Quite a lot of cultural activities

Hello from Disneyland, Guatemala, (Antigua) and a bit of a catch up. Last week (15th Feb), more Salavdoran wedding preparations were afoot. Shoes and underwear were bought, (from a shop called Temptations, there's only a handful of undies shops here, so you have to try and search for something amongst the all in one synthetic lace body stockings and so on, unless youre looking for all in one lace body stockings, and youre laughing, or maybe itching. Amber has done an impressive job organising all herself for what will be a lovely small pair of weddings- here you start with the civil ceremony where a lawyer marries you, and then follow i tup some days later with the 'religious' ceremony. Amber's will be amongst the normal mass in church this Sunday. All feels very different to English weddings and their formats. Let's hope she passes Padre Gregorio's ominous test and all goes ahead!

Point number 2- I have taken up Pilates with a great teacher called Elio who is Cuban. It is definitely in my top 5 exercises. Hard work on the old muscles, with those exercise balls that look all nice and colourful at the off, which become less benign as you contort, stretch and squeeze yourself around them. Elio walks round with a stick to make sure you areadhering to Mr Pilates special angles. He is great. It is fun going with Amber, and sharing the pain. A point that I did not mention before I realise, is that Amber is pregnant. Yes, having a baby which is very exciting. Apparently pilates is good for that and Dona Elio did it til she was 7 months pregnant. Gruesome aside- Amber said she once saw Madonna in a gym in London, 8 months pregnant and doing sit ups. Made her quite queasy. I'm glad Madonna lives up to her hard bastard image and really does wear leotards off stage though.

Point number 3- Last week was a week of assorted cultural activities. 1.) A couple of exhibitons. First one by a Barcelonan guy, entitled 'rare works' although he seemed to have found plenty of them to exhibit which confused me. There was a great waiter there with a solid neck on his solid body, who Dad would have made a good drawing of (my mark of a good face), who wouldn't let people at his tray of wine til they'd been round the exhibition. Brilliant. Amber's octogenarian uncle was there. He seems a legendary character, although walking was clearly hard for him he was still there. Amber told me she was a little nervous, as he liked to joke around, and had interrupted at a past wedding, during the 'does anyone have any objections' point to tell one of these, not entirley clean, jokes, about marriage. I had a fun chat with him and talked to some of A & B's pals. The other exhibition had some interesting sculpture. Again there people asked surely I was related to the other whiteish person in the room? (Amber) which has been quite funny.

2.) Some music. First off, Thursday eve with a group who played what perhaps could be described as 'progressive rock soundscapes', and why not? although a genre that is not in my top 5. The band seemed very pleasant, but the music, which was described as 'a protest against the global system' (im not sure of the specifics) under headings such as 'The Alchemist' and 'Introspection' was a little heavy on the prog-rock soundscapes for me. I did try. Amber and i had a chat about nachos, and then realised that someone was filming the concert with us behind the singer. More music on Friday was a nice outdoor Vivaldi concert given by a youth orchestra with very young people doing impressive violining, in a small pretty town near SS called Santa Tecla. This was followed a trip to a great small local cafe, La Rayuela, where there was a compact Mexican guy, playing and singing great songs, which was fun. He was joined by a lady with a recorder who did not play London's Burning but some very good music. We were all getting into in, when a man in a suit with a pen in his top pocket decided to get up and sing his stuff. Pens in top suit pockets are never good musical omens and so it was.

End of the week on Saturday was a trip to the beach, Sunzal. Where most of the tourists to ES go. It was funny to see after being in untouristy SS. Lots of surfers. Water was quite rough and I managed to somehow be flung to my knees and dragged under about 6 inches of water. Evening was a trip to one of the very few theatres (in a mall) in SS. A man with a monologue about a daughter he lost who turned out not to be his. I kept up at the beginning, but my Spanish let me down around the time he opened up a shaft of grain from the theatre ceiling onto his head and then started hacking up raw meat and throwing it about, including dangling it in his mouth, which made us worry about him catching some e-coli.

Right, am off now, but will update on Guatemala soon, where I arrived on Sunday and am staying til tomorrow. Bye bye xxxx