A Spanish Christmas

Christmas started with our friends knocking on the door and wondering why weren't at the dinner that we'd been invited to...'but it's not Christmas!' Whoops! We were running a day late...Christmas dinner is on the 24th here. Anyway after getting the boys up again and shod then whipping up a quick entree and desert ( as promised) we dashed down the road and were shortly tucking into some rum cocktails (of Cuban origin). As they say 'no pasa nada'... it doesn't matter here in Andalucia.

The pièce de résistance was a suckling pig, some may have been put off by the tiny cryovac'd pig, pink and perfect in the foetal position, but 2 hours in the oven and the transmogrification was complete! It's uncanny.

Oink!

A fine meal with great company and nice wine, maybe too much of the latter as there was dull pain for the Christmas early wakeup. The combination of kids and presents doesn't seem to lend itself to sleepins - should know that by now. We have a little tree, slightly frumpy as compared to our plastic $20 flashin' good guys jobbie back home, but it was real - harvested on a sneaky run up a canyon near our house. Angus and Archie made some decorations de casero and in the end it looked pretty christmassy.

Archie wasn't too flash as he had spend the previous night with his head in a basin but promise of an excavadora will drag even the sickest from their bed.

BEST of all we got to throw some snowballs. The snow in the mountains just behind us had come down low enough so we all piled into the car and headed up. We had sort of promised the boys snow at Christmas and it felt good to deliver. As we meandered into the pine forests there was great excitement in the back seat as we firstly saw small patches of snow, ever increasing until we hit solid white at the end of the road. Eat your heart out Bing!

So with Christmas out of the way we are straight into little Arch's 3rd birthday. We are all excited and when we asked him what he wanted to eat it was PORK (and a white cake with pink icing) and where does he want to go....the SNOW!
Groundhog day.

Mountains

Travelling seems to take us to mountains, I have been wondering why over the last little while.

Living in Orgiva we are nested in a depression between two mountain ranges, from the roof terrace we look up the Sierra Nevada and Mulhacén on one side and 2000m up the Sierra de Lujar on the other. The view is everchanging depending on light, shadow, time of year and weather - whenever you look there is something else exposed or a cleft that we haven't noticed before. The best time of day is in the afternoon when the sun casts an orange glow on the earth of the mountains (it is essentially deviod of trees) and the cracks and crevaces cast their long shadows. It is always a challenge getting places, the roads are slow and windy and walking is always up or down and the people here move in a measured and deliberate way. Best of all it is quiet, for some reason the sounds that we are used to hearing are absorbed by the landscape. It lets you think. In the morning we rush out to see if any snow has come down during the night, when it has it looks even better. It makes a good start to the day.

So why...well I really can't explain. Lo siento, maybe it's just a little madness...

Ike Tan..help?

Market Day

Every Thursday is market day in Orgiva. It is a mish mash of spanish locals, hippies, moroccans, africans, europeans and of course the everpresent english who have moved to warmer climes.

It is the place where people meet, talk and shop and gives a great insight into the Alpujarran community - the jigsaw of people, culture and the soul that eminates is engrossing. Just about everything is for sale - kitchen odds and ends, clothes, shoes, vegetables, plants, jewelery and bric a brac. We go every week to get our fruit and veg and wander around to see the show. We know enough people now to stop and chat ourselves. Archie loves a visit to the chicken man as he has developed a fondness for barbequed chook (in particular the skin) and Angus leads us straight to the caramello man (takes after his mum).

After shopping we settle into Cafe Baraka for a coffee or hot chocolate - the latter is a great favourite and we have wondered whether it might indeed provide all the food groups and we could live on them alone. Below is Archie going for the chocolate calliente at the speed of sound.

A brief apolitical comment...

It appears that Europe is celebrating the demise of the Australian conservative government and indeed the downfall of Johnnie. Apparently it was front page news in several countries including Spain and Germany. The main reasons - Kyoto, human rights and our relationship with the 'shrub'. I think the close proximity of so many nations and people puts a stronger emphasis on society, people and environment and we have perhaps been more than preoccupied with matters economic (at least from a governmental viewpoint). It appears that we have been sheltered from our international reputation and it has been disappointing, though not altogether unexpected, to hear the feelings about Australia that have been expressed to us here. Our reputation as people is cast by the same mould as defines the policies of our government...I guess that's democracy. So what happened? - were we being misrepresented, not heard or just messed up? The good news is that the signing of Kyoto by Australia has been celebrated by the whole of Europe and hopefully signals the beginning of the rebuilding of our international reputation from the pile of crap that it is now.

One of the many wind farms we have seen during our travels...(no evidence of dead birds, deafening noise or palls of smoke)

Interested in Climate Change? see Clean Energy for Eternity there ya go Matthew!

My one and only comment...back to a travel blog!

Hasta luego to the grandparents

It is amazing how time flies sometimes. All of a sudden Kay and Neils last day was approaching so we did a few things like build a set of swings for the kids, duck down to the beach, head back up the mountain to see the new snow and visit the Alhambra.

The swing construction team

Happy grandkids!

Kays worst nightmare!

Kay, Neil and Becks in Granada

I guess Neil will miss the dollar beers but apparently he is going to be put on a diet on return - oh and Neil I heard that 'roid' cream sets off the metal detector at the airport! Hope the seats were comfy! Adios

Gladdy Pops in...

and he's ready to play cricket!

There is a rush on tracksuits in Corto Inglese after Gladdy (aka Papa Smurf) popped in looking like he had just warmed down from his last Real Madrid game. I just managed to extract him from the scuffle of fans at the airport and quickly whisked him away to his hotel where he changed to jeans and shirt and was able to re-emerge into the streets of Granada in cognito.

It was bloody good to see him!


Gaz was fresh from a world tour and keen to taste a little Spain. We had travelled together before in Europe though I had erased the images of him silhouetted nude against a Parisian hotel window at 2 am from my mind. Thankfully I wasn't wearing my glasses at the time. Funnily enough I travel with earplugs and he with an airline eye mask - after this I had always intended to carry both. Unfortunately I'd forgotten my mask!

So straight to a Granada tapas bar for a 'selection de tapas' and 'vino rojo' or two. Then the hazy walk home at 2am after a few war stories. A good night out.

We did a walk up to the old mines on the mountain in front of our house then down through a deep canyon reminiscent of the 1970's spaghetti westerns. The next day we were a little uncomfortable in the calves though Gladdy thought the exercise would give him another 5km per hour bowling pace for the next match. I have heard that in his absence the super subs have been doing just fine and he may be relegated to the bench. Time will tell. He looks pretty fit to me!

We also did some trips up the mountain to the villages and one a little further to look at the snow. The photo below is the mountain behind our house.

and this Gaz is what I reckon was your best photo from your day at the Alhambra...

A little ripper!

Hasta luego y gracias por tu visita. Chau! Thanks for coming to see us.

PS the boys want you to come back, you were a bit of a hit!