La Vida Alcalaína

When I was in the UK recently it was reported on the BBC news that the Queen of Spain wouldn't be going to QEII's big jubilee lunch because of "disputes over Gibraltar".  Most people assumed therefore that Sofia wanted to deliver a snub to her distant relative (they are both descended from Queen Victoria) because of  Spain's claim to sovereignty over the Rock. The ludicrous claims to Gibraltar must not endanger Spain's ties to Britain , spluttered The Telegraph. In slightly calmer terms, Guardian readers were told were told that the Spanish government had ordered the boycott at the last minute because it would be " inappropriate under the present circumstances ", implying that this referred to the forthcoming visit of Prince Edward for the Rock's own jubilee celebrations. This all struck me as a bit odd, because (a) the squabble over sovereignty is hardly new, (b) Prince Edward's visit was announced over a month ago , and (c) Sofia is kn...

So much better without all the blood.

Search for "San Jorge Gazules 2012" on YouTube and you will see a dozen videos of this year's sueltas de vaquillas ( or bull-runs as we foreigners call them, though they are actually heifers), in honour of Alcalá's patron saint.   Up until 1899 they did indeed use bulls , and they used to run all the way to the slaughterhouse in the Calle Salada where they were butchered and the meat shared amongst the population.  But the bulls killed two people that year, and the bull-run was dropped until 1961.  They used bullocks at first, then switched to the less dangerous heifers. Twice a day over the three days of the festival, at 1.00 and 2.30 pm, a canon is fired on the Plaza Alta and a young cow is released from a lorry onto the square.  Eventually she will run down San Juan de Ribera, Ildefonso Romero and Calle Real to the Alameda, cheered on by thousands of people watching the spectacle from their rooftops and balconies, or squashed up against the heavy iron bars which...

Spain's royal family, or at least King Juan Carlos, is not having a good time at the moment. Last summer, the King's frequent hospital trips for various replacement body parts over the last couple of years led to him snapping at the press over their supposed obsession with his health: "What you like to do is kill me and have me in a coffin every day. This is what you do in the press." The comments were captured on camera and became an instant You-tube hit. Then Iñaki Urdangarin, husband of the King’s youngest daughter Cristina, came under investigation for embezzlement . The former handball player stands accused of diverting money from his charitable institution to tax havens in Belise and the UK, and has been excluded from any official royal duties. Just before Christmas JC appeared on TV sporting a shiner on his left eye and a plaster on his nose. Apparently he " walked into a door ". Last week the King's 13-year-old grandson, Froilan, sh...

Nightingale ( Ruiseñor in Spanish) There can be few nicer ways to be woken up (at my age, anyway) than by the song of a nightingale.  One has stationed himself in the giant eucalyptus behind our house, a resting place on his long voyage from Africa to his breeding ground in Northern Europe.  He starts trilling around daybreak and carries on through the day - he's at it right now. It makes a change from the sparrows that sit on the window railings, chirping the same note over and over again (each year they nest in our electricity junction box, right outside the front door). I haven't heard my nightingale at night though; according to Wikipedia, only unpaired males sing at night, in order to attract a mate. Listen to his song here The ruiseñor will be on his way soon, but Alcalá is a birder's paradise all year round.  An ornithologist friend who has a house here writes in his blog,  Birding Cadiz Province :   [Alcalá de los Gazules] has a good popula...

It's April, and it's raining. The phrase En abril aguas mil, which is the Spanish equivalent of "April showers bring May flowers", comes from a poem by Antonio Machado: Son de abril las aguas mil.fe Semana Santa, and in Spain it always rains at Easter .  The Almighty must have a strange sense of humour, waiting till the faithful have gathered en masse (pardon the pun) to carry out their strange rituals in the streets, then pulling the plug and allowing the heavens to open. Scenes in Sevilla yesterday, where four of the processions for Domingo de Ramos (Palm Sunday) had to be cancelled : I don't know whether Alcalá's Palm Sunday procession was rained off because I don't intend to leave the house till the skies are clear again, but there are four more processions due this week and the forecast isn't good ... Tuesday 3 April, 8 pm, starting at the church of San Jorge on the Plaza Alta: Procession of the V enerable y Ducal Hermandad d...

Two days ago everyone was predicting that the PP would take control of Andalucía. Well, it didn't happen. They needed 55 seats for an absolute majority in the Junta de Andalucía Parliament and only managed 50. The Socialists (PSOE), who had been in power since the Junta first came into being 30 years ago, got 47, and the IU-V (United Left + Green Party) doubled their vote from 6 to 12 seats and now hold the balance of power. The Andalusian independence party (PA) and the peculiarly apolitical UPyD didn't get any.  Twice as many disenchanted PSOE voters defected to the left than to the right. The percentage vote for PP and PSOE were 40.66% and 39.52% respectively.  The IU got 11.34%. José Griñan and the PSOE team celebrate the avoidance of a crushing defeat WIll the PSOE and IU form a coalition and keep the red flag flying down here in the south?  Watch this space ... To check results for individual locations in Andalucía go to  http://resultados.elpa...