We hope...

......that you are enjoying your Christmas as much as we are ours!

Last night we had a great meal at Greg and Clare's. Greg and Mike had been out on Saturday morning to "hunter gather" the fish (actually they bought it in the fish market, but hey, what's Christmas without a few myths!), I prepared the tapas starters to which I added some (apparently) delicious ham from the black acorn-eating pig which was given to us (the ham not the pig!) as a present by Jose in our little supermarketk and Clare made her famous signature dish pudding. We exchanged presents, drank in moderation and made our way back down the calle ready for a reasonably early night.

The best laid plans! Just after we had locked the door, there was an enormous banging on the gate. It was our next door neighbours who had clearly taken pity on these sad English people returning home before midnight and insisting we join them-mum dad, two grown up children with partners and their children-for drinks and dulces de navidad. We did manage to get away with two largish glasses of fino-but only by insisting repeatedly that it wasn't necessary to open a bottle of Pedro Ximinez on our behalf. So we finally tucked ourselves up sometime after one o' clock....




As for today, the weather is glorious although we are turning into Spanish people so coats, hats, scarfs, boots and, quite often, gloves are worn if the temperature falls below 17 degrees (it was 16 degrees on the beach this morning when we went for a walk). Still a glass (or two) of bucks fizz in the hot tub tempted us into our swimming costumes.





We have had our scrambled eggs and smoked salmon now and are about to settle down to watch a suitably soppy film. Later we'll eat more fish, open our pressies...and maybe nip back into that tub to make sure it's alright. We will, of course, be thinking of you all... and hoping that you are enjoying your Christmas as much as we are ours.

What more can we say?

The things we do....

The last few weeks have seen a flurry of activity in the Tierney household.



First of all, our friend Kate came to stay and, apart from some rain early one morning, the weather was on its best behaviour, so a good time was had by all with walks on the beach, a sunday afternoon trip to join the people enjoying the sun in the square in Medina Sidonia and much leisurely pottering and reading.

Then we spent a couple of days in Sevilla with Rob and Lyn. Part of the purpose of the trip was to organise a school and accomodation for our stay there next year and we are very pleased with the school we have found and the apartment. Visit el blog in March for more news! However, we also found time to do Christmas shopping (Rob was heard to say that he does not want to see the inside of an El Corte Ingles, a John Lewis type department store found in various Spanish towns, for a very long time!), visit the arab baths (wonderful massages after a couple of hours relaxing in the various baths and steam rooms) and watch some flamenco at the Casa de Memoria. The owner of the restaurant where we had breakfast every day of our stay last year remembered us too, which was nice.


And our hot tub arrived.

Please do not underestimate this! In order to accomodate this total piece of self indulgence (sorry kids, we are spending your inheritance again!) we first of all had to extend the terrace at the side of our house. Then we had to have electricity taken from the house to the wall outside. And then the tub had to be driven ,very slowly, from somewhere near Malaga and hoisted, by crane, into our garden and through the very narrow gap between the house and some trees to its site.




And all we can say is that, since our first dip in it the morning after its arrival, we have never been so squeaky clean!

Oh yes, and I have been baking Christmas cakes...........

Bits and Pieces

We are so busy these days that-as the cliche goes-we don't know how we found time to go to work.



Daily Spanish classes for the last seven weeks have taken up a lot of time-especially when we have factored in the time to check out the sea with a walk to the school down the paseo maritimo, a cup of coffee in Bar Maritima before class, post-class lunch and a refreshing siesta to set us up for our home work. However, we have also had a busy few weeks socially. We spent a very nice weekend, for example, enjoying the autumn sunshine in Jerez, where I got to do what I like best-looking at books and sitting in cafes-and Mike (fetching, I think, in his Paul Smith jacket) got to carry the books and stand by an orange tree.

Incidentally, the oranges from the trees in Sevilla which grow at the roadside like this one are owned by the town council and are sold to English marmalade manufacturers as they are too bitter for the Spanish taste. Perhaps the same is true of the oranges of Jerez. Maybe you recognise one in this picture or will be eating it for breakfast soon.




Some of our other activities have been trips with our chums from the school since it has become a bit of a custom for a group of us-Spanish, Chileans, Germans and us Brits (us and Rob and Lyn) to head off to a concert or event of some kind on Friday night followed by tapas and Spanish conversation in a bar. We've been to several concerts in Chiclana and heard some good jazz and twice to Cadiz. Our last event was a concert of flamenco carols and dancing in Cadiz performed by a group who live in the Vina area of Cadiz, one of the traditional flamenco barrios. Most of their neighbourhood also seemed to be in the audience and have no inhibitions about complimenting or even joining in with the performers on the stage, so it was a lively event. It is hard to imagine anything that would keep us out till 3 in the morning in the UK, but here it seems quite possible!
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P.S We have also found an Indian restaurant in Novi Sancti Petri. We actually went in search of pizza but nothing was open. We had heard not such good reports on the Indian restaurant, which is tucked away at the back of the commercial centre there, but we thought it was excellent. Is there anything else we could possible need now?