Life in Cartagena

I mentioned the Cartagena Tapas Trail recently. Nice idea, fixed price for a snack and a drink; lots of different snacks. They sold 400,000€ worth in the couple of weeks so other people must have liked the idea too. Here in Cartagena we have a coffee called Asiatico. It's a coffee made with condensed milk, brandy and a local liqueur called Licor 43 - usually with cinnamon and sometimes with other little embellishments. It's nice, a bit of a change from time to time. There's been an attempt to promote it as being typical of the area. You can buy massively overpriced kits as tourist souvenirs that feature the oddly shaped glasses along with all the ingredients. Yesterday the Asiatico Trail opened. There are 47 places to buy an Asiatico. But come on, this isn't the same is it? With the tapas it was something different at every stop. But 47 cups of very sweet and slightly alcoholic coffee? There may be some variation and the price is OK at 1.40€ but I can hardl...

There's something wrong with our sofa. If I sit on it I nod off. I don't think it's anything to do with the whisky - definitely a sofa problem. So the best place to read anything is in a bar. If I fall asleep on a bar stool it hurts as gravity does its thing. I have little routines about which bars I use to get a coffee and so where to read. On Wednesday and Friday morning en route to my classes in Escombreras I stop off at a nice little spot just beside a petrol station. My two cups are served by a very pleasant woman and habitually set me back the princely sum of 2€. But not today, today with a new younger woman behind the bar I paid 2.20€. Odd I thought but, being British, I said nothing. As I drove away though it rankled a bit. The it struck me that it happens quite a lot. In the place I use on Ramon y Cajal for my intercambios the four drinks for the two of us usually come out at 4.40€ but a couple of weeks ago they were 4.80€ and in Santa Florentina it was 20...