The return of the young ones

This week has seen the arrival of my son Rob and his girlfriend Sophie.Its like meeting folk from Rivendel going to meet them, as they are both so pale, tall and willowy, him with his long dreadlocks and her with her long silky dark hair – taking all the hassles of air travel in their strides, shrugging off any inconveniences, young ones’ style.

Whilst on our travels, to my delight, Rob found a tapas bar at Burriana beach which had a whole page of vegetarian tapas on the menu (eating in Spain is difficult for him, being a vegetarian who doesn’t like eggs!!).We decided to order all six options and share them, expecting that this was likely to be too much, but hey, it is their holiday.The bowls of olives were delicious, particularly the ones filled with jalapeño peppers and the raw strips of veges to dip in the spicy whiskey dip were delicious.However, these portions were rather small and the three little lettuce leaves filled with yoghurt and three manderine oranges were not really very tasty and the tiny dish of roasted potato cubes didn’t go very far, so we were really looking forward to our roasted vegetable skewers! Little did I think that such a dish could be prepared and delivered nouveau cuisine style! The first skewer came with four lonely pieces of vegetables at intervals on the stick – a bit of aubergine, a mushroom, some pepper and a third of a slice of one sleeve of an onion – the brown design on the plate by some drizzled sauce did look pretty, but pretty isn’t filling!!The vegetables on the cheesy skewer were just as lonely but at least had toasted cheese on them!Still being very hungry I ordered the champagne and lemon sorbet from the desert menu only to be presented with a lemon drink with a white blob floating in it.I have to say it tasted delicious but did nothing to reduce my remaining hunger.Straight from there to the icecream parlour was the only solution.Rob said he had enjoyed it all so that was good!

 Friday night we walked to the local Italian where I knew Rob would be certain of getting something vege and we all had a lovely meal.At the other end of the block to the restaurant is a bar where a live band were expected so we all went there after our meal.Sure enough live music began so Al and I left the young ones there at about 2.30 after I had found myself doing a bit of head banging, urged on by a Scottish woman, and began walking home with our torch, both very merry and probably not shining it too evenly.As we were meandering along the track near the main road, admiring the perfect half moon which had just risen I suddenly became aware of a big spotlight heading towards us and a Guardia Civil (police) car stopped on the other side of the road.A deep Spanish voice shouted some enquiry we couldn’t understand and continued approaching us with his big flashlight so Alex, in his pigeon, drunken Spanish explained that we were English and we were going to our house whilst I shielded my eyes from the beam! It certainly made our torch with dimming batteries seem very dim and flickery. Anyway, this seemed to be what he needed to know as he uttered something which had reassuring tones, then returned to his car!Subsequent images in my mind of what we had looked like from his perspective kept me amused for the rest of our journey home.

Rob and Sophie had a good night mixing with local Spaniards communicating by gesture, odd Spanish words, a bit of French and drawings, returning home at 0700 to the delight of all the neighbourhood dogs who had been having such a boring night until then!

In the beginning

We (Alex and I, my two sons and sister Jenny) arrived to a rainy, muddy, roadless house with no power, so it was quite disappointing especially as we were hoping for an improvement on the previous Christmas when had arrived to find the water mains severed and had no water. However, we soon got a roaring real fire, some candles and even brewed up on the emergency gas cooker and had a really lovely evening. The wine started flowing and just all being together was wonderful.

The next morning Alex sorted out the power cut by visiting the local pylon and finding a mains switch! DIY in Spain is in a completely different league to England, not your usual tiling and shelf erection but mains water, sewer repairs and mains electricity!

Christmas eve was glorious sunshine and we were able to have our breakfasts outside on the back patio and we all just jollificated our way through Christmas having food, drink and being merry in the plenty. The boys  and Jenny even had a swim in the pool, but this was more of a dare than a pleasure and happily they survived without suffering hypothermia. The video is like a comedy sketch. Alex got a remote control submarine for one of his presents so he has been playing with it and his yatch on the pool (ooops sorry, not allowed to say “playing” –using his submarine and yatch!), I have just enjoyed looking at it!

Saying goodbye to the boys was quite emotional as I felt like the mother who abandoned her children, but they were both so lovely and reassured me that they were actually very happy for me!

The remaining three of us went to Malaga city to see the Christmas lights which were really beautiful, even trees had been wrapped in light netting and the atmosphere was very jolly.We were amused and entertained to see an electrician repairing some lights on the huge artificial tree in the square, observed by many onlookers until he completely disappeared inside the bottom of the green conical foliage – worryingly followed by some curious children! Once he switched them on again, everyone was agog with admiration and oo’s and aa’s until smoke started billowing out from between the branches and a policeman dived into the bar we were sitting outside and grabbed a fire extinguisher, also disappearing into the foliage of the tree. Fortunately he re-emerged in tact, smoke died down but the tree remained in darkness!

New year’s eve was great as we spent the day on the beach, had a lovely Chinese meal on the sea front then came home and partied. Spanish New Year tradition is to eat a whole grape for each of the twelve bongs at midnight. Jenny managed to eat hers soaked in cava (the grapes, not Jenny), I nearly managed it but Alex had loads left. After much singing, drinking, phoning and watching all the fireworks across the valley we tuned in to English t.v. and celebrated all over again. We extended our celebrations to 4a.m and spent our first of January, much the worse for wear.

Well, it doesn’t seem like we’ve actually moved here for good yet, we have just been partying all the time. I expect it will start to sink in once Jenny has left and we have checked our bank balances! Before then we have the Spanish Reyes celebrations which is when the three Kings come in the night and leave presents so we will obviously have to participate!