The photo I wished I'd had the guts to take!

Tonight, the 6 of us sat around a rough, wooden table in a small, local bar with a bottle of the house red and the smallest wine glasses you've ever seen. There were a couple of elderly gentleman sat at the bar, nursing cold beers and at another table were a group of young women, catching up on all the news from the last few days over a few drinks, surrounded by a cloud of cigarette smoke, as smoking is still allowed in bars here.

Nothing untowards about any of this. A normal Saturday night in a small, Spanish town.

Except this wasn't a normal night. This was Carnival night.

So at the far end of the bar, served a couple of beers by the barman, sat 2 clowns. Full, brightly coloured costumes, funny wigs & hats and more make-up than you would find at the Revlon counter in any branch of 'Boots'.

I wish I'd had the nerve to ask them for a photo - it looked so bizarre and yet no-one even took a second glance. Beer glasses drained, they once more attached their bright, red noses and went out to join the rest of the parade.

We followed them outside the bar as we could hear music playing and the street was filled with chefs with rather large, fake stomachs protruding from rather short jackets.

There was a whole crowd of kids dresed in 'hippy' clothes from the 60's

And they had the most brilliant car that about a dozen of them were carrying around.

There were people in medieval costumes and and group of ladies with red feather boa's and fishnet tights - I think they were all supposed to be Charlston Girls, but the fact they all had big, outdoor, winter coats on rather spoilt the effect.

Velez Blanco is a small town and there were not many people standing on the street corners to watch as the parade passed by as most of them were in it, but they seemed to be enjoying themselves, and we certainly enjoyed watching them in all their finery. It was a short parade, it only took a few minutes to pass us by. No where near the scale of the Carnival Parades that will take place in Aguilas in the next couple of weeks, but it was fun.

But, how I wished I'd taken a photo of the clowns sat drinking in the bar!

Hey, Ho. Maybe next year!

Rubio's carnival starts next week and, we're told, has a much bigger parade - so, that's one for us to look forward to.