Out of town for the summer

-
We're off to the hill station. Too damned hot in the city over the summer don't you know.

Maggie finishes school today, the term is over. The children have been on holiday for the past week but the staff holidays don't start till July 1. They end on August 31.

So, for two months it's goodbye to coffee at Bar Fran just a hundred metres from home, goodbye to intercambios with Lourdes, Carlos and Miguel, goodbye to popping out on foot to Mercadona for the food, to the kiosk for a newspaper or to tobacconists and banks within a stones throw. Goodbye to public transport, Corte Inglés, well shops in general really, and to museums, exhibitions and the cinema. Goodbye to water pressure and an unfailing power supply as well.

On the other hand it's hello to a bit of peace and quiet, hello to plenty of space, to home comforts and a decent sofa. Hello to lots of our compatriots too and I suppose there are a few shops and bars in Pinoso only a ten minute drive away.

So, for two months, expect Life in Cartagena to fall silent. With a bit of luck I'll have something to say about Life in Culebrón other than to complain about the flies.

Until September.

Comments

  1. ctJuly 16, 2010 at 10:42 AM

    Must be nice to have Summer and Winter Palaces.
    Brings back fond memories of a trip to Leningrad with the British Council in 1976.
    We're off to France in our bus for three weeks.
    One day when I can get Maria to retire we shall join you in your Summer Palace.
    Have fun
    Colin

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Second class citizens

-
Image
We have house guests at the moment - some of Maggie's family and their lovers. Generally all we've done is to walk, eat and drink with the occasional museum stop to imitate cultural longing. Yesterday we boarded the Tourist Boat for a gentle tootle around the harbour. It's a while since I've been on the boat so I was a bit surprised when there was no recorded "to the left the such and such fort and to the right the old fisherman's quay" - commentary. It used to come first in Spanish and then in English but now all is silence. Anyway we stopped at Fuerte de la Navidad - Christmas Fort. Non Spanish speakers were directed one way and Spanish speakers another. We got to see an English language film extolling the virtues of Cartagena and then we were left to stroll the fort at leisure. As we walked and nosed I realised that the Spanish speakers were getting a detailed introduction to the fort. I joined in. Interesting stuff I thought. Lots about the de
Read more

A bit bigger than 12 gauge

-
Image
If you ever feel the need to launch armour piercing shells weighing 885kg and loaded with 18 kilos of TNT a little over 35 kilometres out to sea then I know where you can find exactly the device to do it. 885kg by the way is about the weight of the current Fiat 500 car. Just down the coast from us at Azohía there is an abandoned, but well maintained, fortress that houses two rather fearsome looking cannons. The fortress was constructed between 1928 and 1936. The guns themselves were built by Vickers. Their barrels are 17 metres long with a calibre of 38cm. Not quite wide enough to launch that Fiat but pretty big nonetheless. You're going to need 20 pals to help you fire each gun and you'll probably need to fill in some official paperwork, this being Spain, but it would make you the envy of anyone who thought they were pretty cool because they owned a pair of Purdeys. Fabulous location too. Nice bit of the coast.
Read more

Shopping

-
Image
Closing in on 30 years ago now I went to a Spanish class in Peterborough with a teacher called John Richardson. On the first night he asked us why we wanted to learn Spanish. I said that I wanted to be able to buy a beer. He lied to me and said that would be easy. I still have trouble getting a beer. Other people in the group said that they wanted to learn the language because they had just bought a house in Torrevieja and wanted to be able to talk to their neighbours. I distinctly remember John saying that it seemed that half of Peterborough had a house in Torrevieja. So there have been Britons in Torrevieja for over 30 years and it shows. We went there to buy specs. We went to Specsavers because I had heard that they were cheap. From the initial phone call to the final fitting everything was transacted in English and the only Spaniard I encountered (to my knowledge) in the whole process was the optician. Specsavers is in a shopping centre and the principal language throughout the
Read more