Here we go again.

Today is the birthday of King Juan Carlos I of Spain. He spent his 74th birthday going about his kingly duties, reviewing military parades and so on.

It’s also the feast of the Three Kings. Today the Wise Men are supposed to bring presents to all the good girls and boys, leaving them for the most part on the balcony. Like good old Father Christmas they have magical powers and can fly through the air and get through locked doors. And, according to this cartoon, Spanish children expect excessive amounts of presents from the kings, just as British children do from Father Christmas.


Mama says, "Don't you think t=our little boy is a it over-optinistic about the Kings this year?"

It’s another excuse for a bit of a fiesta as the Kings lead a parade through the streets, distributing sweets to all the children. The latter go equipped with plastic carrier bags so that they can collect in one night enough sweets for the coming year. So much for a healthy diet. Here’s the route of the parade through the streets of Vigo.

While the festivities continue in Spain, it's all over and done with here. I have taken down the tree, vacuumed up the pine needles, put the decorations away for another year and deposited the Christmas cards in the paper recycling. So that's it for another year. The boy and his girls have visited and gone back to London. The small people have gone back to school and everything is getting back to normal.

2012 has begun with storms and high winds here. Time to start planning some more travelling, I think.

Meanwhile, I have just found that Spain continues to have problems with paperwork and documents. According to an article I found in La Voz de Galicia a young woman of Gallego family but born in Venezuela is having difficulties dealing with the bureaucracy necessary to give her Spanish nationality.

It’s rather reassuring to discover that things don’t change.