Summer Nights

As the days have got hotter, we have got increasingly into continental (well at least Spanish interior) life. We took Basil and Tinks out for a walk VERY late at night - 11.30ish? Well late by our standards - however the streets were full of dog walkers, and sitters. Outside most houses were groups of chairs populated by people of all ages. We saw the baker talking with her friends, older and younger people sat on the pavements, children were playing etc etc - the end result meaning we had to walk in the road to avoid basil getting tangled up with anyone.

We got as far as Bar Tuna and we were all welcomed inside - drooling animals too - and of course Basil. Basil had his picture taken with a few people, Tinkerbelle was congratulated on being called 'Campinilla' - 'small bell' which they found endearing. We left the bar at about 12.30 - and had to dodge about the same number of chairs on the pavements all occupied by people watchig the world go by. I guess you are probably either a watcher or a watchee. The watchees being the people who walk up and down being watched, whilst the watchers mumble 'they are english you know...'.

I like to think I can embrace the two, and whilst being a watchee - I can also cop a quick look into the houses of the watchers as we pass. All the houses we see are of a similar layout with the long hallways going through to the back doors. the halls seem to double as sitting areas - although this is only based on a few quick glances when we have been out walking.

We asked Adelardo about this - and he said that he has to sleep with earplugs because of the street noise during the summer. He also said that sitting outside and watching the village go by was recognised as more exciting entertainment than watching the television. Apparently this is very typical in villages and not in towns. I probably agree - I cannot imagine the streets of Madrid full of deckchairs with people watching the world go by.

Ian spent today trying to convince himself that the sausage appeared in our yard by act of god. Well either that or a stork that might have taken it, had a nibble and dropped it on Dookes head. Another idea was that a hungry spaniard might have taken a munch out of the middle of a rather large sausage, decided he didn't like it and put in it the bin which Dookems managed to scale and retrieve. Personally I think that Ian is plucking at straws and is in denial. Saying that we have kept a close eye on Dookems today and have kept feeding him food - hoping that this will stop him hunting food off of our neighbours table!

Thief

Ian and I are still realing from the shock that we have a thief in our midst.

Doubly shocked as the thief in question is no other than Dookems. Dookems, our cat burgular.

Today, just before we went to Adelardo's, we couldn't find Dookes, and we both had a good look in all his normal hiding places - the dogs cages, in Davies special hiding place, in the Jasmine bush, but couldn't find him. Ian was just about to look over the wall into next door to see if he had got over there and couldn't get back when we saw him. Strangely he seemed to have a bit of sausage in his mouth.

This was strange - however behind him was the evidence of a whole sausage. One of those 'horse shoe' shaped ones which are held together with a piece of string. Behind Dookes was the piece of string with the ends of the sausage still in place but the middle missing. When I picked Dookes up his tummy was surprisingly large. The dogs were around & would have demolished this had it been there for longer than a second or two, and we had checked the yard a few minutes before so it must have been Dookes. Well that and the fact he had quite a lot of sausage in his mouth and a tummy that suggested he was either pregnant, auditioning for alien or had just ate rather a lot of food.

Ian has noticed that next door isn't as derilict as it looks and has wondered if some of the houses further down the road extend next door. Our first neighbour that we know is Joaquin (jim and Viv you know him as he is theone that offered us sausage and wine when we were in the campo). It is likely that Dookems got over there and helped himself to sausage.

Ian has kept the sausage - he says so we can take it to the neighbours and see if they can identify it is theirs. i hope he is not going to sneakily eat it later.

Anyway when we were at Adelardos we thought we would ask him how to translate 'we think our cat might have stolen your sausage', and he then asked his Dad the same of our neighbour (even though we new) and a long discussion ensued about how today is in fact our neighbours saints day - it is the day of Santa Joaquin.

We are sat here now, with everything crossed hoping that they hadn't laid out a special saints day feast which Dookems chose to liberate the sausage course. Lets hope that there isn't an ancient tradition of the sharing of the sausae on St Joaquins Day.

We will have to call and explain, as it will be around the village now (remember word travels fast here!). However at least if 'word is out' it won't look quite so strange when we go round waving a bit of chewed sausage muttering something about 'gatos'.


PS. Ian says he will have nothing to do with Dookems and he is no cat of his. He says he did not bring his cat up to have such little respect for his parents. I of course cooed softly and said that he was my little boy and could do no harm. Note: You need to have listened to the Archers tonight to understand the witty pastiche of the last sentence...

Fly Swats and Mildew

The man in the supermarket looked rather startled as I mimed 'fly swat'. It probably didn't help that he had drawn close to me to look in the dictionery I was holding just as I went into full 'swat' mime. I think he thought I was going to attack him. Anyway, he didn't have any - or so he said as he fled from the shop, so we went to another shop and it was Ians turn to ask, so we are now the proud owner of a fly swat and Ian has single handedly declared war on flies.

It is now very hot and I've had problems sleeping, so I thought perhaps it was time to shed the tog24 duvet and look for something lightweight. We keep our bedding in the cupboard in the bathroom, and when I started looking I was horrified to find that we had a bad case of mildew. Admitedly I had noticed that things felt a little damp in there - but at the bottom of the boxes things were ringing wet. That little room is very cool, but I guess it heats up during the day and hence our damp. So our yard is now a riot of colour - although not as I imagined, but instead from sheets etc all washed and drying. Some things were beyond saving and others now will only be usable for rags etc. Something to watch in the future.

We have recorded temperatures of 50 in the yard, we get no breeze there which is why it gets so hot. Ian is quite cool in the house, but my workshop is getting hot so I am going to have to get a fan (there are two words for 'fan' in spanish, I've been going into electical shops and been asking for the wrong one ie hand fans that ladies have - which indeed I have just bought and I think is a underated feat of engineering). The temperature outside with a breeze is 42/44c although it is going to get markedly cooler next week to 35.

One of our favourite times of the day is at night when we sit outside and watch the kittens playing. They spend ages chasing each other round and round a plant pot, followign each others tail and Dukems is fascinated by the jasmine plant and we watch as he climbs up and then falls out, Billy was rather suprised when Dukems fell once on top of him - seemingly from the sky.

Last night we went to Adelardo's family's caseta which is on the Bienvenida road. We were invited to take our swimming costumes which Ian did and I took photos. I think they were suprised when I wanted to take pictures of vegetables etc. They have about 500 olive trees and a small kitchen garden.

We are getting spoilt at the moment with a lot of fruit and veg from our neighbour across the road and also from Adelardo. Marrows seem the be the main one - but we also have a lot of figs too. We are going to sun dry some tomatoes, but need to make a frame first to keep them fly and dust free. Suprisingly we've not seen any sun dried tomatoes, however in mmy gardening book it says that they are harvested all year round so perhaps traditionally they have not required preserving.

If you're happy and you know it...

Ian is delighted that I have bought a guitar back from England. He is not so happy about the fact that my guitar playing repetoire is left over from my girlguide days - but what fun we are going to have.

I bought the guitar, a rucksack full of beer, cider, marmite, lentils.... back with me and must admit as I toppled over for the umteenth time I did wonder why I make things so difficult for myself.

I had a lovely time visiting family and will remember to put up a pic of our feltmaking which was fun (although I am not sure that baby Olly will think so when he wears his hat).

Ian looked after things here and all the animals seemed pleased to see me - in a laid down, its too hot to move sort of way. Dookems seems to have grown, well his legs have and I am not sure that I was right about the ugly duckling growing into a beautiful swan. He now has these huge great big long legs and a small body. He is a real climber - he climbs like a monkey, I've not known a cat like ti before.

We went out for a drink last night as I bought back some english comics for the son and daughter of one of the bar owners so we thought we'd drop them off. They bought me out a baby turtle, which worried me as I hgought it might be tapas! They also bought me out a hamster to look at. We were chatting to Tuna and his wife and we were talking about the confirmation services. All children in the village are confirmed and this is followed by a major party (of course). The children get given a lot of presents - and bit presents too. We have seen the dresses and the outfits for boys in the shops and I can see now how important it is to them.

One strange thing in the bars is you have to keep your own tally of what you owe. This can get very confusing when people buy other people drinks, as sometimes people don't physically buy you a drink they pay for one which you have already had - if that makes sense. It also means if someone has bought you a drink and they leave before you, you can't thank them which seems a bit rude. last night Tuna's brother (who runs another bar) bought us a drink and it would have been nice to have said 'thankyou'. We were complimented last night on the fact that our spanish had improved. This was good. Interestingly we had commented earlier that one of the people that we had thought spoke quite good english seemed not to speak good english now. I think that is because our spanish is improving and we can exchange words in spanish with him. Mind you his english is still better than our spanish and interestingly he picked his english up only from the internet and television.

Temperature around 42c. It is hot!

Sweeney Todd Strikes

One of the down sides of having 6 dogs is cutting their coats, we've unfortunately chosen breeds that all require trimming.

Back in the UK we could take them to the agricultural college to be trimmed quite inexpensively. Basil used to love the attention showered on him there, though he used to whimper like a Chihauha (is that how it's spelt?) when I went to leave him there. By the time I returned to pick him up, he'd generally deny knowing me and suggest that he live at the college from now on.

However here there are fewer options here on the dog trimming front, and though we did get given a phone number for someone from Bienvenida who trims dogs, there's a communication problem that we're not yet up to overcoming.

Hence we've been trimming the dogs ourselves. I say we, though in fairness it's rather more Kate who does the trimming. She has a more patience than me as the dogs do tend to fidget. She's also more confident with a pair of scissors.

I constantly find myself cringing when I assist Kate by holding one or other of the dogs as still as possible, and I cringe almost as much if I'm using the scissors, which can be a bit alarming for the dogs, as I wave the scissors around with my eyes shut.

On Friday though, in Kate's absence as she visited family back in the UK, I decided to do my bit and give Petal a trim. She was looking a bit in need of help on the hair front.

Having trimmed her back half on Friday, this morning I trimmed her front half. She still looks in need of help on the hair front.

I was going to post a picture of her post trim, but she's refusing to pose for the camera until her hair has started to grow back and she looks less daft.

Churros

We have just come back from buying Churros for breakfast. A new Churros shop has opened on the square by a couple who we have become friendly with and we went down to harden our arteries and support their venture. Churros are like fried donuts, which are made by squirting this stuff into hot oil into a shape like a big cumberland sausage and then snipping it into bits with scissors. it is flour, water and a 'special ingredient' which they are not allowed to divulge.

They are also opening a bar next to it, that will be the 11th bar in the village. We had a quick look inside and it looks really nice. I think they are planning to open during the day and not in the evening. She is the sister of the wife of bar tuna's brother who runs Bar Gato, their other brother running one of the other bars too. He is the cousin of Gemma the lady I did the 24km hike with (I think that one of my toe nails has been terminally damaged by the way) and brother of..... I think a village family tree would show that everyone is related somewhere down the line!

We had dinner out last night - the first time since we have been here. It was at Disco Tony's which seems to open for food in the summer. It is very spanish food, with hamburgers which are the first Ian has seen in the village outside of a fast food can which turned up at San Juan. Nothing vegetarian at all of course, so I had salad, Ian had burgers and we all shared patatas frita. We sat up on a roof terrace so we could see the moon. They are quite proud of the moon here and it is suprising the number of people who mention it. It is also interesting the number of people with telescopes to look at the moon and stars. We had a nice night, we were with the churros people, Baaaarrreeeeeee (Angel), and the girl from the supermarket. It was a 'tranquillo' night, ie calm.

The other night, rarely Ian was in bed before me and when I went into the room he had a monster on him. on closer inspection it was an extremely large locust. I screamed, he screamed the dogs howled and the locust just sat there - obviously waiting for a few friends before he could swarm. Ian took it outside but it spend yesterday sat on the wall. it was so big that I can see it clearly from my workshop. We tried to communicate this (sometimes I start these conversations and then regret it when the miming becomes to sureal). My mime and communication involved the bible and plagues. by the time I finished this the actual story was quite boring in comparison.

By the way, I am sure you have been wondering what happened to Pidge, our pigeon friend who arrived in the yard on my birthday. Well I know he survived because recently he appeared again in the yard and had to be rescued. We know it was him - either that or we have a family of birds living here with heads at rectangles.

Pics

Above left: Dookems. He doesn't often get photographed as being all black makes him difficult to take. But here he is walking with purpose towards me.

Left: Kittens with Tinks - they are getting quite big now

Below: Oranges - July 1st. Although quite a few have dropped off now, we still have plenty there. Unfortunately only have 2 lemons!

Swimming Pool

The opening of the swimming pool was very much a BIG THING. We wandered up about 3 in the afternoon and it was packed. The bar that is. I think that everyone in the village was there, again, all the generations were amply represented. The party continued and there was much drinking and eating. The spanish have a different attitude towards health and safety. proper glasses were being used and beer and wine was being drunk outside on the grass where people were walking bare foot, huge picnics appeared and were consumed followed by immediate swimming etc. I commented to someone that this would be unheard of at a british council pool. 'Why', he said 'are British people careless?' Of course no one drowned or injured and a good time was had by all.

One thing that was interesting is that given the relaxed attitude to the above, the spanish are extremely concious of the sun. The bar was packed and outside all the shaded areas were packed. People were stood packed like sardines under umbrellas or under the shade of the building. If you happened to expose even an arm into the sun you were grabbed and bought back into the safety of the shade. I needed to go to the bank and was going to walk and this was greated with shock and invitations to drive me. Actually that is another thing we have noticed is that the villagers do drive very short distances. In fact someone made a joke about this saying that they drive to the shops and then drive home to go for a walk. Meaning I guess that the evening 'paseos' are completely different to a walk to the shops.

I lost Dookems last night. Couldn't find him anywhere, I looked outside, inside, everywhere I could think of. Just when I was really starting to worry, I saw Schnookems looking into the dog cage, and there along with the pups was a little kitten head looking out at me. Dookems was obviously in the cage when we put the dogs away and was quite happy to stay there. He is a funny little thing!

White Rabbits

First of July and I remembered to say White Rabbits. Actually I remember most months, my last failure being when Ian made me say 'oh bugger' instead, however on reflection I think he realised the error of his ways.

We survived the rest of the fiesta last weekend - a strange mix of nocturnal life. There was a big band playing and the dance space was full of pasadouble-ing couples. I left at 6 on the Sunday morning, and had to squeeze past a dance floor still full to bursting, including the Mayor and his lady friend, and walked back with the butcher and his wife who were having an 'early night'. It started again later on the Sunday, but I must admit it was a little quieter.

There is a mini fiesta this afternoon (fiesta just translates as 'party'). The swimming pool opens and everyone is looking forward to a party there at 2.00. We walked past it earlier this week and it does look very nice.

Spain got knocked out of the world cup. We decided not to watch it in case they didn't win. The village descended into silence. We don't know if they partied afterwards (their last opportunity in the world cup) or not. England play this afternoon, however I don't think that there will be much (any) interest.

It is getting hotter and we can see why people lead these strange 'split shift' lives. After 2 in the afternoon it is too hot to do anything and the water from the cold tap is now coming out warm.

We have just finished listening on radio 7 to Day of the Triffids and have thoroughly enjoyed it. However - I wonder if such a book could be written now, the people who were blinded by the green lights were described as being helpless and the responsibility of the few sighted people left. I wonder what 'In Touch' (radio 4) would say about this....

Schnookems and Dookems are both doing well. Dookes has grown more and is not too far off of Schnookes size, but not so rounded. I don't think that S is showing any problems from his accident and in this heat all the animals are drinking a lot of water. We were worried that they might be part feral or barn cats - however I think it is a long time since any of their ancestors have had to track down food. I have never known cats make so much noise when they are hungary. They make Davy, who I always thought was vocal, appear quiet. When they are hungary they both stand there and throw their heads back and sqeek at the top of their voices. Ian says that in the wild things would throw themselves out of trees to avoid having to listen to any more of this noise. One morning I woke up thinking that there were pigs being killed in the house, however it was the kittens 'asking' for food. Dookes has taken to sleeping in the puppy cages during the day, he squeezes in along side Bob and Tinkerbelle, however if he gets in there before the dogs they won't go in, and just sit out side looking very sorry for themselves.

Our Spanish lessons are coming along slowly. it is bloomin' difficult. It amazes me that we can speak English seeing we know such little grammar. What is a present pluperfect for instance.... It also doesn't help that tenses seem to recycle the same words so for instance 'I speak' is the same word as 'they spoke'. We are doing some revising at the moment and going to concentrate on a single tense a day. Today is present tense.