I m convinced that some morning I m going to wake up and find some bolivian dude playing the pan pipes at the end of my bed, while his mate is plucking away on the double bass behind my shower curtain.This is because the south american musicians are absolutely everywhere. You would happily spend the whole evening on the street listening to them. If they are particularly good the spanish girls will break into a bit of street flamenco or do a bit of grooving for the cheering crowd. It is really cool.

Life is good out here. At the moment I tend to just relax when not working. My classes are scattered throughout the day and can run as late as 9.30pm. It is still a hell of a lot of craic in the classes. The funniest is when you try to get the spanish to say tongue twisters such as "she sells sea shells on the......". Some find it absolutely impossible and are nearly in tears after five minutes.

The festive spirit is starting to pick up over here though I ve yet to see any carol singers and christmas cards are a rare commodity aswell. In Spain the big day is on christmas eve but presents aren t exchanged until january 6th.

It turns out that three of the other lads, Ismael, Pablo and Juan Ander are togging out for the same team as Arron. The four of them, "na cailini" as I have christened them, are an absolute scream. I can t survive five minutes in the flat without being in hysterics.

I m thinking of supporting Athletico Madrid over here instead of Real. Tickets are easier to come by and the gang that I work with say that while the Bernabeu Stadim is breath taking, the fun at the athletico matches is way better. Fat chance of me getting my hands on any in my flat !!!

However, at the end of the day, I have to call into question the right to existence of a society that has never pursued the lifting of the sam maguire trophy.