We get the gossip on the Gibraltar International Face & Body Painting Festival.
Sunday 3/3/13
Today we crossed the border into Gibraltar again.
We went there to catch up with Hamish, another painty friend, and organiser of Gibraltar's first Face and Body Painting Festival. We didn't quite manage to catch up last time. Apparently Hamish had "more important" things to do while we were there.
Yes he did. Hamish is now a proud, first time dad, and Hamish Junior arrived right around the same time we did. I had no problem accepting that we didn't rate that weekend. Congratulations Hamish and Gemma. Your life is about to change a lot, but in a great way.
We caught up with Hamish for a coffee and spent some time chatting. He now has his hands well and truly full. He's putting together the festival which will be held over four days from April twelfth to April fifteenth, and has a lot of work to do. From what he told us it's going to be a really good, fun, weekend, with lots of things happening. We've also heard about the trophies for the competition, and they will be very desirable. I won't say any more because I don't want to steal Hamish's thunder, but if your a F&B Painter, you'd be stoked to put one of these on your mantle. Unfortunately it's a case of bad timing for us as we'll be too far north to make the festival. Best of luck Hamish. If the festival is half as good as your enthusiasm, it will be brilliant. Have fun.
With our painty update completed we made our way back to the bike, but not without a bit of action.
We were walking down the road and noticed a lot of police around, outside Parliament house. There were also a lot of police vehicles, and the side roads were blocked off. This aroused the sticky beak in me, so I asked the closest copper:
"What's going on?"
"Sorry Sir, I can't say."
"Oh, go on. You can tell me."
But he didn't.
I looked down the road and saw a bunch of coppers behind parked cars, one with a large black firearm, up to his shoulder, ready to fire. With my very limited experience in these things, my guess was it was a tear gas RPG launcher.
Then I heard...
"I'm sorry Sir, I'll have to ask you to move along."
What was going on? I have no idea. I checked the media when we got back to the hotel, but couldn't find a thing. Was it a Spanish protest thing? Or maybe just training? I still haven't found out.
Back on the bike we rode across the main airstrip again (it still makes me shake me head) and into the border crossing. We're old hands at this now and just rode past all the cars lined up, down the motorcycle lane, and up to the empty office. The cars were being checked, but obviously on a Sunday it's a free for all for bikes. The whole crossing took around three minutes, and that's only because I was riding slowly.
After freshening up at he hotel we headed out for some food and fun. In usual Spanish style all the food places were closed because we were too early, so we had a few drinks.
We found an Irish pub (it's funny hearing Guinness said with a Spanish accent) that had a U2 tribute band playing so we stopped in for a pint, or two.
Before we knew it, it was food o'clock time again, so we made a bee line to the Argentinian place across the road again. When you're on a good thing...
So that was our day. Two Ausssies, on a German bike, in Spain, visiting an English colony, drinking Irish drinks, and eating Argentine food. Nothing like a bit of variety.
Our work here is done. Seville is our next port of call and it's only a couple of hours away. So it will be dinner in Seville tomorrow night. See you there?
Sunday 3/3/13
Today we crossed the border into Gibraltar again.
The rock was a bit spooky today, shrouded in cloud.
We went there to catch up with Hamish, another painty friend, and organiser of Gibraltar's first Face and Body Painting Festival. We didn't quite manage to catch up last time. Apparently Hamish had "more important" things to do while we were there.
Yes he did. Hamish is now a proud, first time dad, and Hamish Junior arrived right around the same time we did. I had no problem accepting that we didn't rate that weekend. Congratulations Hamish and Gemma. Your life is about to change a lot, but in a great way.
We caught up with Hamish for a coffee and spent some time chatting. He now has his hands well and truly full. He's putting together the festival which will be held over four days from April twelfth to April fifteenth, and has a lot of work to do. From what he told us it's going to be a really good, fun, weekend, with lots of things happening. We've also heard about the trophies for the competition, and they will be very desirable. I won't say any more because I don't want to steal Hamish's thunder, but if your a F&B Painter, you'd be stoked to put one of these on your mantle. Unfortunately it's a case of bad timing for us as we'll be too far north to make the festival. Best of luck Hamish. If the festival is half as good as your enthusiasm, it will be brilliant. Have fun.
Hamish is only a little bloke...about six foot four.
With our painty update completed we made our way back to the bike, but not without a bit of action.
We were walking down the road and noticed a lot of police around, outside Parliament house. There were also a lot of police vehicles, and the side roads were blocked off. This aroused the sticky beak in me, so I asked the closest copper:
"What's going on?"
"Sorry Sir, I can't say."
"Oh, go on. You can tell me."
But he didn't.
I looked down the road and saw a bunch of coppers behind parked cars, one with a large black firearm, up to his shoulder, ready to fire. With my very limited experience in these things, my guess was it was a tear gas RPG launcher.
Then I heard...
"I'm sorry Sir, I'll have to ask you to move along."
What was going on? I have no idea. I checked the media when we got back to the hotel, but couldn't find a thing. Was it a Spanish protest thing? Or maybe just training? I still haven't found out.
Back on the bike we rode across the main airstrip again (it still makes me shake me head) and into the border crossing. We're old hands at this now and just rode past all the cars lined up, down the motorcycle lane, and up to the empty office. The cars were being checked, but obviously on a Sunday it's a free for all for bikes. The whole crossing took around three minutes, and that's only because I was riding slowly.
After freshening up at he hotel we headed out for some food and fun. In usual Spanish style all the food places were closed because we were too early, so we had a few drinks.
We found an Irish pub (it's funny hearing Guinness said with a Spanish accent) that had a U2 tribute band playing so we stopped in for a pint, or two.
My creative Guinness shot.
I'm not a huge U2 fan, but these guys were pretty good.
So that was our day. Two Ausssies, on a German bike, in Spain, visiting an English colony, drinking Irish drinks, and eating Argentine food. Nothing like a bit of variety.
Our work here is done. Seville is our next port of call and it's only a couple of hours away. So it will be dinner in Seville tomorrow night. See you there?
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