This is a guest post from Ola Kjeldstad.

Hola from Ola (the Viking)!

As a a Norwegian citizen working on Lanzarote, I can tell you that the Scandinavians living here are thrilled over the fact that The Vikings will be the next year's theme in the Arrecife carnival!

The last couple of years we have seen a growing interest in Vikings in the carnival parades both in Arrecife and Puerto del Carmen.

Fantastic Viking ships with "real" Canarian Vikings gave us good feelings, even though we knew that when the Vikings raided Europe between the years 800 to 1050 AD, they were absolutely NOT something that the British, Irish or Spanish wanted to have in their back yards!

This is how the www.vikings-history.com describes the Vikings:

- The Vikings' history has, since the they burst on the scene in 793 by raiding the Lindisfarne monastery, been marked with the idea that they were bloodthirsty marauders, pillaging, raping and burning everything they saw.

It became better after a while:

- Other aspects of their history got little attention until fairly recently. The excavation of York was the first major stepping stone in giving the Vikings a second change. The general view of their history began to change.

I can assure you that the direct descendants of the Vikings living on Lanzarote today are so much nicer...and that goes for the  read more »

Lanzarote won an Irish Travel Industry Award earlier this year. Not surprisingly, considering our island is a huge destination for the Irish tourist, to the point that people keep coming back and revisit the island.  This is the case for Annette Doyle and Marjorie Power, affectionately known amongst friends as Margette. This is a summary of an interview held earlier this year.

S: Marge, Annette, can I start asking you how many times you have been to Lanzarote?

M: I would say  read more »

Sadly the cold I picked up on my trip to northern climes last week hasn’t gone away. Well, it has moved. Onto my chest! That means I won’t be able to run the half marathon at The Music Marathon on Saturday. But don’t go away – you’re not off the hook!

I WILL BE WALKING THE FULL 21.5 KM!

And Jules will be running the full route.

As a thanks to so many people who agreed to sponsor me, to support Tri WWW and in the hope that a few more of you will put your hands in your pockets to spare some cash to help them buy a hand bike, I’m absolutely going the whole distance.

Let’s pause for a moment.

I’d like you to try to imagine your life without the use of your legs. It’s not easy, is it? I even spent a day in a wheelchair once to experience it, but however hard you try, you can’t get away from the fact that at some point you’re going to get out of the chair and walk back to the car.  read more »

Our friends Charles and Sue Willock, who live in Playa Blanca and run Exclusive Villas Lanzarote are doing Shine London in aid of Cancer Research UK.

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We’ve recently retired to Playa Blanca and now have endless hours to devote to our favourite hobby of people watching. Find yourself a seat in the shade in any café or bar on the Avenida Maritima, order a long cool drink and sit back and observe the huge diversity of people passing by. We can pass many a long, happy hour doing very little except watching people, young and old, as all nationalities parade past our table!

What you notice is that people are pretty much the same the world over. They wear the same clothes and shoes as many fashion chains sell their products and designs worldwide. You see fashion trends come and go. Crocs are still popular and the shops are full of their brightly coloured plastic loveliness. ‘Fit flops’ are the most visible brand despite their high price tag. It seems most people want to tighten up their leg and bum muscles while they’re on holiday!

Havaianas flip flops are also popular and most women do wear summer shoes and sandals well. For men, the most common styles are the light weight Velcro fastened sandals.

I’m not setting myself up as a fashion guru but, like most women, I love clothes and love seeing what other people wear. What surprises me is that,  given most people’s holiday wardrobe has been specifically chosen for their precious week or fortnight in the sun, why are there so many bizarre outfits on show? Let’s start with the number one offender – socks! What is it with you men and your socks?  read more »

Natalie Sargent moved to Lanzarote in 2001, she shares her home with her husband, three dogs and a cat. Here’s a photo of her dogs - Dylan, Harli & Freddie (from right to left) posing by the swimming pool.

Natalie has studied dog training and canine psychology, specialising in dog behavioural problems. Sara, the local charity animal shelter benefit from Natalie’s skills, she continues to help them with a few special cases by training dogs so that they can be rehabilitated.  read more »

Lanzarote seems to inspire the best in writers. I was once told that the island’s situation on “ley lines” is the reason – I don’t know if there’s any truth in that, but there’s certainly something about the place that enhances the art in all of us.

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The Skatoons are without a doubt the most well known live act on the Island, they put on an incredibly energetic, effervescent show and have a solid base of loyal fans.

Their line up has changed a number of times over the years; currently they are onto their 3rd bass player, 3rd sax man and 2nd percussionist!

The four original members are Chris Ashley on keys and trumpet, who formed the band with first bass player Bob Ashton back in 2004, Tony Riccardi on guitar and vocals who is a full time musician playing solo gigs without backing tracks, Max Crane the power house on drums who is also a noted local DJ, and Shimmy “Ska Daddy”, lead vocalist.

The band will undergo a major change again later this year when their front man Shimmy heads off to Australia with his family, it’s going to take somebody very special to replace this irreplaceable bloke!

Percussion, backing vocals and harmonica are played by Gary Miller, surfer, telly man and general all round dude.

Sax player Clint Duffy joined the band following a chance meeting with Chris after not playing sax for 24 years; he likens his adventures with the band to a rollercoaster ride.

Derek Brown, who plays bass, first saw the Skatoons at a wedding in 2004, loved their energy and was delighted to join the line up in summer 2010

The band is now an eight piece, with the recent addition of Louis Gill on trombone and percussion.

When I gathered a bit of information from each of the guys it struck me that between them they have lived on the island a total of 113 years!

Each of them has very  read more »