WOMAD – 10th-12th November

We went to WOMAD with some students of Sasha’s. She teaches at a Language Institute so all her pupils are of mixed ages but are generally much older. We went with 3 guys and 2 girls. Everyone was really nice and but we didn’t stay late. Conny got separated from us pretty early on because she met up with a younger teacher from her school and then we lost her. We went and looked around all the stalls. Lizzie bought about 6 pairs of earrings and I bought a little present for Rob and a few bits for myself. It was amazing. Loads of English people saying they sell in London and double their prices. Haggling was ok to do and Lizzie started it off by getting a pair of 10 Euro earrings for 6 euros. I got a wooden carving down from 8 to 4.50 and got a necklace down from 10 to 7. Felt quite chuffed with that but reckon they still made a profit from me.

Saturday – Went back to WOMAD. Didn’t get there ‘til about midnight but hadn’t missed anything. We arrived at Santa Catalina and saw a massive percussion band coming towards us. Loads of them had drums strapped to them and others had shaky things and the leader had a whistle. They played a variety of rhythms and some guys came and danced in the middle of their circle and after that a fire juggler came and did some juggling. It was pretty cool. After that we headed to the main stage but not a lot was on. We went and got a drink then sat down and chatted for a bit before heading to the main stage at 2am – Mr Scruff was on!! He looks so so much like Ciaran I couldn’t believe it. Anyway, we boogied to him ‘til 4am then made our way home. There were loads of English there tonight it seemed – more than last night anyway. All the Spanish boys stood in their groups of friends and shouted bad English at us as soon as they realised we were English. I hate that people have to make a thing of it.

Alex and Conny got a bit drunk on the old rum and coke tonight – they weren’t the only ones. Loads of Spanish were pushing through the crowd and after the camera-men abandoned their podium posts in the middle of the audience, a zillion drunk Spaniards struggled to climb up onto it in order to shake their bits at the crowd. Once nice fat man got up, fell on in doing so then made it up properly and shook his belly at all the crowd. He was so, so wasted. (pics on facebook!) Later he got back on again and took his trousers down…it was not a pretty sight, though thankfully he had the decency to keep his undercrackers on. Sasha and I weren’t drinking. Had some lovely texts from Rob but despite replying he didn’t seem to be getting them. Maybe he’ll get them all in one go in the morning when he turns his phone back on.

At one point towards the end of the evening a man tried to pass Alex by and she tickled his armpit. That turned out to be a (drunken) mistake as he made her dance with him for ages (and quite closely!) and then proceeded to eye her up from a distance and follow her around until we left. He was kinda creepy…reminded me of Ricardo. Eugh.

It’s now 5am and my ears are still ringing from the concert.