The National Christmas lottery, ‘El Gordo, the fat one’, is held on the 22nd of December and tickets can be bought in bars and on the streets from ticket sellers. Tickets cost around 20-25€. The winning numbers are sung out by school children on national television.

Another tradition not to be missed is the wonderful ‘Belenes’, which are displays which depict the nativity scene (Belen means Bethlehem in Spanish). These can be found in homes, churches, and public spaces. There is usually a huge one in the departures hall at Malaga Airport.

On Christmas Eve – ‘La Noche Buena’ cities like Malaga and Seville are crowded with people enjoying the spectacular Christmas lights. In rural areas the celebrations start early in afternoon. In local bars and restaurants you will find large gatherings of families and friends from all generations enjoying the spirit of Christmas. You may also come across the carol singers, ‘Los Campanilleros’, which in itself is a moving experience.

Early on Christmas Eve the local community will start to drift towards their homes to enjoy a meal consisting of Seafood starters, plates of ham and cheese along with local specialities followed by the traditional turkey.

Usually only small gifts are exchanged on Christmas Eve as traditionally the time for giving and receiving more substantial gifts is on the 6th of January.

In most cities, towns and villages on New Year’s Eve, ‘La Noche Vieja’, people will gather in plazas to enjoy local entertainment and of course the obligatory class of Cava (or two!) whilst waiting for the chimes that signal the arrival of the New Year. Usually the celebrations are rounded off by a fireworks display.

On the 5th of January in many towns and villages a parade will take place called ‘Cabalgata de los Reyes Magos, which heralds the arrival of ‘The Three Kings’. There will be floats with children and adults all dressed in costumes, followed by local bands and town dignitaries. Those participating in the parade throw sweets into the crowds and this will cause a scramble amongst the children watching, to see who can collect the most sweets. A word of warning here the sweets thrown are normally boiled and one has to be careful that they don’t loose an eye!

The festivities end on the 6th with the exchanging of gifts and then it is back to normality until Easter which is an entirely different experience altogether!

More »

2. “Mothers are all slightly insane.” ~ J.D. Salinger

3. “I want my children to have all the things I couldn’t afford. Then I want to move in with them.” ~ Phyllis Diller

4. “There is only one pretty child in the world, and every mother has it.” ~ Chinese Proverb

5. “It takes a woman twenty years to make a man of her son, and another woman twenty minutes to make a fool of him.” ~ Helen Rowland

6. “The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found.” ~ Calvin Trillin

7. “A suburban mother’s role is to deliver children obstetrically once, and by car for ever after.” ~ Peter De Vries

8. “It would seem that something which means poverty, disorder and violence every single day should be avoided entirely, but the desire to beget children is a natural urge.” ~ Phyllis Diller

9. “All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That’s his.” ~ Oscar Wilde

10. “A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie.” ~ Tenneva Jordan

11. “You don’t really understand human nature unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around – and why his parents will always wave back.” ~William D. Tammeus.

12. “Working mothers are guinea pigs in a scientific experiment to show that sleep is not necessary to human life.” ~ Author Unknown

13. “Any mother could perform the jobs of several air-traffic controllers with ease.” ~ Lisa Alther

14. “My mother had to send me to the movies with my birth certificate, so that I wouldn’t have to pay the extra fifty cents that the adults had to pay.” ~ Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

15. “My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it.” ~ Mark Twain

16. “My mother’s menu consisted of two choices: Take it or leave it.” ~ Buddy Hackett

Yes, children often give their mothers something to laugh about. Hopefully it makes up for the things their children will inevitably do to make them cry.

More »

Three European countries have the lowest crime rates and one of them is Spain with 44 offences per 1,000 people. Compare this to the UK which has one of the highest rates, with 91 offences per 1,000 people.

150,200 National Police and Guardia Civil, have solved 40.5 per cent of crimes. The result is that less than 10 per cent of the population regard crime as a problem in Spain.

The police have take a stand against money laundering since 2003, and last year 115 operations against this type of organised crime were carried out.

Statistics will be revealed at a seminar called Safety Strategies: Police Co-operation and Citizen Participation, which, is being held in Santander. The aim of the seminar is to show the importance of the different forces within the EU working side by side to fight crime and to identify new risks, connected to globalisation and the development of new technologies. Also identifying which civilians can help in the fight against crime will be another aim of the Seminar.

Do you reckon there is anything the population on the Costa del Sol can do to help keep up the good work?

More »

The volcanic ash has been causing disruption to our airspace for weeks. For all of you travellers out there read it and weep! Accoding to the Volcanic Ash Advisory office it looks like the volcano will be bubbling away in the background for the foreseeable future. I hope it moves off Ireland this week or my plans to visit the homeland on the Thursday will be rightly scuppered.

Volcanic Ash Advisory – Updated
17 May 2010

More »

I was out walking with my 3-year-old daughter. She picked up something
off of the ground and started to put it in her mouth.
I took the item away from her and I asked her not to do that.
‘Why?’ my daughter asked.
‘Because it’s been on the ground; you don’t know where it’s been, it’s dirty,
And probably has germs,’ I replied.
At this point, my daughter looked at me with total admiration and asked,
‘Mum, how do you know all this stuff? You are so smart.’
I was thinking quickly and replied, ‘All mums know this stuff. It’s on
the Mum Test. You have to know it, or they don’t let you be a Mum.’
We walked along in silence for 2 or 3 minutes, but she was evidently
pondering this new information.
‘Oh…..I get it!’ she beamed, ‘So if you don’t pass the test you have
to be the dad.’
‘Exactly,’ I replied with a big smile on my face.

More »

During the last Presidential campaign in the US, the role of social media was predominent, with candidates make the most of social media networking sites such as Facebook Fan Pages, Twitter and Blogging.

The ground breaking result of the American campaign, is now set in history, and also changed the shape of politics as we know it.

Barack Obama was, amongst other things, the younger, more dynamic candidate.    His successful social media campaign reached out to a target demographic of young voters which until that moment had historically had a lacklustre approach to politis, often citing that their viewpoint and ideals were not catered for by any front running candidate.

In the UK 2010 Elections, David Cameron, Tory party leader, has stated that the expat “e-vote” is key.

It will be interesting to see how each party adopts social media to reach out to the voters, not only copying the methods of the American elections to engage with the Gen-Yers and Gen-Xers (computer-literate younger generation born after 70s) but to connect with the “key” expat vote which would otherwise not be target by more traditional canvassing methods.

As an expat in Spain, are you intending to excercise your right to vote?

More »