Las Haciendas

Had a hacienda week... 3 haciendas in fact... here I was visiting a bar to have breakfast with my ladies, totally missing the joke. It is called the hacienda and is located next door to the official hacienda i.e. the Tax Office. Like the wife who bemoans to her husband who is late home " Where have you been???" Obviouly he can answer truthfully "At The Hacienda." End of row. So after 4 visits to the tax office we got our piece of paper but of course that wasn't enough and we had to pay an official person to prove we don't need to pay any tax. Grrrr! The 3rd Hacienda was a genuine hacienda - a place of good food out in the country - a tasty snack on our way to Ribadeo.

 

Getting to Church? What a marathon!

Taking friends into town for a different church experience led to a split second timing decision. If we had crossed the empty street one minute earlier instead of wondering ahat the police were doing we would not have had to wait 20 minutes on the pavement as the Madrid Marathon ran past. After 20 minutes, realising we were going to be late, we joined the race - except from one side to the other... bump, wallop, ouch. That is what life is like if you are contra corriente. A wee old woman with an umbrella and a suitcase did much better.

A bit patchy!

One of these is not my first patchwork class... the project was "Girls of the world" and the B&W photo was only girls of Galicia. The coloured shots show girls from Germany, Orkney, Taiwan, Ireland, Canada, Puerto Rico and America. Seen here making a gift for an Australian girl (See below)

The teams they are a-changing

 The teams are certainly changing! We are getting ready to say goodbye to folks in the Santa Eugenia Team and now find ourselves in the Leadership Team for WEC Spain - how did that happen? I will let you look at the two photos and decide which team is which. Difficult eh?

The season to plant

Every mothers day (when I had a proper life) I planted my seeds for whatever type the boys gave me in order to have a garden full of flowers in the summer. This year with no seeds and no garden, I went on another planting course. Church Planting. It was great a 5 day fast track intensive look at cultures, models of church, resources and field trips to see church plants around Madrid. I really loved it and the lecturers and class mates were very professional and a really great bunch. It was good that we had sponsorship from Richard Branson (Back row) During the week I put on a pound a day, maybe I should get my spade to do some digging!

Spaekan Eengleesh

Easy to speak English (- not that I have always thought that) but compared to Spanish it is a swizz/. Each Tuesday we meet with 2o young people in our local council youth centre and we have a couple of hours with our shoulders to the wheel, our noses to the grindstone and we wirk our butts off...pardon??

Breakfast anyone?

Here we are - Breakfast at the Bodeguita  (The little Cellar) Ladies who love to chat - in English. We have met all through February and now in March we are meeting in another bar...sort of an early morning pub crawl. The chicas have excellent English and I feel lulled into thinking I am back in the UK until we step into the fresh air and BANG! Toda esta en espanol de nueva!