This week the F1 GP teams came to the Cheste circuit near Valencia to try out their new cars and give their drivers a chance for some practice before the start of the new season. We joined a partisan crowd of 30,000 on the last day to watch Alonso setting the fastest lap time, Schumacher familiarising himself with the Mercedes and Button driving for McClaren for the first time. The Williams, Sauber and Renault teams were also out on the track in the winter sunshine.
It was an exciting day – our first experience of seeing F1 cars ‘live’ – and the speed with which they took the bend at the end of the pit straight was awesome. You can read the official story of the day on the F1 web site.
Renault leads up to turn 2
Alonso sets best time of the day
Side by side coming up to turn 2
Jensen Button in the McClaren-Mercedes
Panto Programme
We have just taken part in this year’s pantomime staged by the Careline Theatre Group entitled “Beauty and the Beast”. Celia and I were members of the chorus – singing, dancing and being part of ‘crowd scenes’. Celia also took part in several tap dancing numbers, fulfilling the dream she had when she started taking lessons just over a year ago, and the Charleston, in which she looked very fetching in her ‘flapper’ costume. We also took part in an extremely well-choreographed version of “Dance the Night Away”.
There were 7 performances at the Alcalali Theatre between the 13th – 17th January. Saturday and Sunday were particularly gruelling, with matinees at 3pm, as well as the evening performances at 8pm.
The show was very professional, with wonderful costumes, great music and dances and special effects. The audience reaction was incredible and the feedback from many of the regulars was that it was the best panto that Careline has staged to date. The reviews of the panto in the local newspapers were also, without exception, very enthusiastic and flattering. Read more below:
Euro Weekly News – p38
The Post – p5
You can watch a video of Celia dancing the Charleston by clicking here and see more photos in the General gallery.
This winter we have seen for the first time snow on the mountain tops around us. This was the scene that greeted us on the morning of the 8th January, when the UK was experiencing its worst snowfalls for many years.
The first weekend in December coincides with a public holiday to celebrate Constitution Day in Spain and there was plenty of opportunity to start our Christmas shopping with a Craft Fair at the Marriott hotel in Denia, a Fira de Nadal in the streets of Orba organised by local businesses to advertise their wares and to celebrate the start of the Christmas season and a Medieval Market in the streets of Denia old town
In Orba, there were some wonderful donkeys on display, along with the magnificent horses from the local Pereto equestrian centre and some cute little Shetland ponies.
Autumn 2009 has been one of the warmest on record and with December approaching, we are still having lunch on the terrace and enjoying the sun until late in the afternoon. On a sunny Friday 27th November, we went exploring in the Vall de Ebo and Vall de Alcal, where we visited an 18 century nevara (ice house) and a Moorish village dating back to the 1300s.
The ice house was built 10m deep into the rock and during the winter, snow was packed into the cylindrical building where it formed ice. This was later cut out in huge blocks and transported down to towns like Denia on the backs of pack mules at night to minimise melting, where it was used for packing into ships to preserve food etc.
The Moorish village called Adsubia was originally built in the 1300s but was later occupied by Spanish families until the 18 century. The original walls and doorways of the buildings are still intact and it was eerie to wander around the abandoned houses.
More photographs can be found in our Out and about gallery.
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