July 17th 2007
I only wish I could cut loose more often. I love it here though as my own personal escape from real life issues :)
Calvin and Hobbes is propriety of Bill Watterson and Universal Press Syndicate.
Calvin playing Spaceman Spiff totally rocks. As any little kid, he hardly gets any concentrated atc-lass much to Mrs. Wormwoood and The school Principal. He has created his own delusional world to cope with daily routine and boredom. Who can blame him, huh? We wish we could do just do the same :wink:
On the personal note, yesterday I went for a walk to the local fiestas. Man, it was crowded. I could hardly walk some 30 steps without meeting someone. And my idyllic afternoon on my own became a walk around with a bunch of friends from canoeing team, from the neighbourhood, from my block, from here and there. So I couldn't take as many pictures as I wanted, oh well :)
So yesterday was the day of the Carmen Virgin, who is the Patron Saint of the fishermen. I live in fishermen village where every family has a tragedy involving someone lost in the sea. So the Carmen Virgin's Day is huge in here. People decorate their balconies with flowers and the Virgin is taken in a drummers Parade towards the docks, where she is shipped aboard a boat and sails the bay together with the drummers. It is really nice, because the sound of the drums are heard really aloud when they are shipping the bay. Bunches of flowers are thrown to the water to remember those all dead fishermen while people pray for their souls.
The quality of the pics is not good, I'm sorry. It was really sunny so I couldn't take many pictures against the sun. And, since I'm not a religious person, I kinda backed off respectfully for all those people who were praying and stuff to be closer to the Virgin.
This is the Carmen Virgin, Patron Saint of the fishermen.
The procession, the Virgin always surrounded by people dressed as old fishermen did.
A bunch of flowers, floating in the water.
The drummers parade.
Me, when kid, as a drummer. Yeah, smiley me :D
The giants and the bigheads, this is my favourite thingy of the festivals. The giants are...well, giants. They are huge cardboard figures, they usually go in pairs and they have a wooden structure inside where those who dance them are placed. They dance to the rhythm of music, and by the end of the song, they start spinning around. The more skilful the dancer is, the longer they spin, and the loudest claps and roars they get. Sometimes they need to be assisted not to fall to the floor. Experienced people take turns to dance them and the ones assist the others carrying along water bottles and stuff like that. I just love the giants and the music they dance too. The giants of my village are being repaired (the cardboard is pretty fragile) so they brought some from villages nearby. The ones of my village are, of course, a fisherman, a fisherwoman, and then another pair dressed in the typical basque costume.
Some giants
And together with the giants go the bigheads. The bigheads are...well, bigheads. They are huge ugly cardboard heads which are worn to scare people. They carry a broom or any other utensil for hitting purposes. So they run after people and hit. They just hit anyone, so you better get out of their way. The safest place to hide is near the giants, which makes the giants' dance even more difficult. Small kids are usually scared of them. When I was a kid, I was totally terrified. Still, it makes me giggle to watch at all those kiddos crying at them. So, I took some pics for you too and, by the way,I got hit, so you know :P
Some bigheads
Some heads
And, I was struck and pissed off to discover these stupid cardboard bulls who run together with the bigheads *insert huge sigh in here*
Finally, between the tons of people selling just everything, I also found these battery operated bulls. SPAIN AND OLE *insert super huge sigh in here*