Chinese communities around the world have spent the last week celebrating their New Year, which this year started on 23rd January, and continues for a period of some 15 days.  This weekend many cities have witnessed parades, dancing and fireworks as the exciting and unpredictable year of the Dragon takes over from the more cautious and tranquil year of the Rabbit.

We are very lucky to find our wines placed on a number of varied and diverse winelists, including a number of very fine Chinese restaurants. (Angela is always happy to remind our customers that Albariño is perfect with sushi, but I’m afraid rarely mentions our Chinese connections).

Today’s photo was actually taken inside a customer’s restaurant in Harrogate, England and shows a typical Chinese New Year celebration dance.

Chinese communities around the world have spent the last week celebrating their New Year, which this year started on 23rd January, and continues for a period of some 15 days.  This weekend many cities have witnessed parades, dancing and fireworks as the exciting and unpredictable year of the Dragon takes over from the more cautious and tranquil year of the Rabbit.

We are very lucky to find our wines placed on a number of varied and diverse winelists, including a number of very fine Chinese restaurants. (Angela is always happy to remind our customers that Albariño is perfect with sushi, but I’m afraid rarely mentions our Chinese connections).

Today’s photo was actually taken inside a customer’s restaurant in Harrogate, England and shows a typical Chinese New Year celebration dance.

Well, I say Happy Holidays, but in reality we don’t get much of one this year in Spain….. The big celebration in this country is usually reserved for the evening of 24th, albeit from a business point of view, this is actually a normal working day (except that in 2011 the 24th falls on a Saturday). The tradition is that most people would finish work, rush home, and prepare the big family dinner. The only actually ‘festivo’ in Spain (or bank holiday as we would say in England), is on Christmas Day itself, when under normal circumstances businesses would be closed – except again this year, as Christmas falls on a Sunday, this does not apply.

If this happened in the UK, then there would automatically be a lieu day when businesses would close on the next available working day (this year it would be Monday). Spain does not follow this practice, which means that our bodega closes on Friday 23rd and re-opens on Monday 26th – pretty much business as usual! I have to say that it’s quite rare that people miss out on holidays in this country as I believe that the Spanish quota of public holidays (local, provincial and national) is actually much higher than most other countries in Europe.

Anyway, enough of that. All that remains is for Angela and I to wish all our friends, customers and blog readers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year.

Well, I say Happy Holidays, but in reality we don’t get much of one this year in Spain….. The big celebration in this country is usually reserved for the evening of 24th, albeit from a business point of view, this is actually a normal working day (except that in 2011 the 24th falls on a Saturday). The tradition is that most people would finish work, rush home, and prepare the big family dinner. The only actually ‘festivo’ in Spain (or bank holiday as we would say in England), is on Christmas Day itself, when under normal circumstances businesses would be closed – except again this year, as Christmas falls on a Sunday, this does not apply.

If this happened in the UK, then there would automatically be a lieu day when businesses would close on the next available working day (this year it would be Monday). Spain does not follow this practice, which means that our bodega closes on Friday 23rd and re-opens on Monday 26th – pretty much business as usual! I have to say that it’s quite rare that people miss out on holidays in this country as I believe that the Spanish quota of public holidays (local, provincial and national) is actually much higher than most other countries in Europe.

Anyway, enough of that. All that remains is for Angela and I to wish all our friends, customers and blog readers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year.

It wasn’t until I arrived home yesterday evening and tuned into the satellite channels on my TV that I remembered it was Thanksgiving Day in the USA. It was the full programme of American football fixtures that actually triggered my memory. For men at least, football is one of the big Thanksgiving traditions, possibly whilst the women are busy preparing the turkey dinner – or is that idea just too old fashioned, sexist and stereotypical? (I’m just not that politically correct these days!)

Anyway, Thanksgiving is more or less the American equivalent of the harvest festival that is  celebrated in other parts of the world, giving thanks for peace, and of course, a good harvest.

Another tradition that has sprung up from this particular holiday period, and is now being copied in Europe, is Black Friday – the day following Thanksgiving. This is now the busiest shopping day of the year in the US, as shoppers scramble around frantically to seek out that special ‘one off’ bargain being offered by the retailers for one day only. The term ‘Black Friday’ was first used by police in Philadelphia in the 1960s to describe the massive crowds and traffic jams that hit the sales after Thanksgiving. It wasn’t until the 1980s that an alternative theory started to appear, suggesting that it was the day that marked retailers moving from the red to the black, as they started made profits for the first time in the year.

As a footnote to the 2011 sales, not only were all records broken with an estimated 152 million people (nearly half the population) passing through the checkouts, but in Los Angeles up to 20 people were injured when one woman resorted to using a pepper spray on her fellow shoppers in order to secure the best bargains!

It wasn’t until I arrived home yesterday evening and tuned into the satellite channels on my TV that I remembered it was Thanksgiving Day in the USA. It was the full programme of American football fixtures that actually triggered my memory. For men at least, football is one of the big Thanksgiving traditions, possibly whilst the women are busy preparing the turkey dinner – or is that idea just too old fashioned, sexist and stereotypical? (I’m just not that politically correct these days!)

Anyway, Thanksgiving is more or less the American equivalent of the harvest festival that is  celebrated in other parts of the world, giving thanks for peace, and of course, a good harvest.

Another tradition that has sprung up from this particular holiday period, and is now being copied in Europe, is Black Friday – the day following Thanksgiving. This is now the busiest shopping day of the year in the US, as shoppers scramble around frantically to seek out that special ‘one off’ bargain being offered by the retailers for one day only. The term ‘Black Friday’ was first used by police in Philadelphia in the 1960s to describe the massive crowds and traffic jams that hit the sales after Thanksgiving. It wasn’t until the 1980s that an alternative theory started to appear, suggesting that it was the day that marked retailers moving from the red to the black, as they started made profits for the first time in the year.

As a footnote to the 2011 sales, not only were all records broken with an estimated 152 million people (nearly half the population) passing through the checkouts, but in Los Angeles up to 20 people were injured when one woman resorted to using a pepper spray on her fellow shoppers in order to secure the best bargains!

Just in case you thought it had gone a little quiet, I thought I should explain…. we’re all having a bit of a holiday. We had planned to close the wine cellar for a week during August, in order to give everyone a short break before the onslaught of the harvest. However, owing to the very early start that we had this year, there was simply too much to do, and consequently the closure was cancelled.

So we arrived at the end of October, having completed the wine making, but with everyone exhausted, and still sitting on pretty much their full quota of holiday entitlement. With Christmas (and 2012) fast approaching we thought we’d better do something about it, so we decided to close our doors for a week or two. Around this time of year there are already a few ‘festivo’ days, and so the obvious thing to do was to build a break around this, hence this rather belated holiday.

In fairness the weather has not been too great, after a very warm period during the first half of October, but a break is still a break, and it gives us the chance to catch up on things at home.

Talking about home, it’s really great living by the sea, especially during autumn and winter when it’s so abandoned. This photo was taken early morning on a nearby boardwalk that follows the shore – in winter this forms my own personal running track as I do my best to keep fit. I can tell you that you don’t meet too many Spanish people at 7.30am, they’re not exactly ‘early birds’ like me!

Just in case you thought it had gone a little quiet, I thought I should explain…. we’re all having a bit of a holiday. We had planned to close the wine cellar for a week during August, in order to give everyone a short break before the onslaught of the harvest. However, owing to the very early start that we had this year, there was simply too much to do, and consequently the closure was cancelled.

So we arrived at the end of October, having completed the wine making, but with everyone exhausted, and still sitting on pretty much their full quota of holiday entitlement. With Christmas (and 2012) fast approaching we thought we’d better do something about it, so we decided to close our doors for a week or two. Around this time of year there are already a few ‘festivo’ days, and so the obvious thing to do was to build a break around this, hence this rather belated holiday.

In fairness the weather has not been too great, after a very warm period during the first half of October, but a break is still a break, and it gives us the chance to catch up on things at home.

Talking about home, it’s really great living by the sea, especially during autumn and winter when it’s so abandoned. This photo was taken early morning on a nearby boardwalk that follows the shore – in winter this forms my own personal running track as I do my best to keep fit. I can tell you that you don’t meet too many Spanish people at 7.30am, they’re not exactly ‘early birds’ like me!