Posted in Food, Friends, Life, Party, People, Puerto de la Cruz, Spain, Tenerife, Travel, fiestas, tagged banana plantation, beer, Botanical Gardens, calf strain, Embarkation Tuesday, golf course, hiking, July Fiestas, La Paz, Las Cañades, Latino, Puerto de la Cruz, Sardinada, Teide National Park, volcano on July 23, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Those blessed with powers of observation will have noticed that there’s been blog silence here for a couple of weeks.
That’s because we’ve had our 19 year old nephew staying with us and he’s 24/7 maintenance. From the moment he drags himself from his pit at the crack of 10 am to his self-imposed curfew at [...]
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Posted in Life, Party, People, Puerto de la Cruz, Spain, Tenerife, Travel, fiestas, tagged aerial ballet, breakdancing, fairies, high wire, hip-hop, living statues, mime, Mueca Festival 2008, Plaza del Charco, Puerto de la Cruz, R & B, robots, Simon Says, street acts, Tenerife on April 8, 2008 | No Comments »
It’s a hot day. At the pharmacy the neon green sign is alternating between 11.20am and 28 °. Down at the harbour a small stage is in full sun. Stacks of speakers are vibrating to the rhythms of R & B and hip-hop that resonate around the little plaza, setting the heat haze to sound.
At [...]
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Posted in Life, People, Puerto de la Cruz, Spain, Tenerife, Travel, tagged Tenerife, Puerto de la Cruz, spanish, garden, seasons, jasmine, freesia, perfume, smell, scent, sandals, spring, Playa Jardin, sunbeds, swallows, German, British, Easter, unbrellas, Canarios, Scarborough, spring tides, lifeguard, Daniel Craig, Lee Evans, Yankee Doodle Dandy on March 17, 2008 | No Comments »
As a visitor to Tenerife, you’re likely to discern only minor differences between your January and your June holiday. In January the backless dress you’ve been saving for your last Saturday night when the tan would be optimum may have to stay in the suitcase, or you may decide to wear it anyway and go [...]
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Posted in Life, Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife, Travel, tagged Tenerife, Canary Islands, Puerto de la Cruz, Mount Teide, Spain, avocado tree, garden, gardening, fruit tree, seeds, sweeping, terrace on February 23, 2008 | 1 Comment »
For the past 6 weeks I’ve been locked in combat with the over sized avocado tree that dominates the garden.
Every morning, I step onto the terrace filled with joy for another beautiful day and my feet cushion on the carpet of seeds from the avocado tree which overnight, have covered every surface. I sigh, look [...]
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Posted in Life, Party, People, Puerto de la Cruz, Spain, Tenerife, Travel, fiestas, tagged Tenerife, Canary Islands, Puerto de la Cruz, salsa, Party, High heels Marathon, Carnaval 2008, fiesta, drag queens, false eyelashes, wigs, drinking, Arehucas rum, Lupita, Marge Simpson, Miss World, obstacle race, pantomime, Dorada on February 9, 2008 | No Comments »
From barrels at either side of the stage, draught Dorada is being dispensed in small plastic glasses and disorderly queues are forming. In the mêlée, there are several minor casualties; two wigs, a bedside cabinet whose contents are spilling from its drawers, a fortune-teller’s headscarf and a false nail. When everyone’s got a least one [...]
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Posted in Life, Party, People, Puerto de la Cruz, Spain, Tenerife, Travel, fiestas, tagged Canary Islands, Carnaval, costumes, fancy dress, opening night party, Party, Puerto de la Cruz, Spain, Tenerife on February 3, 2008 | 2 Comments »
The fluorescent red grass-skirt did its very best to save the night. I don’t quite know where it came from. I found it in the dressing-up box and I have a vague recollection of someone in our party acquiring it last year but I can’t quite remember who…or why.
It’s 10pm on Carnaval’s opening night and, [...]
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Posted in Party, Puerto de la Cruz, Spain, Tenerife, fiestas, tagged Barcelona, Boho, Canary Islands, Carnaval, Castillo San Felipe, Corpse Bride, fancy dress, fear, Folies Bergère, Halloween, mosquito net, Paris in the 1920s, Plaza Charco, Puerto de la Cruz, Rome, Spain, Tenerife on January 28, 2008 | 1 Comment »
It’s the clothes crisis to end all clothes crises; the one where my anguished cry of “I’ve got nothing to wear!” is more founded that at any other time of the year.
It’s the clothes crisis that has me eyeing up the bedroom curtains sideways while my mind concocts some vision of me looking like Cleopatra [...]
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Posted in Food, Friends, Life, People, Puerto de la Cruz, Spain, Tenerife, Travel, tagged Tenerife, Canary Islands, Puerto de la Cruz, Mil Sabores, Mount Teide, Spain, volcano, crater, Plaza Charco, Sri Lanka, VSO, bocadillos, El Portillo, Arenas Negras, Siete Cañadas, Marines, hiking, Parador, mojitos, Elements on January 21, 2008 | 1 Comment »
“I’ll mix us a small aperitif” shouts Sarah above the din of the steady disco beat emanating from the speakers and the constant whirr of my hairdryer.
It’s Thursday night, Sarah’s last with us before she returns to Doncaster and makes final preparations before leaving for Sri Lanka and 2 years as a project worker with [...]
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Posted in Food, Life, Party, People, Puerto de la Cruz, Spain, Tenerife, Travel, fiestas, tagged cava, dancing, fireworks, good luck, grapes, knickers, La Villa shopping centre, live band, music, New Year's Eve, Party, Puerto de la Cruz, red, Spain, Tenerife, underwear on January 7, 2008 | 1 Comment »
The Cava’s chilling in the fridge; the grapes have been de-seeded and wrapped in small foil bundles; the picnic cool bag has been rescued from the garden shed and its plastic wine glasses rinsed and, most importantly of all, I’m wearing my new red knickers.
New Year’s Eve is a complicated business in this part of [...]
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Posted in Life, People, Puerto de la Cruz, Spain, Tenerife, Travel, tagged Canary Islands, car, Driving, ITV centre, ITV test, MOT, Spain, Tenerife on November 24, 2007 | 1 Comment »
The queue’s eerily quiet beneath its blanket of nervous anticipation. Some are sitting in their cars, flicking distractedly through newspapers, others are standing beside their vehicles shuffling their feet or examining their bitten nails.
I’ve never witnessed a silent gathering of Tinerfeños before where everyone keeps their own company and just waits. It’s an aberration and [...]
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