Fish, flamenco and football

Not long to go now before the big trip to India – we leave for England in 2 days and then fly to Delhi on 22nd Feb for 3 weeks.  We have decided to use a different blog address for big holidays so that people this end can access it as well without seeing all the comments I’ve been writing about them – so if you want to follow our trip in India go to: holltravel.wordpress.com

Meanwhile life in Nerja has been as good as ever.  We have had one week of rain since we returned, but otherwise the weather has been idyllic, although the temperature does drop quite sharply once the sun goes down, even reaching such lows as 9 degrees!  Our usual routine has continued with one addition – Dan and I have been having a tennis hour on a Monday just to prove that I can still run – the score so far is 24 games to 1, even though Dan still disputes the fact that I have one even 1 game.  We have also met another 4 Brits on the tennis courts with whom we mix in occasionally.  Bridge is becoming slightly clearer and Dan manages to keep his trumps under control – we’ve promised to practise while we are away – as if!  We’ve also discovered the Friday night free concerts at the old people’s day centre – all the acts which are going on to perform at the Cultural Centre later that evening do a warm up concert for free.  So far we’ve seen  a classical guitar concert, guitar with violin and accoustic jazz.  Nobody seems to care how old the audience is as obviously we look far to young to attend!

We have been to visit the sugar factory museum in Motril with Mick and Magdalena and are now experts on the sugar cane industry in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.  It was interesting to learn that the industry caused mass deforestation for the fuel to fire the mills, which in turn caused environmental problems, and the high taxation become too prohibitive for the industry to survive.  Plus ca change ….  Of course it wouldn’t be a day out with M&M without a wonderful meat to end it – they knew a great restaurant by the port which did a fantastic platter of different types of grilled fish.

Dan’s tapas tours have continued in an informal way – we have introduced the delights of Nerja’s bars and fine fayre to a lovely Norwegian couple who have been supporters of the social club and, despite being in their seventies, still have a great zest for life and are eager to try out new things.  They even survived the Communist bar.  The book group has met again and managed to be fairly uneventful, our next 2 books are The Blind Sunflowers by Alberto Mendez and Mutant Memories Down Under by Marlo Morgan, just in case anyone wants to join in long distance.

We’ve had another great weekend in Granada with Ian and Diane which included a visit to Lorca’s summer house at La Huerta de San Vicente – as described in Victoria Hislop’s The Return and  a flamenco show in the Albaicin area where we were the only foreigners so felt we were seeing something more authentic than the usual  tourist performances.  People talk about the ‘duende’ of flamenco dancing, which roughly translates as ‘the soul’ or ‘passion’ and you could really sense it in the dancers – one male and one female -as  they fixed their eyes on a far-off horizon and definitely seemed to get into a ‘zone’. The expression on their faces changed to show an intensity and  a passion which was definitely beyond a tourist-type show. The guitarist was fantastic and the singer had a lovely haunting flamenco voice.

Yesterday we spent the day with Maria-Jose and Rafa in Malaga and were treated to one of Rafa’s famous fish lunches after which he and Dan went to watch Malaga play football against Getafe.  Maria-Jose and I wandered around the streets of Malaga and tried out the quality of gin and tonics in a couple of bars!

So it’s back to packing our cases with all our summer clothes and as much imodium as we can carry.

A new year with new adventures

Luckily we just managed to get into England in between Gatwick’s various airport closures and were pretty shocked at the extent of the snow in Sussex and Kent.  Pete and Brenda had risked life and limb to pick us up from the airport and by the time we started our journey back to their house the snow had started to fall again and made conditions pretty treacherous.  We finally decided to stay the night with them and drive back to Kent the next day using the car they had kindly lent us for the Christmas period.

All was well with the house when we arrived – freezing cold but no burst pipes.  We had a couple of days to finish the shopping and put the tree up and then Dan did his taxi runs to Essex and West Sussex to pick up the grannies;  the kids arrived from their various parts of the country – Ben drove over from Bristol, Sam flew in from Glasgow where he had been to a wedding and Emily caught the train from London.  The house would have struggled to sleep so many people so the boys spent 3 nights in the Sun Inn – what a terrible sacrifice for them!  Christmas passed quietly,  but in a lovely family atmosphere, keeping everyone amused with various games – family fortunes, blankety blank – to mention but a few (thank you M&S crackers!).

Christmas was over, the tree came down, the house cleaned and the fridge emptied and we set off back to Pete and Brenda’s in Crowborough to spend New Year with Jean and Barry and Pete Western. It’s almost 40 years since we all met (except Dan and Pete who were at infant school together!) and we have spent every New Year together (or a symbolic late New Year) since 1979, even when we had 8 kids between us – that’s true friendship.  We went for a few country walks, ate some fantastic food, had our fair share of alcohol and did the many puzzles and quizzes that P&B had devised – it was fantastic. Oh – and we booked a ‘super six’ break to Venice for September when we shall all be officially retired – just Barry to go at the moment.  Then back to Gatwick on the 3rd Jan and back to sunny Spain – and I mean sunny, fantastic weather ever since – still in the low twenties.

Since our arrival back to Spain we have drifted back into the usual routine, with a few minor amendments – Dan and I have started to have an hour’s tennis on a Monday so that I can try to get back into playing.  No fear bridge almost ended up in a stand up row and fisticuffs last week, when a rather belligerent 83 year-old woman started having a go at the teacher for being too noisy (we were to blame because we need so much help), then started helping herself to large tumblers of red wine – it was all rather stressful in the end!

The social club has had another successful event – 30 people turned up at the Spanish restaurant on our urbanisation for a very commendable 12 euro three course meal, with requests for more of the same in the future – we have a planning meeting with the other 6 committee members this afternoon to discuss more events we can organise.  I’ve even made a lemon drizzle cake for the occasion – one of my retirement projects is to become proficient at cake-making – a hitherto fairly disastrous ability.  The book club had its second meeting and we welcomed some new members – a Norwegian couple, whose English would put a fair percentage of the British population to shame, and a couple of other English women.  We discussed ‘The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society’ by Mary Ann Shafer, which we all enjoyed and left us wanting to know more about the German occupation of Guernsey.  Last meeting I had suggested reading a book that had been left in our bookcase by one of our rental clients – ‘How to talk to a Widower’ by Jonathan Tropper, which had intrigued me because of its title and which I had read and enjoyed – even Dan read it.   One of the more elderly members of the group had started to read it but confessed that she couldn’t carry on with it as there was too much swearing in it, at which point one of the newest members stated that she also would not read anything with swearing in it – so I said ‘ Bl**dy hell, what the f**k do you think a book club is about?’ – no, didn’t really!  I just asked her if she would like to choose the next book – which she did – Silas Marner by George Elliot, but then she sent an email saying she didn’t want us to read it as it had too much dialect in it and it might be too difficult for the Norwegians and anyway she would rather not choose a book at all.  Who would have thought a book group could be so difficult?!

The next village east of Nerja is called Maro and last weekend it was their patron Saint’s festival – San Antón – which managed to stretch over a couple of evenings.  The first evening there were bonfires lit in the middle of the small streets throughout the village – with little consideration for the overhead telephone cables.  Small children were racing around letting off bangers  and small fireworks, with absolutely no supervision.  The following night was the procession of the saint on his ‘throne’ throughout the streets, accompanied by the Nerja town band.  Every 50 yards the procession would come to a halt for a series of fireworks to be let off in front of them – again anyone from health and safety in Britain would have had a seizure.  There were giant Catherine wheels strapped to a home -made wooden structure, which in turn lit fountain type fireworks and bangers, all of which shot about twenty feet in all directions.  Then someone in a helmet would hold a big pack of exhibition fireworks,  light them with a cigarette and quickly lay them on the ground to give the most amazing sky display – but there wasn’t a fire extinguisher to be seen – it was all very scary, but extremely exciting.

Our teaching continues, but is as badly organised as ever; patchwork classes have restarted with new designs and techniques, but still no idea of what we’re aiming for; pilates is moving from the idyllic beachside bar to a more inland location and Dan is in great demand as a tennis partner.

In 4 weeks’ time we return to the UK to embark on our adventure to India, but I’m sure there will be another Spanish blog before then.

Happy New Year to everyone!

When did we ever have time to work?

The visit back to the UK in November was a bit of a shock.  We had lunch on a sunny restaurant terrace in Nerja the day we left, did our teaching stint and then headed directly to the airport in a balmy 23 degrees.  We landed at Stansted at 11.30 pm to be greeted by zero degrees and had to wait 20 minutes for the hire car windscreen to defrost.  And so it continued – rain, gales, more rain, more wind, cold – it was such a lovely reminder of the great British winter weather at its best.

Six days later we were back to temperatures in the low twenties, and even though there has been a fair bit of rain since and evening temperatures have dipped to 13 degrees and the heating system is back in action,  the dire conditions in the UK with constantly minus temperatures have little allure.

I have always hated retired people coining that well known phrase – “I don’t know how we ever managed to find time to work!” Obviously when they worked they didn’t have time for leisure and then once they stop work they fill the time with other things, so the whole statement is a bit of a nonsense.  However, it is amazing how busy you can get and how knackering it can be doing not much at all.  So this is a typical week: Monday morning – nothing much, Monday afternoon I help Rose teach her English class at the secondary school; Tuesday morning – Dan goes to tennis and I go to Pilates, Tuesday afternoon is free; Wednesday morning – free, Wednesday afternoon – we both teach our English classes at the secondary school; Thursday morning – Dan plays tennis and I go to patchwork classes, Thursday afternoon – we have now been allowed to join the ‘no fear’ bridge sessions; Friday – all day is free.  In addition to all this, we have pursued our goal to create more of a social scene within our community.  So far, we have held a coffee morning for about 50 people, tomorrow is the first meeting of the book group and we are hoping to organise a meal at a local restaurant and an excursion in the new year.  Various other people have offered to give talks on a variety of topics, so hopefully the social conscience will develop further over the next year.

So what about the new activities on our busy social calendar? Pilates – is great, it’s held at a beach-side cafe so we can see the sea whilst we’re balancing on one leg and clenching those core muscles that haven’t seen the light of day for many years.  Bridge – a great workout for the brain and we haven’t made complete idiots of ourselves, although the description ‘no fear’ is not quite accurate as it’s a scary experience, but hopefully we’ll improve slowly and not have to consult our instuction sheets under the table quite so often. Patchwork – expensive equipment, slow progress, noisy Spanish women and no idea what I’m doing or making, but a challenge in its own way, plus I’m learning a whole new Spanish vocabulary!

We’ve met so many different people through our new ventures and are feeling a lot more ‘part of it’.  You’ll also be glad to know that we have actually got round to painting those last 3 doors in the flat, so the refurbishment is now complete.

Christmas now looms and we are heading back to the UK on the 20th December for a couple of weeks, snow bound airports and Spanish air traffic controllers permitting.  Once again we are not sending cards but will be making a donation to charity instead.  So, to all you who have followed this blog closely – Merry Christmas a and Happy New Year!

New places and faces

We have decided to add a blog entry as and when we feel there is something worth reporting.

It’s been a busy few weeks; we have tried to fill our time constructively, but have to admit to the more than occasional lapse into lethargy and apathy, mainly when the sun is too hard to resist and we just have to repair to the beach to watch the waves, feel the breeze and snooze the afternoon away!  We last swam in the sea on October 25th – it was cold, but once your limbs had gone numb, it was very enjoyable!

The sixth form school trip visited Nerja in the middle of October and we were able to meet up for a few hours to catch up with MFL news and Borden gossip – far too little these days.  We have also met up with our friends, Mick and Magdalena, and have done a few easy walks together – one to a nearby waterfall and another to Almunecar across the cliffs from La Herradura.   We caught the bus back and were serenaded all the way by a raucous group from Cadiz and Chipiona.  Strangely enough we have also just been on a 2 night trip to Cadiz and surrounding area with Ian and Diane, taking the opportunity to visit Kelvin and family in Chipiona – but didn’t see any of the bus singers.  Cadiz is a very quaint city with lots of very narrow old streets – reminiscent of Barcelona in the 70s.  We also visited Tarifa – windsurf capital of Europe, Vejer de la Frontera, Jerez, Arcos de la Frontera and Ronda on the way back.  Needless to say it was more of a gastronomic tour than cultural!

On the cultural/integration front, Dan has found a group of old farts to play tennis with at the local club – what was meant to be one morning a week is slowly turning into 3!  We have started Bridge classes – the first week there were the 2 of us, Colin the teacher (ex maths teacher) and Godfrey – who looked very much like Godfrey from Dad’s Army!  Week 2 they imported 84 year-old Mebbie, who, bless her, tried to play Dan’s hand as well.  Tomorrow is week 3, so we’ll see what poor soul has been coerced into making up the numbers.  We haven’t been told we can play with other people yet, so we obviously need several more lessons.  We have both started giving voluntary English lessons at the local secondary school, which is a good way to meet some Spanish people – we are doing the intermediate and advanced classes, so they contain a fair amount of adults – some of whom are teachers at the school.  I have also enrolled for patchwork classes, but they don’t start until mid -November.

Ben arrives tomorrow for his 3rd visit to Nerja in 3 months – we see more of him here than we ever did in England, but somehow I think the beer and tapas are the real magnets.

We are popping back to England for 6 days next week to sort a few things out with Dan’s mum and our next tenants in Canterbury and the before we know it, it will be time to go back for Christmas.  Sam has been accepted to run the marathon on behalf of Muscular Dystrophy, so don’t be surprised if you get a begging email in your inboxes very soon.

Full circle

We arrived back in Spain on the 7^th September with my mum.  The Brewers were there to meet us with our gleaming car which they had been looking after/using during our absence, plus a  bag of shopping to sustain our first night – lovely fresh prawns and a bottle of good old Liria white.  It was warm and fragrant as we unlocked the gate to the flat and we spent a very pleasant evening on the terrace, reminding ourselves of the fantastic view.  The week passed lazily – it was very hot but we managed a few morning excursions to Nerja and Almunecar and a couple of evening strolls along the promenades at Burriana beach and Torrox Costa.  Mum coped with the heat well and was quite happy to spend the hot siesta hours doing the jigsaw (which Diane had kindly bought for us) or slumbering on the bed.  We even made a couple of visits to the beach where we placed her on her ‘throne’ under an umbrella watching the world go by and even chancing the odd paddle in the sea.  The flight back to Stansted was fine, but we were greeted by cold wind and grey, rainy days, which only served to reinforce our choice of winter residence.

I packed my empty suitcase with the books we had left in Harlow to bring back to Spain, only to be clobbered at Stansted by the Ryanair weigh in machines – £35 for overweight handluggage! B*st!*$s!

We had a few days’ normality, during which we visited Dan’s cousin Liz and her husband, Rob, near Fuengirola and went on to collect Ben and his 2 mates, Laith and Billy, from the airport.  They had visited Nerja during the summer and were eager to reacquaint themselves with the tapas bars – 25 of them in one day being the record!

Two days (by now Dan has driven to the airport 4 times in 6 days!) later my cousin Kevin and his wife Wendy arrived for their first visit to mainland Spain – renting the apartment opposite ours.  We slotted back into guide mode and did the usual circuit of markets and tapas bars, which they really got into, usually finishing off with an ice-cream on the Balcon.  The weather continued to reach 30 degrees most days so there was a lot of lazing around and swimming.  Kevin and Wendy were due to leave a week after they arrived on a 01,15 am flight – however there was some confusion over the date of their flight and to cut a long story short – they had missed it by 24 hours!  The next reasonably priced flight was for the following Wednesday which we booked, only to realise later that it was the scheduled date for a national strike in Spain – however Ryanair stated on their website that they were committed to flying that day.  Needless to say the flight was cancelled – the next available flight being for the following Tuesday!  Poor Kevin and Wendy had originally come out for a 7 day break and ended up staying 16 days!  Luckily the apartment they were staying in was still available, by the end of their stay they were confidant to go on their own tapas tours.  They spent their last night in Malaga so were also able to explore another city.  Part of the reason for their transfer to Malaga was because Pete and Brenda arrived on Monday for a 5 day stay with us and we couldn’t face another journey back to the airport the following day. 

It was great to see Pete and Brenda. We visited Ian and Diane for lunch and then happily whiled away the next 4 days following our usual visitors’ trail – Nerja maket, Almunecar market and tapas, evening tapas in Nerja and a day trip to the villages of the Alpujarra mountains.  Luckily there were no mishaps regarding their return to the UK.

So now it is Nerja feria and the circle of festivities recommences, but we now approach them with the attitude of ‘old hands’, still enthusiastic to get involved but more in tune with what is worth seeing and what is to be avoided.  One year on and we still love it here – no regrets and as the Spanish say:

                       Hay que aprovechar

(look it up on www.wordreference.com!)

English Times

We left for England on Wednesday 7^th July, the night Spain played Germany in the world cup, so it wasn’t until we landed in Bristol at about midnight that we found out that Spain had won and would play Holland in the final.  We were gutted that we wouldn’t be in our favourite bar, Velero, to savour the atmosphere.  Instead, the two of us sat alone at home with a glass of Spanish wine for luck – obviously it worked!

The eight weeks in England are fast coming to an end and it has been an endless whirl of visiting friends and family, giving dinner parties and dining out.  We’ve spent an absolute fortune – the biggest shock is the price of wine – nothing under £4 – whereas we were quite happy with the 1€50 wine in Spain; eating out is easily £20 – £30 a head compared to a menú del día, comprising 3 courses and wine, at 10 euros.  It would be difficult to exist permanently in England on our small pensions, especially with the greater lure of the wide variety of clothes shops. It seems to be a much more materialistic society than in Spain.

We have also covered a wide spectrum of DIY jobs since we arrived.  The supposedly ‘easy’ garden had decided to sprout three-foot weeds to greet us, so we had to cover the whole garden with weed-retardant fabric and order another ton and a half of gravel to cover it all.  Dan has painted and re-roofed the garden shed; we have had new fencing erected at the bottom of the garden, a new boiler and cylinder inside the house.  Ben’s car has served us well, but has chosen our brief period of ownership to need part of a new exhaust and a new alternator! Thankfully it made it up the M4 to Bristol without any more mishaps.

Our final weekend in England was the annual Hop Festival – Emily, Sam and Katie came down and we had a great time wandering around watching the various groups on the stages and in the pubs.  It is always a lovely event and we often bump into friends we haven’t seen for a long time.  Then, of course, there is the slightly smug feeling that, unlike the majority of people we meet, we haven’t got to go to work the next day!

We have spent a couple of great days and nights out in both Bristol and London – Emily has shown us around her new venue – the Foundling Museum, which is a fascinating little museum, full of artworks by Hogarth and other artists and anecdotal information on the way the first foundling hospital in London was run.

The weather has generally been good, never cold, but mainly overcast.  However, the evenings are starting to draw in and there is that unmistakeable hint of autumn in the air; thankfully the sinking feeling of having to go back to school is no longer an issue.  It is just a reminder that it is time to go back to warmer, brighter climes and resume our outdoor living.  We are taking my mum back with us for a week so hopefully the weather will be good so that she can relax on the terrace, especially after her last visit at Christmas when an entire year’s worth of rain decided to fall.

So we have almost come full circle – having arrived in Spain on the 23^rd September last year, and what a year of contrasts it has been – euphoria replaced by abject despair when Ben was ill; adventure during our travels around Hong Kong, New Zealand and Tokyo, and blissful relaxation on our sunny terrace.  This blog will therefore complete the circle and run until 23^rd September, but possibly be resurrected on an ad hoc basis when we have something exciting to tell.  We have just booked a grand tour of India for next February so I’m sure we will relate our travels at that time.

It would be great if all you lot who have followed this blog would drop me a line to let me know your news at lesleyholl@yahoo.com.

Fun and Fireworks

Ian and Diane arrived the night before our trip to Granada armed with 2 bottles of red wine craftily disguised in white paper jackets so we could play Dan’s new favourite game of ‘spot the expensive wine’.  We spend hours discussing the taste, the legs, the colour etc etc and occasionally we enjoy a glass or two!

In Granada we retraced the path to the Albaicin which we had already tried out with Jean and Barry and made another visit to the Capilla Real to see the tombs of the Ferdinand and Isabella, the king and queen who united Spain as a Catholic country in the 1400s.  It was England’s first world cup match in the evening, so we found a decent Spanish bar and settled down to watch the game and sample the delights of the free tapas.  After the match we continued our survey of the tapas of Granada in several bars around the cathedral and the town hall.

The next morning dawned all too soon, but luckily we didn’t have to check out until 12.00 so there was plenty of time for hangover cures to kick in.  On the way home we visited the town of Lanjaron, where we had some delicious mountain cured ham and cheese and then continued upwards to the small town of Pampaneira, famous for its colourful rugs.  Ian was interested to see the town of Orgiva, having read ‘Driving over  Lemons”  and its various sequels, so we showed him what a disappointment it was – a very strange mixture of Spaniards and new age travellers accompanied by a drabness rarely seen in Spain.

It was also time for the second meeting of the Marbella wives’ club – this time the theme was Ladies’ Ascot Day.  I arrived in my only frock and sporting a floppy white sunhat bought at great expense at the 2 euro shop.  There was an array of finery and hat styles, but all good fun.  We had to choose a winner for 5 of the live Ascot races that day, at 1 euro a bet and the person who got the most winners won the pot.  I managed one winner – called Strawberry Daiquiri strangely enough – but otherwise failed miserably.  Still, it was a pleasant way to while away a sunny afternoon, drinking Pimms and champagne and eating cucumber sandwiches and strawberries and cream.  Dan meanwhile was in a Spanish bar watching Spain’s first game, which ended in a miserable defeat.

It was also my first stint in the local charity shop run by the English Church in Nerja.  It was a great morning dealing with some very wiley Spanish women whose nature it is to barter for everything.  I’ve been booked for 2 more Fridays, which is exciting.

Our kids had quite an expensive weekend as my birthday coincided with Father’s Day.  It was a lovely hot day, so we went out for lunch and slept it off on the beach – heaven!

It’s the season for fiestas and one of the biggest is San Juan on the 23rd June, which is the only night in the year when people are allowed to camp on the beach.  Once again Ian and Diane joined us for the experience.  It was 10pm when we set up our little picnic circle on the beach amidst the other tents and gazebos.  At a few minutes to midnight 24 flares were let off and a surge of people started to make for the water’s edge – like a scene from a Dr Who episode.  On the stroke of midnight the fireworks started and people ran into the sea in order to cleanse themselves of the year’s sins, ready to start a new set.  Dan set off with the camera and seemed to focus on a group of scantily clad young ladies having a good frolic in the sea!  The fireworks were amazing, with no concession to health and safety.  There were giant Catherine wheels dangerously throwing sparks left, right and centre and one of the rockets veered off course, crashed back onto the beach and almost set light to a tent just behind where we were sitting.  We eventually gave in at about 2.30, even though the party was still in full swing.

We have also started to re-register our UK car with Spanish number plates and insurance etc, having discovered that the resale value in the UK is so low and second hand cars in Spain are so expensive.  Dan had to take it for a Spanish MOT yesterday and is now proficient in technical instructions in Spanish  – put on your indicators, front fog lights, rear fog light, windscreen wipers, handbrake etc!

We now have less than 2 weeks before we return to England for a couple of months and are starting to think about the possibility of wearing jumpers.

Essex girls’ reunion

Ben left us to spend the last couple of days of his trip with some friends in Marbella.  We detoxed for a couple of days, changed the beds and prepared for my sister Carole’s visit.  Luckily the weather held and she was able to enjoy the terrace and its charms and rest and read, and we needed little encouragement to join her.  We also made a couple of trips to Burriana beach, had the first swim of the year in the sea and chilled out in the new beach bar with sofas looking out to the sea.  Dan was very tolerant with the Essex girls’ constant reminiscing  and kept us entertained with his own version of pop quiz.  Needless to say vast quantities of gin, vodka and wine were consumed to keep our minds working.

We dropped Carole at the airport last Saturday morning and headed for the shopping/entertainment centre nearby and went to see Alice in Wonderland in 3D – we really enjoyed it, although we weren’t too sure about the accuracy of the story, but the 3D effect was good.

The last week has been a week of abstention of both alcohol (7 days so far!), and over-calorific food.  We’ve felt like chewing the sofas on occasions but so proud we’ve managed a whole week! (pathetic!)

The heat has come with a vengeance, averaging 34 degrees most days, so mornings have been spent pottering and afternoons sitting in the shade.  The temperature of the water in the communal pool has reached its optimum  and we usually go down at about 7pm (when the old, fat and ugly come out) and swim a few lengths in a virtually empty pool.  Most of the sunbeds that have been bought for the day lie abandoned, so we install ourselves on one of those for half an hour, and if we’re very lucky, Dan will find a discarded newspaper in one of the bins!

So that’s life at the moment – a very slow pace and healthy  living.  We’re off to Granada with Ian and Diane next weekend, so probably all the good we’ve done so far will be rapidly undone, but hey – life’s for living!

Fiesta fun

The teaching was a bit of a disappointment as nobody turned up, so we have decided to leave it for now as people are getting into summer mode and start afresh in October.

Ben and Sam arrived safely on Thursday night and the fun started on Friday night at Nerja caves, where the area surrounding the caves had been transformed into drinking tents, food stalls and dance areas.  We discovered that the communist stall served the cheapest drinks, and were especially good for cocktails.  Dan and I left about 2am and the kids followed a couple of hours later.  The grand procession for San Isidro – the patron saint of farmers – began on Saturday afternoon.  We managed to get a prime spot on a roundabout, complete with picnic and litres of home-made sangria.  The procession took a couple of hours to go past and was full of colourful wagons, horses, oxen and floats, bright flamenco dresses and litres of beer and wine.  We attracted a fair bit of attention – probably as Dan was looking particularly stunning that day – and were supplied with cans of beer, wine in a porrón ( the bag with a spout that you have to hold high above your mouth and spurt in!) and lots of lecherous invitations mainly directed at poor Emily!  Once the procession had finished we walked up to the caves again to take up our pitch at the communist bar again, but this time the noise was quite deafening with each bar trying to outdo the other with loud music and dancing.  We lasted a couple of hours and then made our way home for more food and wine.

Sunday was a quiet day spent on the beach and Emily and Sam prepared to leave early Monday morning, however the volcanic ash had other ideas and their flight was cancelled, which meant more time on the beach!.  Luckily they managed to rebook for Tuesday morning and this time their flight left on time.

Ben has stayed with us working on his tan and playing Dan’s games of blind wine tastings.  He has also acted a chief playmate and has had a session of table tennis and tennis with Dan.

I saw an article in a local magazine about a monthly club called ‘Ladies First’, so emailed to get a bit more information about it and ended up at the monthly meeting on Wednesday at a beachside bar.  We had mojito cocktails and tapas and were shown how to make flowers from raw silk pods.  Everybody was very welcoming, although there was a definite element of Marbella wives, lots of frocks and shoes, jewellery and make-up – will have to up my game if I carry on going.  Next month’s meeting is ladies’ Ascot day in another bar!

The weather has been absolutely stunning recently, it looks as though summer has arrived.

Oranges and kiwi

The orange festival was great, the sun was shining and lots of local women had made a great effort and dressed in traditional flamenco costume.  Old ladies had made their best orange-based desserts for the yearly competition, there was music and dancing and a weird, but initially tasty, orange, raw onion and salt cod salad given out for free (well, I don’t think you would want to buy it!) along with huge bags of fresh oranges.  Ian and Diane’s friend, Madeline, came along and we managed to get our photo in the ‘Sur in English’ newspaper.  It was a great day, the orange pom-pom managed to stay in my hair all afternoon, but unfortunately, Janet,  Dan’s matador costume was rather too tight in the cojones region, resulting in looking more of a ‘ball fighter’ than a ‘bull fighter’!

We spent Saturday evening after the festival at Ian and Diane’s house doing a blind wine tasting with an expensive bottle of Faustino Rioja – Crianza, costing around 8 euros a bottle and a bottle of red Liria from Mercadona, costing 1.50 euros.  The astounding result was that 3 out of 4 of us chose the Liria!

Monday was Day of the Cross in Nerja when various streets compete in making large crosses studded with real carnation heads and then displayed amongst a montage of typical Andalusian objects and religious statues.  Residents of the street also set up trestle tables full of home made food and bottles of drink and travelling groups of singers visit each cross.

Wednesday evening was very exciting for Dan as he watched his favourite team – Spurs secure 4th place in the Premier League.  He was so excited he couldn’t sleep, although it could be something to do with fact that we had decided to have an alcohol -free day!

Our NZ friend, Jen, arrived on Thursday bearing gin and Pimms, which we obviously had to sample that evening.  Friday we went to the market at Almunecar, where Jen bought the obligatory flamenco dress for her little granddaughter and typical pottery for her friends, then we introduced her to tapas – which she loved.  That evening we carried on showing her the tradition, ending up in the Molino flamenco bar, where she was fascinated by the old guitarist and the very camp waiter.

We spent Saturday on the beach and Jen just had to try out the water – even though nobody else had braved it – I think she regretted it afterwards but felt a great sense of achievement.  We introduced her to grilled sardines and paella on the beach.  Strangely enough she said that they would never dream of eating things such as anchovies and sardines in NZ as they would just be used for bait, but she might try to introduce it.

The volcanic ash started playing up again, so it was constant checking on the internet to see if her flight on Monday would be affected and also Emily’s flight out.  Luckily enough both managed to arrive and leave (even meeting as they crossed over!)

So we are now in mummy and daddy mode with Emily here for a week, and the boys coming out on Thursday for the San Isidro festival of Nerja  caves at the weekend.

I start teaching on a voluntary basis to adults at a local school on Thursday, which will be stimulating and give both of us a time of independence.  So there will be lots of new things to comment on in the next blog.