Photofest

I haven't been taking many photos these last few months, but here are some of the few I did snap. Make the most of them becasue my camera seems to have given up its hold on life and no amount of persuading can get it to work -  believe me, I've tried.

Oviedo city council opt for the cheapest solution - Woody Allen, now completely devoid of glasses.

March skies and Redes mountains

March snow

Fruit from the garden. The berries and plums have all been scoffed and I'm about to make a start on the pears.

Feeding greedy sheep though the garden fence.

A neighbour's lambs

A different neighbour's donkey and a two-week old... erm, what's the word for a baby donkey? Donkette?

Still curious

And still friends

Cold turkey and my first hit in three years

Tomorrow evening Matt and I are going to see John Mayall perform in Oviedo (incidentally, we nipped into the regional capital last week and I had a quick check on Woody - I was pleased to see he's still without a full pair of glasses).

Now, this would not have been my first choice of concert. Before Matt's dad had told us he was going, I'd never even heard of the man (is this a big musical faux pas?). Matt, however, was very enthusiatic about getting tickets. I think this is because since he started taking guitar lessons about two months ago, he's become slightly obsessed (up to two hours practice a day while I get stuck with making lunch and dinner) and wants the opportunity to watch, and maybe learn something from, one of the greats. Actually, this reminds me that I must take my glasses so I can see what Matt gets excited about and so be able to ooh and ahh at the correct moments.

As the last concert I went to was Supergrass in Cardiff in 2004 just before we left and I've been cold turkey ever since, despite my best efforts (I wasn't pleased at having to forego Calexico last year, Matt wasn't interested in Van Morrison the year before and we've missed various other bands at numerous festivals too), I thought I''d give it a go, despite having to part with €20 for the ticket. I'll let you know what happens.

What I've just discovered this morning is that Crowded House have announced tour dates in Spain. Whoopee! Anyone who knows me well will know I have a soft spot for Neil Finn & Co (I even had a crush on the man until I realised that the photos of him during their Together Alone era strongly reminded me of an ex-boyfriend). I've been waiting for this since I heard about them reforming.

Shortly after we arrived here, Neil and Tim Finn played in Madrid and despite my best efforts to persuade Matt, he refused to go. At that point, I had no money whatsoever, so couldn't use the offer of paying for it all if he came with me. (I've still not quite forgiven him for it.) This time, the really, incredibly, awful news is that the concert dates are 30th September in Madrid and 1st October in Barcelona. Noooooo! Do they not know that we start the new school year at the Academia on 1st October and there is no way on earth that a) I can get out of being at work or b) get to Madrid and back in time?

I'm gutted, what was wrong with just one day earlier? However, I'm slowly becoming resigned to a more-or-less gig-less existence here in northern Spain - most bands/singers only play Madrid/Barcelona. I guess this is just one more I'll have to add to the list. I'll get over it, eventually, maybe. (And I'm sure I'll be able to read all about it here when they play the UK.)

More Woody

I've recently discovered that Woody Allen is due in Asturias, again, to give a private showing of his latest film (also filmed and set in London I note - I knew he was trying to gain favour with the British!). This time, however, he's going to Aviles (a city we like very much) and not Oviedo. I wonder if this has anything to do with the glasses still being missing on his statue in the regional capital (see that post here). I have delightful images in my head of officials in Oviedo running around madly trying to get them fixed in time, just in case he decides to add Oviedo to his schedule. Hee hee.

Oviedo and the latest on Woody Allen

Yesterday was Matt's mum's last full day here and we decided on a trip to Oviedo to round off her visit. Oviedo is the regional capital of Asturias, and a highly-pleasant city to walk around. It has a lovely old town, where you'll find the excellent Museo de Bellas Artes or Fine Art Museum, which has free entry. There are works inside by Dali, Picasso, Goya and many more. The museum itself is situated in two gorgeous, well-maintained buildings dating from the seventeenth and eighteenth century. Despite the magnificence of the museum, I was very upset to find that my favourite painting (by a Catalan artist, Hermen Anglada Camarasa) had been put into storage for an indefinite period in order to show other paintings in the collection - I made my disappointment known, though I doubt this will influence their decision as to when to take it out again. One of my other favourite paintings there is by an Asturian painter, Evaristo Valle, who usually puts a good deal of tongue-in-cheek humour into his paintings. It's entitled "Adam and Eve" - the picture is of a bookmark I bought, I hope you can make out Eve's stilettos and the wonderful expression on her face! (Adam isn't on the bookmark but in the picture he's standing facing Eve and hiding a whole bunch of apples behind his back.)

Another reason I enjoy visiting Oviedo is the many statues that are dotted around the city. It's always fun when you come across one you haven't seen before, especially when of it's a giant, rounded bottom.

Another of my favourites is this one. I think the baby's great.

Also, in the old town are numerous bars where you can stop for a rest and a drink. This is a common part of Spanish culture that I enjoy indulging in and yesterday was no different. (Although, this pastime has been threatened since the arrival of the euro in Spain which has caused prices to increase dramatically. In a recent TV interview by 100 chosen people the Spanish President, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, made a bit of a fool of himself when asked if he knew how much a coffee cost nowadays in an average bar, his confident answer - 80 cents - was about 50% short of the mark).

Matt's Mum and I having a rest.

After the trip to the museum, a coffee/water (for me) break, a wander round the indoor and outdoor markets and pre-prandial visit to another bar (for a beer), it was time for lunch. Lunch in Spain is the big meal of the day, so we made our way through a three-course meal, bread and wine and wobbled out of the restaurant over an hour later.

A plant and flower stall at the outdoor market.

After this we visited the foodhall of the Corte Ingles, a large department store. We always visit the supermarket section when we're in Oviedo as it's possible to find foodstuffs there that aren't sold elsewhere. My discovery of Haloumi cheese in the 'gourmet' foodhall last summer made my entire year. It's also the place to go for oats, Colman's mustard powder, Marmite and other British delicacies we've forgotten to ask friends to bring when they visit.

No trip to Oviedo would be complete without a visit to Woody Allen. I'm pleased to report that the city council has still not replaced the half of his glasses that disappeared over a year ago. I'm still trying to figure out just how they were removed as the remaining half looks melted. On his last visit to the city (about twelve months ago), he noticed the vandalism but stated he was sure the glasses would be repaired very quickly, hee, hee. I wonder when he's coming back.

Aparently he's a big fan of the city - the rather sickening quote on the plaque below the statue reads "Oviedo is a delicious, exotic, beautiful, clean, agreeable, peaceful, pedestrianised city. It's as if it didn't belong to this world, as if is didn't exist...Oviedo is like a fairytale". (I'm translating from Spanish here so can't promise it's exactly what he said.) Ugh, you can see why they commisoned a statue of him, they apparently thought he'd earned it with all that brown-nosing. Still, now that the glasses are half-missing it makes a visit to Oviedo even more enjoyable.

Tennis trauma

My Easter holiday started this afternoon, and very welcome it is too. I have five whole days to myself without having to worry about lesson planning or what I'm going to to with my class of four-year-olds who have a limited concentration span of about two minutes, unless they're watching telly.

These last three days of classes have passed uneventfully, all the children were already on holiday from school and were much better behaved in class in the Academia as a result. Also, we've been playing more games and watching films, which is more fun for me too.

However, I did make the mistake of using Woody Allen's Match Point in one of my adult classes. I wasn't much of a fan of Mr. Allen's before, and I'm still not. I watched the film over the weekend and was not impressed. For a start, the film is full of unconvincing British stereotypes, in particular the dodgy London landlord whose lines were full of words like geezer and mate. Also, there's the upper-class friend whose every second word, it seemed, was 'bloody'.

Secondly, Woody Allen either knows very little about tennis or is trying hard to ingratiate himself with the British. For a start, the main character, who, we are to understand used to play tennis professionally before giving it up to coach, has no idea what he's talking about. When asked 'Who was better, or tougher, Henman or Agassi?' replies, 'they were both great'. What tosh. For a start there's no need to ask that question as the answer is obvious. But having been asked, the only possible answer is Agassi. Hmm, lets see: Andre, eight grands slams, and one of the few players to have won all four - Tim, zero. He never even made it to a Grand Slam final, not even at Wimbledon. Andre trained by running up hills in the LA heat and Tim, we presume, practised fist pumping in the mirror (and he was still never any good at it). I'm possibly being rather unfair on England's until-recently-favourite tennis player. My dislike of the man has as much to do with the reaction, the fawning, of the British public to his performance as much as his usually uninspiring, lacklustre play itself. That and having to watch his matches on Eurosport while other players, those in possession of more flair and more character, were not shown, grrr. As a quick aside, I did once email Eurosport to complain about this and the next day they carried on showing Henman and all the commentators made a great effort to point out what a wonderful player he was at every opportunity, pah.

Agassi: Better and tougher than Henman.

So anyway, to get back on track (although, by the way, I do like Andy Murray, he does have character) this section of the film only served to make the two main male characters in the film totally unconvincing to me. A view enforced by an earlier line when the ex-professional player mentions not having the same talent as Rusedski or Agassi - please! Greg had his moments, although my favourite was his outburst at Wimbledon a few years back (and Boris Becker's reaction) rather than any display of talent (however, at least he made it to a Grand Slam final) but to lump him together with Agassi just won't do (and what about Federer? Does Woody Allen not know he exists?). And such a wet, uncommitted, passionless reply to the previously-mentioned question made the character's actions later in the film just as unbelievable.

Federer: He's really very good.

So there it is, rant over, I can get on with enjoying my holiday now I have that out of my system.