EBB TIDE

Dear friends. Hopefully you are all well and keeping the rug firmly under your feet despite all trying to pull it from under you. Me? Well things are always a bit hectic here. H has decided to take up a hobby. Fencing if you please. I wouldn't mind if he was sticking bits of wood in the ground but no, I've just seen him lunging, foil in hand towards a policeman who called him 'an aggressive little fucker' which I thought was a bit rich. I know my betrothed is not as lofty as some of his fellow countrymen but I wouldn't describe him as little. Aggressive yes. A fucker certainly but I am not sure there is anything diminutive about him. Anyway this is only the half of it. He's coming back now as I write, shouting 'touche!' and carrying what looks like.............

To be continued.

EL VIENTO DE LOS SAUCES

As a member state Spain fails to fulfil its obligations when it comes to how long adverts can run during programming. Not being a fan of said tele I had to ask if this was still true, with friends getting quite heated about how they can take a shower while the ads are on and how they end up going to bed late as films last longer thanks to the neverending publicity. I like to do my own research so went to the nearest cafe to see for myself. The channel showing was the local one and predictably it went on for about fifteen minutes but instead of getting annoyed I found it all quite entertaining. Whoever works in continuity hadn't checked or couldn't be bothered to synchronise the various soundtracks to the adverts so every time a new advertisment came on the music or voice over from the last ad was still playing. My favourites were the old people's home that transformed into a luxury hotel but was topped by an ad for a butcher's, showing behind the scenes of its sausage making to the strains of Marvin Gaye's Sexual Healing. The track was still playing as the butcher delivered his gains over to a woman who lived in what looked like the old people's hotel and ended with the name of the butcher's, el Sauce. 

Being easily pleased and often bored I found the time to do one of those 'look up line whatever on page such and such and this will describe your sex life' boredom killers. The idea was to pick up the nearest book and turn to page 45 and the first sentence explains your love life. I suppose I could while away the hours reading tarot cards or getting someone else to read my star sign out to me just to alleviate the listlessness but being blessed with a life that means I am never far from a book was too tempting. The nearest read turned out to be one my sister tried to burn but was rescued by me from the bonfire she had built with the aim of reducing our dear mother's library. Being of the belief that one shouldn't burn books unless of course they were written by Sydney Sheldon, said book lives on and goes by the name of a Cottage on a Cliff by Derek Tangye. There was another one by him that didn't escape the flames called The Way to Minack and the last words I saw as it was engulfed went something on the lines of 'please give him this message......'. Cottage on a Cliff will never be read on account of the plot which resembles my own life, a life of 'getting away from it all' and the author being described as 'engaging' and 'reading his get-away-from-it-all stories will leave you longing for the great outdoors'. First sentence page 45 seemed to sum up my love life. Beautifully. 'and our virgin land would have been stocked with bulbs which could have assured us a financial future'. I liked the Dutch angle and was even more reassured as I read further. 'As it is, if anything goes wrong, we will still be able to continue on our own'. 

Not being satisfied with this I went to get the book I was reading at the time and wondered if that would satisfy my lust for entertainment. 'Your refusal to sit down could amount to a sort of rebellion' seemed to describe my whole life and finally I stopped on opening Operation Mincemeat and discovering, ' I miss you most frightfully, and life has just seemed one long, grey monotone since we have separated'. There was only one solution, the one I always take when the four walls have had their chance and that is to go out. Moments later, nosebag on, tucking into some carillera and shooting the breeze with H, a charming but drunk man came up to us both and told us we were cachondos, which translates as horny, hot and turned on but also could mean funny, fun loving and riotous, so all in all a rather pleasant afternoon.

LA QUE SE AVECINA OR THE ONE THAT LOOMS

It's been a while since I wrote something on this blog but that's because I've been out. I could and I will write about the food, the wine, the women, the songs, the Pinteresque behaviour of my family, but I feel I have neglected the drama of some of the locals and so an update is in the offing. If you don't know the saga of Mr C and his wife next door or the prophet of doom upstairs then you'll have to backtrack a bit to the old blogs. Mr C, who brought me grief, was replaced by a sporty handball player who brought me wine, but he moved on and a waiter with a puppy moved in. Your woman upstairs left and gypsies are now renting. 

The last episode of Mr C involved him making strange moans every twenty minutes which was nothing out of the ordinary until I went to bed and it continued into the early hours. I knocked on the door and when his wife answered I could see him lying on the floor, face down in a pool of blood. I told his wife as much as I couldn't stand the bastard I wasn't going to let him lie there and was going to ring for an ambulance but she grabbed me and begged me to leave him be. Not content with driving me mad over the years she now wanted me to conspire in his demise by leaving him to bleed or freeze to death. 'They are coming tomorrow', she exclaimed and I deciphered she meant social services. Much to her chagrin I rang 112 and when they arrived they said pretty much the same, that even though he was a pain in the arse she should have called them when he first fell over and hit his head. As they lifted him off the floor he caught sight of H and muttered 'eres un payaso', 'you're a right clown'. That was the last time we saw or heard from him and he now resides in an old people's home in Angues which is too far for him to hop on a bus and haunt us once more. Meanwhile Mrs C had young men coming round in the early hours and while I didn't want to deny her a sex life, her nightly arguments with Mr C were replaced by amorous cries of delight. This went on for several nights and then Mr C's son showed up to cut off the gas and electricity. Along with the waitress from the Rico Rico and various other folk we all tried our best to help but the lack of hot water pushed Mrs C over the edge, into a taxi and back to Brazil. Six months later she appeared again with a locksmith who somehow changed the locks for her and she moved back in for about five minutes until the police came and turfed her out, handcuffed and arrested her and remonstrated with the locksmith for letting her in without proof of her living there.

I tried to get to the bottom of the story, believing all these years that Mr and Mrs C were not legally married and so therefore leaving Mrs C helpless before the law but it turns out they were married according to his son so she would have been entitled to live in the flat but somehow she was paid off and sent packing again to Brazil. However, according to Aragonese law anything bought by a partner before marriage doesn't automatically go to the spouse if the relationship ends in divorce. Apparently each province in Spain can have different laws regarding this matter and if you are a foreigner resident here there are often complicated disputes regarding wills and divorces as Spain expects the resident to comply with the law back in their place of birth even if you make a will here or get divorced here. In any case, Mrs C hasn't been seen since and no one can tell me what happened as everyone has their own version of events.

Meanwhile, yer woman upstairs, Mercedes continued to patrol the streets and community and then Anselmo her husband died. We assume she went back to her village and now the flat has been rented out to gypsies maybe as a deluded idea that we would suffer more living underneath them as opposed to the previous madness involving Mercedes and her dreaded hound Piti the Priapic Poodle. The parties next door continue and I, unable to beat them, join them.....

SOCIAL ANIMAL SEEKS SIMILAR WITH KNIFE, FORK, BOTTLE AND CORK.

Wine is as good as life to a man, if it be drunk moderately: what life is then to a man that is without wine? For it was made to make men glad.”  -- Ecclesiastes

'Where would you be without me?' -- Him 

'Sober?' --Me

When I'm not struggling to get the wine bottle open ( due to wine elbow) or getting to know the local food and wine I like to catch up on what's going on in the world. It seems the world is getting madder at times and it doesn't surprise me that we drink. Drinking alcohol, or was it hangovers, has been described as a great restraining device on society so perhaps more rather than fewer people should try it, drinking that is. Getting to know a wine and the food that can accompany it is a civilising force and is enhanced by the company of others who get it. So long as we have alcohol society won't collapse but I can imagine a revolution if optics are ever introduced to Spain. Or if I ever have to go back to the UK and be expected to down such measurements. The idea fills me with dread and seems so pointless. A friend here remarked the other day that while he felt all the so-called binge drinking occurring throughout Europe seems to him to be a fashion of sorts, here in Spain he described it as 'tradition'. Spain is a country where most folk don't judge you if they see you drinking wine for breakfast or with lunch or at four in the morning leaving the latest tertulia.

So on that note I leave you with  an interesting link on getting to know the wines of this region.

http://books4spain.com/holidaysinspain/somontano-wines-from-spain/

????

How do I get rid of these Clicksor adverts on the top of my page??

(LONG) WAY TO GO

In Spain when a crime is committed locally and ends up in the local rag the person's name is never published, instead his or her initials and age will accompany the story. The other day I read that a couple had been caught red handed or as the paper put it in flagrante delicto, graffiting if that is the right word the walls around town. What surprised me was how old they were, 31 and 33 according to one newspaper but what didn't was the awfulness of what they had painted. Here is an example. Even the policia is shocked, stunned and amazed.

http://www.radiohuesca.com/noticia/490007/Identificados-dos-jovenes-por-realizar-una-veintena-de-graffitis-en-Huesca

One of the most difficult things when learning Spanish is distinguishing the feminine and masculine words. Masculine ones ending in o and feminine in a, but not always as in the words feminino (m) and polla (f), feminine and prick in English. This confusion is an endless source of amusement for Spanish people as they crease up and tell me that pajarito is not as I thought, a bow-tie and is another word for prick. The correct word is pajarita or maybe it is the other way round. I have forgotten already. Sometimes pronunciation creates problems. I was trying to tell a friend about a charity called Caritas not knowing the stress is on the first vowel leaving the poor man thinking I was talking about a 'little face'. It works both ways, not just for students of Spanish. There is a famous book to help students of English with their pronunciation called Ship or Sheep but maybe it needs renaming as I will never forget a Spanish friend leaving the chambermaid in the hotel he was staying in a state of shock when he asked for a shit on his bed. In class the other day the word fillings came up when students were asked if they were frightened of the dentist. They all thought I had said feelings so confusion reigned for a few minutes. One student, Pilar told the class she hated going to the dentist and insists he tell her everything he is doing, putting the mirror in her mouth, about to give her the anaesthetic etc but then she added that to make matters worse the dentist has a stutter.

So on that note I leave you with Les Dawson with a song dedicated to our dentists.

WAITING FOR JODO

Living here sometimes feels like I am in a popular TV programme called La Que Se Avecina which roughly translates as The Looming One or The One that Approaches. It revolves around the residents of a block of flats on the outskirts of Madrid whereas here it revolves around not just the block but the entire town and all the goings on and shennanigans. You know when you have integrated when you go from bit part all the way to cameo appearance. My walk ons have been rather memorable too. The rest of the cast are presently on hunger strike in the town square, in heaven, mental institutions, the old folk's homes, rummaging through bins, complaining on the street corner or buttonholing me every time I leave the house. 

The pedestrianisation is coming on strong and the easing in of the idea seems to be working. I think the council have decided to do it while most people are having lunch or sleeping. Like the blossom on the trees it just seems to have appeared overnight with more and more parts of the town exclusively for pedestrians. There are still lots of people who are not happy about this and lament the fact they can't drive in the centre of town anymore and believe to pedestrianise the main high street will be the death knell for the shops. Walking around the town I can't help noticing that a lot of the shops that have closed down are opening up again albeit with new owners. 

This morning I heard the man next door screaming at his daughter and at one point he kept screaming 'Mimosa' which means the same as it does in English, the name of the flower but also translates as spoilt brat.      

On the subject of language I realise I have been calling my handbag bolsa for the last decade when it should be bolso. Bolsa is usually used for plastic carrier bags and, as H reminds me, the Stock Exchange. 

Lastly, tomorrow we celebrate Saint George, San Jorge. Like the Brits and the ubiquitos tea urn or free sandwiches, we can guarantee some sort of roll and egg thrown in. Here's a link, in Spanish, for anyone interested.

http://www.visitarhuesca.com/