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| Being a tourist in Caravaca |
If I want to reassure myself that I am not alone, I go to Mercadona the very well established and traditional Spanish supermarket chain. It lacks creativity or innovation, it does not abound in 3 for 2, or BOGOF, offers, but instead offers regular ingredients and reasonable prices. There is no foreign foods aisle, such foodstuffs being limited to pasta, some cheeses (including very nice Irish cheddar) and Danish pastries! (haha). Next door is ALDI or should I say was ALDI, as it closed on Friday after 4 years. The ALDI concept was completely foreign to the good folk of Cehegin, items that were there one week but not the next, tins with foreign wording on the packet and trendy Tex-mex or Thai all meant that your average Ceheginero was left unmoved.
Many time I found myself the only person in
the store and I to often left thinking, “no, it’s cheaper but I prefer the stability
and surety of Mercadona” – I mean where else can you get about 15 different
presentations of Anchovies!
This last two week has continued to be hot, hotter and
last Tuesday I think was the hottest hitting over 41 degrees. But on Friday it
all changed! For the first time since I have
been here we had a torrential thunderstorm with hailstones IN THE MORNING and
these storms continued at irregular intervals throughout the day. At 10pm we
were all treated to the most amazing electric storm with the large cumulous
clouds being backlit by an amazing show of lightening, fireballs (St. Elmo’s
fire?) and silent explosions of light. Truly amazing to behold and no noise whatsoever. As a result the
temperatures have come down to around the upper 20’s centigrade and it is
cloudy and rather pleasant!
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| Caravaca Tourist Office |
Last weekend I had the great pleasure of entertaining
my very good friend Marco. He had driven down from Madrid and we enjoyed a couple
of days of good food, good wine, good conversation and some sightseeing. Marco
who is Mexican is now however, more British than I am (I think having obtained
Biritish citizenship and now working from Spain, he feels honour bound to be a
zealot!) So we dined on two staples of the true British cuisine, Cottage Pie
and Chicken Rogan Josh! (Though not at the same time!)
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| Buen provecho - isn't it! |
The British-run Cosas y cosas furniture shop, book swap
and mini-british supermarket supplying the requisite Daddies sauce, Lea and
Perrins, Patak’s Curry Paste, Naan bread and Pickles! It was a lovely change.
We realised that despite having known each other since
2004 and having travelled widely together on business (Mexico, Costa Rica, Ecuador,
Austria) and socialised (I attended his wedding in Mexico) it was actually the
first time we had spent quality time together, without the “benefit” of
partners or business colleagues. We
were certainly not lost for words sitting on the terrace till gone midnight chatting,
chatting, chatting!
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| Chicken Rogan Josh - thanks Mr. Patak! |
We took in some of the local towns on Saturday, visiting
Caravaca de la Cruz, Moratalla and Calasparra, deciding on balance that despite
Cehegin not being the smartest or tidiest the “old town” definitely had the
most character and charm, simply by being a bit run down and fuzzy at the
edges. A very pleasant two days.
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| "Sanctuary of Hope" |
Calasparra, I assume, not to be outdone by the fact that Caravaca is one of the five holy cities of the world, has built in a gorge by a river the "Sanctuary of the Virgin of Hope" (1963) ..... utilising a small cave and definitely a money maker! It was lovely to escape to this gorge and enjoy some time out of the sun, surrounded by the trappings of an obvious tourist honey-pot (holy of otherwise).
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| The wax baby room! |
Childless couples (I assume) can buy wax babies, which you hang up by the neck (something not quite right here) in an alcove next to the statue of the virgin in "hope" ....... all a bit tacky!
My days here normally start around 5:15, when I get up to
Skype with Nick, for him it is 10:15 the previous night so we talk through his
day at work, just as we did when we were together in the flat. We swap news and
talk about all those inconsequentialities that make up day to day living. After
Skyping, whilst drinking a cup of English Breakfast tea I have taken to going
back to bed for an hour, with the heat sleeping is so difficult so an hours
dozing until the sun rises seems to be a
good idea.
But last Wednesday, I couldn’t doze as “shock horror” I
had to get ready for a trip to Murcia, after 4 weeks and 2 days my estate
agent/conveyancer, Alfonso, was actually going to take me to get my NIE. The
process took 1. 5 hours in total including the 60km journey to and from Murcia,
filling in the form, queuing, me standing in front of a policeman for all of 20
seconds whilst he checked my details on my passport and the journey home. The “NIE
will be ready on Friday” but needless to say Alfonso is yet to collect it! Mañana, Mañana ……
Andrea, (cosas y cosas) did not improve my mood as I said
that I hoped to be in my new house for my birthday on the 24th of
August …… “you’ll be lucky, it’s August and all the notaries close as do the municipal
offices, or if not closed they work very limited hours” ….. thanks! I cheered myself up by buying a bottle of “salad
cream” – I love mayonnaise but there are times when you simply have to have Salad
Cream {cheddar cheese and lettuce sandwiches, being one!}
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| And today we go vegetrarian! |
I so need my NIE as I have to open a bank account. I
also tried to by a computer on-line from Dell and having filled in pages of the
online process for Dell and PayPal, when finally I pressed the “Compra” (buy)
button it asked for one last piece of information “what is your NIE!” – I think
this was because my bank was in the UK and the delivery address was Spain and I
was buying from Dell Spain not Dell UK.
So I struggle on with this Acer …..
[Sorry Marco, but the laptop you have loaned me is also just 1GB of RAM
so suffers from the same limitations.]
But when I feel all is lost I can change my mood in an
instant, but going to either the fridge and seeing what’s to cook or buy
opening a recipe book. I am becoming
very Spanish inasmuch as I go to cook a nice “vegetarian” dish and end up just
adding a little “chorizo” for added flavour, all vegetarian dishes here include
either a little jamon or as little chorizo, just for flavour mind, not because
it is actually meat!
One very macho Spanish habit I seem to have “adopted”
is that I find it almost impossible to drink coffee any time of day now without
a small shot of brandy in it …….when in Rome! (but you are in Spain ....... oh, good even more reason!)
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| So many bottles, only two days chatting | - A result! |
So, I two weeks I celebrate 3 months in Cehegin, time passes
fast. I so hope to report progress on the house next time …… hasta luego.
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