Scorchio!

Hot and bothered?  Well yes I am actually since you ask.  But we stubbornly refuse to use our air-conditioning partly due to cost and partly because it feels even hotter outside if you use it.  Our concession to the heat is to use an electric fan.  I've also taken to using a hand fan in the manner of a Spanish señora and my goodness it's handy!  In any event, our digital thermometer is saying 36 degrees C at the moment - that's in the shade, and I'm told we are rejoicing in a rather soggy 67% humidity.  As a result we now shower on a regular basis - by which I mean 3-4 times a day.  The other day we were soooo hot and walked out of our apartment, round the corner and a few hundred yards to the beach and walked straight into the sea, discarding our clothes Reginald Perrin style as we went (don't worry, we had put on our swim things first!) and just wallowed for about 45 minutes.  Heaven!

It is very often when I'm floating around in the sea, doing nothing very much in particular, that I reflect on how lucky we are. Many of the people on the beach are tourists enjoying their hard-earned week or two in the sun and it seems surreal that we actually live here.  

A couple of weeks' ago was the Fiesta de la Virgin de Carmen (patron saint of the sea) and as a fishing port this is an important one here.  There is a week of activities and entertainments including an all night disco party in the square on the first Saturday followed by another one a week later on the beach just in case we all weren't still recovering from the first one!  The next day is a parade of devils from the church in the square down to the beach near La Gola.  The devils pour out of the church from behind the railings flailing huge catherine wheel sparklers around their heads which spit forth some pretty spectacular sparks.  En route they also trigger off rows of fireworks strung across the route at intervals.  It's pretty lively stuff!  The noise is tremendous as the whirling sparklers scream as they go round .  Once at the beach there was one of the best and noisiest fireworks displays we've ever seen.  Our delicate little British eardrums took several hours to recover!

This week is La Patrona festival in Pollensa old town, more commonly known as the Moors and Christians.  This takes place tonight so more about it in our next blog post but Monday night was the White Party where everyone dresses in - oh go on, take a wild guess - and then dances to an 80's disco party in the Plaza Major until dawn.  Are you spotting a common theme here?  Yup, the Spanish know how to partaaaay and go dancing BIG time!  And if you're a certain age there's nothing like re-visiting the days of your youth as myself and two friends did, and singing along to 'I Will Survive' complete with flamboyant gestures to match the words to the gobsmacked amusement of young locals.  I suspect that we may feature on some embarrassing social media pics/videos but what we don't see won't hurt us!

Finally, here are some other random observations on life over here:
1) Cold showers are a thing of joy and beauty - and those are words I never thought I'd type believe me!
2) We now watch the Spanish TV weather forecast and look eagerly for any sign of rain, the polar opposite in fact of how we used to view the UK forecast.
3) Drivers are VERY impatient out here, easily rivalling a stressed business person on the M25.  If someone stops momentarily for what is perceived an unnecessary reason such as politely letting someone turn across the line of traffic, a cacophony of horns ensues.  
4) Drivers see yellow lines, corners and pedestrian crossings as a fair enough place to park if they have a errand to run at that location.  If this causes chaos such as preventing others, often coaches, from getting by then a cacophony...(see 3) above).  This will in no way actually encourage the miscreant to break even into a gentle jog back to their car despite the fact they can see their vehicle has caused gridlock.  They seem oblivious, and carry on as if nothing was happening (or not, so to speak).
5) Make up - ladies, living out here you will save money on cosmetics believe me!  If you wear much it will gradually slide down your face by mid-morning and this is never an attractive look, trust me.  I've given up on looking vaguely matte and have decided that shiny is much more attractive 😬 no really, very shiny or even 'wet', with damp frizzy hair is definitely the way forward.  It is.  Definitely. 

Wish us luck as we leave soon for Pollensa old town and the Moors and Christians battle re-enactment.  We stand a good chance of being trampled underfoot apparently so we'll need it!