Spanish Diary 2009

22nd January we went to a concert of 4 violas de gamba at the Roman Theatre Museum. Couldn´t fit them all in one photo due to the shape of the place.


24th January: Went to the annual meeting of our mineral society. Looks like we will be going to Navajun later in the year. "La Junta Directiva" - Diego, Eliecer and Pepe.

25th: We checked out a couple of mines on the hill near the road to Corta Emilia, etc. We took a coil of rope and went much deeper in these than we have been before. The first mine was quite small and had some stalactites and aragonite formations. The second was very rewarding and will repay another visit - good aragonite formations to view and much amethyst. Could do with a second lot of rope as it goes very deep and has many alternative paths.




Sometimes a hole in the wall reveals interesting small formations:

We even saw a smiley in quartz geodes!

It was warm enough to eat pizza on the hill side afterwards and we saw a good rainbow on the way back.

Antonio Celdran sent us some photos of our karate class. It was chaos when they were being taken as we all had to try and keep a leg up in the air.

7th February: Joined Twitter as pittkethley

12th February: Went to Hamlet in Spanish. Juan Diego Botto was excellent. I suspect the text was drastically trimmed down as it only lasted two hours. Several mobiles went off during the play including one that played almost all of I Kissed a Girl at a solemn moment.

21st and 22nd February: Went skiing with my son in the Sierra Nevada. He was a natural and I was crap. It was fun though. We went with the local diving club. Here´s a picture of some of our group:

Picture of the slopes


The first of our association´s mineral trips was to Ulea for Calcite and Celestine. Here´s the part of the quarries where we were digging for calcite:

Son digging on the slopesAnd here´s where we searched for celestine - not much left!

Juan Antonio, Fuensanta, Eliécer, Ginés and myself. Capi and Pedro also came but had left by photo time.

12th March. Went to a concert at the Iglesia de la Caridad.

I particularly liked Giacomo Carissimi´s (1605-1674) Jephte oratorio for 6 voices. Incredibly sad, though. Lovely theorba and harpsichord amongst the instruments.

13th March: Started doing the tapas route with my son. I am preparing a Spanish version blog of this as well as an English one:
http://rutadetapas2009.blogspot.com/
http://tapasroute2009.blogspot.com/

29th March: Visited mines in La Celia, Jumilla looking for apatite. A great day out though we never managed a group photo as it was raining heavily. Here´s my son with Gines.Beautiful bats sleeping on the walls near the bottom of the mine. My son took loads of photos. 8th April: Went to see a small exhibiton on Isaac Peral. The University had made a half scale model of his submarine. Here´s a commemorative fan - bad photo as it was behind glass.

9th, 10th, 11th Mineral fair in La Unión

My son did a series of mineral trades. One of the best minerals he gained was this beautiful bit of vanidinite. (Smaller than the picture.)We saw a lot of old friends from around Spain and had some great mass lunches at Hotel Campomar nearby. Here´s their vegetable paella:

17th: Took some phtos of the recent satue "El Zulu". Considering he would be at least ten metres if he stood up I think his balls aren´t big enough. Noone else agrees with me. 18th: Son´s bike was stolen while parked (locked) near the Youth Fair. You can see the bike in the right hand side of the Zulu picture.

20th: Reported bike theft as soon as we could (Monday) at National Police station. We have realised this station is the only way to gain access to one of Cartagena´s hills. Think this is Despeñaperros. It´s topped with ruins and a cross. It was a grey, rainy day and there was a seagull on the cross.23rd: Mofeta cuddled his "kitten" before El Gran Wyoming went off for castration.

23rd: Lovely concert by Raquel Andueza and Jesús Fernández. She sang some really unusual 17th century songs including some by Barbara Strozzi.

2nd May: Went to MURAM for the Rodin exhibition.

16th May: Night of the Museums. 5 were free but crowded. Saw a bit of a Roman funeral in the Necropolis and poems projected on to the walls of the Art Gallery - Muram. After visiting the Underwater Archaeology museum - Arqua - we heard a strange concert by Cabo San Roque. The group had converted a washing machine into a powersource for a giant musical box and combined that with a host of other instruments - pleasing sound.

19th: James had a horrible fall on his head from the top of the stairs. The hospital put the fact that he is diabetic several pages down in his notes. As a result they nearly killed him by feeding him without giving him insulin. This is the only time in his life my husband decided to check himself out of hospital for his own safety! I had a big row with one of the doctors and called her "Cabronita!" We have put in an hoja de reclamación. It probably won´t do much good but they need to review their methods and be more careful.

21st: A beautiful demonstration of glass-blowing outisde the church of Santiago in my barrio.

23rd and 24th. We went to Pantoja to collect acicular aragonite.



A large group of us this time!

Just where I didn´t want to see my son a week after my husband nearly killed himself by falling downstairs on his head.

25th: Son came back late from theatre class with a kitten up his T-shirt. He saved it as it was about to get run over in the middle of a busy road. Kitten is now called Leopold. 30th. Son´s play: El Asesinato de Bolo. He had the leading part.

7th June: We went to Navajun in the Rioja province with our mineral group.
A beautiful area. We vastly outnumbered the 8 inhabitants in the village.

Son loved the food so much in Casa Don Pedro that he ate 26 chops for his main course. Here are the leavings. They were cooked over vine wood which gave them a special flavour.
Best and biggest cherries we have tasted too

The quarry




More photos to be posted later...

13th June: Antonio was celebrating the 5the anniversary of his dojo. A few of us joined him for karate in the La Mata park with Pedro Roiz from Lorca. He was a very interesting teacher with incredibly fast kicks - 7th dan.

We saw an escaped pet rabbit under a tree there

Evening - a great concert by Vicente Castro "Parrita" with an audience of 2000 or so in the fishmarket.

Wonderfully happy Flamenco. He accompanied himself on the guitar in some of the final songs.

My son is now a big fan and had a photo taken with him.

2oth: Flamenco concert by Marcelino García - okay but not a favourite. Antonio Muñoz Fernandez accompanied. Always good to hear his playing-

27th: Flamenco concert by Jesus Corbacho

We acquired a ninth cat - a very frightened kitten was brought round for feeding by Jose Angel´s thuggish tom, Ginger. We have now called him Sherlock Holmes.

This year´s Mar de Musicas had a wonderful array of free concerts Some pictures to follow.

We also went to paid events by Rokia Traoré and Oumou Sangaré - fanstastic performers and beautiful ladies. Maybe a whole Mar de Musicas festiavl should be based round artists from Mali.

1st to 8th August: The Teatro del Mar was as good as ever. the final event by the Familie Floz was one of the best pieces of theatre I have ever seen. Pictures to follow