They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder and that is shown to be the case on the 28 Days Later Urban Exploration Forum. Members of that forum explore old buildings and constructions but not necessarily old churches or buildings of significant historical value. They find beauty and interest in the old, abandoned and neglected but everyday structures of times gone by.

Those from the UK UE forum who have visited Tenerife have taken a very different series of holiday snaps than your average tourist. Looking at the pictures of the old dam at El Rio which I must have passed in the car a hundred times, makes me rather sad not to have noticed the odd beauty in this old structure and promise myself to be more observant in future.

Other Tenerife structures that have been documented by the forum are an old miner’s cave from which I borrowed the picture above, and an abandoned army camp at Poris de Abona.

All credit to the Urban Explorers who put those pictures together. Nice job.

My early morning walks with the dogs are most often pretty quiet. With the kids to get ready for school and him-indoors ready to leave for work, I need to be up, out and back with two relieved rovers by just after seven. While a lie-in would be lovely now that the kids are off school for a week, it is very hard to sleep with two large dogs dancing cross-legged through the bedroom.

From November to January the mornings have been inky black but now, they’re getting lighter and it’s possible to see my hand in front of my face without the help of my trusty torch. Skye, good girl that she is, potters about and does her business without any fuss. Tito is more skittish and behaves like a shy schoolgirl getting ready to pee behind a bush. Every noise or car door slamming miles away has his head up, ears cocked and all thought of the toilet flushed out of his brain.

This morning as I stood about waiting for Tito to perform, up his head went again and he stared off to the side, into the murk. I looked at him, then off to the side to see if I could see what he was looking at. Not a bean in sight. I huffed a breath impatiently and turned to the front and … WHOOSH … I just missed getting scalped by a huge bat!

I gave an involuntary gasp and staggered back a few steps clutching at my chest to try and massage my heart back into action. Mr. Alert by my side was by this time happily in the middle of business and cast me a glance which was obviously meant to tell me to stop messing about and give him a moment’s peace.

To the Chinese, one bat is lucky but five bats even more so. I suppose I am lucky that I wasn’t mobbed by five bats. But seriously, bats are cool. Not one of life’s winners in the looks department, granted, but imagine how many more tons of mosquitos there would be to keep you awake if bats were not around to eat them.

The Canary Islands has its own species of bat. Called Plecotus Teneriffae (or more commonly the Canary Long Eared Bat) these little guys are on the endangered list and live on only three or four of the Canary Islands, surviving in rapidly shrinking forest habitats. If this was my morning mugger than I was very lucky indeed to nearly be decapitated by such a rare specimen.

I suspect, though, that my batty friend might have been Rousettus aegyptiacus or the Egyptian Fruit Bat to his friends. Alleged escapees from Loro Parque, these fugitives are wreaking havoc on Tenerife’s endemic flora and fauna.

The wiki page for Rousettus aegyptiacus includes the information that their fur is very soft and their wings feel not unlike pantyhose (what was that writer on?). The males also have a large scrotal sack apparently which makes me feel not only lucky but highly blessed not to have been hit in the head by this creature.

Added April 14th 2009: I still don’t know if the photograph shows my morning mugger but I did eventually manage to get a little video of the bats early morning antics which at least shows that they are of a significant size. Look at this for batty acrobatics.

Given that my son has no sense of self preservation at all and will fling himself with no warning from the tallest of walls with just a wild yell and the blind trust that I will catch him, I expect him to collect bruises and scratches the same way he collects interesting stones and leaves.

This, I’m told by my Spanish neighbours, is a typical boy. They think he’s great while I secretly wonder if he was born with a screw loose. But even as I cringe at the antics of my wild child, I know that the bumps and scrapes he is accumulating are a normal part of growing up. I cannot imagine what life must be like as the mother of a haemophiliac.

Always male, these people are afflicted by a genetic disorder which affects the blood’s ability to clot. In severe cases a small scratch may bleed for months or never heal at all. Worrying as external injuries may be, a bang to the head or joints can cause internal bleeding that can be fatal.

Nowadays, children with haemophilia have a normal life expectancy thanks to blood clotting agents and other medical intervention but normal life expectancy is not the same as a normal life. These children and their families need support in coping with this illness.

A Benefit Dinner is being held in Restaurant El Bosque in Tacaronte on Saturday 14th March. Tickets are €22 and raffle prizes include trips, hotle stays and dinners. It sounds like a good night in a great cause as proceeds will go to AHETE, the Asociación de Hemofilia en la Provincia de Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

Imagine dozens of tall sailing ships gracing the coastline of Tenerife as they arrive from Vigo, Spain, the starting point of The Tall Ship Atlantic Challenge 2009. These beautiful vessels will be in Tenerife from 14th to 17th of May preparatory to setting off on a 26 day sail to Bermuda. There, they will help celebrate and mark the 400th year anniversary of the settlement of Bermuda before heading off to Charleston, Boston and Halifax before setting sail across the great Atlantic again for the final leg of their journey which will see them make port at Belfast, Ireland in August 2009.

At the time of writing 23 sailing ships have entered the race from countries as diverse as UK, Uruguay, Netherlands, Bermuda, Russia, France, Germany, Belgium and the US. Those on the liked page that still have active email links are looking for trainee crew members. Wow. That could be you.

I don’t know anything about African Grey parrots except that my neighbour has one. This poor fellow must have escaped and has then been attracted by the calls of the neighbouring bird. He’s been hanging around calling and wolf whistling for a while.

Although there are a flock of smaller green parrots in the area, they don’t like this guy (gal?) and I don’t suppose he’s going to be able to fend for himself for very long.

Should you by lucky chance, know of anyone who has lost this bird, please call me on 610500494 and I’ll let you know if he is still around here.

In recent years, the last day before the schools knock off for the Carnaval holiday has been a huge event for the whole town. All the kids in school get dressed up, as do all the teachers and a hefty percentage of the parents and there has been a colourful (if shambolic) parade round the streets.

If anything hints at the effect of the current recession on the community it is the curtailing of this event on a local level (as well as the abandonment of all school excursions). This year only the infants get to dress up and there is to be no parade. Even so, the costumes the little ones wear are fabulous. Whether home made or store bought they are all wonderful and a far cry from the cobbled together fancy dress cossies of my day.

In days gone by,
When I was five,
And dressed up for celebration,
The trick back then was coloured pen,
and huge imagination.

This year the theme of the Las Palmas Carnaval is Pirates while horror movies are the focus of the Santa Cruz de Tenerife Carnaval (that is a link to the official website for Carnaval 2009, though honestly I wouldn’t waste my time. You’d be better of popping over to Secret Tenerife where writer Pamela Heywood is doing a far better job of providing info about the event than the touruist board. Shame on them, really…

Anyway, it was no surprise to see quite a few scary skeletons and quite a few pirates. There may even have been a scary skeletal pirate though I admit that one did not catch my eye.

As always, Spiderman was hugely popular and there were more Disney princesses than you could shake a broomstick at. Minnie Mouse was popular this year while a brilliant Ninja costume was a new one on me and on Sami who found it most annoying that he couldn’t tell if the Ninja was really his friend, Noel.

…order pollo asado or the rabbit buys it!

Farmers in Valencia are excited about the reintroduction of the giant Valenciano rabbit, once a popular meat for the table across Europe and into Cuba and Argentina. As each rabbit can produce 7kg of meat and each mature female can produce up to 16 babies at a pop, the giant rabbit meat can offer a cheap and nutritious alternative to beef an pork.

Expect to see bunny in the bag on your supermarket shelves within the next three years.