Semana Santa

You would be forgiven for thinking this was yet another late Christmas post, but Santa in the case is not Santa Claus but is Spanish for Saint. This is Saint's week - Easter!

Easter is an important time in Spain and there are many processions over the whole weekend. During the last couple of weeks we noticed lots of balconies had hung fabric banners out – many of them were purple but there were a few green ones. Then I noticed that the lady on the cake shop had a small doll broach on which was also dressed in purple. We tried asking what the colours were all about and from what we could understand it’s seems to be about family ties.

So, we went down to watch the procession on Thursday night, hoping that it would be a little more impressive than the 3 Kings we went down for in January.

And we were not disappointed.

There were banners,

Marching bands,

There were grown ups

and children

And then there were huge floats that only just fitted down the narrow streets.

There were the cross carriers, some walking in bare feet over the cobbled streets and that big cross looked incredibly heavy as he lifted onto his shoulder.

This float was carried on the shoulders of about 50 men, who after carrying it out of the church

They then lifted it above their heads to rapturous applause of everyone watching.

They held it for about 30 seconds before lowering it back onto their shoulders.

The parade continued with the ladies dressed in their black finery with lace decked peinetas.

The whole parade took over an hour to pass and went all around the town. There were so many people there watching it and many who live in the town were out on their balconies. I wasn't sure whether this was to appreciate the parade or to make sure that the floats went past without takingthe balcony railings with them. It was absolutely fabulous to watch. It was wonderful to see whole families involved.

Afterwards we went into one of the local bars for a drink and some tapas and the whole place was buzzing, it’s the first time we have really seen the town alive after the winter has kept everyone in.

And for anyone wondering, the pointy hats that some were wearing date back to before the KKK started wearing them but I need to do some more research to find out their significance.

Saturday is the Burying of the Sardine, which I thought was always at the start of Lent but apparently can be at either end of Lent (see last years post) and on Sunday the is the procession for the Resurrection.

Photo Catch-up.

Our recent trip to the UK was about family and friends and these are a few photos that I shall treasure.

Normally, I am behind the camera so this is a rare photo of Neil & I together.

We enjoyed a lovely meal with our dear friends, whose birthdays both fell on the weekend we visited.

This is me with a very good friend who I first met at college in Nottingham when we both enrolled on the same course after leaving school. (Liz, I think Neil was being kind by using a bit of soft-focus!)

This is a photo I shall treasure – my and my brother.

And the whole group after a lovely meal in Staines.

Holiday over, back to work!

I cannot believe we have been back from our trip to the UK for a week already. Since getting back Spring really seems to have arrived and we have had some lovely warm days although the nights are still quite chilly outside. The house, though, does seem to be taking the warmth from the day and hanging onto it as, for the last couple of nights we have not had to turn up the heating from its daily setting of 16c.

I know to some of you 16c will seem a low temperature to have the heating set at, but as we spend most of our days outside with the door open for the dogs to come and go as they please, there is little point having the heating set higher as all we would be doing is trying to heat the rest of Spain, and believe me, the rest of Spain can pay their own heating bills.

Neil finally got the tiling on the patio area outside the utility room finished last week. This has seemed a long job since we first put the shuttering up for the concrete pad, but the weather had really not been good for working outside since Christmas. We’ve been able to snatch the odd day but nothing more, and you cannot work with concrete and tile cement if the weather is too cold. This patio area is for storage and for drying the washing. It is a good corner that gets a lot of the wind so hopefully the towels and bedding will dry much quicker than they do at the moment. The front of the house is so well sheltered from the wind, which normally blows from some northerly direction, that unless the sun is out the washing just hangs there limp and wet. The utility has been great as a drying room this winter but it has been frustrating when there has been a good drying breeze and I’ve not been able to make use of it.

Our next ‘job’ is the fence. We are not going to try anything so ridiculous as to fence in all our land, trying to fence in 7 acres would be a task similar to that of painting the Forth road bridge. So, we have decided to fence in the immediate area around the front and side of the house. This will mean we have safety from any roaming animals getting near the house or the dogs, it means at night Brandy & Brinkley are close to the house and I know where to find them, and it means I can start to plant out my vegetable patch without becoming a, ‘All you can Eat Buffet’ for the rabbits, of which we have many.

On Friday, when I was down in town I received a phone call. ‘Estás la mujer de Nil?’ Now, this has been asked of me many times since moving to this house and it always make me smile. I no longer have my own identity, I am simply the ‘wife of Neil’. ‘Sí, claro’ I responded and then waited until I managed to hear enough words I recognised from the following rapid fire conversation to work out who was ringing.

It didn’t take me long to realise it was the ‘Metal Man’. All the stuff for our fencing was ready. I was only a hundred yards away so I said I would call into the office as it is so much easier talking face to face. They wanted to deliver everything that afternoon and wanted to know if someone would be at home. Apparently, even the ‘wife of Nil’ would do. All the Spanish call Neil, Nil which I find quite amusing for a language which generally pronounces every letter – we now have a redundant ‘e’.

And so, we are now the proud owners of a pile of fence posts, rolls of chain link fencing and more brackets and bolts than I’ve ever seen outside of B&Q.

Hopefully the weather will remain warm and dry for the next few weeks while we are digging holes, concreting posts and unravelling a heck of a lot of chain link fence.

Now to sort out the photos.

The card reader on my laptop has stopped working and so I have to load them onto Neil's and dongle them across, so that is my task tonight, then I can share some photos of my trip home with you.

Out Thursday, back Monday and lots to do inbetween.

Sunday morning saw us with bags packed and a couple of hours journey to London, but first we stopped off to see another of my brothers, I have three in total– 2 older and one younger. Most people think I only have one as normally they only hear me speak about my oldest brother, Andy.

We had a good hour with Dawn & Stewart, and just as we were thinking of leaving, Mark came in so we stayed and chatted a little longer. This led to a lively discussion on whether Barcelona is in the north or south of Spain. I won’t go into details other than to say, just because something is on the Mediterranean coast, it doesn’t make it southern Spain!

By lunchtime we were back on our way and we thought we were doing very well for time when we ran into the road works around Nottingham and East Midlands airport. They went on for miles with a 50mph limit.

As we neared London we take the M25 towards Slough and I reminded Neil to be careful of the speed cameras. Here in Spain, in the rural areas where we live, it seems speed cameras haven’t really taken off. We only have 2 in the whole area that I know of and none of them are within the local area. In the UK it is hard to drive down any major road without coming across one, and the M25 is no exception.

After getting our exits mixed up and coming off at the wrong one, we finally made it to our friend’s house. Liz and I met at college in Nottingham (quite) a few years ago, Liz will not permit me to say how many but I think Slade & Sweet were topping the charts. We had both signed on for an intensive 1 year Accountancy course after which I continued in Accountancy and Liz moved into computer studies.

We have remained friends despite living at opposite ends of the Country and no matter how long it is between us seeing each other, we chat away as of we had only seen each other yesterday. It is a very special and valued friendship to me and I love to spend time with her. We look forward to her coming to visit us in Spain someday so we can show her around our new home and town.

My brother lives a couple of hours away from Liz, so we had arranged to meet at a restaurant in Staines, sort of mid-way(ish). We met there when I was over last summer and the food was really good, although parking can be difficult.

We had travelled from Spain with our 2 big, hard suitcases. A bit excessive for 4 days but we needed the hard cases as we had a birthday present for Cadey, who was 3 a couple of weeks ago, but unfortunately timing meant we hadn’t seen her as she was at Butlins for the weekend, and Christmas presents for Andy & Suzie – no, I’m not mega-organised for this coming Christmas, these are from last Christmas when Andrew was supposed to have come to visit us and hadn’t. It was important these were safe in the cases as they were fragile.

It was brilliant to see both Andy & Suzie again and we all had a great evening which was over all too soon. As we left the restaurant we went to get a large box that Andy has been looking after for me since our Dad died.

Dad and I shared a love of Terry Pratchett books. He had a few on his bookshelf and I had a few on mine, although we had read everyone he has written. A few years ago, for Dad’s Christmas present I bought all the missing books to make up the first 20 in a set for him. In this large, heavy box were the 20 Pratchett books which I was looking forward to re-reading, sitting on my veranda on hot, sunny days over looking the mountains or on warm, balmy evenings under a canopy of stars, and sharing the jokes with my Dad once again.

Monday morning saw Neil and I at the Post Office to arrange to send the box of books to Spain. 19.6kg of books cost us £56 to send over – but as I sit typing this I know that in a couple of days they’ll be here. It’ll be like a late Christmas for me.

We had a long day of travelling and once we had said goodbye to Liz, I just wanted to be home with the dogs. I dislike the actual travelling, motorways, airports, planes. It’s just so much hassle.

Being back in England for a few days had re-enforced why we live I Spain. I love to see my family and friends, I don’t love the traffic, the grime and the hassle. I don’t love being away from Brandy & Brinkley and I don’t love being away from my home. I have told Neil if I talk about another visit to the UK this year he is to remind me of all of the above.

So, we’re back to the quieter pace of life and the continuing work that is our house. We have just laid a patio outside the utility, which has now tiled and grouted and just needs cleaning off when the grout is set and, again as I type this, I have 2 guys putting up the fly screens around the front area to the house where the hot tub is so that we can spend the summer hours outside without the company of the flies, bees and mosquitoes. I thought it would look a bit ugly, like a cage but it’s actually looking really nice and so much better than I expected. I thought it was a necessary evil to permit us to enjoy our living space but it’s turning the front area into a garden room.

I’m really quite excited about seeing it finished.

Our next task?

250 metres of wire fencing, 66 fence posts and a lot of cement.

Now that’s going to take some doing!

I feel like a boomerang!

No sooner was I on a plane to England than I was on a plane back to Spain.

It was meant to be a quick trip to see a few friends and family, and it was. We seemed to cram a lot into a short time and once we got back, we seem to have spent the same amount of time saying to each other, we never did this, we never did that…..!

What we did do was get to spend time with the people we miss the most. Out of 4 days it rained only 1 day, but that was the day Neil played golf with his 2 sons. The rain just about held off until the 16^th hole, and then the heavens opened.

At the same time, I was at a local Garden Centre with my younger brother and step-mother. My plan was to have a coffee and a natter and then see if I could find a rhubarb stock to bring back as I fancy growing some rhubarb here – I love stewed rhubarb and custard, I real taste of when I was little.

By the time we had finished coffee the heavens had opened over us and there was no way I was getting drenched for a bit of rhubarb root that may get taken off me at customs, if they spotted it cling-film wrapped to my hairdryer.

And there’s another thing. I had taken my hairdryer in my case with me never thinking that it’s one I bought since we moved to Spain, so if course when I came to use it, it had the wrong plug on the end and we don’t have any adaptors for Spain to UK items, only the other way around! Something for the shopping list.

We landed at East Midlands airport at 11.30pm Thursday evening, and after spending half an hour dragging our cases around the car park looking for our hire car, clicking the remote on the keys to see if we could see any lights flashing that would give us a clue as to where the car was, we finally found it in a completely different car park to that which we had been told to go to.

We had decided, even though we were landing late, we would drive up to Sheffield that night rather than staying in a hotel near the airport and driving up the following morning through rush-hour traffic. As we are not used to traffic here in Spain, the more I could avoid major traffic problems in the UK, the better. It turned out to be a wise decision as with a mile of leaving the airport we were into major road works for mile after mile, where they are widening the motorway all around Nottingham.

We arrived at the hotel about 1.30am and rather than the overwhelming feeling being that we were tired, it was that we were hungry and so at 2am we were sat eating chicken salad sandwiches and drinking coffee. Needless to say we were the only ones in the restaurant!

Friday was a good day and we saw several friends but I did realise I had ‘dropped a clanger’ with the hire car. We had booked it for Neil to do the driving as I rarely drive when I am with Neil. However, I had forgotten that while Neil was playing golf on the Saturday I was driving through to see my younger brother several miles away. The paperwork says ‘Please obtain Hertz approval for additional drivers’ and so we rang them up. Nope, can’t be done over the phone, we have to go in – both of us. Fortunately, I had taken all my paperwork as well as Neil’s but this now meant driving into the centre of Sheffield in Friday night rush hour. Oooops.

We found the Hertz office straight away and it only took 5 minutes to have everything updated to allow me to drive on the Saturday so as we were already in the city centre we decided to go and browse around Staples. I don’t know why but I love looking and normally buying stationery and associated bits. Clothes shopping does not do it for me, but stationery, electronics and stuff for the house & gardens, I just love.

We have designed cards with our address and phone numbers on one side and a little map of directions on the other and we wanted some business size card blanks to print them out on so, that was one purchase. We also bought a greetings card package & program for me to play about with and some ink cartridges as they were half the price I pay in Spain.

Note: Business cards a disappointment, they will not allow printing on both sides – one side is brilliant, the other is all smudged and blurred. Something else for the shopping list!

Saturday was another day of visiting which ended with us celebrating with friends whose birthdays happened to fall on the Saturday and Sunday. It was pure coincidence we were there for their birthdays, but it meant we could all go out for dinner together and have a great night.

Sunday was another day of travelling so I think it should be another day of blogging.

And the bags are packed.......

Tomorrow, Neil & I are flying back the UK for a very quick visit. We have Friday & Saturday in Sheffield to see some family and friends and then on Sunday drive down south to see my other brother and a very close friend before flying back from Luton on Monday.

It's still going to be too long to be away from the dogs although Lucy and her dog, Sophie, are coming through to stay at the house and look after them.

We have waited a long time for this winter to finish and just as the weather has taken a massive turn for the better we are leaving the country. Hopefully when we return, spring will be well and truly here and summer with arrive very soon.

It's almost a year since my last trip back to the UK and I am always surprised how more distanced from the feeling of belonging there each trip brings. Considering that I lived there for almost 50 years, it certainly doesn't feel like home anymore.

Spain is definitely my home now.