A new friend!

People have been telling me that the best way to improve my Spanish is to talk to Spaniards who don't speak any English. Well, at our golf club we have a very nice lady called Elizabeth who wants to learn to speak some English so that she can speak to all the English people who go to play golf there, and to understand them a little easier as most of them don't speak any Spanish.

So, I suggested that we meet for a coffee and a chat and we could help each other. We haven't managed to meet for a quiet coffee but she did come out with us last week when we watched the Man Utd v Barcelona match in Pepa's. It wasn't the best place to try to teach her any English so it was really just an evening for me to practice my Spanish.

Elizabeth is actually Brazilian and moved to Spain 7 years ago with her Spanish husband. Although she works in the restaurant at the golf club, back in Brazil she was a Psychiatrist, but her qualifications aren't valid for her to practice here in Spain



Because Neil doesn't speak any Spanish and Elizabeth doesn't speak any English, I found myself translating for both of them, and while I managed well, it was really exhausting -

BUT.....

..... we all had a fabulous night, we found out a lot about each other and I got a real buzz that I had spent all evening with a new Spanish friend and been able to chat all evening without too much trouble. I think we only needed the dictionary twice and one of those was to check what 'hurón' meant in English - it means ferret - and believe me, that's a whole different story!

I spoke with Elizabeth up at the golf club today and she has asked if she can come with us to the Flamenco night on Friday - so, she must have enjoyed the evening as well.



The Flamenco Party is this Friday, which just happens to coincide with my birthday - so we are looking forward to a good night out. I have my Flamenco outfit, flowers for my hair and Lucy brought me a lovely mantón back from her trip to Benidorm. A mantón is the lovely shawl the Spanish ladies wear, all embroidered with long tassles - mine's black with bright flowers - isn't it gorgeous?

It's a small world

While we were watching the football, I was aware that a group of people were hovering behind Neil, waiting for the table next to us to become free. We were still waiting for our meals. Elizabeth, our new friend was over half an hour late and so we assumed she had changed her mind, I knew it was her husbands birthday and they had been having a nice lunch as he was going to be away working for a couple of days, he's a long distance lorry driver.

Anyway, the couple next to us paid their bill and as they began to move this other group moved in. There were 4 of them but only 2 chairs and so they asked us if the chair we had was free and that started the conversation, Neil recognised their accents as being Yorkshire accents, similar to his. One was from Dewsbury, not far from Neil's home town of Featherstone - and so conversations continued.

It turns out the others were from Sheffield, 'so am I' I said, 'where abouts?' I continued - 'Nether Edge' came the reply - 'oh, the oppostite side of town to me then' I replied, 'I'm from Aston'. 'So am I' said one of the lads - small world?!!

It gets smaller.

After a chat about our local schools, and identifying that I left secondary school the same year he started so there was no way we could have known each other, one of the girls asked where I used to work. I told them Blundells, knowing that if they were from Sheffield they would know the company, but I never expected the next comment.....

'You know Anna who works at Blundells, don't you? She's just had a baby. She told us about you moving here, I used to share a flat with her!'

Definintely a small world!

A noisy night out!

Barcelona v Man Utd seemed a good match to watch in one of the Spanish bars so Wednesday night saw us down in Pepa's where we had arranged to meet Elizabeth, a new friend (who is Brazilian but has lived here for 7 years and speaks about 2 words of English). We were sensible and reserved a table infront of the TV, so we had a good view of the match. Neither of us have any loyalty to either team and so we were looking forward to watching a good match.

Pepa's was filled to capacity with 15 minutes still to go before kick-off and I felt sorry for the couple who were trying to have a quiet meal next to us, they obviously hadn't reckoned on the football crowd descending.

There was a big mix of Spanish and English so who ever won, there was always going to be a lot of banter throughout but when Barcelona scored, the place erupted. The Spanish love their football.

When the final whistle blew the noise was deafening, so much more fun than watching the match at home. It hadn't been a great football match to watch, but had been a great evenings fun.

Tough luck on Man U supporters in the room but the Spaniards were celebrating well into the night. We left them after midnight still in fine voice.

A good reason the have more BBQ's!

Just outside our back door is our gas BBQ, which has a lid. This morning Neil noticed a wasp hovering around it so went out and then he noticed there were a few more so he opened the lid of the BBQ to find that the little blighters had taken squatters rights and were setting up home. The nest was being formed but was smaller than the size of a golf ball so it was easily dealt with and the wasps killed but it was a narrow escape.

Back in Sheffield we had a wasps nest in the shed and by the time we discovered it, the wasp man reckoned there were about 2,500 wasps and they took the nest away in 2 black bin liners.

Can you imagine the problems we could have had if they had been allowed a little while longer to build their nest? We haven't had a BBQ this year but I think we need to use it once a week - just to make sure they are well and truly discouraged from returning.

Well spotted Neil!

The postman knocks twice!

Or in our case the post lady rang once!

The guy in the post office had obviously passed on the message correctly and this morning, Victoria, our 'cartera' called at the villa with not only the post addressed here but also a pack of re-directed post. Unfortunately I was out at my Thursday morning Ladies Club and Neil doesn't speak Spanish (other than to order coffee or beer and to get the bill) so he didn't get the full message but he did get that she had realised we had moved out of the last villa and he thought the mail was in a bag somewhere.

So, we loaded the dogs into the car and headed back to Pulpí. It's only a 15 minute drive so we decided we would go back to the office for when Victoria got back from her rounds in Terreros. I spoke to the same guy I spoke with on our last trip and he looked through some containers in the back but there wasn't anything of ours. So, we said we would walk the dogs, have a coffee and come back after 2.00pm so I could talk with Victoria.

We found a little café bar in a square quite close where we could sit in the shade and wait over a coffee, fanta and water for the pups.

Just after 2pm we went back to the post office and Victoria was back, so I had a conversation with her and finally gleemed that she had realised after a few weeks that we were no longer living at the old villa, so, not realising we had only moved to the next street and still had a key for the post box - and to be fair to her, why would she? - she had been sending our re-directed post back marked 'returned'!

Now she knew where we were she could start to deliver our redirected post again! Now, how was I to know we have postmen in Spain that think for themselves!!!!

So now we know what's happened, the bits we know have been returned we can chase up from the sender - and maybe - just maybe, any junk mail will now cease.

The post lady says what we should have done is to stick a note on the post box at the villa to say where we had moved to and she would have brought the post around! Now, I'm sure our postmen in the UK aren't allowed to do this sort of thing - I had difficulty getting them to give the post to me if I was outside my own gate without proving in triplicate that I really did, definitely live there!

The chicks have flown the nest.

On Sunday we noticed a distinct lack of tweeting coming through the wall into the kitchen but we could still see the parents were around. So, yesterday Neil took a look into the nest and the chicks had flown. He took the nest out of the pipe and said how well made it was. It was fairly solid and lined with the stuffing from some of our dogs toys, which they are adept at ripping out and leaving around the garden, it must have seemed like a trip to IKEA for the birds when they were building their nest.

I am pleased they have managed to raise their chicks safely, but we have covered the end of the pipe so we do not get any more unwanted visitors this summer - they are very noisy and very messy.

Good luck to them, we have so many cats around us they will need to be smart littel birds to survive.

Where's our post going?

We have our post on re-direct from the UK so that anything that we have forgotten to change still gets to us. Also, we cannot have Sky in Spain (technically we can and do, along with many others), we have to play the game and have a UK address for Sky to send things to.

Well, the re-direct has worked absolutely fine since last May upto about March, then suddenly - nothing. We get the post that is sent direct to us here - but the stuff on re-direct.

After a few weeks I began to think that something wasn't right and of course Sky are advertising that they are sending out new viewing cards and we need to make sure ours gets to us so I rang the postal re-direct service in the UK who confirmed everything was still in place and there had been no changes to it.

So, I rang the sorting office where we used to live and they also confirmed that the re-direct was still in place and while I was on the phone the postman came back from his rounds and he confirmed that he knows to re-direct our post, there is a sheet of labels ready etc etc.

MOST STRANGE.

This was about 2 weeks ago and I have been waiting for something to arrive through the re-direct - but nothing. So, this morning I decided to go up to Pulpi to the Post Office (Oficina de Correos) and ask them if they were aware of any problems. I had a very nice chat with a very nice man who was very patient with me and my Spanish but who totally got what I was saying. (He was so nice, he actually said how good my Spanish was - I felt so proud of myself, I didn't use my dictionary once!) He wasn't aware of a problem but he suggested I would be better speaking with the postwoman, Victoria. He will tell her the gist of my problem and I'm going back to Pulpi on Thursday morning to see whether she has any clues where our post is going.

It's all very puzzling!