Planeta Madrid 2011 - by Theo

One of our favourite events of San Isidro celebrations past has been the Planeta Madrid Concert. Previously this free world music event has been held in a bare, muddy lot in Legazpi, but this year it was thankfully moved to Parque Enrique Tierno Galvin near Mendez Alvaro, where we first lived when we came to Madrid.

It's a gorgeous shady park, with a purpose-built amphitheatre offering great sight-lines and acoustics; the only question was why they didn't hold the concert there the previous two years!

Another welcome change, for us at least, was the 12pm start time (the finish stayed the same - midnight). Great for us, as it meant we could get there after Rosie's first nap, have a picnic and stay for a good four hours or so, rather than the 45 minutes we managed last year! Not so great for the performers though, as most Spaniards just haven't got the hang of early starts and many would still be in bed at that hour. There were barely a hundred people there when the first act, Kucha Mala, a lively Spanish-Russian collaboration got under way and numbers didn't swell much during the afternoon, with the audience mostly restricted to fitness fanatics out for a run or families with young children (and thus no chance of a lie-in!) Crazy really, but there is a sad apathy among Madrileños for local events (one of my Madrid-born-and-raised friends didn't believe me when I told him there was a carnival in Madrid), although it might also be to do with the fact that the park is possibly one of Madrid's best kept secrets, being hard to access due to railway lines on two sides and being in a relatively new barrio.

Still, we managed to persuade a couple of Madrileños to join us. Belen and Cesar and their five year old nephew Hugo made it at the positively early hour of 1.30, bearing tortilla and cheese, and just in time for Toom Pak, a sort of Spanish version of stomp with added flames and angle-grinders, who managed to get what little crowd there was involved.

Any hopes the organisers might have had of the event picking up later in the day and attracting the numbers it had in previous years were truly scotched by the weather. The cloudless blue skies that greeted us as we left our house gave way to impressive anvil clouds that bubbled up from the sierra to the north. In the end, even Cesar's positive thinking couldn't keep away the thunderstorm the weather forecast had predicted, and we made it to the car just as a vicious wind heralded the first drops of rain. Not such a shame for us, as by then it was 4pm and we would have had to go within the hour in any case, but such as shame for the show. Hopefully Madrileños will start waking up, literally and take advantage of the amazing events on their doorstep.

Dia del Deportes

Well that was a lot of fun!

Yesterday we begged, bullied, cajoled and persuaded 20 of our Madrid-based friends to join us in our local park for an English Sports Day and Picnic. What with the gorgeous weather which is practically a permanent fixture here in Spain and the proximity of the shady, flat spaces of Parque Tierno Galvan, it seemed a crime not to! Egg and Spoon races, Rounders, Cricket and Three-legged races were all scheduled in, as we began to assemble from 1pm, with people coming and going all day and a hard-core dozen lasting a good 8 hours until a sudden thunderstorm sent us bolting for cover, hasty goodbyes said as our guests ran for the Metro.



Turn out was much better than expected, with a strong representation from our Pueblo Ingles friends and the writing group, and there was way too much food! As we have discovered many, many times during our 14 blissful months of marriage, when you ask people to bring something to share they make enough for about five people!! Maria-Jose's veggie croquetas, Jero's home-baked bread and Vanessa'a tortilla were among our favourites. In fact the, only thing we were short of was enough to drink, especially in the 30 degree heat, so several expeditions to the local supermercado were organised.



The egg and spoon races - 4 heats followed by semi-finals and then a grand final - caused much hilarity and some outrageous cheating, and were eventually won by the athlete from Senegal, Aboubacar, after the local challenger Javier and the early favourite Owain both suffered disastrous egg-breaks mid-race. (The GB representatives Kathleen and Richie took silver and bronze). However, in an outstanding display of Anglo-German cooperation Owain eventually grabbed a gold in the three-legged race when he and Nico narrowly triumphed over Kate and Maria-Jose's stylish team.



Rounders, played under a shady canopy with trees for bases and a rolling-pin as a bat, was popular with Max's tight pitching keeping some of the big-hitters in check and the first game finishing in a 8-8 tie. Cricket was less successful, though Sylmara - a Puerto Rican we'd met the weekend before - turned out to be a demon-bowler in her first ever attempt at playing. Naturally Kate got the guitar out as well - her Dirty Bitch Tango being requested by her loyal Pueblo Ingles fans - and Owain joined her for a duet on a song they'd written together. Then Javier wowed us all with some amazing magic tricks and sleights of hand, roping me into helping him with a trick he'd only explained to me once before; I just managed to get it right!

Weekend of the Workers

Another weekend, another puente. They seem to have a lot of bank holidays in Spain, which is brilliant in some respects (a day off work - what's not to like?) but also results in a cut in income for me, as being autonimo, if I don't work, I don't get paid.

Anyway, as in the UK, May Day is a public holiday. Here, it's held to celebrate the workers and you usually find various trades unions, socialist organisations and other groups of a leftish inclination putting together a token march or two for solidarity.

Theo and I have celebrated Workers' Weekend in time-honoured fashion by lazing about not doing anything much at all. Actually, in deference to the occasion, we have both planned a few lessons, so we haven't been entirely idle.

The weather is near perfection, with temperatures in the comfortable low to mid-twenties and all is resplendent with sunny springtime verdancy. The pattern of our holiday weekend has involved a relaxed breakfast with the newspapers (Guardian Online, mostly), followed by a little light creative work, then a picnic in Parque Tierno Galvan, which is a couple of blocks from our flat.

Tierno Galvan park is rather lovely: much less crowded than the Retiro, with better tended vegetation and set on undulating slopes with interesting cityscape views and on a clear day, sightlines out to the Sierra Guadalajara. At the moment, the mountains are still snow-capped, but I suspect they won't be for much longer if the current warm weather continues.

The interior of our appartment block has also truly come alive. After months of quiet emptiness as people hid from the winter chill in their flats, the sunshine has enticed everyone outside and as I write, the inner courtyard is a riot of shrieking children, watched indulgently by their adoring relatives.

Children are king in Spain and rather than trying to keep them quiet and out of the way, they are made welcome and provision is always made for their needs. Children are also considered a much more important part of the community than they might be in some other parts of Europe I could mention. In the last few weeks, Theo and I have been invited to several birthday parties for 5-7 year-olds, as general invitation posters have gone up around the appartment block for their fiestas in the shared sala. We've been quite tempted, too. Judging by the joyous racket going on, they really know how to party, these little'uns. Haven't seen their improvised kitchen flamenco yet, but I'm willing to bet they could hold their own.