Dearest, beloved and most intellectuable readers,
Don't think that I have given up my quest to find out just what our southern, lazy and in the most part greasy, neighbours do. Oh no. On the contrary, I have been working night and day, and when I was jet-lagged, day, night, and dight. What do the Spanish do?
Let me recount the fruits of my unrested loins (if anyone's interested, I bought them in Tesco for 5 quid; beef of course, I don't trust the way pork moves).
So, it transpires, the spics spend a lot of time indulging in ceremonial fiestas. There are, of course, the 'run' of the mill fiestas, such as the bull run (get drunk and chased by bulls). There is also the tomato pelting and wine drenching fiestas. And there is the unforgetable celebration where, each year, a goat is ceremonially launched off a church tower.
But check this contest of strength and agility, a piece de resistence in the fiesta canon. A duck is tied by the feet and hung six feet or so over the water. Competitors row up solo and as they pass underneath, they make to pull this duck's head from its body. Some finish up swinging, some swimming. The victor is honoured and revered, but for him nothing will beat the feeling of being showered in victorious entrails.
We're approaching the truth in a rowing boat.
ttfn,
Tommy
