Jo Green

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Given that my daughter has become very much a part of the community, I am quite rightly dragged into most of the 'commitee' meetings - official and otherwise, when it comes to the various Fiesta, of which there are many.

Most of them seem to happen at around this time of year, but what annoys me is that, although they all take place on the same date every year, in true Spanish style the 'committee' is always caught out, and ends up doing everything in a rush, at the last possible moment.

And even then, no matter how many people in these committees, no agreement can ever be reached.

So last night I was supposed to be having a meeting. The Mums had decided in advance to meet in the park at a certain time and then walk just around the corner to one of the other Mum's houses where the kids could play safely in the garden, and the parents could decorate the dad's tractor and trailer, which would be used as a float in the coming Fiesta. The tractor was only used for bringing in the Grape harvest, which wouldn't happened until after the Fiestas anyway.

Even though I knew it was inevitably going to happen, it still annoyed the hell out of me only to turn up to the park at the agreed time, for the other Mum's to saunter along half an hour later and decide that they couldn't be bothered to hold the meeting tonight, but do it the next night instead.

Which meant changing my plans and going tonight instead. After the hour long swimming lesson in the next time up the road and before a school friend's birthday party.

Even then I know full well that, even if the meeting does go ahead as planned, we will spend most of the time arguing over themes and colour schemes etc... - All things that could have, and should have been discussed and agreed upon weeks ago.

As it stands, we have just over 1 week to agree on everything (which will take 90% of the time available) and then actually put everything into action.

Last year, after weeks of planning, the final outcome after 2 weeks of meetings - and even time spent on my part in choosing and recording a musical track etc... the final decision was not to bother, as there 'wasn't enough time!'.

So this year, given that the same Fiesta date has crept upon us again, I'm wondering if the same excuse will be rolled out again this year.