Nobody else is going to do it !!!

So I got the regulation bottle of aftershave and of course a pair of socks – the way you do on your B’day. My sister-in-law gave me a tin of Butter Cookies – very nice until I noticed that they were ”Danish” ones – so I complained that she might at least have bought me some English ones !!!

15th August was a national holiday here – usual bloody festa with loads of people screaming and crying around the streets as a statue of the Madonna is dragged around the village – followed by an enormous fireworks display. This year they excelled themselves as they didn’t set the mortar launchers properly and a couple of the big ones fired off into the olive groves and set the whole place alight. Display was cancelled half way through, local priest was absolutely furious as his service was interrupted, statue of the Madonna was scorched and several villagers will now be ”sent for” by the district priest for a ritual ticking off and a couple of hundred Hail Mary’s.

But the worst thing of all was that the Daily Telegraph wasn’t delivered on the following day (16th August) due to this holiday – so on my birthday I had to drink my morning Cappucino without my morning papaer. It was a nightmare – relieved only by the sight of the voluptuos Maria as she bent over to place my Cappucino on the bar in front of me. I swear she does it deliberately – so I had my birthday treat after all.