July 19 - August 1 As time goes by .............

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!

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!)

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! 

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.

"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).  

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 24^th 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!}

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!)

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.

July 5 - 18 "The Stature of Waiting"

 This week for reasons which will become apparent almost impossible to get the pictures where I want them .....

The town band in action - actually very good and playing
tough repertoire by Shostakovitch  and Bernstein.

Cactus in flower

"The Stature of Waiting" was a book a read 25 years ago when on a long retreat at a Anglican monastery in Yorkshire, it was all about the dignity and thus "stature" of simply waiting, in this case of course it was waiting on God, waiting for a sign, for the time to be right, to be content in that simple act of waiting .......... well, this last two weeks I have been waiting, waiting, waiting for the damned estate agent/conveyancer.  

 
 

This stasis occasioned also by my heel which is still not 100%, the incredible heat and in the last few days feeling very under the weather with flu-like symptoms has been hard to cope with.   Everybody here adopts a kind of troglodyte existence from 10 am - 6pm, blinds drawn, stay in the dark and try to keep cool, so interaction with others is also difficult. I can walk the 3 kms round trip to Mercadona and maybe only see 5 or 6 people and maybe 20 other people shopping. 

River Argos

Also and this is a major factor this bloody notebook "computer" has decided that it has had enough, (maybe it too hates the heat) and I presented with a constant barrage of messages saying "not responding","not responding","not responding" to the point where it takes 20 minutes simply to get skype or word or the internet to function and then each programme freezes 2 or 3 times before it begrudgingly starts to work but oh so slowly.  Where is the f**king stature in that?

In consequence I can report that there has been little dignity in this, the last two weeks have been slow, boring and frankly a bit depressing. I have retreated into a world of listening to radio 4, the bbc i-player, eating too much, reading and staring at the ceiling.  You can have too much time to think and it's too hot to study! 

Well that's what you wanted I hear you say and it is, but I think I had planned on a little more control in the  process and had not thought about the waiting, waiting, waiting.  I wanted and had planned for "structure" and all this has thrown me off course a bit. Hence no blog last week. Stature is no use without structure!

Ordinarily, non of this would be a problem but at the moment it has all just piled on top of one another and in writing this I hope to relieve the strain a bit.   I am not feeling in control and the moment, diminished stature.

Wild Bamboo

However, looking forward, (waiting), I have a very good friend visiting for the weekend and I hope he will also be an "angel of mercy" as there is the possibility of him arriving with an old laptop (old for him, a modern miracle for me) and that I might be able to do more and do it more effectively. If not, I shall have to buy one immediately rather than wait and buy one once in the new place and  once internet connections etc have been sorted.

But more importantly than that I wait to see him, catch upon his career, family and life, explore some of the local wines and food and generally have a good time.

 

One other slight upside of all this waiting is that thanks to the Grexit-saga, and a pronouncement by Mark Carney (Bank of England Governor) the pound has strengthened  and a Euro has gone from being worth 73p to currently worth 69p making my house around 5% cheaper!

 


The food exploration continues, but without the counterbalance of my daily jog, my waist is expanding ...... not the kind of stature I want or seek.

Anyways, hopefully and finally my NIE registration will happen this week, and my hope is to have the house by the time of my birthday, so just 5 weeks to go.

Food pictures of Bocquerones (Anchovies) in a picante pimiento batter and a rather lovely but rich mixture of various spanish sausages  cooked with mushrooms, tomatoes, pimientos and cream cheese, yummy sauce for pasta.

Corgettes with onions and cooked with lemon juice.

A too rich pasta sauce?

Last night was the Cehegins patronal festival, St. Mary Magdelene, so I had the pleasure of thunderclaps going off until around 2 am and then couldn't sleep because I was waiting for the next bang!

All a bit of a moan this week ..... but let's "wait and see" what happens this next week!

"Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible"

Footnote:  "The Stature of Waiting" rather backfired in monastic terms, as whist waiting I got bored and  met and had an affair with a member of the community (a monk), which resulted in me springing him out of the community (clearing his room and leaving whilst the rest of the community was at prayer) and me being somewhat "persona non grata" - our relationship didn't survive the turbulence, but he went on to be a very successful parish priest and I learnt that maybe the monastic life wasn't quite what God had in mind, although of course it all boiled up again some years later. But these are stories for the biography.

Another great sunrise

June 28 – July 4 The green light at Last.

(NOTE: As has happened previously the formatting of this blog has a mysterious life of its own, with colours and fonts changing randomly - no idea why. Sorry.)

Dancing in the street as the white smoke is spotted arising from the offices of Ortega Inmoboliara, the cry goes up ....... HABEMUS CASAM ...........  well, almost ..........

6:50pm on Monday during my "aperitif time"  I get an email from the Agent saying can I make a meeting later that evening, given that the working hours after the siesta are more or less 5:30 – 9:00pm I suggest 8pm.  I duly arrive and meet Don Jose who is acting on behalf of the five members of the Fernandez family who have inheritance rights to the house.

The purpose of the meeting is to draw up the “Contrato de Gestion de Compra” – A contract to manage the sale – and for me to pay the €1000 deposit.

The house was last sold in 1965 and Don Jose has with him the sale documents from that time. Basically the contract states that he is entitled to sell the house and I am entitled to buy it, for so much, payable in such a form and following due process.  With both sides being represented buy the agent who is qualified to do the conveyancing.

A nice touch is that Don Jose and I agree and affirm that we consider each other to be have the legal and mental (?) capacity to carry out the transaction. Anyways 30 minutes later and having signed three copies of the contract and handed over the money I am on my way to being a house-owner after a gap of some 20+ years.

Now I have to get my NIE (like a National Insurance Number) so that I can open a bank account and then the necessary documents can be drawn up and amended to pass the ownership of the house to me.  The registration documents reside with the Municipality and the process is in reality quite simple. But of course the agent suffers from the universal malaise of estate agents and solicitors (and of course it is the summer and it is hot) so I have a choice of their two speeds of slow or stop.

The document states that the footprint of the house is 54.72 square metres and names who the owners are on either side (or were in 1965) and also behind it states that it is the Hill of the Conception.

On Wednesday, serendipitously, whilst on my evening walk going past “the house” - just making sure it hasn't melted away - outside was a typical small, white, "fiat"  van - beloved of all small traders (of an age) here in Spain -  CONSTRUCCIONES JAFRASA - with the owner enjoying a cigarillo - I banged on the window and asked if he undertook small works and that I was in the process of buying the house number 17.   He told me that he had done the restorations of numbers 15 and 13 (owned by the municipality and done-up with lashings of EU money) which are rental houses for tourists.

Restored houses in smart red and mine is almost as
large as them both. :-)  and will be as smart.

He took me on a tour, very nicely done, the houses are lovely.  He said well of course your house is bigger than these and has many possibilities, blah, blah, blah  and he said it would be perfectly possible to work with me and do things bit by bit and slowly (of course the Spanish only have two speeds: slow or stop) we are going to talk again once I have the house. (Mid August?)  

When the time is right I will disabuse him of the €€€ signs I could see flashing in his eyes as he realises that my budget and that of the EU are not one and the same thing!

I will need a professional (him) to do the difficult stuff but I want to do as much as I can myself. And apart from having a bathroom/wet room installed upstairs (no problem!) I want to retain as many original features as possible.  He also said there would be no problem in putting a rear window into the upstairs for extra light.

Everything can be done under a minor works permission from the municipality. Simple.

I have given my heel another week to heal and am glad of it as it is about 90% OK now. In any case it has been too hot to do much exercise and today we expect a temperature close to 40C with high temperatures continuing through the week.

On the cooking front this week it is Rabbit (Conejo).

I purchased an authentic ceramic Pestle and Mortar  (€2.70) and also an enamel wide "olla" (€7) for the preparation of this dish. 

I want to present you with the flavour of the rather stilted language of this recipe taken from  www.regmurcia.com:  so the translation might seem a little odd but it has it’s own rustic charm. 

 

Conejo al ajo cabañil. (Rabbit in the rustic style with garlic.)

This is a dish popular throughout Murcia, using the most widely consumed meat of the region: rabbit, along with garlic and potatoes.

Cabañil  comes from “cabanas”  which are wooden cabins, so this dish is rabbit with garlic as cooked in the kitchen of the wooden cabins, i.e very basic, simply over an open fire.  And also very economical.

This dish is served on the feast day of the villages around Cartagena.

So, for 4 – 6 people.

Rabbit jointed with liver and kidneys

A rabbit of approximately 1kg
1 kg of potatoes
A head of garlic
A cup of vinegar
Olive oil
Salt.

Important:

    Those skilled in this field agree that the most important thing in this dish is the slaughtering of the rabbit as it is "the blood of the rabbit," as they say, is what gives this particular flavour of meat (very low in calories, by the way). If we can get someone you trust to raise them and kill them, great, if not, we buy the rabbit ready jointed in a reputable store.

Step One: Cut the potatoes and fry

    Peel and cut the potatoes into thick slices to prevent them from breaking when added together with the rabbit. Season  and fry them in plenty of olive oil (some prefer to fry potatoes in sunflower oil to make it lighter) until  golden. Then remove and reserve.

Second step: we cut the rabbit and fry

    Now we cut the rabbit into small pieces, but also we can buy cut to our taste, season.

    In the same pan where we fried potatoes put the rabbit and fry  until it is crisp, and golden brown, but not take away.

 

Third step: we prepare the majao

    

Authentic Spanish Motar and Pestle, for the majao

This is another important step in the recipe, prepare a substantia "majao" with its characteristic flavor. (“Majao” is a dressing normally prepared in a mortar based on crushed garlic) …. So

    We put in a mortar Head of garlic and pound it, helping with a pinch of salt to prevent it jumping around, once pounded, add the glass of vinegar and mix.

Step four: mix

    Finally we need to mix all the ingredients we have prepared.  Return the pan where we have rabbits to the heat,  take the “majao” and mix well then  incorporate the potatoes and give them a final stir round, being careful not to break them. When all is hot mixed and hot we are ready to eat.

Presentation and accompanying table

    Today we will enjoy a surprising dish despite its simplicity, but in our region we love going to a restaurant on a Sunday in the countryside and eat this Conejo al ajo cabañil, because it is a taste that for which we yearn.

    All that would accompany it is  a plate of sausage in the area and good country bread slices for soaking-up that surplus olive oil which kindly gives the delicacy ... all washed down with the stock of Murcia (wine).

    Once served at the table we eat because it is best to take it warm.

Other similar recipes ; you can replace the rabbit with port, lamb or goat.  BUT  “Our grandmothers remind us that  to the majao you add a slice of day old  bread fried in olive oil, to give a little more consistency and body.”

A Spanish Abuela (Grandmother) preparing the dish ….. 

VERDICT:

Wow, this dish with its pungent “majao” packs a real punch!  If you like strong flavours and want a substantial dish this is it. I actually onlyu used 8 very large cloves of garlic -  even I simply dare not use a whole head, as the garlic bulb was large. The way the “majao” gets absorbed into the potatoes is quite amazing and with a glass of heavy red wine you are in for a real treat, but I wouldn’t plan on anything other than a siesta afterwards. Maybe next time I will cook the ingredients to a much deeper gold colour as in the picture above.
 Yum, yum, yum even in this heat!

OK. Thats it for this week.   Final picture of the moon over the hermitage of the Conception ..