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Carnival Time

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By Helen Lee Gray
It's not as hot as Brasil, which is a shame, but the Portuguese still like to party for Carnaval (Carnival). Parades, parties and dress up drinking seems the norm.

Planning for Carnival started back in January, when our neighbour Jon had a drunken conversation with Peter in the local bar. This resulted in a planned margarita party in the bar on 7 March.

Masks were made by Laurel, who stopped of at the hospital to get some bandages then put a plastic bag over our heads and bandaged us up! No, this is not how Michael Hutchins died, it was all in the process of making masks....take a look.

Decorating them means trips to the Euro store and the wonderful Pound Shop in St Helier, Jersey. So on a sunny day, glue gun heated, glitter at the ready, enough pipe cleaners to clean a million pipes, Laurel and I started to decorate.



Hmmm, as you can see it is quite easy to go 'over the top' when it comes to glitter! Although I am assured that 'over the top' is the only way to go at Carnival time.

Booze bought, limes searched out (harder than you think to find cheap limes), Triple Sec and lime mix made, glasses borrowed, make up on we went to the club for the Carnival Festa.

Now, it is not many people that can cope with more than two margaritas, and I really think our Carnival Margarita party proved that fact. With people falling asleep at the bar, being put into cabs, falling down stairs the night was a success. Typical cultural differences stayed the same. All the English (and Americans) were there at 8pm, the Portuguese didn't even start to turn up until 10pm! People really got into the swing of it, with costumes including witches, monsters and strange doll like creatures (totally random and scary).




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