Successful celebrations

F or my birthday, it was much hard work about how to arrange invitees for lunch at the Mancor de la Vall swimming pool, last weekend. The mixture of Mallorquin, Castillian and English for happy chatter is not exactly easy in a rural village, in the end it was a success. After two or three days rest it was the 50th Anniversary of this paper. l It was also Ascencion day; in Rural Life here, weather is important. If it rains you lose onions and melons, and also it rains for forty days: one day on and one day of. Well as we now know it was the day to celebrate the above event. As inviting apparently all in the island that Pedro Serra knew as important, showed up as four hundred or more people. This could be accommodated for speeches and dinner at a place like Oliver de Termes. (Pedro Serra the newspaper owner and President was to be given the Honorary MBE) by the British Ambassador from Madrid. l Well it was quite the hottest and clearest day so far. Driving west from our village with a setting sun was perilous, one could not see lines etc and one felt blinded. However we reached the great crowd of guests, and the ample drinks for at least three quarters of an hour outside the dining hall and stage, made it quite impossible to identify or talk to all but a few. l Once inside there were lengthy speeches and one wondered anyway how so many at numbered tables could be fed. It became clear. Waiters never let any glass be empty of white wine or was it cava. The dinner was very good and all (except drivers) left by one in the morning feeling full of everything. l Jason Moore must be thanked for giving my Birthday a mention in his editorial on Friday. Although he said my wife helped me down to the stage, (because my two artificial hips were entirely due to playing international squash, when over eighty), he did not mention the droves of pretty maids that had been organised to help people up onto the stage and down again! l For most of this year, our lovely restaurant of Tureixant well known as a place for festive entertainment has been “out of order”. It is now known that it is available under arrangement by the Amer Inca restaurant, for First Communions, weddings, etc. It will not be open for general use until September. l It must also be mentioned that a report stated that there had been a coffee shop burglary in our village. Investigation showed that three young people had got into one of our bar/resturants through a window late at night, into the bar area they found no cash. It turns out that they had come from a raid in Montuiri, and went on to Orient. l We do not have burglaries, everyone knows almost immediately if anything odd is going on. The last time was when a gypsy got into a house he thought empty, about twenty years ago. It was old, he got lost upstairs and woke the owner, got lost on a balcony, and had difficulty escaping. Rural villages are not generally targets. l However the red beetle, has really got everywhere. We had two very small palms and one got attacked. Getting them cut down, the ground sprayed and then having them removed cost quite a bit. They are all over the place as garden decorations whether everyone has had the necessary inspections in rural areas is almost impossible. How do they deal with them in their country of origin? l As it was the Spring fair in Sineu, dating back to James 2nd in 1214 it is worth a smile. There are several breeders of the black pig which is native to Majorca, and is shown at that fair. Apparently the Soller export to the south of France for its fat, faded some time ago. However the Sineu breeders have exported three tons to Japan.