ann and andy lawrenson

Well, I’ve no idea who St Joan is, but the Spanish certainly go big on him (or her). After the traumas of Sunday, which Ann’s previous blog barely touches upon, we were fairly desperate for a day to recuperate. Fat chance! Loud explosions began at about 7pm. The Spanish have worked out how to create an unbelievable amount of noise by setting off large bangers in massive metal waste bins. Decorations appeared all around the site accompanied by loud music and delicious cooking smells as groups of up to thirty people got together to eat all around the campsite. The sky was full of technicolour explosions for several hours, even before the main display which took place on the beach at midnight. The Spanish attitude to fireworks would have English elf n safety bods wetting themselves. Hundreds of people simply descended on the beach or any other convenient open space and set off explosive devices whenever and wherever they felt like it without the slightest concern about where they were pointed and who they might hit. We saw two year olds being encouraged to hold rocket launchers and five or six year olds wandering about with lighted tapers and pockets full of bangers. Didn’t see any injuries but the local beach safety hut was accidentally burned to the ground! At about 12.30 three canoes came into the beach carrying costumed figures bearing lighted torches which they used to set a long strip of the beach alight. Everybody then hurdled the flames to bring good luck for the rest of the year. Loud random explosions continued until after 4am, and we began to realise why the incessant shelling at the battle of the Somme drove people mad!
We got the Beast fixed today, and are hoping that it holds together this time. We are both fairly stressed as a lot of small things keep going wrong (this is the third time I’ve tried to post a blog this week and it has failed twice previously). Ann’s ankles are not healing as quickly as she had hoped, we had a huge thunderstorm which flooded our plot completely, we have left some stuff that we should have brought with us in Jalon, and the noise on the site is horrendous. On the other hand we have met a lot of people from several different countries lately who have shown us real kindness and consideration, which tends to confirm one’s faith in human nature. Hopefully we can pick ourselves up and get things back on track soon. All the best. Andy.