Scribbler in Seville

A familiar Sevillano sight – the Puerta de la Macarena, in my old barrio.

The protagonist of this year’s show was a little girl called Estrella. These are the toys in her room.

Estrella escapes into a dream world, starting off in her fish tank…

and then, in one of the most spectacular (and incredibly realistic) images, the building appears to be on fire…

and is engulfed by flames.

Then the Ayuntamiento appears to collapse

before becoming encircled by jungle vines

and exotic flowers

Until the whole façade is a colourful mass of tropical foliage (why can’t we have it like this all year round?)

A Roman-style mosaic of a knight on his charger.

We see the city’s Guadalquivir river, by its Roman name, which was later given to the riverfront street in Triana

and its Arab name, which means “the mighty river”.

Estrella sails down the river on a caravel.

and the piece de resistance – a dragon

which breathed real fire.

Not a great shot, but you can just about make out the beast.

Next the Ayuntamiento “filled up” with water

with marine plants across the whole façade

and lots of brightly-coloured fish, reminding us of the new aquarium.

Lastly, the Three Kings arrived on their camels.

The new year wasn’t greeted in my house with any great excitement or sense of hope – sorry all you eternal optimists and believers in the integral goodness of mankind, fresh starts, and all that. Long-term unemployment (my husband’s, not mine) does that to you. A topic I tend to avoid here as who wants to read my whinges? Exactly. I just eat more cake and biscuits (see below).

So on a more cheery note, and in typically belated fashion, I wanted to share with you some images from this year’s Mapping show in Seville (Christmas 2014/15). Laser video images were projected onto the rear façade of the Ayuntamiento – our town hall, lit up spectacularly every Christmas.

This show, now in its fourth year, has become hugely popular with the people of Seville. It’s free, it’s steps way from the shops where they forget the crisis to buy presents for one and all, and it’s pure entertainment.

Called Sueños de Agua, this year’s show was about a little Sevillana girl called Estrella who has a vivid imagination and dreams on Christmas Eve of going on adventures in her fish tank. I’ve put a few still images from it here, a tiny fraction of what you could see – the full-length video is below.

We missed seeing the Mapping before Christmas as we were already in England when it started, and when we returned, between Reyes, going back to school and work, I didn’t manage to blog about it while the show was still on. But I thought it was worth posting the pictures anyway.

These Mapping shows are always pretty pretty impressive delights all generations, especially those whose inner child, wide-eyed in wonder, relishes being transported to another, simpler world by these stunning

images.

Back in the real world, do you have any resolutions for this year? Mine are

1) to eat more healthily (biscuits and cake are just so tempting, especially in this chilly weather, with a nice cup of The Earl) and

2) to swear less in front of my children. Failing bloody miserably at both so far (Lola, get me a damn Jaffa cake!).

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