Andalucian Village Life - diary of an expat in Southern Spain

Lazy me...

2010-12-15T10:57:00.002+01:00

Oh dear. It has been sooo long since I last posted. I am still in the village but I guess my excuse for my absence could be down to the fact that I have had 2 kids since my last post?

I am now the happy mother to 2 small boys of 2 and 4, so not much time to blog.

Actually, let me rephrase that. Not much time. Full stop.

Back soon!

Celebrating halloween in Spain

2006-11-01T10:18:00.000+01:00

Halloween is celebrated in Spain, but in a different form. It is know as the "Day of the Dead," or "El Dia de los Muertos." It is a three day event beginning on the night of October 31 and ending on November 2, in which family members commemorate their loved ones whom have passed. It is believed that the dead return home to be with their families. Families sometimes make an alter at home as a way to reminisce. It is also common to visit the grave sites and both picnic and decorate.

Rain, rain, rain

2006-10-28T12:08:00.000+02:00

Thats right. Rain. In Spain.

The last 2 weeks have seen us getting lots of rain down in the South of Spain. So much in fact that there has been flash floods in some areas. And a few people have died.

Last night it kept dry though. We decided to venture down to the coast to catch a film in english in Puerto Banus to celebrate the fact that the weekend had arrived.

And it never seizes to amaze me how big a difference a 25 min. drive can have in the weather. Up here in the Sierra de las Nieves, it was rather cold, but in Marbella the weather was really windy but the wind felt warm. So warm in fact that we decided to sit outside for tapas in Marbella without freezing out bums off after the film had finished.

And driving back the weather behaved as I have seen it before. A bit past the second exit to Ojén when you have just come to the other side of the mountain, the wind dropped and it got colder. It really is true that Marbella has its own little micro climate.

Checked the weather forecast for Spain again, and it seems we have more rain coming...thursday next week it all kicks off again, so far until monday. Why is it always in the weekends you get the rain? There should be a law against that...

Human rights in the Faroe Islands

2006-10-26T10:01:00.000+02:00

Reading the news this morning online I came across an article about the fact that in the Faroe Islands it is perfectly legal to discriminate homosexuals.
Next month this law is up for review, and last time this was the case (last year) there was a huge support to keep the discrimination legal, many of the politicians referring to their belief that men who are with men cannot go to heaven.

Which of course is absolutely bollocks. So go to the link below and sign the petition to end this insane law.

http://www.act-against-homophobia.underskrifter.dk

"Buen Dormir" my arse

2006-10-23T10:07:00.000+02:00

When we were in Sevilla in the weekend, we spent the night at a little hostel. After driving to Sevilla and spending most of the day in IKEA to look at stuff, we arrived in the centre at around 8, having completely forgotten that it was Puente.
Optimistic we walked around to find a hotel in Sevilla to spend the night, only to be met by the answer that everything was full. Panic slowly grew, but in the end we found a Hostal that had one room left. The Hostal was called "Buen Dormir" or good sleep in english.

And that has got to be the understatement of the year. I was the worst nights sleep I have had in a lot of years. We only had one very high and hard shared pillow, and I could feel the bed springs boring into my back the whole night.

Anyway, nothing was going to ruin our little holiday in Sevilla, so a few coffees the next morning managed to make us laugh about our lack of sleep and the weather was on our side after a few days with rain as well. Sitting outside at a nice cafe looking at the Cathedral and all the old restored buildings whilst catching a ray of sun with the one you love, makes you much more positive despite our experince at "Buen Dormir".

IKEA Sevilla trip

2006-10-22T14:25:00.000+02:00

Went to Sevilla in the weekend on one of those combined business / pleasure trips. The business was the big IKEA and the pleasure was well, walking around the beautiful city that is Seville.

I must say that I cannot wait until the IKEA opens in Malaga. They have been talking about it for ages, and it kept being delayed, but now it does seem to be happening. Apparently its going to be located quite close to Malaga Airport in one of the large industrial areas, and expected to open in mid 2007.
Wonder what a lot of the local furniture shops are going to think about it? I mean, there are so many people buying properties in Spain and obviously they need to furnish them. A lot of companies offer whole furniture packages with fixed prices for e.g. 2 or 3 bedroom apartments which is ideal for property buyers in a hurry to get their apartment ready and without the time to sift around all the shops on the Costa del Sol.
But IKEA does fill a huge gap in the market down here. 1. Its cheap 2. You might actually want some of their stuff in your home.

Especially the second part has been a huge problem for me. How can I put it? Literally there are so many ugly things down here. I dont think the people in Andalucia has very good taste. Everytime I look in my "Casa y Campo" magazine I see wonderful house after wonderful house, but all the cool and stylish shops are always located in Madrid or Barcelona and not down here in peasant Andalucia. Bugger.

Spent the whole trip driving back from IKEA munching on all the goodies we had gotten in their swedish shop. Daim (or Dime if you prefer), pepporkakor (ginger biscuits), gelly fish, Kanel gifler (cinnamon rolls) and a lot more I dont want to be reminded of. Sufficient to say that my nausea grew increasingly with each bump in the road after I was done with my little feast.

The mortgage game in Spain

2006-10-19T22:42:00.000+02:00

Getting a mortgage in Spain is no easy task!

Somehow most of the banks here seem almost unwilling to lend you money, even if you have a house or apartment in Spain already.

I guess one of the reasons is that there is just not enough competition. They are very unflexible when it comes to borrowing money, even though you would think that bricks and mortar would be a very safe investment for them.

Our bank in Marbella just drives me nuts. Never pick up the phone or answer email which means that everytime you want something sorted you have to drive all the way down there and turn up in person. Only to find out that the person you need to see is on holiday...

Im going to turn to one of those mortgage companies soon! Must be an easier way of lending money on the Costa del Sol.

Feria music

2006-09-21T19:25:00.000+02:00

When my village celebrated its anual feria last month, the band on the poster shown to the left was one of the performing bands handpicked to entertain us all.

What? Not enticed by the look of them? Not excited about the prospect of hearing them live? Not eager to see what talents lay hidden behind their chuffed grins?

Well, neither was I!
I felt more drawn towards adding a bit of graffiti to their poster. Maybe something along the lines of "Who ate all the pies?"
But I didn't because deep down I am just too bloody nice.

So nice that I might even buy their new record which is supposedly out in the shops now. Nah, just kidding, I wouldn't dream of doing that. You would all think that I had lost my cool ;)

A mudbath is a kind of bath or what?

2006-09-20T08:56:00.000+02:00

Guess what my dog managed to find in the Spanish countryside? A mudhole. Happily she ploughed her head through it, rolled it and ran through it.

You can't keep a Labrador out of water! (Or mud it seems)

Yesterday both of my dogs were with a dogsitter all day for the first time. A young woman based in Marbella looked after them, and it all seems to have gone fine. She wasn't too put of by how boisterous they can be.
We had to call the petsitter in the middle of the day to check that everything was going fine, how's that for worried parents!

The reason they were being looked after is that we are going away next week without them, so we wanted them to have a prober introduction to the dogsitter in Spain before being left with her for several days.
So in the weekend they are going to have a sleep over as well...just so it's not too scary when they are there for longer.

What can I say? I like my doggies.

The gayest house in Spain?

2006-09-19T08:12:00.000+02:00

Out in the countryside between Coin and Guaro in the Sierra de las Nieves I have spotted possibly the gayest house in Andalucia.

As you might be able to see on the pictures it is as pink as can be! I really dont understand why anyone would have the inclination to paint their house in this colour. It must really hurt your eyes when you stand close to it in sunlight.

Well, each to their own. But I challenge you to find me a more gay house! Please do send me some pics if you come across one.

New neighbour

2006-05-09T11:19:00.000+02:00

My mum has got a new spanish neighbour. How cute is that! This little goat seems to think it is a dog. Follows everyone around and does the most fantastic little jumps. Or maybe all young goats do that and I just dont know since my life has been deprived of little goatlings when living the city life.

I might just have a little nibble

My Sunday morning in pictures

2006-05-07T16:53:00.000+02:00

Thought I would share my sunday morning with you this way. My little picture diary will show you the beautiful countryside in Sierra de las Nieves.
Not to mentions a very nice horse that I went riding on here in Spain.

Thw view is from Monda to the back of the Marbella mountain and also from Monda towards Malaga. This is horseriding country, and there are spanish horses almost around every corner.

Is there really any better way to start your andalucian sunday morning? Not for me!

The price of gas bottles

2006-05-04T16:30:00.000+02:00

The butanero (gas man) has just been past. Driving around the small streets in a small van type thing yelling "Bonbones". Never did understand the bonbones thing, so if your spanish is better than mine please enlighten me.
Anyway, I had an orange bottle to exchange and once again got a surprise. The price this time was 12.60 euros. Everytime I need a new bottle it seems the price is a little higher and it has doubled in the last 5 years.

I wonder why that is? Maybe because there is now city gas in the larger spanish cities, and it is not so profitable to eb a gas man anymore? Or are they just following the higher oil prices?

Pollen season

2006-05-04T12:57:00.000+02:00

Its that time of the year again when I start sneezing all the time. Hayfever time. Quite funny, I never suffered from this before I moved to Spain, so it has to be something native to Spain / the mediterranean that I am allergic to. Could be olives, as the trees are all fluffy and hairy now with their light green flowers.
Every time I am out in the campo their is a loud buzzing going on with bees and other insects being busy and doing what it is they do, going from flower to flower.
Had a bit more rain last night, which is really a bit late in the season, but obviously always very welcome as southern Spain has been suffering a drought the last few summers. Our balsas and reservoirs are getting yet more empty, so lets hope this summer is not going to be too hot ...

Working out the man way!

2006-04-02T22:08:00.000+02:00

What a weekend!

On saturday afternoon an evening I was in Coin for the SACAB Coín Spanish horseshow, which indeed deserves its own separate posting and maybe even a gallery when I get an gallery add-on sorted out for my blog. To watch those "Andalucian Pura Raza" horses was an absolute joy.

Sunday was man work day. We are in the process of building a corner sofa on our spanish terrace, and even though I am no builder, a helping hand was needed.

So girls, forget all about fancy workouts and paying for gym memberships. Do your workout the man way like I did. Carrying bricks from the bottom floor of our house up to the terrace on the second floor. Repeat said action about 30 times and you start regretting ever having offered a helping hand. Especially since it was 27 degrees on Sunday, and today my poor little office hands are suffering. Reforming your village house is no easy task.

I am starting to think I need a male alterego. So when I have to do jobs like this he takes over and comes out with stuff like "Alright mate, how is them bricks looking?". And I will swig down some beer and not care if a burb escapes my lips, 'cause I'm a labourer and I scratch my bollocks.
The biggest problems seems to be to come up with a name for my male alterego. It can't really be the name of anyone I know already, and I want it to be a short name.

So far the following names have been excluded: Joe, Dave, Jim, Colin, Keith, Ben, Stan.

If you have any good suggestions let me know.

Spanish lemons you dont see in the shops.

2006-03-31T19:51:00.000+02:00

Ahh! Alien lemons!

I have now found some lemons on a tree here in the village that at best could be described as odd looking and at worst disgusting, perverse and slightly unnerving.

All of them were found on 2 trees next to each other, which makes me wonder what kind of chemicals have been dropped there once upon a time.

Or maybe there are many lemons like this, and I have just never seen them in my protected supermarket life.

If you have any pics of other weird veggies or fruit that you ahve seen here in Spain, please feel free to send it to me and I will post it in my blog.

Introducing the girls

2006-03-30T17:51:00.000+02:00

I realised that I have not introduced the girls, shame on me! Well, here they are my two black doggies. Click on the picture to see a larger version. That goes for all the pictures in the blog actually.

So without further ado, the dogs aka "Little Fucker" and "Greedy Guts".

El Corte Ingles in my village?

2006-03-27T11:41:00.000+02:00

My village only has about 2500 people living here, but nevertheless it seems El Corte Ingles has arrived. For those outsiders who dont know what El Corte Ingles is, I can tell you that it is a large department store chain here in Spain.

Anyway, on a daily basis we have an elderly man driving around all the small streets on his little moto with a plastic crate on the back selling what I assume is his own home grown vegetables.

You always know he is coming by the vast amount of yelling that goes on. "Lo mejor Hija, Lo mejor. Naranjas. Calabazin. Lo mejor."

Apparantly his sales pitch cant be going to well, or he is feeling the competition from the local supermarkets and the weekly veggie market, because he has changed his pit.

He has now started to yell "El Corte Ingles, hija. Lo mejor. El corte Ingles. Naranjas. Lo mejor." so I guess he now sees himself of our local version of El Corte Ingles with his high quality vegetables. Ever the sales guy he is.

A little tape goes a long way

2006-03-24T16:18:00.000+01:00

Do you have a problem with your tiles? Are they falling off the facade of your house?

Fear no more, saviour is near! All you have to do is get a role of tape y voila, you too can fix it in a matter of minutes.

No need for expensive professionals or fancy solutions. Just get that role of tape and start sticking those tiles together. Man or woman, child or elderly. ANYONE can do it.

Green everywhere

2006-03-24T13:34:00.000+01:00

Seems like the major part of the rain is over now and we can expect more sun and warmer temperatures.

I caught these wild flowers when I was out for a walk yesterday. Everything is so green and luch now, and I am doing my best to enjoy it to the fullest before the harsh sun turns everything yellow and dry again.

The dogs are using the high grass to hide in when playing with each other, staging surprise attacks and chasing each other like mad.

Bless.

All those teddy bears...

2006-03-23T20:05:00.000+01:00

All those teddy bears your parents told you are safely packed away in a box somewhere, waiting for the day you might want children yourself, are not really there. And they are not really safe either. I think dead is a more accurate description. Dead and maybe scary? To birds anyway.

I saw the proof today of all of those teddy bear lies your parents told you. I saw the proof in a garden today.

A teddybear scarecrow. A first for me I assure you.

With a stick right up his fluffy arse.
.
.

You know you have been to Marbella when...

2006-01-27T22:48:00.001+01:00

You know you have been to Marbella when you have seen the weird saxophone playing dude with the white beads in his plated hair. He often wears a white suit, but I have also seen him in the attire that I spotted him in today on a previous ocasion.

I had forgotten about him, but the it all came back to me the other day when I was in Marbella. I spotted him on the Avenida del Mar and lucky me, he was wearing his kinda wrestler outfit. I guess that is what you might call it. It consists of an all in one body thing made out of shiny lycra wit a top like cycling pants and a top with too long straps thereby revealing far too much of the upper body including his nipples and most of his chest. And let me enlighten you. We are not talking about a fit young body you might want to see that scantily clad. Trust me, it was quite scary.

In amazement and shock I did a good old double take followed by the stare. Unfortunately I think he caught me checking him out and mistook my intentions, as the next time I turned around to have a bit more of a stare he caught my eyes again.
I left mortified that he might have enterpreted my entensions as amorous.

Same same... but different

2006-01-27T22:48:00.000+01:00

You can travel across the globe, visit foreign cultures, learn other languages. But some things remain the same no matter where you are in the world, leaving you feeling safe and well....bored.

The sun always rises in the east, babies cry and, unfortunately, people force you to watch their tedious long un-edited holiday videos, blissfully unaware of how extremely boring it is.

And this is what happened to me. I was with a friend who was commenting on the dark tan of one of my neighbours. Mistake number one. It turns out that she has just returned from a holiday at a resort with her husband and son. And their video camera. Need I say more?

Friend and I then got marched to neighbours house who got husband involved, as one do when needing someone to deal with the technical side of things..., and sat us down for the show.

First we had to see pool at the resort. For 10 minutes. In all angles. And I'm sorry to say that one pools does look like the next and its only really fun if you were there in person.

Enter mistake number 2. We answer yes to the question of whether or not we would like a cup of coffee. Said coffee takes about 15 minutes to produce, all the while we get to see even more shots of our middleaged neighbours in their swimming costumes enjoying the the buffet, the pool, the terrace, the beach...you get the picture.

I think the only really entertaining bit was when husband was being told to find the water polo sequence. After some fast forwarding, he managed to find it. We watched boring water aerobics, and camera then drifted to their overweight kid playing with another kid in the pool, who happend to have a mum who was topless. The son left the picture, but oddly enough the camera lingered on the other kids topless mum. And stayed there...

After a while the dad seemed to notice and hurriedly started fast-forwarding, with some comic fast movements of topless mum followed by even more scantily clad women. He did seem a bit embaressed, and we managed to escape after that.

All this just goes to show that even though Spain in so many ways seems like very different country, there are a lot of similarieties, even if they are of the more tedious kind as in this case.

Olives and dew

2005-11-24T11:32:00.000+01:00

Ok, ok, I know that my blog so far has not contained any pictures, but hey, thats all about to change.

This morning when walking the dogs in the campo (contryside red.) I was struck by how magic everything looks when the dew is lying heavy on the land.

The olives have now got my favourite colour. Not green, but not that almost black colour just yet either. Their waxy surface makes them look almost dusty and their deep purple colour is just amazing.
I have to admit that I didnt take this photo myself, but it shows the lovely colour.
What I dont want to show you is how muddy I got after taking my walk. It has been raining the last few days and the dogs where going mental running around playing and not minding the big puddles everywhere.

I bet all the readers in Nothern Europe and generally in colder and more wet areas are snickering now, happy to hear that we dont just have sun every day.
Well, we don't. But almost...he he

Don't pee on the seat...

2005-11-24T11:06:00.000+01:00

Spanish women like cleaning. Not saying that spanish men don't like cleaning, I have just never seen any of them do it.
They like their detergents, soaps, chlorine, antiseptics and the stronger the better.
"Fuck the environment, I want a clean home where you can eat of the floor" they seem to say.

Which is why I get surprised every time I have to use a public toilet. Because it seems that the same rules dont apply here. First of all there is often a lack of soap and paper towels or other means of drying your hands . This has lead to me nicking a few soaps from hotels etc (sorry!) and then I can often have one in my handbag in case I have to use a public toilet and there again is no soap. You might think me a bit prudish, but after 5 years in Spain, that does account for quite a few occasions. And then by leaving my little soap, the next users of the toilet can wash their hands properly as well.

And then the peeing on the toilet seat. That is IF there is a toilet seat. In the more rural areas I have often come across toilets without any seats? Why? I mean, isn't that a sure way of assuring that you get piss all over the place? And with nothing to hold on to, you do get some quite acrobatic manouvers going.

But what annoys me the most is why people cant just put toilet paper on the seat rather than hovering over it, effectively overpissing it and ruining it for the rest of us? Why do these detergent loving women forget all about cleanliness when they are on public toilets?
Could it be that they are so sick of spending so much time cleaning, that they are determined to get even when it for once is not themselves who have to clean afterwards?
It really beats me. But do let me know if you know the answer to this oh so great mystery of Spanish women, toilets and detergents.

The first rain

2005-10-11T17:00:00.000+02:00

The rain has arrived in Andalucia now. It's the first proper rain after
summer this year. We have had a few meagre attempts previously, but they did
little more than wet the ground and get all the cars dirty as they collected
the dust and sand in the air and splattered it on the cars and streets.

But this time its real rain. Thundering rain, massive drops, lightning and
dogs refusing to go for walkies. The narrow steep village streets get
transformed into busy rivers, and new and fresh smells fill the air.

I am walking around in my imported wellies, as the only ones I could find in
the shops were the kind of knee length green fisherman style wellies. I
might be living in the country, but there is no need to walk around in
oversize ugly wellies.

So hurray for the rain, watering the countryside, filling up our empty dams
and reservoirs and giving me something different to wear for once!

Five things to consider before buying in a small spanish village

2005-10-10T22:25:00.000+02:00

When choosing which village to settle in, I world recommend visiting all of them at different times of the day and week. Especially when you are not used to the whole siesta scenario. My village is usually completely dead during siesta, but quite lively on Sunday evenings with the whole family and restaurants and bars. So you might get the wrong impression if you are visiting at the wrong time.
In most villages the life is very…uhmm..well, rural! So forget your romantic ideas of the neighbouring writer and the retired intellectuals running a small dairy farm. Most people will have very simple lives and not be interested in your philosophical ponderings. And you might not find much stimulation from fellow villagers, unless the conversation is olives, the dry weather or jamon.
Remember to brush outside your house. I don’t think I am being considered a proper housewife as I only do this every three months or so, rather than every day. I have, however, mastered the techniques of the mop.
Beware of noise pollution! My street seems to become a major through fare on Friday and Saturday evenings, as well as the whole summer for motos and quad bikes. So talk to the neighbours before you buy somewhere in the centre of a village, and asses your own need for being able to have 8 hours undisturbed sleep.
Make sure you like to talk to old women…
I have been joking with my partner that neither of us would ever be able to have an affair as all the old women on our street seem to know where we are and what we are doing all the time. In the summer especially, they spend a lot of their time in the evenings on the street as it gets to hot to be inside. And every time you are going somewhere they will start chatting to you, curious about what you might have been up to lately. I wouldn’t recommend moving to the centre of a village unless you are prepared to mingle a bit and chit chat with neighbours etc. I do believe your behaviour would be frowned upon, as being anti-social is more unusual.

I’m sure I will think of more as time passes. Stay posted!

Women who work and women who don’t

2005-09-30T19:33:00.000+02:00

Going to the local shop in the morning to buy some bread for lunch I am greeted by the same scene every time. The small supermarket is full of middle aged and elderly women about to do their shopping, in the middle of it or having finished their shopping but still in the shop.
“Hacer la compra” (to do/ go shopping) is a task/ seems to be done on a daily basis.

All of them are busy chatting, offering their opinion on this and that subject.
I do often marvel at their ability to have so much to talk about as it is the same women I meet every morning. But even after a few years of living here and being at a fairly proficient, if mostly self taught level of Spanish, I am still out of depth when faced with the uninterrupted chatter of half a dozen elderly andaluz women from one of the smaller villages in the Campo (countryside).

So far I haven’t been able to decipher exactly what subjects it is they seem to be able to discuss every morning. This is partly because I am in a hurry to get home and off to work because this is what this post is all about, the women who work and the women who don’t.

After a period of time of going to the shop every morning to buy stuff for my lunch at work, and chatting a bit about this and that, the women shopping there and the owner of the shop all caught on to the fact that I was going to work every day and further away from the village in a larger city.

This then led to me being pushed in front of the queue every time I was there (of which I was grateful, as everybody is involved in the chitchatting and don’t seem to be in a hurry) with the words “she is going to work”. It was almost like a magic formula, dividing the shop into them and me.

All of a sudden I could manage my time a little better in the mornings. From not knowing whether my daily purchase of bread for my lunch sandwich would take 15 or 5 minutes, it seemed to become 5 minutes almost every day as I was pushed to the front. Bliss.

Recently I again saw the divide between working and non-working women. It was this summer and quite late in the evening. The Spanish family in the house next to me had the grandchildren over for the summer holiday. They are 4 girls, and not of the quiet kind!

So one evening the two eldest were sitting out on the street entertaining their friends, chatting and eating pipas at 1 o’clock at night. Which during the summer is not that late. But they weren’t really trying to be quiet at all. So in the end, Grandma came out and asked them if they had no shame? Because in the house across the street lived a woman who had to go to work.

After that they quietened down.