC suit?

It’s actually a bit of a fund raising phenonomen, Marathons in other parts of the world don’t have nearly such a strong philanthropic ethos as the London Marathon, which has had charitable status since before it’s first race was even run, & is now the world’s biggest annual one day charitable fund raising event. Last year’s participants raised £47.2 million, & it’s expected that the 2010 London Marathon‘s 36,000 runners will raise at least as much, if not even more!

The London Marathon is a major charitable fund raising event, as well as being a sporting spectacle

Marathons, as a sporting event, are actually a relatively recent invention. When the modern Olympics were established in 1896 the organisers wanted an event which would tie the games with their classical Greek counterpart, &, with those first games being held in Athens, the idea of an event inspired by an important episode in ancient Athenian history obviously seemed the way to go.
The historical derivation comes from the Battle of Marathon, which was fought between the Athenians and the Persians, in 490 BC, during the first Persian invasion of Greece. The Athenians won the battle, and, in the process, also halted the Persian invasion, that much is historical fact.
However there is also a legend that, following the battle, the soldier Pheidippides was ordered to return to Athens, with news of the victory, as quickly as possible. The story tells that he ran all the way back to Athens, without a break, burst into the Athenian Assembly, and managed to gasp out news of the victory, before collapsing and dying.
There’s a fair degree of doubt over whether this part of the story is true. Various Greek writers give differing names for the runner, plus it’s also recorded that the Athenian army forced march back to the city, on the same day as the battle, to guard against the possibility of a naval assault by the Persians. Details which seem to cast doubt on whether there ever was a Pheidippides, or whether such an epic feat would be required to deliver news of the victory to his countrymen.

In any case, the most likely route from Marathon to Athens was calculated as being approximately 26 miles, and this was the distance which was set as the length of the modern Marathon race. During the early years the exact distance of the race was left with the organisers of each individual Olympics. The modern distance of 26 miles 385 yards only became a standard from the 1924 Olympics onwards, although it was first used during the 1908 London Olympics, on which occasion the extra 385 yards were added to the course to ensure that the finishing line was in front of the Royal Box, in the Great White City Stadium.

So, first up, I’m going to aim my sights pretty low price-wise, and think about grabbing a week or two out in Spain.

It has a number of advantages as a holiday destination for Brits. It’s in Europe, which cuts out any kind of worries about visas or the like. Also, EU countries are part of the “European Health Insurance Card” Scheme; essentially, once you’ve applied for (& received) your free card, you’re entitled to free emergency care throughout the EU, and some other European countries. It’s not a complete replacement for travel insurance, something which might still be worth looking into at a later date, but if you’re travelling on a shoe string, are disorganised, or don’t mind taking a chance, it’s a pretty good safety net to have in place.

Quaint though traditional Spanish transport is, car hire might be a better way to go...

Another advantage is that, being more or less due south from the UK, it is pretty much the closest country with decent weather. There are also a load of the low cost carriers who fly out to Spain, which should make deals pretty easy to find; being over 6 foot I’m not too keen on the lack of leg space which inevitably comes with a budget flight, but at least it’s not a long flight.
The prevalence of English in the country is also an attraction for me, it’s not that I mind trying to learn other languages, it’s just that I’m woefully bad at it; I’m all for making the effort, but my spoken Spanish breaks down after the most basic greetings and food/beer orders, so it’s nice to have a back up plan.
Having said that I’m not one for expecting countries I visit to totally pander to Brits, and I actually like getting off the beaten tourist track. I’m all for the odd lazy day in the sunshine, but it seems like a waste to spend too much of a foreign holiday basking on the beach; after all there’s all the other sites to see as well, and being a big fan of history it would seem almost criminal to me to go to all the effort of travelling to a foreign country and then not spend a little time taking in some of the culture.

As far as where to go in Spain is concerned I’m really not sure at this stage. Between the Costa Verde and the Pyrenees the north of the country has some beautiful scenery, and is definitely less touristy than a lot of the south, but weather on the Atlantic coastline is always a little more unpredictable than the Mediterranean coast. It is tempting, but good weather is a big draw for me, so I may well go for the south of the country instead.
I’m certain there must be un-touristy places in the south, and I know for a fact that there’s a lot of very interesting history going back to the time of the Moorish kingdom of Al Andalus, & the Reconquista.
If I’m heading to the south then Malaga airport is looking like a pretty good bet, and if that’s the case then getting car hire from Malaga Airport seems to make sense.

As I said at the top, these are all pretty rough ideas at the moment; I’ll have to do some more looking around at some point to narrow down potential locations a little more…

Valentine's Flowers are all very nice, but what's wrong with giving flowers on the other 364 days of the year too?

I wouldn’t mind it if it was something which hadn’t become compulsory, but surely any holiday about love which actually causes relationship problems, if one doesn’t comply fully with what society expects (& mostly this seems to equate to spending money), has become twisted to the point of losing its meaning. So, if you’re attached you pretty much have to spend out, at what’s a fairly tight time of the year for most people, or else risk the righteous wrath of one’s other half.
On the flip side the holiday also serves to remind singles that they’re single and lonely, and, damn it, can you get any of your friends to go out for a few consoling beers? well, not if they’re attached, obviously!

So there you have it, Valentine’s is a rubbish holiday! If you’re single it’s an uncomfortable reminder of loneliness, while if you’re attached, you’ll find expectations foisted upon you, and you’ll be a bad, bad person if you don’t spend, spend, spend for that special day.
Overall the only winners seem to the negligent types, who are seemingly quite content to get all the year’s romance over and done with in one day, and the vendors of Valentine’s related gifts.

I first caught news of the Haiti Earthquake late on Tuesday night while catching some headlines on the BBC before going to bed. Even at those early stages it seemed clear that the damage caused by it, and it’s aftershocks, was going to be immense, but over the last couple of days, as more and more news has filtered out of the impoverished Caribbean nation, the true scale of the devastation has started to become clear. It beggars belief.

The quake itself measured 7.0 on the Richter Scale, and as such is classified as a “Major” earthquake, while even the aftershocks measured 5.5. and 5.9 on the scale, making them significant earthquakes in their own right. To put things a little more in perspective, a magnitude 7 earthquake is the equivalent of a 32 megaton nuke, 1000 times more powerful than the Nagasaki atomic bomb. In addition, the quake was relatively shallow occurring only 10km below the surface. Shallow quakes are less likely to trigger tsunamis, but also tend to cause more damage in their immediate area, as we’re seeing in Haiti at the moment.
Even in a developed nation, with well constructed structures, a magnitude 7 earthquake would be a serious event, but in a nation like Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere, the level of destruction is almost unimaginable! That the quake’s epicentre was only 15km from the densely populated capital, Port-au-Prince, has only exacerbated the situation.
Many of the city’s buildings were poorly constructed leaving them especially vulnerable to the quake, and it appears that many of those killed or injured were indoors at the time of the quake, or close to buildings which collapsed. Even so the death toll is staggering. So far it’s reckoned that 50,000 have died although there are fears that this could rise to as much as 500,000. Half a million people, it’s a simply stunning figure!

In many ways though the quake was only the beginning of the disaster, and looking after the survivors is now the main priority. Many Haitians live on less than a dollar a day, & even in normal times the country is heavily reliant on foreign food aid, but providing clean water, food & shelter for the thousands of, now homeless, survivors is going to be a huge task. Also, with so many dead to recover from the rubble, there’s a massive risk of disease.
Offers of aid and support have been flooding in pretty much since the quake struck, but even so, given the Herculean scale of the task, more help is needed. Most major charities have started appeals, for example Oxfam’s Haiti Earthquake donation page.