The story of our move to Andalucia .... and our move back to the UK

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Wednesday 29 April 2009

Orange is not my colour!

Today in Holland is Queen's Day. Yes, I did say Holland - not Spain.

One of the women at the ladies is group is from Holland and she says that as much as she loves living in Spain, she does miss the celebrations in Holland on Queen's Day. So, today she and her husband threw a party and invited us all to help them celebrate. We were asked to wear something orange.

Now, I have to say orange is not a colour for everyone, and it certainly isn't a colour for me BUT in the true spirit of friendship I dug out an orange T-shirt which lives at the back of the drawer and wore it for today (I did cheat a little though, I wore a shirt over the top!) Come on now, you didn't really expect to see a photo did you?

When we got to the party the whole area was decorated with orange bunting and balloons and everyone had made an effort to wear something orange from a scarf, jewellry or a hat to full orange outfits which in some people with dark hair and dark tans actually look good, I would just look as if I'd been Tango'd!

We all had a great time eating, drinking, dancing and playing some rather silly games in the warm Spanish sunshine. One thing you can do in Spain is plan an outside event and just about rely on the weather to be good. You are unlucky if you end up cancelling due to the weather, so different from the UK.

History of Queen's Day

The Dutch have been observing Queen's Day on April 30 since 1949, when the new Queen Juliana ascended the throne. Before then, the holiday fell on August 31, the birthday of Juliana's mother, former Queen Wilhelmina.

When the current Queen Beatrix succeeded Juliana in 1980, she chose to keep Queen's Day on April 30, as Beatrix's own birthday is January 31, a date when Dutch weather isn't conducive to the many outdoor activities associated with the holiday.

Every year Queen Beatrix visits one or two Dutch towns to greet her country's people and visitors, who receive her with fitting celebrations. What began as a commemoration of the Dutch Royal Family has evolved into a nationwide day of creative, carefree springtime revelry.


2 comments:

Spanish Owner said...

ANY excuse for a knees up there.

I'm still upset for poor Brinkley. I hope he's going to be ok, Jacqui.

At least today I can SEE the stupid word verification letters. Do they think we're wierd NOT to be able to fathom out around six letters written on top of the next ?? Grr........

Brindy said...

Brinkley does seem to be settling , his knee is still slippingbut it doesn't seem to be hurting him and it's no longer surprising him and we have taught him that if he walks it goes back in place, so he seems to be getting used to coping with it. It certainly isn't getting any worse so I think a trip to the vets won't be needed.