Love is in the air...

… although it isn’t in the air for me! On Tuesday – Valentine’s Day – I played Cupid. One of my flatmates fancied one of my work colleagues, and asked me for my help. So while she wasn’t there at lunchtime I surreptitiously transferred a sizeable box of chocolates from a hidden place on his desk to hers, trying to look as nonchalant as possible so as not to attract suspicion from other colleagues. Soon the chocolates were the talk of the office, despite the recipient’s attempt to keep them a secret. Everybody suspected my flatmate, who spent the rest of the week denying it. But he got a date with his girl at the end of it all… so we shall see!

On the work front, all is not well in Spain with salads. We’ve been having really low temperatures, particularly at night. It’s very unusual, and the plants can’t handle it. So the iceberg lettuces are literally freezing is their beds – they contain a high percentage of water – and are disintegrating in the fields. Not good news for the farmers… and it won’t be good news for salad stocks on the UK shelves, either.

I might not have met with love this week, but I did meet with a large flock of sheep! It was quite a shock. There I was, driving along at 80km/h… around a corner… cue an emergency break! A veritable sea of sheep was trotting towards me. Hazard lights on, hoping that nobody came whizzing too fast around the corner behind me, all I could do was sit there and wait. And take a photograph, of course:

On the subject of photograpghs, it’s finally that time of year again: sunrises on my morning walks. I have little to write about this week, so I’ll leave you with a selection of this week’s best shots. Next week, there’ll be news on a trip to a nearby national park… so keep tuned. Hasta Luego!

Factoids from a foreigner in Spain

Did you know that…

… if you pass a lorry on the motorway and it happens to be full of salad, it might contain up to:

- 21450 iceberg lettuces

- 40560 packets of celery

- 83200 little gem lettuces

… organic mushrooms take around six weeks to grow. Regular mushrooms can be grown in just under four weeks. They are watered more than the organic varieties and so grow faster (because mushrooms have a high water content) but are more susceptible to disease, and do not last as long once harvested as organic ones.

… “estar constipado” in Spanish doesn’t mean “to be constipated”. It means to have a bad cold. Some amusing conversations at cross purposes to be had in this chilly weather…. To be constipated, on the other hand, is “estar estreñido” – literally “to be strained”.

I didn’t know any of those things. You learn a new thing (or three!) every week.

I also learned this week that banana works well on pizza. This wasn’t one of my mad experimental cookery moments, although you would be forgiven for thinking so. No, I was actually served a banana curry pizza in a restaurant. I saw it on the menu and – to the amused disgust of my fellow diners – couldn’t help but order it out of fascination. The just-underripe banana had been cut into rounds and tossed in curry powder before being added to a regular ham pizza. To be honest, I could have done without the curry powder – it was just a bit too bizarre on the cheese and tomato base! But the banana was just like the pineapple on a Hawaiian pizza. Yummy! Another strange culinary experience of the week, admittedly on a much more luxurious scale, was eating thinly cut ox steak that I cooked myself at the table on a piping hot slab of stone. The concept of going to a restaurant to cook for myself took a little getting used to… but I couldn’t fault it for novelty factor and experience!

My spoken Spanish is coming along nicely. I had a mid-term review this week, and as a result of that I had been set a challenge – to start answering my (Spanish) colleauge’s phone when she wasn’t in the office. It was a prospect that I didn’t relish. But not to be defeated, I started picking up the calls. And to my surprise, I could understand what was being said, and after a few conversations I began to get the hang of what I needed to say back to the callers. My phone manner still leaves something to be desired, but it was a definite victory, and a cause for a little well earned celebration.

Hasta luego!

Back again!

Finally, my flatmate and I took a trip to Cartagena. It was only 20 minutes down the motorway, and I wasn´t entirely sure why we hadn´t explored that way before, but we hadn´t. I hadn´t heard brilliant things about it from the locals... but then I don´t tend to hear anything brilliant about the area from them, even though they are quick enough to defend their homeland if anybody says anything against it. And I was pleasantly surprised! There was a well-kept harbour, bustling despite the fact that it was early on a Sunday afternoon. Some of the boats were impressive - I loved the old wooden "pirate" boats, but there were also plenty of shiny new white ones which must have cost their owners a pretty penny.


It was very pleasant to walk along the pavements in the sun, listening to the music playing in the bars and restaurants and admiring the architecture of the buildings growing up the hill behind us.

Walking into the town centre felt like entering a different world from that of the rest of the Spain that I´d experienced so far. It didn´t feel run down and depressed. The buildings, whose architecture was mostly beautiful if you looked up, were well cared for, and the streets were tidy. The people walking around were well dressed, the shops - although closed for the Sabbath - were plentiful, and none of them were empty or boarded up like they are in most of the towns, and the cafes and bars were full of happy people chattering and drinking. It felt like a town with a life! I was particularly delighted by a series of bronze statues who sat around on the benches in the streets. They were quirky and added to the character of the place.

The week before I went home was a good week. At work I really felt useful for once. My boss was in the UK, so there was more for me to do (even though I couldn´t do a lot of what he does), and on top of that I had been asked to write two reports and prepare powerpoint presentations on them... to be delivered in Spanish! The prospect was mildly terrifying, but in a really good way. Plus, once I´d written one, I earned a rare "well done" from my manager. On top of this, I was beginning to be able to talk. Over lunch there were conversations about the capsized cruise liner, about the merits of christenings and baptisms, and about how a first date should never involve food. And I managed to keep up, and occasionally take part. I even tried to explain Quakerism... which is hard enough in English! I almost felt sad to be going home just when I was getting into the swing of things. Maybe I wouldn´t want to go home at the end of the 6 months here after all.

10 days in the UK went by all too fast. I laughed with friends and enjoyed the winter and relaxed with family, went to the cinema (Ralph Fiennes´ Corialanus - not one for the faint-hearted), the theatre (RSC´s The Taming of the Shrew - not one for the prudish) and a recital of ´cello music in Cambridge (courtesy of my sister).

10 days, it seems, however fast they go by, is long enough to forget every word of Spanish that I knew! I´ve felt a bit like I´m back to square one this week, but it´s getting slowly easier again now. Work has been hectic around me, thanks to the weather. Snow in France and northen Spain has been wreaking havoc with international logistics, with lorries getting stuck all over the shop, and struggling to cross the channel. The snow forecast for the UK is only going to make things worse. And although it´s warmer here than in the rest of the continent, it´s still unseasonably cold. We´re dropping below freezing at night, and struggling to reach double figures in the middle of the day. I predict problems in the harvests over here in the next few weeks - the plants just aren´t used to these temperatures.