The nine day San Mateo festival comes to an end today. There has been a lot of stuff on in various different places in the city, ranging from a classic car show to an unforgettable (but not in a good way) polka band in the park. I'm not really a fiesta kind of person, and it's not nearly as much fun when you're not in a group (so if we're here next year this is a good time to visit) but I've done a few bits and pieces.

There are two signature events in San Mateo, according to the local TV, one is the parade on the day of the Americas in Asturias (lots of floats, lots of latin rhythms interspersed with pipe bands marching past) which was on Friday, and a big fireworks display in Parque Invierno (winter park) at midnight last night. I missed the fireworks because I had walked up the Naranco mountain to see the sunset and by the time I got back I just wanted a beer and a sit down for a while. However, it was covered live by TPA, the local TV station, where two reporters gamely batted back and forth 'ooohs' and 'aaahhhhs' and comments like 'that's a blue one, oh, now a yellow, maybe silver'. The fireworks, while not on a Chinese scale, were pretty impressive.

The other major theme of San Mateo is the chiriguitos, the outdoor stalls where you can get a drink and a buttie. Really they should be thinking of changing the name to the buttie fest, because combined with the chiriguitos, today is another day for bollos, bread baked with a chorizo inside (although I prefer the ones with black pudding). Almost everyone on the street has a carrier bag with their bottle of wine and bollo preñado. Last night was the busiest so far. The steets were packed, and amazingly, for streets packed with people who all seem to be drinking (1000 mojito drinkers in Cuban corner is a sight to behold), I haven't seen a single fight. Not one, and not too many incapably drunk people. I cannot imagine how a citywide street festival lasting nine days with a significant drinking component would play out in the UK. No, actually I can imagine it and it wouldn't be pretty.  ¶ 3:07 PM 0 comments

  I've done a couple of weeks of my photography course so far and I'm really enjoying it. It's a private course run by an Oviedo photographer called Ricardo Moreno. He's got a studio and darkroom just around the corner. I stumbled across it while I was looking for english academies (it's in the same building as the fantastically named Brian School). His photos were all over the walls and they looked really good, when I chatted to him he was a fervent film photographer despite earning chunks of his crust from (digital) wedding photography.

The course doesn't have a syllabus and when he asked me what I wanted to achieve I said I wanted to produce a film portfolio (I had shown him one of my best of flickr photobooks) and he said no problem.

It's been a looooong time since I had darkroom time and I realised very quickly that when I was doing B&W stuff in school and university I was doing it very badly. I spent two hours producing one print the other day and really enjoyed the slowness of it, the patience required and the stepwise testing process and choosing what contrast and exact times I wanted. The end result is a print I'm really pleased with (the first from the Bronica- thanks Anne) and I like the fact that it's not instant, not easy to produce, not instantly replicable. I won't be ditching the digital by any means, but I'll certainly make the most of a massive darkroom and lots of time to play.
  ¶ 10:00 AM 1 comments

  "Es duro" said Ignacio (it's hard). Blimey he was right. It was the first Sunday back with the walking group and they'd picked a doozy. We started at the lowest point of the road below Sotres. Liz and I did this part of the walk a few years back. I was happily chatting away when one of the girls asked if I was doing the whole thing or the easy alternative. You'll have to shift, she said, if you're doing the whole thing, you have to catch up to the others...

In half an hour we'd reached Collado Vallejo (a saddle) where us gluttons for punishment would strike out left up the side of a whopping great hill towards the Vega de Uriello. This high goat strewn meadow (for that is what vega means, makes you think about Las Vegas) is at the foot of the north face of the Naranjo de Bulnes (also called Picu Uriellu) which looms 600m above. There's a refugio where rubbish coffee may be bought and sleep may be had if you're off elsewhere. We had lunch, it had taken 4 hours to get up to the refugio at 1950m. After an hour we set off down.

Down is where it got duro. We had about 1750m of unremitting downness (in 7km), on scree, on rock, on slippy sandy muck, a little downclimbing as well. By halfway my thighs were complaining, shaking as I took another step down. It was a warm day and I was sweating buckets (I drank 4 litres, thanks to the springs en route). We arrived at Bulnes and contemplated taking the funicular train down, but not for long and not with any seriousness. Another hour and we reached the bar, where the alternative group were on their second, third or fourth beers and waters.

"Que tal?" asked Ignacio (How're you doing), "Te dice que era duro" (I said it was hard). I smiled, sipped my beer and said "me gustó mucho, es vale la pena" (I liked it, it's worth the effort).  ¶ 10:31 AM 3 comments

  Walking around the city the last few days I've seen various preparations going on. Bars are suddenly sprouting extra outdoor bars, plazas are getting stages built in them, the park has a new children's play area. All of this is for San Mateo, Oviedo's big annual fiesta. It runs from the 12th through to the 21st and, despite my students rubbishing the lineup, I'm quite looking forward to it. Every day there's kids stuff in the park, there's theatre, there are concerts, both free and not free. I read in the paper that the council is being very serious this year about the noise pollution, and that the live music will have to finish by 2:30am on weeknights and by 5:30am at the weekends.

Among the artists playing the free gigs by the cathedral are Tomatito, Estrella Morente and Amaparanoia (all of whom I'd pay to see). On the 19th it's the Day of the Americas in Asturias and the flags are being hung right now. There's going to be a big parade. One of my students said that I should try the bocadillos (sandwiches, but made with crusty bread) especially the calamares. She was chuffed to learn the alliterative squid sandwich translation.

The photo is from the opening speech/fireworks/Asturian anthem/holding up of a chicken in which the dean of the university gave a speech which basically went like this:- Oviedo, it's great, we love it, aren't we lucky to live in such a great city, I mean it's bloomin fantastic, and when we do this again next year let's hope that Real Oviedo are in the second division (that would be an upwards move, and that got the biggest round of applause), viva Oviedo, viva San Mateo.

The holding up of the chicken made the front page of today's paper, I have yet to read it to figure out just what that was all about.  ¶ 9:48 AM 0 comments

  I would hesitate to judge a country based on its adverts, I'm pretty sure the UK wouldn't come out of such an analysis well. It appears to be partwork season on Spanish TV at the moment (rather than the post-christmas season in the UK) and every other advert seems to be for something you can buy in lots of parts.... for example:

• Build a remote controlled rally car (75 parts... what do you do if you miss one?)
• A model of the Bismark (125 parts, €6 a piece)
• The best films of Cantinflas (The most famous Mexican cinema star ever)
• A mallorcan doll's house (for the ladies)
• Soldiers of the 20th century (Each week a new soldier, after a couple of months you can recreate your favourite massacres)
• Figures of the far West (This one was advertised by a Hugh Laurie lookalike, I thought I was watching an episode of House to begin with, Liz started laughing as soon as he appeared with his table top full of mini indians, cowboys and... erm more cowboys and indians).

The other predominant advertising trope is 'La regularidad'. What on ITV is sometimes referred to as 'that bloated feeling' is here much more focussed on regularity. Activia is sold as an answer to that perennial summer problem of not being able to go (after eating at the wrong hours, attmpting to use strange loos, different water). After a couple of yoghurts everyone seems to be able to point to their stomach, wiggle the finger up and down and whisper 'es mejor' it's better. A good digestive transit is the new black, it seems. And of course now the summer is over you need another yoghurty bowel enhancer to cope with the return of work/school/stuff...  ¶ 11:00 AM 0 comments

  This is literally true. And the reason is this, bins are emptied every day (hear that Daily Mail reading, rat phobic biweekly bin collectees?). Every day. At around 8 in the evening the Cubo Express company drops off empty bins outside each building (including any recycling ones depending on the day) and at 11 or 11:30 the Oviedo Ecologico, or, Bin Men empty them. Then the empty bins are collected. It's a fine system, most of the time.

The exception is Sunday. There's no collection on Sunday so the kitchen bin with Sunday lunch stuff has to wait until monday evening. And if you had fish on Sunday that may be fish heads. And if you were out on Saturday and missed that collection you may have more odiforous fare.

Then on Monday night everyone empties their weekend's bags, and if someone isn't scrupuplous in checking for leaks before they leave the flat you might get fish juice leakage in the lift.

This can be problematic (it didn't happen to me... I just needed the air freshner and a gas mask).
  ¶ 6:55 PM 0 comments