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7.4.12

GRANDSONS & GOATS

There have been a lot of photos of my GRANDSONS on Facebook this week. Their other GRANDMOTHER is visiting from Slovakia, so my daughter-in-law is camera-happy. So are the boys, judging by their happy GRINS. Me - jealous? Don't even GO there!

Las GALLETAS. The name means “The Biscuits”(!) and it is the fishing village where we lived when we first settled in Tenerife. We rented a tiny one-bedroom apartment overlooking some waste GROUND. On Sundays we had a GRANDSTAND view as local men and boys raced their off-road motos (motorbikes) and on Mondays we would wipe and mop up all the dust.
We had no TV, but the beach was round the corner, the shops 5 minutes’ walk, and we could sit at Amadeo’s bar with a GLASS of vino tinto to watch the sunset. One evening the western sky darkened unusually quickly, and we watched in amazement, with hands protecting our drinks, as millions of huge dragonflies flew in on the wind from Africa. Many of them landed on the wall nearby, clearly exhausted, poor things, and their colours were GORGEOUS.

Our next door neighbours were Indians. One hot day their door was open and such a wonderful smell wafted out that I commented on it. Ten minutes later the two elder children knocked on our door and GAVE us a plate of food! When we returned the plate, with GRATEFUL thanks, we were invited in and shown round. In that two-bedroom apartment, with parents and three children, there was a whole room lined with tall shelves for their household GODS – awesome devotion.

LA GOMERA. Sometimes when we’re driving into Los Cristianos we can see this island so clearly it looks as if you could swim across. At other times it is so shrouded in cloud that it disappears completely – La Isla Magica. It’s well worth the ferry ride. It’s shaped like a dried and shrunken starfish, with deep barrancos divided by steep lava flows, but the local taxi- and bus-drivers are accustomed to the character-forming roads and the scenery is spectacular. GREENERY spills down from the laurel forest on its flat crown, farms cling to slopes as steep as staircases, every path is a series of steps, and the natural domestic animals to keep there are GOATS. They even have their own language of whistles –sifle – which can communicate from one hill to another such simple things as "Dinner's ready" or "I'm going for a drink with the lads.".

I’m GENERALLY a GOOD-NATURED GIRL, as anyone will tell you (if they know what’s GOOD for them!) but some things really GET my GOAT.
People whose idea of conversation is to talk exclusively about themselves.
Drivers who zoom past hooting their horns because I’m keeping to the speed limit.
Ordering a GRILLED meal and having it arrive swimming in GREASE.
GREED – either personal or national – there’d be enough to go round if we were less selfish.
GADGETS that do things you can do quicker by hand.
And the word GENRE that wants to stick me – and you – in categories with fences.

GEOFFREY. My father, my brother and my children’s father were all called Geoffrey. Please share a moment of Gratitude for their lives – one life that was longer than average and the other two far too short.

GEE! GOLLY! GOSH! A day off tomorrow - what WILL I do with myself?

6 comments:

  1. I think you should prepare a few posts so you can have a day off if you are ill! I'm on 'P' I think... trying to get them all done so if there's a panic, I don't need to panic more!

    Did you take a plate of delicious food back to your Indian neighbours...?

    My student son said new neighbours of theirs, next but one, came round to ask if anyone evr lived next door betwen them as they wanted to introduce themselves. Son told them when they'd be in - and introduced hnmself, reassured the new neighbour that although students they nevr had wild parties or music playing all night - and the new neighbour gave him a bottle of wine! Lol... son knew it was a good one as he'd bought the very same for his girlfriend's dad's birthday the week before. So they took round a plant to welcome them to the road. Seems i did bring up a neighbourly boy - probably comes from living in a village.

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  2. A GGGGGreat blog. I am definitely into goats, grandchildren & (La) Gomera but not into garlic. Galletas - I know well.

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  3. What a lovely experience, Liz and great post all round. Having lived in Liverpool for 3 years now we have barely even seen our neighbours but at least it's a nice area.In the last place I lived, Rochdale, I had to take my neighbours to court for ASBO's, moved across the town to Heywood and started all over again with another load of troublemakers.
    How lucky you are! :)

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  4. The word 'genre' as a fence - good analogy.

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  5. Great G post. I hope your day off was Grand!

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