01.-28.02.2007: Álamos Our new year didn't start well and neither did February. It rained all day and our air conditioner started dripping. So we took off the cover on the inside of the motor home. Kirsten wasn't holding properly and tipped it up as we took it off and a waterfall cascaded all over Helen's hair and down her back. Kirsten laughed so much that we couldn't keep the cover level to pour the water into the sink and Helen just got wetter! Two days later Kirsten announced that she thought she was putting on weight and then climbed onto the bed and broke one of the boards that hold the mattress!!! So now we have to find another board before the other one breaks as well. The next day, Kirsten was telling one of the other campers the story of when we were stopped at one of the many check points in Mexico and a guard was checking inside Winnie. She didn't explain it quite right and said the guard "had his hands in her knickers." What she meant was that he had his hands in the compartment where she keeps her underwear inside Winnie!! We were also starting to get really annoyed with a local who came around the campground selling Tamales (corn tortillas filled with corn, chicken and vegetables). We've tried Tamales elsewhere but don't like them. But the boy was coming around at 7am every morning and hammering on the glass in our door so hard that we thought he was going to smash it! Who eats Tamales at 7am in the morning anyway? So we ended up making a sign and sticking it on our door telling him that we didn't want any Tamales and "Do not disturb". Then we wondered whether he could read! Well, he obviously could and it did the trick! The first week of February was taken up with watching DVD's. Larry and Shirley had lent us a whole bag of about 35 but we only had a week to watch them! There were some really good films among them and we didn't want to pass up the chance, but we had square eyes by the time we handed them back! February was also the month for parties. The first was Andrew's 70th Birthday party (Helen's violin teacher). We were both invited but didn't know what we could give as a present. In a moment of absolute madness, Helen thought of trying to write a violin duet. The idea was to write something that was easy enough for Helen to play. Composing the music was actually the easy part. When she tried to write it out by hand it didn't look very good at all. So Kirsten suggested we use Photoshop on the computer which is really software for photos and not for writing music. We managed to find all the symbols and Helen soon realised how much work it was going to be to write it out. It took more than 20 hours over three days to do it! Kirsten suggested we get some proper software for writing music but Helen said not to bother because she wasn't going to be writing anything else!!! On the morning of Andrew's party we went over to help with the preparations. It was actually a joint birthday party with Andrew's neighbour Leon. Their two wives Rosemary and Joey had worked very hard to get everything organised. Our first job was to blow up lots of balloons to decorate the garden. We had a lot of fun burying the lounge (and Helen) in them! We started hanging them out but then they all started bursting because they were in the sun so we had to fetch them all back inside! Two Mexican ladies were making yummy cup cakes and Helen certainly had her eye on them hoping they wouldn't miss one or two! We also squeezed lime juice for the Margaritas and chopped up gherkins. We spent three hours there in the morning and then walked into town to do some shopping to prepare a potato salad for another birthday party the next day. We only just had time to dive in the shower and Dewie gave us a lift back up to Andrew's so we could go and hang out all the balloons again before the guests arrived. Our job for the night was to cook the hamburgers on the outdoor barbecue grills so that the 70 guests could make up their own hamburgers. The two birthday boys helped us out on the grills. It took two hours to do all the burgers and at one point we thought we would run out but in the end there were plenty for everyone and we managed to eat one whilst grilling. Finally we finished and went to get a Margarita. We went back into the garden to join the party but virtually everyone had already left!!! It seems that people don't stay very long at parties - just long enough to eat and then they leave. Apparently that's normal! But it came as a surprise to us. So we sat down with Rosemary and Andrew, Leon and Joey, the bar tender and one or two guests who hadn't left yet. We also ate a lot of cup cakes that we had surreptitiously hidden to make sure that there were some left for us!!! (Helen ate too many - as the photo shows!) We had a lot of fun and Andrew opened his presents. He was really pleased about the duet and even shed a tear. (The duet wasn't just a birthday present but also a "thank you" for giving Helen free violin lessons.) It was a great day and from then on we were recognised as the "Hamburger Ladies" around town. Everyone at the party knew us but we hadn't had time to meet many people. Consequently strangers would come up to us and start talking to us! A bit embarrassing until we realised how they knew us! The next day there was a vintage car parade on according to the Álamos news. So we told Mike and Joan along with Mike's brother Pete and Joan's sister Ann who were visiting. We walked into town and told Regina and the children too. But when we got to the square there was nothing happening! We went into the tourist office and asked. We were told that it was last Sunday! We checked in the Álamos news and it was definitely down as today but all the man in the tourist office could do was shrug his shoulders and repeat that it was last week. So we'd sent loads of people off on a wild goose chase! We went back to Winnie and Helen made a fruit salad to take over to Mike's birthday party which was a pot luck - everyone had to bring something along. Mike was busy grilling lots of spare ribs and dove meat which Joan and Mike shoot around Álamos. It was a really good party with lots of people and we had a good laugh. During the next week we bought a new board for under our mattress to replace the one Kirsten had broken from Rod and we also made a Shepherds pie for Debbie and Dewie. Afterwards we drove with them into town for Mardi Gras. All the Americans were out in the streets for the parade. We followed the little red train that drove around the streets and everyone threw beads to onlookers which is a tradition of the Mardi Gras parade. Kirsten tried to get photos, but every time she moved away from the crowd to get a shot she got loads of beads thrown at her!! At lot of people had dressed up in costumes and wore masks and once the parade had gone around the town a few times we all went to the Tesoros Hotel where there was another Pot Luck and entertainment provided by dancers with fire. Kirsten has also become the camp hairdresser. She cut Dewie's hair and also did Shirley's twice. Helen would have to make an appointment for later!! On Sunday 25th February it was Kirsten's birthday party. The day before we baked lots of different cakes and on the day itself we invited the campground and also Andrew and Rosemary and Annabelle. Even Winnie got decorated with balloons by our friends! We decided to do coffee and cakes as it is a German tradition and because we had had a number of pot luck dinners already. So we wanted to invite everyone without them having to bring anything along. We made cinnamon rolls, carrot cake, lemon cake, banana cake and a Victoria sponge. We also did chocolate tortillas - wheat tortillas with a spreading of Nutella inside, which are then warmed up in the oven for 2 minutes!! Yummy. Everyone was impressed with the selection but more so with the fact that we had whipped cream. People who have been coming here for years and didn't realise that you can get whipping cream in the shops in Navajoa - the nearest town about 30 miles away! It was a really good party and everyone seemed to enjoy it. We had great fun even though we were going around serving everyone and Helen was doing the chocolate tortillas.