Yet another talent!

People often ask us what we do all day. Well, there's golf, and looking after the dogs, and learning Spanish and normal day to day things like shopping and cleaning. Then there's the social aspect of living here so the days go by quickly.

But there are a few hours spare in the evenings so Neil has been 'trying' to teach me to play Bridge. He used to play many years ago and has often said he would like to start playing again, but as well as needing a partner you need another couple and we've never known anyone else that played but out here there are a couple of couples that play Bridge and so it got Neil back on the 'let's play Bridge' theme!

We downloaded Omar Shariff's Bridge computer game and he started to play on that and I started to watch him. I played a lot of cards when I was younger and still love Cribbage, but the bidding part of Bridge was a mystery to me and now that my memory doesn't work very well remembering what cards have been played can be a challenge, to say the least.

Well, over the last few weeks I have done my best to take on board the bidding system and worked with Neil so that I wouldn't let him down.

I decided to take the bull by the horns last week and called on a couple of friends that I know play Bridge to see if the would like to come through for an evening of cards. I was honest and told them I had never played an actual game before but I had been practicing on the computer. They said that they don't take it too seriously so I shouldn't worry.

Well, Tuesday night saw us round the table, cards ready to be dealt, glass of wine poured. Just before they had arrived I had gone over the bidding system with Neil so I was as clued up as possible before we started and then it all went wrong because they split us up and partnered me with Barbara and Neil with Bernard, apparently they never play as a couple.

Oh well, nothing I could do about it now but deal the cards. Now, whether it was for the best or not, my first couple of hands were awful and nothing I could bid with, but I think Barbara thought I was playing safe. But after a couple of hands I started to get my confidence and the cards got a little better and suddenly I had enough points for an opening bid.

Time passed very quickly, and I got much more relaxed about playing and before I knew it we had been playing for over 3 hours, and had played the best of 3 and us ladies had won - by a lot, we trounced them.

So, we have a return match on Tuesday and the guys will be out for revenge!

But I can honestly say,

Bring it on!

Orange is not my colour!

Today in Holland is Queen's Day. Yes, I did say Holland - not Spain.

One of the women at the ladies is group is from Holland and she says that as much as she loves living in Spain, she does miss the celebrations in Holland on Queen's Day. So, today she and her husband threw a party and invited us all to help them celebrate. We were asked to wear something orange.

Now, I have to say orange is not a colour for everyone, and it certainly isn't a colour for me BUT in the true spirit of friendship I dug out an orange T-shirt which lives at the back of the drawer and wore it for today (I did cheat a little though, I wore a shirt over the top!) Come on now, you didn't really expect to see a photo did you?

When we got to the party the whole area was decorated with orange bunting and balloons and everyone had made an effort to wear something orange from a scarf, jewellry or a hat to full orange outfits which in some people with dark hair and dark tans actually look good, I would just look as if I'd been Tango'd!

We all had a great time eating, drinking, dancing and playing some rather silly games in the warm Spanish sunshine. One thing you can do in Spain is plan an outside event and just about rely on the weather to be good. You are unlucky if you end up cancelling due to the weather, so different from the UK.

History of Queen's Day

The Dutch have been observing Queen's Day on April 30 since 1949, when the new Queen Juliana ascended the throne. Before then, the holiday fell on August 31, the birthday of Juliana's mother, former Queen Wilhelmina.

When the current Queen Beatrix succeeded Juliana in 1980, she chose to keep Queen's Day on April 30, as Beatrix's own birthday is January 31, a date when Dutch weather isn't conducive to the many outdoor activities associated with the holiday.

Every year Queen Beatrix visits one or two Dutch towns to greet her country's people and visitors, who receive her with fitting celebrations. What began as a commemoration of the Dutch Royal Family has evolved into a nationwide day of creative, carefree springtime revelry.

Spanish natural remedies for coughs and sore throats.

Despite the beautiful sunny weather we have at the moment, there are a surprising number of people suffering from coughs and sniffles. Yesterday Amelia gave us a couple of spanish remedies.

If you are unable to sleep at night due to coughing - put an onion, cut in half, in your room on your bedside cabinet.

Sore throat - gargle with pure unsweetened lemon juice and then drink honey mixed with milk.

I've never come across any of these and at the moment, I have no need to try them - but hey, if they work - great!

And the whole village was there!

Terreros in winter is quiet, you see small groups of people out and about having lunch, on the beach, meeting for an evening drink and you bump into people in the shops but there is little concept of how many people are living here all year.

Well last night, we got a really good idea.It was the annual fund raising dinner held at Mesa Pepa's restaurant to raise funds for the junior football team. Tickets were a bargain at €10 for which we had Chicken and Jacket potatoes plus vegetables - for the English! (I'll explain that one a little later).

I think there would have been little money raised from selling the tickets but the raffle would be the main fund raiser. There was an army of ladies selling raffle tickets all night and as Pepa's filled up, so did their buckets. There must have been about 50 raffle prizes all donated by local businesses and residents and the main prize was a lovely Microwave.

There must have been well over 100 people packed into Pepa's and although it semed chaotic to start with once we were all seated, the meal was served quickly and the drinks flowed. After dinner the raffle was a joint effort with José Luis and Amelia selecting the prizes and drawing the tickets and Michelle and Lucy calling out the numbers in both Spanish & English.

There was a wonderful atmosphere with all the nationalities in Terreros represented, and after the raffle was finished dancing could start to the disco outside. All this went on until the early hours of the morning with some dancing until 3am. It's was so good to see the whole community come together for such a good reason and all have so much fun.

Well done to the organisers, over €600 was raised from the raffle alone.

Now, about those vegetables!

When you eat out in a Spanish restuarant they do not serve main courses with vegetables, they normally only come with chips or potatoes but the English like to have vegetables with their meal. You can ask for vegetables and sometimes they may have some frozen that they can do but considering the fresh produce you can buy at the markets, it seems rather surprising that you don't get them by in restaurants. So, in acknowledgement of the number of English attending last nights dinner, Mesa Pepa's had done plates of vegetables (for the English) to have with the chicken, they were frozen (possibly Bird's Eye) but they added colour to the plates and were not over cooked so were quite a nice addition.

If you are eating out in Spain and want vegetables you need to aks for them, and I would suggest you ask whether they are fresh or not, and what they are as we have known someone who was having a meal of lamb & chips, they asked for vegetables and they were brought a plate of potatoes!

Do you have fresh vegetables? - tienes las verduras frescas, por favor?

A letter from 40 years ago!

A couple of weeks ago I had a phone call from one of my cousins to say my Uncle Eric had passed away. Last week I received a text from her to say that while they had been sorting through some of his things they had come across a letter that my Mum had written to my Grandma. As children in the 60's we had lived in Sheffield whilst our Grandma was in Middlesborough, we had no phone in the house and only went though to visit a few times a year, so letter writing was key to keeping in touch.




My Mum died in 1969, so I knew this letter had to be 40 years old, and had been kept in he family all this time. Beverley said she would post it on to me and it arrived today.



The first thing I checked was the post mark - 24th June 1969. It was then very obvious why this letter had survived so long. It was the last letter my Mum wrote before she died in July 1969. Grandma had kept this letter because it was the last one she would ever receive from her daughter. I know Grandma replied to it because she had once told me that when she received a letter she kept it on one side until she replied and then once she had written a reply she would tear the envelope from the top down a bit, and that way she knew whether she had replied or not.

So many memories were already coming back to me and I hadn't opened the letter yet.

It was a typical family letter, news about what me and my brothers were doing, other family news, a comment that my other Grandparents had just gone back after a visit from Scotland and that she had been grateful for their help with the laundry as she had been feeling unwell.

She asked if they had been to the caravan, which brought back memories of Redcar, trips to the caravan site by the river - and earwigs, yuch!

And a final comment thanking her for my birthday money, 10/- (10 shillings) which (apparently) I had put together with money from my other Grandparents and bought a pair of Scholl sandals. I was 11, I remember this well as my Mum didn't want me to get them as she felt they were unsuitable footwear, not sensible shoes. Her comments to Grandma were as follows:

Jacqueline has bought herself some Scholl's, that's those things they call exercise sandals that are just held on over the toes. I didn't want her to get them but she said everybody had them so I said oh, alright then. But she walks as if she is crippled in order to keep them on her feet. Mad I call it.

What wonderful memories brought about from a simple family letter, a snapshot of family life. A real treasure for me to keep.

I have my first cold since moving to Spain!

Back in the UK there would be several times each year when I would be downing the lemsips, clutching the tissue box with eyes and nose streaming. In winter this could last weeks.

But, since being in Spain we've had none of this. Whether it is the outdoor living, the warmer weather or the better diet, who knows.

But, over the last week I have had defininte signs that I was coming down with a cold and this morning it's finally arrived. And where have I caught this from?

England!

Yes, my friend Lucy went back for a visit and kindly brought it back with her.

Thanks Lucy.

There are few things I miss from the UK, but one is Mansize Tissues, you cannot get them over here - and they would be really useful today, when you have a streaming cold, these piddly little tissues are neither use nor ornament!

Don't be foolish, use Factor 50!

We saw it a lot last year, holiday makers with snowy white skin not appreciating just how severe the sun is here. This week, the Easter holidays, there are a number of families out here enjoying the break in the Spanish sunshine. We have wonderful weather if not a little windy at times and the sun is out most of the day, with a few clouds occasionally drifting across infront of it. The sun is warm enough to sit in all day, it's easy to be at the beach for hours, it doesn't feel intense............

but be warned, it is.

A Spanish friend of ours has told us we should never under estimate the strength of the sun here and should always use Factor 50 sun cream.

Looking at the number of lobster red bodies walking around here already, and we are only in April, be warned, bring pleanty of Factor 50 if you don't want to be taking home an unwanted souvenir of your trip!

Semana Santa - NOT Santa Semana

Semana Santa (Holy Week) in Spain is a massively important week, especially in Almeria. It runs from Palm Sunday through to Easter Sunday.



Even if you are not religious, it is difficult not to be moved, the atmosphere is so vital and poignant. For some it is a fun filled fiesta time, for others a week of ritual and reflection. Without a doubt, Holy Week in Andalucia is a tradition that is an integral part of the culture and appropriately reflects the spirit of the people.


Year after year, each and every village proudly enjoys the beauty and mystery of "Semana Santa" although there are variances and some towns for instance, will preserve certain traditions more than others. The villages and hamlets generally hold their parades on Thursdays and Fridays, while the large capital cities have week long celebrations and attract thousands of people from far and wide.

http://www.donquijote.org/culture/spain/fiestas/semana-santa.asp

Lorca, nearby, has huge parades, they can last upto 4 hours and are very well known for it's spectacular floats and horse parade with standards. The main parades were last night and tonight.

It is noticable how many Spanish families have come down to Terreros this week on holiday, how many of the shops were closed yesterday and almost all are closed today but will be open tomorrow.

Easter is very important here

A light hearted look at the Spanish Language.

A SPANISH Teacher was explaining to her class that in Spanish, unlike English, nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine.

'House' for instance, is feminine: 'la casa.' 'Pencil,' however, is masculine: 'el lapiz.'

A student asked, 'What gender is 'computer'?' Instead of giving the answer, the teacher split the class into two groups, male and female, and asked them to decide for themselves whether "computer' should be a masculine or a feminine noun. Each group was asked to give four reasons for its recommendation.

The men's group decided that 'computer' should definitely be of the feminine gender ('la computadora'), because:

1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic;

2. The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else;

3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long term memory for possible later retrieval; and

4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your pay check on accessories for it.

(THIS GETS BETTER!)

The women's group, however, concluded that computers should be Masculine ('el computador'), because:

1. In order to do anything with them, you have to turn them on;

2. They have a lot of data but still can't think for themselves;

3. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they ARE the problem;

and

4. As soon as you commit to one, you realize that if you had waited a little longer, you could have gotten a better model.

The women won!

Off to Fish? No, Fish was off!

For any of you following my blog you will be familiar with my ability to arrange to do things only to find the venue closed. Last week we arranged to go for Menu del Día at a local Chiringuita with some friends, only for them to phone me on the morning to say they had forgotten, it's closed on Thursday's and we would need to re-arrange. They said they knew it was closed on Thursday's and should have realised when were arranging to meet them there - so I seem to have passed on my ability to arrange to do things when places are closed

....and so,

Amelia, the Spanish lady I have lessons with, had told us we didn't have a lesson this week because it is Semana Santa - Easter week, but we would have a group outing to Águilas yesterday for breakfast and then on to the Fish market so she could explain what all the odd looking items are that we see on the fish counters and explain how the Spaniards eat them, she is really good at helping us in this way, and of course, we are expected to speak Spanish while we are out with her for practice.

We did question whether the market (which is indoor) would be open yesterday, it being Semana Santa and she assured us it would be.

Well, you've guessed it, well sort of. The building was open but none of the fish stalls were staffed or had any fish. Why? Well not because of Semana Santa, but because the fishing boats don't go out on Sunday so there is no fish to sell on Monday - apparently the fish stalls are normally closed on Mondays - every week.

No matter, in the same building there are some fruit & veg stalls so she took us over to one of them and started to ask us to name the various items. One of them was a prickly pear - ' un higo chumbo'. Well as you can imagine there wasn't anyone in the group that had tried one she Amelia asked the stall holder if she would show us how to peel it and to cut it up so we could taste it, which she was more than happy to do. The skin came away very easily to leave a peachy coloured flesh which had some small seeds in it but it tasted quite sweet, a little like melon but without the tartness.

So, we had a good chat over breakfast sat in the square in Águilas and we met some ladies Amelia knew so we had a chance to practice our spanish on them by introducing oursleves and telling them a little about how long we had lived in Spain, who we lived with and what we did. Then we had a good nosey around in the fruit and veg so the morning wasn't a waste but I would have liked to have seen the fish stalls and had a chance for Amelia to explain what things were and how to cook them. Maybe another time.

Off to Fish

No, I haven't taken up sitting on a river bank for hours with road and line, as part of our Spanish class we are off to the local Fish Market in Águilas. There are so many things on that fish counter that I don't recognise and wouldn't have a clue what to do with I'm hoping to find this morning very informative.

I'll let you know later.

55 and Beige!

Today is Neil's 55 birthday. He has commented over the last few days that 55 seems old, he doesn't feel old but his age suggests otherwise. And today when we were out we realised that his wardrobe has changed from blues and reds and greens and blacks and whites....

to BEIGE!

Maybe I need to write off and enrol him as one of Terry Wogan's TOG's - only I thought that applied to people who reached 65, not 55!

Today we have been out celebrating with friends, we met up at 4pm with the intention of having a couple of hours with a couple of drinks in a couple of bars and then home for some dinner.

Of course, it didn't turn out that way, we ended up having several drinks over several hours in several bars ......

and no dinner!

So, the birthday boy is now fast asleep in bed and he'll know he's had a good time in the morning by the size of the hangover.

Golf should be fun!