February at last
Monday, February 14, 2011 @ 4:33 PM
I don't know about you but I am glad to see the back of January and be moving on into Spring
– season of almond blossom and mellow sunshine.– come on guys, we need more men to tackle this dance!– a weekend of feasting (home-made paella in the plaza, washed down with 'interesting' brandy/prune liquor), a baptism in the church and more fireworks, singing and processing the Virgen through the streets. The open fire in the square burnt all weekend with huge lumps of chestnut brought in by dumper truck and some of us also managed a private party in the evening. Of course, there was a clear night sky, crescent moon and stars. Sheer magic! I bumped into one of our neighbours who lives in Granada much of the year. She said that her mother had just died, aged 87 and fell on my neck and wept. I wept too. It has been a difficult winter in some respects.
But today we got the car through its ITV (MOT) and will go to Granada soon to complete the matriculation onto Spanish plates, so much to celebrate! Then we will have all but the Guzzi done and just need to find cheap insurance. The process has not been too difficult and I strongly recommend that people do their own. We paid someone at the beginning to check our vehicles and he missed 3 vital things which then delayed us
– a waste of about 300 euros. My little c90 has turned out to be free of import tax, only 4 euros local road tax p.a. and not much else to pay, although insurance is likely to be at least 120 euros p.a. for 3rd party only. We enjoyed our trips to Granada and dealing with the Trafico people – a little bit of the language plus some common sense gets you through.
This weekend we are having some people round for tapas and vino so the menu is shaping up to include:
prune/bacon (jamon) wraps
cheese/aubergine/bread slices
cheese/quince (membrillo)/bread slices
foccaccia
olive sticks
chorizo bread balls
stuffed hard-boiled eggs with anchovies
maybe some fried octopus yummie bites if I can get fresh fish...
oranges & clementines
chocolate brownies...
plenty to drink of course, some good blues music, a few vanilla-perfumed candles...and all smoking of legal (and illegal) substances outside on the terrace! Now, what shal I wear??!
Wish you were here :))
At last the work on the granero is progressing (tons of old building material is coming out of the basement area) and we might have extra living space by April. I have just spent a couple of hours sweeping up the debris in the calle after the men have departed. I aways think that they work faster if the ground is cleared by morning for them. Steve has been busy sawing up all the old spare timbers for the woodburner (evenings in front of the fire are lovely and cosy though it is an icy dash to the loo in the early hours!)
We have had some new conversation classes with Paloma from Portugos so our language skills are taking another leap forward (more of a crawl really), and Julio from Pitres has started a Tango class every Tuesday evening which I am excited about...I got started in England and then here briefly last summer, but this time it is with other local people and a Spanish teacher. Much better. Tango stems from 8 basic steps and is not as hard as it looks
The Candelaria (Candlemass) fiesta has been and gone