After months of dry weather we’ve had rain this past week, although I am looking out on sunshine now so hopefully it has passed. It is real shame for the Easter parades as I believe they don’t happen if the weather is bad, and Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday which are the main parade nights, it certainly rained. Some of the statues are hundreds of years old and won’t stand up to the rigors of Extremaduran rain. I guess the pointy hats might go limp in the damp too. I imagine that the big parades in Seville and Malaga must have some form of contingency plans as they are large and popular parades. The statues are so big it takes hundreds of bearers to carry one and a single float can take 45 minutes to pass a point.
Luckily we were planning to give the parades a miss this year anyway, and as we’ve had lots to do getting the finishing touches done and dusted on the new site (which can definitely be seen here – AwayWiththePixels.com – although remember that this is still in testing mode, so if anything odd happens let us know). Also, apart from the spectacle of the parades, it’s not really a fiesta for non-believers. Not an Easter bunny or Easter chick in sight.
The rain was good as we were able to check on the work that Manuel had done – in particular to check that our drain could cope. This is quite significant as our drain now has to cope with a lot of water, we are no longer draining some water away next door, which is now against the law with new building work. So whereas before we shot water into the street, shot water into next door, drained water into next door and had holes in the roof that used to drain some inside too, now everything comes into the patio! But our drain coped – but the water level did raise outside, so we are going to ask Manuel to raise the back step by another couple of centimeters to give us a bit more of a barrier. It is really only a few moments a year when the rain comes so heavy that the drains can’t cope – but that’s small consulation when it’s coming through the back door! It isn’t the volume of rain as much as it is the speed that it comes down just once or twice a year. Our contingency plan is to get a large rain butt to collect water from one of the down-pipes from the gutter – which makes sense anyway. Weather forecasts are generally so good here that we know in advance when to expect the big storms and could make sure the butts were empty.
I’ve got a teenage boy starting classes on Monday. Having vowed ‘never again’, I thought I’d give this lad a chance as he asked for the class himself (not his mum). He’s looking specifically for listening and speaking practice. We’re having a sample session on Monday to see how it might work.