Saturday 27 April 2013

What's Your Favourite Toy?

Let me guess... Well, better not. I've been living outside the UK for nearly seven years and I'm a bit old to be playing with toys. Instead, let me show you something that is all the rage out here, especially, but not only, with the boys.



That's right. Bulls. (Or, toros, as they say around here.) You probably know that bull fighting and bull running are famous in Spain, but you might not know that they are also controversial. Recently, the parliament in Cataluña (capital, Barcelona) banned bull-fighting. 

It's not an activity that I like, but I'm interested in why it's still popular. Are these toys part of the reason? What do you think?




        
There's even a lorry to move the toros around the place...



So, guess what Santa (or, Papa Noel as he's usually called around here) has stuffed in his sack around Navidad in Spain...





Sunday 14 April 2013

A Walk en el Parque

Do you like to go to the park? I do. My favourite park in Spain is in Madrid, the capital city. It's called Retiro Park (or Parque de Buen Retiro en Español) and it's enormous. It has a large lake which you can hire paddle-boats on. My favourite part of Retiro Park is next to the boating lake. Here, all sorts of performers come to show what they can do. You'll find magicians doing tricks, singers singing and musicians playing songs. But my favourite performers are the puppeteers.

Now there are many groups of puppeteers who come to Retiro Park, but my favourite are the sheep.

Here are two examples, and I hope that if you ever get the chance to visit Madrid, you'll make time to stroll in Retiro Park, maybe take a boat ride and, if you're really lucky, get the chance to see Michael Jackson, the sheep. It's thrilling!

(Videos link to YouTube.)

Michael Jackson the thrilling sheep.