Xmas pix 2007

Phinal Photos

Cruizin' on the beachfront in Empuriabrava, Spain!



In Granddad's garden, Chedburgh, Suffolk




Outside "Les Chouettes", Lodeve, France

Blood on the (bull) trax

Maybe this should be the 'last word' on this blog: the pic I snapped of the aged cobblestones in Pamplona moments after the sad fool was gored right there in front of me!
(too transfixed to capture any other drama before this)......

and Now: a toast, to you, for reading this far, with a glass of Romania's(?) finest bull's blood wine!

Sublime, meet ridiculous!

Ah, so far have they fallen in the old country, no?

(and I meanwhile shopping at a Kwik-e-mart for pink doughnuts and Duff beer!)

Getting bullish...!

Okay, I can tell you all are the kind to always turn first to the climatic end of every novel you pick up; don´t want me to try and maintain the dramatic tension in telling this story in order, so to cut to the chase (literally, ha!),

TODAY I DID RUN with the bulls!

It was quite an ordeal but I couldn´t back down after all this build-up, cd I...?!

I mean it started with a nearly 500 mile drive (one-way) as I had miscalculated how close we were! Went so far I crossed hemispheres (from east to west!)...only got seriously lost once...

But, last night, whoa, Pamplona is like a fullblown mardi gras for 7 hard partying days! More marching bands, amusement parks, fireworks, and ALL night drinking and carousing through the narrow quaint cobbled streets & alleys...
I only had a few beers before retiring to car to try and sleep for a couple hours (unsuccessfully as too cramped and cold)...
up again at 5:30, now in quite obligatory white shirt, red scarf (almost EVERYONE in city wearing this, plus white pants and red kerchief belt too), stumble back to ´él encierro´´, find my place crammed like scared sardines in a tiny square, & moments before 8am, the police stop their blockade and we spread out quickly....
I choose my spot not far away right before a big right hand turn (so i know to keep to the right side avoiding the momentum careening bulls to the left) and we hear the cannon blast, and they´re off!
Adrenaline kicks in and it´s hard to even ´reassemble´what came next...but a wave of runners turned the corner and so I knew to start working my own broken knees...
only about 40 yards and the first bulls were upon us...I moved over the side & hugged a wall and then the worst thing possible happened: 1 bull became separated from the rest, stopped, and while a bunch of macho idiots tried taunting him, turned around and around and even came stepping back towards me a few steps...!
Many around me were screaming and running but i stayed glued against the wall -- about 10 yards away, no more (though there WERE many closer than me) and then the bull picked on one fella & GORED him good right there in front of me! AIYYEEEEE!
Though i was too transfixed to take any photos, I DID take a good picture right afterwards of all the blood across a newspaper this lad left...(he was quickly carried off by bystanders, they have expert surgeons very close by for all these cases!)
yikes, and so how was I to know if ALL the bulls had passed or not yet...¿?

they hadn´t...but the rest passed by less excitingly...!

wow, all over just like that -- i heard this was one of the worst days of injuries they have had for quite some time (another victim was still cordoned off down on the ground earlier on the run when i retraced my route)

and hey, you can catch all the drama here:

www.sanfermin.com/tv

(I think -- it´s replayed on our tv here over and over again every morning)

(look for me in black beret trying to melt into one wall as others run away past me!)

so then there was just the 500 mile drive back to the rest of family,,,,
WHEW!

´nuf sed...?!

& España here we come

So I know everyone is dying to hear about some particular dancing with the bulls(--) but this drama will have to wait for chronological order...and my own patience dealing with slow internet cafes...
anyway, after 2 days in france, drove again only a little further south, crossing the border, to >Empuriabrava (izzat even on maps?!), a kinda crazy touristy mecca right next door to the heart of salvador dali land -- and boy ain´t the surrealism out in spades everywhere u glance....!
sweltering hot days plus a bit of heavy rain too --
me pigeon spanish worse than my franglish but we get by with maximum pantomime & the like....
Figueres´ Museu-Teatru of Dali´s a true crazy treat -- the guy was really wigged, but ain´t it great to be a success as mad as possible...
(internet cafe closing, gotta go for now!)

VIVA LA FRANCE!

barely settled before a drive to Newmarket, bus to Stanstead airport and flight (on wee Ryan Air) to Carcassone France, then renting a nice mini-van and tricky drive to remote ´homemade´ villa near little Lodeve -- lent by a friend of Karen´s Mum...
including swimming pool, ah! so nice, and the narrowest road down into town for baguettes and un bon vin...!