20th December at the U.P.

WRITERS WRITE
On the last Wednesday of our talking group and in true Spanish style we had a little fiesta. 

We were very happy to welcome Sofía, who came to pick up her prize as winner of ASEDOW story Competition 2016 Junior Category.
Here you can see her with her mother and members of ASEDOW

Welcome guests

ASEDOW crosses generations and cultures using  the English language to bring people together and have fun.
Juana is also a writer and our oldest member she tells us. She is the vital spark in our association and learned to love  English when she lived in England with her husband Rafa in the seventies.

2016 Wilde writers

Sofia lives in Sanse and goes to Greenwich School in Alcobendas. She has also lived in England: We loved her story about the beginning of the wizarding world which won this year's competition.
Well done Sofía! We don't know if we were  impressed more by your story or your reading of it. Bravo!

Sofia collects her gift voucher, certificate and booklet

!t was lovely to meet  the writers who took the time to enter our competition and we certainly encourage all of you to follow your creative impulse. 'A true artist takes no notice of the public. The public to him are non existent.' Oscar Wilde
We hope to meet participants Monica and Adriana too one day.
'Eternally in love with love' by Monica got a special mention from one juror as did 'An Exciting day' by Valentina.

The jurors had a most difficult task. Paul and Katie, we can never thank you enough.

Merry Christmas! Joyous Yuletide!

It'a a small world

The City of Madrid invites nations to showcase and highlight their traditions, food and culture,
Download the programme of Christmas Events in Madrid

WIZARDS AND WATER WIN WILDE WRITING AWARD

It is a pleasure and honour to count on the support of the Irish Embassy in Madrid and that Ann Marie, their Cultural Attaché, found the time in a very busy schedule and time of year  to be there to congratulate the winners and hand out the prizes along with the booklets and diplomas to all the participants. We are so grateful for that and for her warm speech.

We were delighted to welcome back Iván who entered the contest for the third time and is now making his way as an actor and to meet new writers like Javier whose own stories will be published soon in Spanish.

There is nothing like Irish music to lighten the spirits so with the background music of 'Breaking Trad,' we eased the tension before announcing the winners

Ángel read his winning story with its poignant ending and later told us how interesting he found the challenge. Inside the booklet there are words from Katie, commending this year's two winners, Ángel for The Path of Life and Sofía for  The Beginning of the Wizarding World.

We hope the other participants who attended the event enjoyed it too.

We were also accompanied by María Jesús, the director of the library and by Raquel, a member of its staff  who has been vital in the instigation of our monthly readings in la Biblioteca Central.

In such company we felt very happy and wish to thank all of you who attended for being there and sharing this moment.
We also had a visit from the local TV station Canal Norte and they recorded some words from our wonderful Secretary, Ascen. A bad bout of flu kept Belén, our Councillor for Education  away but she spoke to Ascen and sent us good wishes.

http://www.canalnorte.org/videos/4536/la-asociacion-oscar-wilde-premia-a-los-mejores-cuentos-en-ingles

José designed the beautiful booklet but couldn't be there because he is at this moment in Plaza España where he has a stall in the Christmas Artisan's Fair selling his special jewellery.

A word of thanks to the new company Mi Color Favorito for printing the books so well.

Tne Winners of Our 2016 Story Competition

Asociación Educativa Oscar Wilde

Concurso Literario 2016

Write a Story and Win A Prize

5th Edition

'In literature we require distinction, charm, beauty and imaginative power.'

                                              Oscar Wilde

Congratulations to all who entered our competition for taking the time to make this storybook possible. Remember we are all winners if we learn something.

Many many thanks to our jury, Katie and Paul, not only for reading and judging the stories but also for their help and encouragement.

Los ganadores del 2016  Concurso Literario de ASEDOW son:

En la categoría     - 16 años 

Sofía Gutiérrez Navacerrada con The Beginning of the wizarding world

En la categoría    +16 años
Ángel Temprado Pelegrin con The Path of Life

The Big Moment

Asociación Educativa Óscar Wilde
Concurso Literario 2016

Write a Story and Win a Prize 
5th Edition 

The winners will be announced on Tuesday 13th December 19.15h. Come to the Biblioteca Central, San Sebastián De Los Reyes and take part in this exciting event.

Many many thanks to the writers and to our  jury for a wonderful job!
And to José for the beautiful  booklet
We hope to be accompanied by Belen and Miryam, our local Councillors for Education and Culture, respectively.

 Ann Marie, Cultural Attaché  from the Irish Embassy was very happy to receive  our invitation to hand out  the prizes once again.

Katie and Paul  our jury  from beautiful Northern Ireland would love to be there too.

All the writers, readers and members of ASEDOW will do their best to attend.

The Prize Giving will be divided into two parts so that those who want to leave early, at 20h may do so.

PART ONE

An Introduction by Ascen, our spokesperson

A few words from Paul who has promised to send his speech if he cannot attend.

The announcement of the 2016 winners.

The two winners will receive their prizes, Gift Vouchers for 50€ along with the  published stories and a diploma.

All the other contestants will receive the booklet and a diploma certifying their participation in the ASEDOW 2106 Story Competition

The two winners will be invited to read their stories to the audience.

Our guests will be invited to say some words of congratulations.

PART TWO

Those of us who can stay will continue to read the stories together as we would do normally at our shared readings. You will see how interesting the stories are and we have included some fabulous tales by Raquel, Juana, Audrey and Felisa that you don't want to miss.

So please come!  And bring your family!

Christmas is coming

 These are family shows that you don't want to miss. We won't!
A PANTOMIME
http://madridplayers.org/pantomime/
A PLAY
http://gruposmedia.com/cartelera/a-christmas-carol/
Don't forget the gospel choir 'Black Heritage Choir' from Mississippi are on tour and they will be in San Sebastián De Los Reyes on Dec 9th at 20h at the Teatro Adolfo Marsillach singing a tribute to Aretha Franklin.
See you there maybe. In the meantime you can sing RESPECT along with Aretha Franklin.

Talks

We have something to think about. Luis poses an  interesting question:

What are prisons for - to punish or to reform?

And a point of view to discuss:

'Prisons don't work' 

This issue is relevant in all societies as we can see from the links we have to look at beforehand.
Join us on Wednesday at Universidad Popular 18:30h

Wetlands in Madrid

Misty morning

On Saturday  Alejandra accompanied us on a guided tour of these lakes in Velilla San Antonio and pointed out the features of this curious place . She knows it very well and knew where to stop to see all the birds that have made it their home. So we saw the purple gallinule, the shy calamon, many little black ducks to me but she told us that they are pochards, the gadwall and the great cormorant stretching its wings to dry them, in the trees. What a picture!
The vegetation is quite typical here in Spain . White and black poplar, elms and newly planted white willows.  There are tamarisk bushes and spartograss which  can be used to make espadrilles. We learnt that 'junco' is rush and that 'caña' is cane and that 'mimbre' comes from willow trees.

Then the sun came out

You definitely need your binoculars because this is where you can see the magnificent falcon,,woodpeckers and the bee eater in spring and summer.
 It is a haven for them. Many people go there to fish on condition that they return their catch. When you are alone it must be very serene with the calm waters and the birds singing as happily as can be.

A guided tour is a good idea as you could easily get lost.and the lakes cover an incredible area so contact Centro de Campillo

Telephone 912760307 or write to centrocampillo@gmail.com.