Many thanks to Ian, Cathy, Grant and Lauren for sending their pictures and movies. These have been incorporated into this website.

Please navigate by clicking on an Andalucian Black Pig above.

INTERESTING SNIPPETS RELATING TO OUR HOLIDAY

Our holiday was organised by EXPLORE! and was excellent in all respects. We have travelled with them before to Madeira and Slovenia and we plan to go with them again. Click on their logo at left to go to their website. Our trip is described by clicking here.

The website for Posada del Castano can be found at http://www.posadadelcastano.com/

For a view of Castano del Robledo from space click on http://tinyurl.com/5tapwc - see if you can spot Graig and Sasha's house.

For a view from space of Fuenteheridos click on http://tinyurl.com/6c663g and for a similar view of Aracena click on http://tinyurl.com/5h8alk

Click on http://tinyurl.com/6roznf for a view from space of Mertola.

The website for the convent at Mertola where we saw the animated skeletal art is

http://www.conventomertola.com/en

For a view from space of the spectacular Mina de São Domingos visited on the 4x4 excursion see http://tinyurl.com/572src

Graig, Sasha, Gordon and Gala

The spectacular caves at Aracena do not appear to have their own website but there are pictures to be seen by clicking here.

Aaaaaaah - Fresh Pig's Blood!

A local delicacy is made - or so I have been told - by tying a live pig up by a back leg and cutting its throat. The blood is caught in a bucket filled with sliced bread which is then fried and eaten hot.

Read about the preparation of the wonderful pork joints at

http://www.andalucia.com/accounts/jamon.htm

At Seville Airport a preserved Andalucian ham was on sale for only 780 Euros!

INTERESTING (???) THINGS WE TALKED ABOUT

Bingo Wings are the flabby bits that wave around when overweight women shout 'HOUSE!' at bingo, see - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bingo_wings

A Muffin Top is the fatty roll that sticks out over a very tight waistband, see

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muffin_top

The 'Croydon Facelift' (left) is explained by clicking here.

I tried a ponytail when I reached 60 (right) to see if it would stretch my facial wrinkles out - but it didn't work.

HASHING

For a good overall description of hashing see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash_House_Harriers

There is an good explanatory video at

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=IaTsZtV5Azw

For Geoff and Sandy's Hashing club see

www.geoffkirby.co.uk/Hashing

A muddy hash at Christmas

The Easter Bonnet Hash

WEYMOUTH, DORSET

Probably the best seaside resort in Britain!

Click here to see what our Council thinks about where we live.

In 2012 Weymouth and Portland will be hosting the Olympic sailing events - click here to see us carrying the Olympic Flag to Portland - and partying afterwards!

BUM BOMBING

Bum Bombing consists of clenching three old pennies between your buttocks, walking to a pint pot and dropping the coins in. The score is based on the total number of coins collected in the glass by each team.

To see how Geoff was part of the World Bum Bombing Championship Team - click on

http://www.geoffkirby.co.uk/Hashing/Pictures077/

Knowing David's enthusiasm for Star Wars, he - and you - may be interested in the thirty second condensed version of the first film - performed by bunnies. Please click here to view this masterpiece - it's funnier than the original and a lot shorter.

Click here to view the entire catalogue of forty-eight bunny classics! I particularly like the revised ending to Brokeback Mountain - worthy winner of the 2008 Webby Award.

MY FAVOURITE LETTERS PUBLISHED IN VIZ

I just saw a van drive by with the company name 'Seafood Solutions'. I must admit, I didn't know seafood was a problem.

I'm beginning to think there may be something in this climate change after all. Four months ago it was very cold and now it's quite warm.

A woman whose daughter was hospitalised in a US tornado told ITV News that 'God would make her better.' Presumably, that's a different God from the one that almost killed her with a tornado.

'She can dish it out, but she cannot take it', I once heard someone say of me. And it's true - I'm a school dinner lady and I'm allergic to mashed potatoes.

I heard on the news that the January storms had cost this country a billion pounds. What an utter waste of money. If anything, they did more harm than good.

Yesterday I received an e-mail from a bored housewife looking for some action. Eager to please the young lady I sent her my ironing. That should keep her quiet for a while.

This new police knife amnesty is a bloody nightmare. I dutifully handed all my knives in and now I've got nothing to eat my dinner with.

I'm a terrorist, and when ID cards come into force I will probably employ great cunning and not declare that as my job. I'll probably say I'm a grocer or something.

Why don't NHS bosses start hiring obsessive compulsives as nurses? Their attention to hygiene and constant hand washing would see an end to MRSA outbreaks in no time.

'Alton Towers - Where the magic never ends', or so the commercial says. Imagine my disappointment when it closed at 7.30.

'Tonight there's gonna be a jailbreak', sang Thin Lizzy in 1976, 'somewhere in this town'. Well, I'm guessing it's going to be at the prison.

The person who coined the phrase 'as different as chalk and cheese' obviously hadn't tasted Kwik Save's cheddar.

They say football is a game of two halves. Not for me it isn't. I regularly down eight or nine pints whilst watching a live game on Sky TV in my local.

If smoking is bad for you, how come it cures Salmon?

They say good manners cost you nothing. B*llocks. I sent my daughter to finishing school and it cost me twenty bloody grand.

If, as Freddie Mercury claimed, fat bottomed girls make the rocking world go round, isn't it about time that the city of Derby received some recognition for its contribution to astrophysics?

We should remember the tremendous contribution of the Queen Mother to the war effort. As the BBC pointed out, she 'bravely remained in London beside her husband' during the war. This contrasts sharply with the actions of my grandfather who, on the declaration of war, immediately left his wife and children and p*ssed off - first to France, then North Africa, Italy, France (again) and finally Germany. The shame will always be with us.

Like the Queen Mum, my grandfather was a frequent visitor to the East End during the dark days of the blitz, but he was never hailed as a hero by the people of London. That's because he flew Heinkel bombers for the Luftwaffe.

I would just like to say a big thank you to all those wonderful young people who stand on motorway slip roads in all weathers holding up boards telling us motorists where they lead to.

The following items are especially included for Jenny!

"The Life Of Brian" was recently voted the funniest film ever.

My personal list of funny films probably puts it in the top five but it's importance was in the huge influence it had on the stripping away of the influence of the church in Britain.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Python's_Life_of_Brian for a great appraisal of the film's place in history. So controversial was it that in Aberystwyth it is still banned!

The televised confrontation between Michael Palin and John Cleese on the one side and Bishop Mervyn Stockwood (sitting in his purple robes and fingering his huge gold cross in a provocative manner) and Malcolm Muggeridge on the other is a much transmitted piece of television history. It was a huge turning point in British social history marking the end of serious institutionalised religious influence in Britain.

A video parody of this confrontation can be seen at http://tinyurl.com/okawf. This was broadcast shortly after the real interview.

Mention the film to anyone over about forty and you will produce an endless flood of quotes - always delivered in the appropriate voice - such as "What did the Romans ever do for us?", "He's not the Messiah - he's just a very naughty boy!" etc, etc, etc.

A Nostalgic Look at Children's TV Shows

For an extensive and fascinating introduction to children's TV programmes of the past - including some movie excerpts - have a look at

http://www.whirligig-tv.co.uk/index.htm

No! Captain Pugwash never had characters called Seaman Staines, Master Bates and Roger the Cabin Boy - which is a pity in a way...