Before I launch straight in I need to apologise again for such a delay in publishing this blog! I was all ready to go after Christmas but became very unwell, and that actually eventually resulted in me being carted off to hospital by ambulance – not quite as exciting as it sounds! I had been having difficulty breathing after any basic level of exertion, and it seems my blood oxygen levels were dangerously low and needed to be dealt with as a matter of some urgency. Oh yes, and while there I also discovered I tested positve for flu, in spite of having had the vaccination. It’s no wonder I felt so wretched!
To cut a long and boring story short, three nights, a number of CT scans, X-rays and different treatments later I got home again, and was never so glad to be in my own bed.
The medical staff were brilliant, from my own GP who had carried out an ECG in the health centre and immediately had me admitted, to all the staff in the hospital. Nothing was too much bother for them, they were all very kind, caring and professional. Best of all was being looked after and waited on at home by the husband, what a man!
So there you are, that’s my excuse for this being late, and I’m sticking to it! Thankfully I’m now feeling much better, back in the land of the living, though still breathless but I’m working on that one. I am very happy to report that after the battery of tests I can state that my heart and lungs are normal, and I just need to work on breathing exercises in order to increase my lung capacity. I have to say I’m also very happy I gave up smoking 16 years ago – I dread to think what shape I’d be in if I hadn’t.
So, on to the weather. There’s been far too much of it recently. This is the longest, coldest and wettest winter in Spain for about the last 20 years, and everybody is heartily sick of it.
There has been so much rain recently, mainly throughout Andalucia and across into Portugal. As usual, in our part of Murcia we seem to have missed the worst of it, we’ve had a few sharp showers and some blustery days but that’s about it. Others have not been so lucky, with widespread flooding and structural damage. We did have one very interesting hail shower, they covered my car roof and windscreen. I haven’t seen hailstones for years!
I think that everyone is looking forward to the warmer weather. Spanish houses aren’t really built to cope with the cold and damp. We have a very big, old house in the country – and no central heating! Fortunately we have two big log burners, and we also have aircon units in the sitting room and in our bedroom, as well as a trusty electric blanket on the bed, bliss!
There’s the best sign ever that spring is actually on the way – the almond trees are bursting into bloom. Our trees are a few days behind the rest down in the valley, as we’re that bit higher up, but it is so heartening to see the fabulous display of blossom which literally seems to have appeared overnight. So, so beautiful.
One of the things needed in this pre-spring, generally dreich weather is something guaranteed to brighten us all up – well those of us who are women, anyway! And no, I’m not getting into the “what is a woman” question, it’s a very stupid premise and everyone knows the right answer even if they try not to admit it!
So, my go-to trick is….red lipstick! I choose the scarlet type rather than the crimson shades, suits me better. It always makes me feel I can face the world with a bit of scarlet lippy. The one I use is by Maybelline, and is long-lasting. So long lasting that it’s flipping difficult to get off last thing at night, but sooo worth it – Taylor Swift eat your heart out!
I have bought loads of red lipsticks in the search for the perfect one – it turns out there are quite a few that fit the bill, though the Maybelline one remains my favourite. However, I have to say that the selection from Temu, Shein etc look absolutely fantastic lined up on a wee shelf! Their packaging is amazing, even if sometines the contents are not…
It was Peter’s birthday last week, and we had planned to go to Granada for a few days to celebrate. We’d found a lovely hotel in the city centre and then…I ended up in hospital so we had to cancel. We can go another time, but its such a shame as we had bagged ourselves a real bargain. It would have been impossible as my mobility has been very limited, so we’ll just try again when everything improves.
I had ordered a big ballon for him which I intended to blow up and hide in the house – it’s a big house so I assumed there should have beeen plenty of hiding places. I hadn’t reckoned on the balloon actually being taller than me, and I knew I hadn’t a mission of blowing the thing up given I find it difficult to catch a breath at all. Then came the real issue – in tiny print it said it had to be filled with helium! Well, we’ll just have to find a shop where we can do that, I’m determined to get it inflated! So all in all not the most well-planned and executed birthday, but the upside is that he’s now an OAP so he’s now getting his state pension!
One of the things I love about living here is how shops are decorated both inside and out, to make their goods more attractive to the crowds, they’re so inviting. Here’s just a few of the places we’ve seen over the last wee while…
and finally just inside a shop specialising in all kinds of jamon….
Okay, another wee snippet from the “say it like it is” brigade. I spotted a notice in our local health centre last time I was there, in among all the advice on giving up smoking, getting vaccinations etc. This one was encouraging us to do a bit more exercise, and simply stated “Mueve el culo”. It means “move/shake your ass”….no other explanation needed!
And another wee laugh – you know how I’m always giving out about the standard of driving locally? Well it would appear that parking abilities are similar…get out of that one!
Due to being a tiny bit unwell (!) lately we hadn’t been out for lunch anywhere so yesterday while we were out on a spot of business we decided to try out somewhere we hadn’t eaten before. It’s on the far side of Hondon de las Frailes from us, and as we were out that direction we thought we’d give the Hondon Hub a try. It’s very English, and a bit different from our usual, Spanish restaurants. However, we’d heard good things about the food and as it was close to where we were we called in. I wish we hadn’t. I really wish we hadn’t. In the 18 years I’ve lived in Spain I think there have only been 3 other occasions where the food was so unacceptable and, frankly, inedible.
There was only one other couple eating when we got there, and they soon left, so it was only the two of us in the whole place. I ordered fish and chips – I love to have this about 3 times a year, and was really looking forward to a big piece of freshly battered fish that’s always on offer somewhere local on Fridays. Peter ordered a chicken kebab. Both dishes came with chips.
After we’d ordered we commented to the waitress about the bad smell in the room – she explained they’d “just had the drains done”, at which point we weren’t sure if we should stay or not, or if the restaurant should even have stayed open…
What follows is our honest opinion on the food we were served, so the restaurant needn’t think of suing us for defamation or whatever! My fish arrived, not fresh, a frozen offering which was hard, almost too hard to cut, like a Birds’ Eye one which had been microwaved too long. Tasteless. I had expected freshly battered fish. Silly me. Peter expected a chicken skewer – what he got appeared to be chopped up bits from a bag of frozen chicken kebab meat that you can get in supermarkets. The pieces were so small we weren’t even sure whether or not it was chicken. It looked like a mixture of old bacon rind and sliced mushrooms. Very, very greasy, very odd colours of black, brown and grey, and a very odd smell. Just swimming in oil. It was accompanied by a small, round, pitta bread which wasn’t even firm enough to cut open a pocket.
The chips were just awful. They were handcut, but appeared to be old, certainly not fresh. They were flimsy, soggy, only just warm and very, very greasy. When squashed with a fork the oil just ran out of them. A couple of bites later we felt we really couldn’t continue as it was so dreadful.
We decided to leave, and told the staff exactly why. One member of staff checked with the kitchen and said she was told everything was fresh – whoever told her that was being more than economical with the truth.
I have to say that the two staff members were very nice, very polite and very friendly. However this didn’t make up for the drains atmosphere or the extremely poor and frankly inedible food. We will, never, ever be back.
As we were already in the Hondon Valley we drove another few kilometres to Hondon de las Nieves Bombay restaurant where we often eat. We had absolutely delicious Indian food and left that particular establishment very, very happy!
If you’re ever out that direction and feel hungry, take my advice and do not, I repeat, DO NOT stop at the Hondon Hub. Keep going until you reach the excellent Bombay restaurant in Hondon de las Nieves and give yourselves a real treat.
That’s it for now, I’ll try not to leave it so long next time! Off now to write a review on Trip Advisor…hmm!
Well so much for “dulce Noviembre” or “sweet November”! It’s flipping freezing at the minute, the night temperatures are hovering at just about zero, something we’re not at all used to in southern Spain. Things should get back to normal in a week or so with the night temperatures rising again to double figures. In the meantime we are keeping both fires lit all during the day, to warm up the house. We also have big hot and cold aircon units in the sitting room and in our bedroom, and I have a very effective little convection heater in the study keeping me warm as I type. We really are too old to be cold, and very fortunate to be able to have a full log shed, and to not care too much about the electricity bill when it comes. Much more important to be comfortable at this age! Incidentally, over here at this time of year you will frequently see women outside as well as indoors, fully dressed, but with fleecy, full-length dressing gowns on top – they’re not daft, it keeps them snuggly warm, and I have caught the habit too!
The fire surround in the sitting room is now finished, built by Tom, plastered by Jake and painted by Peter, a team effort! We now just need to finish off each side of the fire to tidy it up. We’ve also ordered an air vent to cut in high up, to let more warm air out from the flue into the sitting room. It’s a very funky retro style antique brass one which we’re having delivered to Laurie’s house and can bring home with us once we’re over in Norn Iron. We also had to order a new top plate thing – baffle plate? It baffles me, anyway – for the sitting room fire, as our current one is cracked but perfectly useable for now. It made more sense to get a new plate as we were told that filling the crack with cement wouldn’t last very long. So, if you’re going to do a job do it right first time! The fires are just so cosy at this time of year, it can be difficut to remember that only a few months ago we were suffering in 42C heat.
Speaking of cold, as you know, most houses here don’t have central heating. We don’t really need it as it would only be used for a couple of months a year, and with the aircon and the big log burners we can be quite cosy. However, today it was really time to change the 10.5 tog duvet to the 13.5 tog one. It took me a while wrestling with it as it’s very big and very heavy. Also you really can’t beat an electric blanket…bliss! The only other thing to do in our bedroom is to keep the spiral staircase down to the bodega covered to keep the heat in upstairs. The stairs go from our bedroom down to the bodega, and that room has 3 external stone walls, designed to keep all the wine, cheeses etc cool.
So, every winter we put our “retired” duvets over the railings and plug the gaps, it’s the only way to keep the aircon heat in up in the bedroom!!
I’ve bought a few things from Ebay which I’ve had sent to Laurie’s since we’re popping over for a wee pre-Christmas visit. To have all that lot – including the two bits for the fire – posted to Spain would cost ridiculously silly money so it’s far better to just bring it all back in our luggage. We won’t be over the allowed weight as the only other things to bring back will be…err…whatever tempts us for wee Christmas treats in M&S food hall! We generally pack very little to bring over, just enough clothes to last us for the time we’re there, so there should be plenty of “empty kilos” for us to fill, with two suitcases, two overhead cabin bags and two under seat bags.
Our winter projects are coming along nicely now. We need to scrape down, plaster and paint two walls in what will be Peter’s art studio. It has huge windows leading outside to an upper terrace, plenty of light to enjoy while creating a masterpiece or two!
The other thing he really wants to get back into is decorating sconces. We need to source some unglazed ones so they are ready to paint and otherwise decorate. We have been giving them to people as presents but we may have to open a gallery next!
I think the examples above are really lovely, with a bit of a Moroccan feel, which we both like.
I’ve been shopping in the “M” place, as it’s known, otherwise really called Mercadona! It’s a very good supermarket but I am also continually impressed by their skincare and make-up range. Here’s what I’ve bought in the last week…firstly, their own brand “Botox”- like serum, which promises to smooth out wrinkles and fine lines. It is a temporary fix, and is best patted gently into your skin and left for about ten minutes. If you fan it for a few minutes it helps speed up things. It’s ony €6 so isn’t a big loss if you don’t like it!
I also got, on the recommendation of my lovely friend Violet, some Skin Glow Tint. Now this looks decidedly odd, as it appears to be a little glass container filled with tiny wee balls, a bit like a rough mustard!
When you use the pump to get it out it comes out as liquid, very smooth, very glowing and with a gorgeous hint of colour. It is excellent, costs only €9 and worth every cent!
Next on my “can’t live without” list is their Maxi Volume black mascara. Oh my word, I have used hundreds of mascaras in my time, from the cheapest to the most expensive, and none of them comes even close to this wee beauty! It never clumps, lengthens your lashes, lasts all day, absolutely fabulous. I hope and pray they never discontinue it as, at under €4 it always has a place in my makeup bag. Best mascara ever!
Now to one of the best bits of living in Spain, eating out! As you know, we do go out to lunch quite often, we like to try different restaurants and it is ridiculously inexpensive so why wouldn’t we?
So here’s the latest line-up. We have a ladies lunch group and we meet for lunch about once a month. This time we elected to eat at our local Chinese restaurant in Fortuna. I was seriously worried about it as we stopped going there after a few truly horrible meals. However, we learned that it has been taken over by a lovely young couple and my word have they made some changes! The whole place is clean and fresh, and the food was utterly delicious – I couldn’t fault it. A very big portion of sweet and sour chicken Hong Kong style, with rice and a drink was less than €10. I rather felt a bit sorry for the other diners as there were 17 of us for lunch and it got a bit noisy!
The next place to tell you about is a great restaurant Peter found for us in Cieza, a lovely town less than half an hour from us, it’s the administrative centre for the whole area. It’s called Tarradella’s Restaurante and was absolutely superb. The food was incredible, the presentation a delight, and the restaurant itself was very modern and tastefully decorated. They do a 3-course menu del dia for €16 which is fantastic value!
Next is a real favourite of ours where we will always keep returning to – Ann and Ray’s restaurant, the Red Roof. We went for Sunday lunch recently, and shared a huge portion of delicious paella and a big rack of really tender BBQ ribs between us.
There was a raffle on that day, and we won Sunday lunch for two, including wine! Safe to say we’ll be back very soon!
We also had lunch recently with our great friends David and Violet Millar. They come on holiday quite a few times every year to Guardamar, on the coast, and we always look forward to meeting up for lunch. Suffice to say the craic is mighty and the wine keeps flowing! We had such a lovely long afternoon with them and look forward to the next time!
And now for something completely different…this weekend is the switching on of the Christmas lights in Murcia, they always put on the most amazing show. I’ll post some photos after we’ve been to see it all but in the meantime, guess who’s actually doing the switching on? Only RICHARD GERE, that’s who! Yep, he’s apparently been in Madrid doing something or other and will be in Murcia city this weekend. Very impressive!
And another little something different – this wee visitor flew off my hibiscus on the verandah and landed at my feet the other day, a little praying mantis. Absolutely beautiful colour and posture!
I’ve overrun my time a bit here, but here’s a wee short story which I hope you’ll find entertaining…let me know what you think!
“Billy McAllister was the sort of boy our mothers warned us about. Tall, narrow hipped, black hair and blue eyes, cocky as hell but oh my word so easy on the eye. He always wore Levis, he said that the world was divided into those who wore Wranglers and those who wore Levis. He had a reputation that mothers worried about, and fathers worked themselves into a frenzy about what they would do if he ever came near their daughters.
I had never worn Wranglers, always Levis, even though Saturday jobs didn’t pay too well and it had taken longer than I thought to own a coveted pair. Just the one pair, mind, we weren’t as well off as some of the girls in school, but it didn’t matter. Also, my mother wasn’t sure they were entirely appropriate apparel for young ladies, but she didn’t actually forbid me from wearing them, so I decided she’d eventually get used to it.
Billy McAllister had a car, two years ago his father had bought him a red Cadillac Coupe de Ville for his eighteenth birthday. It was sleek and powerful, not unlike its owner, and all the girls wanted to be the one chosen to sit in the front seat with him. It had a great radio as well, the height of sophistication for country girls like us.
Bill McAllister senior was a big shot in the county. Having made a fortune in luxury car sales he never missed an opportunity to let everyone know just how well he had done. If you consider “well” to be the equivalent of “rich” then fair enough, but alongside his wealth he had amassed a ton of bad manners and arrogance, some of which had obviously been inherited by his son who worked in the family business. Both were ideal salesmen, they were able to persuade men that their status would be enhanced in a particular car, and their charms could persuade a woman to just buy anything at all. Business was brisk, and very successful.
Billy was always keen to show the rest of us how much money he had, treating his boys to burgers at the drive through and cruising for girls who were only too keen to oblige, but who ended up just like used tissues when the conqueror had notched up another mark of victory.
Just another reason why our mothers said he was the epitome of “mad, bad and dangerous to know”, and every one of us was forbidden to get into that car, no matter how much we yearned to.
Gemma Stirling was the front runner. She looked like every schoolboy’s dream, and probably featured in quite a few of them. It didn’t take long for Billy McAllister to succumb to her charms, even if they were so obvious the three blind mice couldn’t have failed to see what was happening. We were sure it wouldn’t be long before she became the chosen one. Gemma was also sure of it, in fact she never shut up about how often she caught him sneaking a look at her. I was sure she was exaggerating, but equally sure it wouldn’t be long before she and Billy really were seen as a couple.
My friends and I spent far too much time wondering and talking about how to snare Billy McAllister and be seen in the front seat of that Cadillac. We all fancied him, of course we did, though in truth we all recognised that none of us were ever likely to come within spitting distance, never mind actually ever getting to sit in that car with him. None of us looked anything like Gemma Stirling.
Until, that is, the day everything changed. I was walking home from school and heard a car pull up just behind me.
“Hey! Hey,Judy!” the voice called, just in case I was in any doubt as to who the call was aimed at. I turned slowly round, hardly daring to breathe.
“Do you want a lift home?” he asked.
“Err, no thanks”, I replied, wanting more than anything to get into that car with the divine Billy, but knowing full well that someone, somewhere would see me and from then on my mother would make my live an utter misery with lectures on the evils of loose women, unwanted pregnancies, ruined lives and worse.
“Come, on,” he laughed, “I won’t bite! I promise!”.
At that moment I’d have paid good money to have Billy McAllister bite me anywhere he liked. He got out of the car and walked over to me. I could smell him, the scent of lemons and something sweet like candy floss on a hot night at the county fair. I think it was the smell of danger but back then all I could do was to breathe in that aroma – it was like mother’s milk to a starving baby.
“Come on”, he said again, “It’ll save you a long walk. I promise I’ll drive slowly and I really won’t bite”.
“No, thank you.” I wasn’t going to let myself be seduced by that charmer. For once I was more afraid of my mother than of not taking up Billy McAllister’s offer. Anyway, I couldn’t understand why he even wanted to talk to me, never mind get me in his car. There were plenty more and better looking girls around who would be only too willing to put out for Billy McAllister. Anyhow, I wasn’t going to take the chance.
The next time I saw Billy McAllister was in Jones and Dickens Funeral Home. He looked even better in the casket, someone had done a great job of genuinely making him look like he was asleep, and ready to jump up at any minute, laughing and yelling “Hah! Fooled you all!”
I knew that after finally accepting my refusal to get into his car he had stormed off in a huge huff, and had taken off with a screech of tyres, yelling something at me over his shoulder which I couldn’t hear. He had probably driven too fast in a temper, and didn’t have time to react when the car slid on mud and screamed towards a rather large tree which refused to give way.
Danger comes in many guises, and not always the obvious ones like speeding, or standing too close to the edge of a cliff. Sometimes danger is carefully and cleverly and so beautifully wrapped up in Levis, looking so, so good, but best avoided.
The world is full of Billy McAllisters, there are always more to go around. When my daughters are older, I’ll tell them about Billy McAllister and of the dangers hidden in plain view. I hope they make the right choices. I really do.”
Next time, Christmas is nearly here, whoo! hoo! Shopping all done, food already organised, looking forward to it!
Firstly, I need to say that very recently we lost a wonderful, funny, knowledgeable and long-standing friend. Peter Thompson was a well-respected local historian from Dervock and Ballymoney – and had a phenomenal collection of military memorabilia to prove it! He really put our wee village, Dervock, and our market town, Ballymoney, on the map, and raised their profiles to give them their proper place in the history of our island.
On a more personal level, I have known Peter and his lovely family just about all my life. Every time the husband and I made our journey home to see friends and family Peter was always included in that group, and was really more family than friend. We always came to him armed with some special Spanish brandy, and equally, we never left his house empty handed!
The craic with Peter was always great, and we shall miss his humour, that wee twinkle in his eye, the wealth of stories he had to tell and the laughs we had while remembering times past. Never forgotten, always missed, always in our hearts. I just can’t believe we’re not going to see him next time we’re over home. I shall miss you forever my friend, I hope you’re having fun somewhere. Cherish your friends, amigos, you never know when is the last time for everything.
Quite a few people have been asking me about how easy or difficult it is to make friends when you move to a completely new area. The short answer is that it is and it isn’t! If that sounds more than a bit of a cop-out, what I mean is that it is really easy to gravitate towards people who speak your own language, especially if you are trying to learn a completely different language altogether.
But beware – not every smiling human is your friend! One of the things we all miss when we move to a foreign country is our friends. If you’re fortunate, then you will still have a circle of friends “back home” with whom you regularly keep in touch. Over here in Spain, as in probably every other foreign place, if you want to make friends you need to go out and find them. There are always lots of “extra-curricular” activities and clubs you can join, chances are you will meet a group of people who share your interests. However, a word of warning – unlike your friends back home they won’t share your history, nor you theirs, so it may not always do what it says on the tin!
Having said that, we have made some wonderful friends here in Spain. Some have turned out to be a lasting delight, and we are always cheered when we get together. Others have fallen by the wayside; some are simply no big loss, some have turned out to be a crushing disappointment, and some have eventually shown themselves to be just out-and-out nasty! It’s actually no bad thing to let go of the ones you don’t need – your job is not to obtain approval from everyone you meet, that’s something you’ll never get.
Goodness knows there are weirdos everywhere, and it’s best to keep well clear and don’t engage with them. We know a couple of people who have turned out to be very, very odd, who used to be friends – or so we thought. One person now seems to view me as the wicked witch of the west – I’m really not, though, I’m actually quite nice! It is indeed often a relief to separate from such toxic ones. Here’s something to make you wonder – were told by a number of people that a certain person’s husband had undergone fairly major surgery and that they all believed she was hoping he wouldn’t come round from the anaesthetic. Good grief, when I remember how desperately ill Peter was a few years back,and how he nearly died, I would have moved heaven and earth to make sure he recovered, and happily, he did. Mind you, that same woman also told a lot of people that she thought my husband was “drop dead gorgeous” and that she thought she “might have a chance with him”. Err….quite right to the first part and utterly, utterly deluded by the second, and gave us both a good laugh!
Another idiot who decided he no longer liked me spread lots of lies about me. Actually he seems to lie about quite a lot of things – for example he apparently knows Phil Collins well. Err, don’t think so! I gather while he was working in a supermarket he caught sight of him once. In fact he’s simply another unhappy, deluded and jealous person whose life hasn’t quite turned out as well as he had hoped, a bit like the woman I mentioned. Beware, there are quite a few of them around, and it always comes down to jealousy on their part. It’s not your job to soothe the jealous feelings of those who can’t stand their own failings and their own less-than-perfect lives, so just walk away. Life’s too short to deal with unnecessary drama. A great Polish proverb says “Not my circus, not my monkeys.” Very liberating!
Ideally you would want to have a fairly wide circle of acquaintances, and within that circle there will be a couple of people you can really trust. Like I said, life is far, far too short to bother with people who are never going to be part of your “tribe”, so love the ones you’re with, and set the rest free to annoy somebody else!
Our friends back home are still so cherished, especially my best friend Wendy – we’ve known each other all our lives.
This photo, I think, was taken at my 40th birthday party, we look so young! Err, that’s because, compared to today, we WERE so young! Wendy sent it to me in a wee special frame, for my birthday – very precious memories!
Now, I know you think I’m always talking about food….here’s some more! On the “let’s get a bit healthier” mode, we make banana and porridge oat muffins, great for breakfast, great any time.
Here’s the recipe:
225g porridge oats
Small pot of plain Greek yoghurt
2 eggs
Big tablespoon of honey
2 tsp baking powder
half tsp baking soda
2 ripe bananas, peeled and cut into chunks
Grease muffin tins with non-stick stuff or with butter – don’t use paper cases as the muffins will stick to them.
Put everything in a big jug and use a hand blender, go for it till the mixture is mostly smooth. Give the batter a stir once or twice to make sure all ingredients are properly mixed.
Pour the batter into muffin tins dividing equally among 10 muffin holes.
Bake in a pre-heated 200C oven for 15 ish minutes until a toothpick inserted into centre of muffin comes out clean.
Let them rest for a bit in the tin, then carefully remove them and allow to cool completely on baking rack.
Makes 10 muffins.
If I’m adding Nutella, I put a wee bit of batter in the pans, then put a wee dot of Nutella in, then top it up with batter. If you’re adding herbs etc then just mix it straight in to the batter.
This one’s my favourite – if I have frozen raspberries or whatever I do the same as with the Nutella – half fill, add a raspberry (or blueberry, or whatever you like!) and then I top with a raspberry and a bit of mint, or whatever takes your fancy. Very healthy. very good for you and very tasty!
Yum! Incidentally, if you spell “muffins” backwards, it’s what you do when you take them out of the oven!
More food….there’s a Chinese restaurant in San Javier we go to now and again. I just can’t believe the feast they serve you for about €10 per person. That includes starter, main course, pudding and half a bottle of wine each.
Couldn’t beat it! By the time I remembered to take a photo we’d already gobbled down our starters, so here’s the mains – chicken and almonds, and shoulder of lamb, with rice and noodles.
One of the nicest places to eat locally for us is Restaurante Esquina de San Anton, owned by our lovely friend Beatriz.
(Photos by Efren Sanchez).
The food is absolutely delicious – definitely a cut above the ordinary. Prawns, steaks, fish, everything freshly cooked and beautifully presented.
We often call in for tapas, not just the full lunch menu, and always find the food to be just sublime – little cod balls in the lightest imaginable batter, huge langoustines in a light, crispy tempura coating, smoked salmon rolls….the list goes on! It helps when you get a great welcoming hug from Beatriz as well! Actually the last time we were there she gave us a bottle of the restaurant’s own wine to take home, and very nice it was too.
Hard to beat a well-rounded rioja!
The other night we went over to Ciudad Quesada for dinner at the restaurant of another friend, Joe. His restaurant is the Patagonia Grill House, and is famous for its steaks, burgers and mixed grills. So, for two people, this is what a mixed grill looks like – it’s accompanied by baked potato, chips and salad, and it takes some eating!
The mixed grill comes with flank steak, pork, chicken, Argentinian chorizo, black pudding and ribs. Just as well that for the previous day we’d eaten very little, in preparation for a bit of a feast! Joe, like Peter, has Polish family origins, so they always enjoy a bit of a chat.
Oh good grief after that last lot you’ll think we do nothing over here except eat from one day to the next! Well you wouldn’t be far wrong, but we do tend to only eat one meal a day, and most often at lunchtime. I can’t understand how Spaniards can sleep at night after a big heavy dinner, often not even starting to eat until at least 10pm!
Okay so here’s something I’ve been banging on about for far too long now – the fact that our water supply is so unreliable, not to mention such poor quality.
We’ve lived in this house now for more than 6 years, and we have never had a single day of uninterrupted water supply. Either the pipes that serve the area get so clogged with calcium that the water can’t flow, or the neighbours using hoses, washing machines etc mean the water pressure isn’t enough to ensure it reaches our house further up.
I’m sick of it. Absolutely and utterly sick of it. For goodness sake Fortuna was a Roman town – those Romans weren’t daft, they knew there was plenty of water underground, which is why they settled here and, more to the point, why we have a beautiful spa centre with outdoor pools heated all year round due to thermal springs. Remember, the Romans could make water flow uphill…why on earth can’t the Spanish do the same?! It seems like I’ve turned into a “Karen” by continually complaining to the water provider here, Aqualia. Well, not quite, because at least my complaints are entirely reasonable and justified!
When my daughter Alice and her friend Helen were here with us on holiday recently, we had the worst stoppage to date. It happened the day before the girls were due to fly home – we had no water at all for more than 24 hours. Drinking is not an issue as we use bottled water for that. Washing, brushing teeth and flushing toilets is another matter! Baby wipes are always in plentiful supply in our house, and we are always careful to keep plenty of spare bottles of water in the bathrooms to get a bit of a wash, helped along with baby wipes.
.
It’s just as well we have a pool, as we can use buckets of water from there to flush the toilets successfully. We thought that the recent power outages all across Spain and Portugal were bad – well I can assure you that it’s a heck of a lot easier to do without electricity for 24 hours than without water.
Now, here’s a thing – we kept checking with out range of elderly neighbours if their water supply had been restored – always a negative answer. But….nobody had contacted the emergency phone number for Aqualia to report the fault. Well, nobody except us. We phoned continually, to no avail. Eventually, the next morning, we went to the local Aqualia office – only open from 09:30 until 13:30 Monday to Friday. I was determined to sit there until I got photographic evidence that someone was actually in our wee hamlet doing whatever they needed to do to restore the water supply. However, I was really pleasantly surprised – the chap in the offic was most helpful, and got on the phone straightaway, directly to an engineer who promised to effect the repair that morning.
We bailed out for brunch locally, and it’s no exaggeration to say we were overjoyed to meet up with our lovely friends Julia and Kelvin – such a lovely interlude to a very stressful time! By the time we got home the engineer had been, cleared the cal from the pipes supplying our wee road, and the water was flowing freely again. Hooray! However it always begs the question – why don’t the neighbours ever phone to report a fault and see when it might be repaired? The Spanish seem to be more content to generally just follow the “wait and see” routine. Anyway, we’re all back to normal – for now. And as a result of all that we have arranged to install a big water deposito hat the house, with electric pump, so if the mains water ever stops for any reason, the pump will come on and we’ll have all the water we need. Assuming we don’t get a water AND electricity stoppage at the same time….
All this week it’s fiesta time in Fortuna, when there is a full programme of events from 8th to 17th August. The days – and nights – include lots of activites for children, foodie events, music shows, sporting events like cycling races, football tournaments, parties, and last, but not least, a massive parade through the town, celebrating the Roman history of Fortuna and its opposite celebration of its patron saint, San Roque.
The town is always packed to bursting, with crowds lining the streets especially for the final night’s parade honouring the Roman heritage and the patron saint. The events are extremely well organised, with many locals taking part in the actual parades. The restaurants which line the main street provide extra tables and chairs but if you haven’t booked a table for food well in advance you need to be prepared to stand for a long time!
Everything carries on well into the night, and the main road through the town centre is usually closed off from around 17:00 until around 08:00, so that gives you an idea of how long the partying lasts! I genuinely don’t know how the people can last, they must have an extra long siesta in the afternoon to prepare for being up all night.
Okay, as the Pythons would say, now for something completely different. I’ve said before that our health service here is really excellent, and when I hear about some of the difficulties experienced by people in the UK I am very happy with the Spanish service. It’s usually easy to get an appointment with a doctor – if there isn’t anything available online in the very near future we can always call in to our health centre and be seen by someone, as it’s a 24 hour emergency response centre, and the staff are always very helpful. I went online yesterday to look for an appointment with Andrea, our GP, and got one for today!
When Peter had a concern about a little mark on his temple he was referred to the dermatologist, seen at the clinic, and had localised surgery to remove what turned out to be a basal-cell carcinoma, all inside 4 weeks from the initial GP appointment. Very reassuring.
We’ve been decorating the pool courtyard, though I have to confess it’s been quite difficult, due to the heat. That space is a real wee suntrap, but when the temperature in the shade is 40+ you can impagine what it’s like in full sun! We have two big parasols we put up at one end of the pool to provide a bit of shade and relief from the relentless sun. I bought a few retro style tin plate pictures and Peter put them up at one end of the pool, very funky and different, I love them! I’ve also started making a “summer tree” from a big dead branch which I painted partly white, with plenty of gold and silver glitter. We put it in a big pot with a bunch of wee fairy lights round the base of the “trunk” and hung some more solar lights on the branches. It’s far from finished but looks great at night! We’ve also started adding more little solar lights round the courtyard,it’s a lovely place for a midnight dip.
Next…here’s some things I hate about my life here (yeah right!)
Finding loads of bunched up cyclists on the road in front of me. I’m actually very considerate with cyclists, I don’t crowd them, and when I overtake I leave a full car width plus between us. But…some are just so inconsiderate, they ride in big groups, often strung out so you haven’t a mission of passing them, then they slow down so you’re stuck in third gear for about three kilometres. Dreadful anos. (Use google translate for that one!)
Men who utter inane things and immediately laugh like donkeys at how clever/amusing/grown up they are. Even if they comment about how hot it is, they immediately roar with laughter. One of these days I’m going to ask them why they think that’s funny…
Peeling and de-veining langoustines. Back-breaking over a kitchen sik with the sieve to catch the bits. Missing some of the “stuff” in their alimentary canals and wondering if anyone would notice if I jsut left them the way they were. And afterwards your hands smell like pants being worn by a toddler who’s being toilet trained….
Car drivers who have no idea that their vehicles are fitted with indicators. It turns into a game of “guess where I’m going next”. If they’re indicating to turn left you daren’t overtake, even when you KNOW that indicator has been flashing for the last five kilometers. And god forbid you woud take a chance turning out of a T-junction when the approacing car indicates that it’s turning in….it’s not. Hold your ground and don;t be tempted as you’ll simply be rammed, and what’s more it will all be your fault!
I really, really hate cleaning out the washing machine drawer,as our water here is so vile the drawer gets all gungy and disgusting. Has to be done though, so good spray of something strong, toothbrush, and away we go trying to get every last disgusting flake out.
Even worse is cleaning the dishwasher filter. Vile. Just vile.
Idiot foreigners (usually from the UK) who turn their noses up at traditional Spanish food. They won’t oder albondigas, for example, but will happily eat meatballs in a spicy tomato sauce. Err….albondigas ARE meatballs in a spicy tomato sauce!
When it’s too hot for too long. Weeks of 40+ C in the shade is really not pleasant.
The cost of air travel from here to Belfast – flights to the south of England cost pennies, but very different for us Norn Iron people!
Things I love about my life here:
Eating the langoustines!
The warm weather which lasts for months.
Our lovely big house with its thick walls meaning it’s cool in summer and warm in winter.
Our two big log burners keeping us warm in winter.
The new aircon unit in the sitting room – cool or warm air, whatever we need, whenever we need it.
The aircon unit above our bed, especially in the heat of summer, absolute bliss!
Fresh food everywhere.
Fantastic value when eating out. (More of that in a minute!)
The really wonderful friends we have made here.
Our neighbours, so friendly and helpful.
Our mechanic, Javi, who always gets our cars through the MOT!
Our genius phone expert, Emanuel, who always sorts out my mobile phone when I’ve mucked it up by doing something stupid!
Cost of hotel stays in Spain, more of that later too!
The fact that we have Irish passports – makes life so much easier.
My fabulous husband.
the fact that we have an actual bodega in our house!
It’s very easy and inexpensive to have a wee break away in rather decent hotels in Spain. Prices are so much lower than in the UK and so value for money is hard to beat. For example, we have booked a full board 3 night pre-Christmas trip up the coast to a gorgeous hotel on the beach and just up the coast, for €179 each, can’t wait! We’ve also booked a very nice hotel right in the centre of Granada, for 3 nights, for a total cost of €122. Have a look at these and see why it’s not difficult to plan a couple of days change of scene. First is the Hotel Cap Negret, in Altea, wonderful! Look here: https://www.hotelcapnegret.es/
Right, back to food, as I did say above somewhere! We went out for lunch to celebrate our recent wedding anniversary, to a lovely restaurant called Roca, in Aspe, which is about 40 minutes from us.
Very well decorated and maintained, in beautiful “Scandi” type colours, very soothing and relaxing. Spanish restaurants were traditionally full of dark wood furnishings and strip lighting that did nothing to create any kind of pleasant ambience, but happily all that is now changing. Roca is most definitely at the “posh” end of the market but wait till you hear this….
To start with I had crispy cannelloni stuffed with soft pork cheek confit, with a truffle sauce. Peter had special flavoured rice with chicken and chickpeas. Both dishes utterly sublime, and beautifully presented, and actually enough to qualify as a main course. We then chose the same main course, Iberico pork fillet with vegetables and potato wedges in a merlot sauce. Melt in the mouth and absolutely sublime. For pudding Peter had pistachio and white chocolate tart, and I had a baked cheesecake with strawberry preserve. Oh. My. Word. Beyond delicious, the whole meal. And you won’t believe this but that menu del dia costs €15 per person. Extra for drinks etc, but seriously, €15 per person?! Amazing! You can see why we eat out so often here – the quality of the food is wonderful, and the value is unsurpassed! I have no photos of the food because we were so overcome that we just “got tore in” as they say in very polite Norn Iron circles!
I think I might have written enough this time so will end by just letting you know about a friend’s new business here, Flowers by Sammy. My friend Samantha has started this business since coming to live in Spain, and my word the flowers she produces for you are fabulous! I’m actually a big fan of “not-real-but-look-better-and-last-longer-than-the -real-thing” blooms, and these days the plastic look is gone, and the modern flowers are simply beautiful. The website is at https://flowersbysammy.es/ feast your eyes on these beauties!
I’m sure you’ll agree they’re simply stunning!
That’s it for this time, no doubt the next issue will be filled with more foodie adventures to make your mouths water, not to mention the brilliant time we had when Laurie and the grandchildren were here.
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My life in Spain 