I apologise most profusely

To anyone who thought there was really going to be a bus service into town.

If I can explain: yesterday was Santos Inocentes which is like April Fools Day in Britain but held on the 28th December here in Spain. It is a day when people, especially children, try to trick everyone else. OK, I might have the body of an adult (an ageing one at that) but as Pam will will tell you, I have the mind of a child. 

In many Spanish towns the 28th is a day when the people try to confound innocent strangers by publishing impossible or ridiculous public notices, hence my item about the new bus service to Villas Andrea (apologies to the Mayor here for taking his name in vain there).

In Ibi they take this joking to the extreme. The town has its own council of non-elected persons who throw flour around and play tricks on everyone especially the real Mayor and the town council.

In Ibi it this is called the ‘festa dels Enfarinats’. On the eve of the fiesta some of those residents are designated as Els Enfarinats» whose job it is to parade the streets asking citizens if they have any complaints.

The new council then attack the opposition - the real town council. The council-for-a-day pour forth verbal abuse on all the things that the real councillors have promised to do and have failed to achieve. (does that sound familiar?).

The government for the day then announce new nonsense laws - no drinking, no walking in the sun nor in the shade, no smoking, no walking on the pavement, nor in the street and other similar types of regulations. Those who break these laws are liable to an on-the-spot fine and are then pelted with flour.