Mini update

The last update was so long that I have resolved to publish more frequently, and as I am on the verge of returning to England for Christmas this seems like as good a time as any.

I'm flattered that so many people tell me they keep up with my antics on the blog so I'm encouraged to keep it going.

On my return from my last trip to the UK it was another quick turn around as I keep up the tradition of giving each other holidays for birthdays. I took myself off to Nerja for Mick's birthday on 28^th October. I stayed at the Parador in Nerja.

Happily one of Mick's old school friends, Ian, and his wife ,Do, who have a holiday home in Nerja were also there and I spent a couple of days with them.

On my return home I found one of my adopted cats dead in the back garden, sadly it was the cute siamese/tabby cross. No idea as to the cause I'm afraid. The other one, the tabby, still shows his face occasionally looking very fit and healthy so he must be feeding himself, or found someone with a softer heart than mine!

We've had a few wet and windy days but on the whole the weather's been pretty good and I didn’t need to turn the fire on until about the third week of November. Daytime temperatures are still about 18 degrees, although the nights can go down to about 2!

Early in November I took advantage of a coach trip organised by a bunch of expats out of Fuente de Piedra, a village about 5 miles away, and visited Alcala la Real, a town in the Province of Jaen in the north of Andalucia with an ancient fortress and church on top of a hill originally settled in 727 by the Moors, reclaimed by the Catholics in the 15^th century, and largely destroyed by the French in the 19^th! The Spanish, probably with a bit of EU money, are now in the process of restoring it. And yes the sky really was that blue.

We had lunch in the town, which was made more interesting by my friend Peter asking a local to recommend somewhere to eat. An elderly gentleman stood and thought for a moment and then indicated we should follow him. We headed off down a side street, turned left, crossed a square, turned right, across another road, dog-legged across another road carried on down to the end of that street..........at one point I thought he was taking us home as we seemed to be in a largely residential area, but finally we arrived at a Meson, where he handed us over to the owner, wouldn’t accept a drink in thanks and was on his way. It was indeed a very fine Menu del Dia ( this is a Spanish institution, introduced by Franco which decrees that restaurants must provide an affordable menu for the working man, a two or three course meal, with bread and a drink, for anything from 8 to maybe 15 euros, depending on where the restaurant is, the cities being more expensive).

Everybody back on the coach and we stopped at Priego de Cordoba. Another small town in Andalucia, this time in the Province of Cordoba. This is renowned as a pretty town with lots of fountains and we had enough time for a wander round and stop for a coffee somewhere. And a rare photo of me!

Now we're into mid November, my neighbour (English owner's holiday home) is having some work done on his house and had decided to pay a visit mid project to check on progress and pay some money. I've been very firm with Derek, I'll help out but I'm not his project manager – I don't want to be responsible if something goes wrong!

So I collected Derek and his Spanish speaking friend, Barry, from the airport on Thursday night, Derek stayed with me but Barry insisted he was happier staying in the building site next door, and as he's a heavy smoker (and drinker) I didn’t try very hard to dissuade him.

Anyway, the update meeting with Mario went well, and Barry considered his duties discharged and spent the rest of the weekend in the bar. Derek and I went to the builders merchant and choose tiles and talked to Mario about how he wanted the rooms done. On Sunday we returned to Malaga airport in a thunderstorm!

A few days to wash bedding, remake beds and clean bathrooms before Lisa and Mike arrived on the following Saturday.

Lisa and Mike took the long road from the airport on Saturday and arrived via El Chorro, and the Lakes

and then the La Roda tapas experience.

There was a bit of a scramble on Sunday morning to catch the train to Seville for a day of bit of Spanish history and tapas!

We visited the Plaza Espana, a rather magnificent building built in 1928 to celebrate the Ibero- American Expo.

Then past the old Tobacco Factory of Carmen fame, now part of the University, and on to the Cathedral. There was limited access to the cathedral because there was a mass, so we didn’t get to see the tomb that is supposed to contain Christopher Columbus, there's some doubt whether or not its actually him, but we did get some sense of the scale of what is the largest Gothic cathedral in Europe.

And guess what, its lunch time. We walked around the cathedral to Barrio Santa Cruz, the most famous of Seville's neighbourhoods for tapas. On the way we stopped and watched as Santa Marta was returned to her home after what was probably her annual outing.

And then on to what I always refer to as Mick's favourite bar, Las Columnas, for a crisp, dry manzanilla and tapas of paella, tortillita de camarones, tortilla and berenjenas. I have some more sherry converts!

One of the reasons Lisa and Mike wanted to visit was Rick Stein's Spain, a recent tv series so we headed off to El Rinconcillo, the tapas bar he visited on his trip to Seville – personally I prefer, Las Columnas, but El Rinconcillo is reputed to be the oldest tapas bar in Seville, established in 1670. More sherry, manchego cheese, croquetas and carrilladas.

So, from one of the oldest establishments, to one of the newest. The Metropol Parasol, knownly locally as 'the mushrooms'. (Las setas) and you can see why.

Its a market hall, but its possible to visit the roof and get a fabulous view across the top of Seville. This was my second visit, as those of you who read my blogs will know, but it fascinating, and I cant wait to go again.

A slow walk down to the river, another refreshment stop – a discussion about wending our way back to the station, a moment's panic when I realised I'd lost my map. Collected another from a nearby hotel along with confirmation of which direction we needed to head off in. The receptionist was sure we needed a taxi for the station, but we had plenty of time.

It started as a very slow meander through narrow streets, and then a decision to stop for 'refuelling'. We found a little bar down a side street, a couple of glasses of rioja, some delicious jamon (I hope I can find this place again) and we were on our way again.

We got to the station in good time for the train, and we were back in the bar in La Roda by 10pm, ready for more rioja and tapas.

I hope Lisa and Mike enjoyed their time with me, I certainly enjoyed having them here.

On Monday morning they set off to Granada and I decided I should be making the most of this fine spell and painting my new rejas (window grilles).

Once a week I meet up with some friends for breakfast in a local bar for a bit of intercambio, my Spanish friends want to improve their English and my English friends want to improve their Spanish. We've been doing this for for what must be nearly 3 years now – or at least I have; I think there was something similar before I arrived but fizzled out. Anyway, we're pretty good friend now. The husbands of both Juana and Mari Carmen are olive farmers, so this is a busy time of year for them but after breakfast one day Juana invited Pat & Peter and me to visit her husband and his crew at work in the olive grove. It was interesting to watch Martin, Juana's husband, driving his tractor with a special attachment that grabs the tree trunk and shakes most of the olives off the tree onto a netting mat on the ground, his crew then follow up with mechanised pitch forks that shake the remaining olives off, while the rest collect up the netting and deposit the olives into a digger bucket which in turn transfers them into a trailer. These will then be transferred to the factory before the day is out as processing has to start within 24 hours of picking. Interestingly, when olive picking was done by beating the tree with sticks (a la the margarine advert) every other year the trees were barren as the beating did so much damage the trees needed a year to recover, now alternate years are signalled by a reduced crop rather than no crop at all.

On 3^rd December La Roda had its first Tapa Trail.

The weather favoured us and I think it was a great success, I do hope they do it again next year!

Sadly we lost one of our few English residents at the end of November, Terry Corfield, died while visiting friends and family in England, so now we are seven.

There was a special mass for him here on 8^th December ( the Festival of the Immaculate Conception) so our small band of brits attended. Father Adolfo kindly performed some of the service in English, and Granville was 'volunteered' to take one of the readings. The Father knew Terry, and his wife, Sheilagh, well and was able to add a few words about what kind of man he was. It was a light and friendly service and attended by many Spanish.

On Saturday Juana invited us to her house to see her Belen, (nativity). Every year Juana creates this fabulous scene in her hall, everything is made by hand and she spends hours and hours dressing the dolls and making the market stalls with all their produce, and this year there was an extra special addition, Peter the ice cream seller!

And now its almost Christmas and I'm back to the UK again to spend Xmas with my dad and try to catch a few friends as well, weather permitting. The diary for 2012 is already filling up..........