LEARNING THE LANGUAGE - A-Z Challenge

LEARNING THE LANGUAGE – Yes, I have learned Spanish – it would have been rude not to. I am a foreigner who chose to move here, and it’s a Spanish speaking island.

I don’t speak it perfectly by any means, but I can hold a conversation and shop without pointing - there's a limit to what you can convey with sign language.

I can also cope with most medical situations. By giving myself a crash course in medical-speak I even survived a week in hospital having a hip replacement after living here for only a year.

As hospitals go, the Clinica Verde in Las Americas - a private hospital that takes some national health patients - isn't a bad place to be incarcerated, though having a bed bath in a room with two other patients and no curtains was a novel experience!

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Our lives are enriched by being able to talk to Spanish people as well as English, and I have sometimes helped our 10 year old neighbour with her English homework. For the next month I will also be helping her father learn English, and that's even more of a challenge, as his native tongue is Italian!

 Call me Professora Liz!  

LAUNDRY – One of the advantages of life in Tenerife is that you very rarely need a tumble-drier, but not everyone has a terrace like ours, so they Leave their Laundry out on the pavement.  I took this photo in a back alley in Los Abrigos. It doesn't get much sun but the temperature was 30 degrees.

And this line of washing in Las Galletas gets the sun all day. There is also a graffiti'd line of washing on the wall behind it - a visual joke which always makes me smile.

... and, talking as we were of hip replacements, here's a bit of FLASH FICTION to finish with.

LOOKING AFTER MOTHER

My world has shrunk to this.

I should be grateful – they’ve decorated the room and hung pretty curtains. 

But the window is double-glazed, and although I can see the children throwing snowballs I can’t hear them.

I’m afraid to look in the mirror in case I’ve disappeared.

I wanted to go outside in the snow yesterday but I couldn’t find my boots, and I knew Edie had hidden them when she said, “You could break your hip, Mother, and then where would you be?”

In a nursing home is where I’d be, with other people to talk to.

Edie's gone out for a while - I think I’ll get my coat.

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Thank you for reading - please leave a comment so I know you've been here!

HIGH TIDE IN TENERIFE

The moon and strong winds have brought huge waves to Tenerife.
This was Las Galletas when I got there this morning - I had to go the long way round, and when I saw the seafront road it was obvious why it was closed. The sea had taken a great bite out of the beach and used it to pebble-dash the road, including a few cars that had been left in the danger-zone!

There were workmen sweeping beach off the promenade, too, though I suspect the next tide will undo all their good work 

- the young man in the red shirt seems to think they're wasting their time!

A sea that can throw head-sized rocks isn't going to be fazed by a pile of gritty sand.

And this was the sea at Los Cristianos.

We heard yesterday that a woman had been swept off a wall by a wave. Terrible news, but there will always be people who risk their lives to watch the power of Nature up close.

Anyone want to buy my apartment?  :D

Actually this isn't a joke - our apartment is on the market .

We live in Parque de la Reina, which is a quiet residential village with its own access to the motorway 5 minutes to the airport, 10 minutes to Los Cristianos, and if you click on the link at the top of this page you can take a virtual tour.

CRIBS AND KINGS - THE FINAL FIESTA

photo from www.newsinthesun.com

Today is January 6^th – Epiphany in the church calendar. To some people it is Twelfth Night – the day by which all Christmas decorations should be put away. Here in Tenerife it is Dia de los Reyes – Kings’ Day – when all good Spanish children receive gifts from the Three Kings, or a bag of coal – carbon del Rey – if they’ve been naughty.

Another Christmas tradition here is the making of a crib – un Belen – which can be anything from a plastic scene from a euro shop to an elaborate creation with life-size figures.

The one in the above photograph is mine. In 1980 I made the main figures at pottery class, then my children got in on the act. Mandy made the horse, Debs the cow, John the pig and Dan, who was two at the time, insisted on making a second infant Jesus. Even when my children are far away at Christmas, I have this crib to remind me of when they were young and always there.

In our shopping village, Las Galletas, I only just spotted this Belen in the window of the farmacia in time before they took it away. The detail is amazing.

An oxen-drawn cart and chickens . . 

. . . a village plaza with a bar in the background and a circular meeting-place, choristers mounting the steps  . .

. .  a market with ham and sausages, cheeses and potatoes for sale  . . 

. . .  flamenco dancers by the duck-pond welcoming Los Reyes on their camels . .

... and finally the inn with the Nativity scene in the cave stable beneath it - complete with Guardia Civil..

FELIZ REYES!

CAFFEINE, RUINS & CHOCOLAT

This is a barraquito.
I don't know if they make it anywhere else in the world - it might be a Canarian speciality - but if you come to Tenerife you must try one. My stepson and his girlfriend spent one happy holiday searching for the best one.

The layers are - bottom to top - condensed milk, a liquor known as '43', hot milk, strong coffee and milky froth, the whole thing finished off with cinnamon and a sliver of lemon zest.

The most experienced restauranteurs present it still in layers which, after admiring briefly, you stir together and then drink. It is wonderful after dinner - sweet and strong and alcoholic - and full of caffeine which I have been advised to avoid.

But because I cannot enjoy one of these during my shopping trips, I now frequent a little place in Las Galletas called Cafela, where the green tea is the best I have tasted. A bonus is the view in the pedestrianised street behind the tiny cafe - this is an elderly couple's way of creating a garden outside their two-room apartment.






What a shame that someone can't renovate this little gem of a ruin that sits abandoned a few yards away.
If I had the money - and could track down probably a couple of dozen absentee heirs - I'd do it myself. It's fifty yards from the sea, ditto from the shops - what more could you want?










And, returning like an addict to the caffeine theme, this shop opened its doors just beside the car park this week.
"Chocolat!" I gasped, probably aloud, but it was not so - the damn place is yet another shoe shop.

FERIA ARTESANAL

This little chap is supposed to represent El Torro wearing a traditional Tenerife costume. Only one thing wrong with that is that the costume is feminine, but hey! - it's a bit of fun.



Las Galletas in the south of Tenerife held an Artisans' Fair at the weekend, and as it's a ten minute drive from our home - and we had to go to the bank - we had a look round.

Every stall was draped in a length of the traditional peasant fabric and shaded from the bright sun with locally-made grass matting.

We bought some goat milk cheese .....

.... and some tomato bread and a huge teacake that will probably last us two or three days.

Someone beat us to the wine ...

.. this display board was once used to crush grain out of its husks. The board would be weighted with rocks and drawn back and forth by a goat, or weighted with children and hauled by their mother.

There was lots of local honey.....


.... and we could have bought any number of hand-made honey dippers or other kitchen tools .....

....or even cigars rolled on a local maiden's thigh...

...we already have a terrace full of plants ...

..... and are way too old for the bouncy castle, but I did enjoy seeing its proximity to the statue of older traditions.

We saw at least half a dozen stages being set up, each with its loudspeakers, and no doubt the local populace stayed up all night partying.

We went for a quiet meal with friends in Los Cristianos and saw a sandcastle.

FELIZ DIA DE CANARIAS!

THESE TWO LITTLE GENTLEMEN WERE ON THEIR WAY HOME AFTER A MORNING CELEBRATING DIA DE CANARIAS AT SCHOOL

Their costumes are a modest version of the full oufit, which for men includes a colourful sash and heavy woolen leggings - like leg-warmers knitted by a fisherman's wife  in Guernsey.











We only went to Las Galletas because the cat had eaten all her food, but after a quick coffee I followed to sound of music to the sports hall opposite the school and watched every pupil participating in an annual demonstrartion of national pride.

 Costumes were everywhere - the shops are full of them too - and the stands were full to bursting, Even the old men we usually see sitting by the car park were there, joining in the fun, Today is the actual holiday - so no doubt tonight there will be parties and fireworks and fighting and drunkenness, but yesterday was just music and dancing and lovely.

And on our way back to the car we saw this - an infant school's very creditable attempt at making a Corpus Cristi Carpet, for this is actually the feast ho Corpus Cristi and all over the island temporary carpets will me made out of flowers and coloured volcanic rock  I had to take my photograph upsidedown through the fence, but it looks really weird if I turn it right way up!

GYPSY, GEORGE AND GUAZA MAN

   GYPSY When Albie’s mother abandons him she calls him a “gypsy brat” and tells him that her latest man friend doesn’t want him around. From that moment Albie is determined to find out if this was just another jibe or if he really does have Romany blood in his veins.

In the early 1900s the hop-fields and fruit farms of Kent, where my novel Helter-Skelter is set, are rich in travelling folk who, although they are still regarded with suspicion by the locals, are a necessary part of the labour force.

Meanwhile GEORGE & DOT SMITH become Albie’s parents by taking him into their home. George is a big, working class man – a patient grandfather who takes pity on the young waif Albie, and Dot is strong-willed but kind and motherly. She is a typical housewife of her era, who wears a wrap-over pinny all day, makes nourishing meals on very little money, and can’t stand bad behaviour. Come to think of it, she’s not unlike me – except for the apron!




As we drive home from Las Galletas, the fishing village a few kilometres away where we do our shopping and drink cafe con leche, we pass through GUAZA, where the mountain looks so like a recumbent figure that he is known as GUAZA MAN.

SPOOKY SHOWER STORY

We think our shower may be haunted - or at the very least there was some sort of strange psychic energy in there this morning.
As we were drinking a coffee in Las Galletas today I said to the Other Half, "I had this weird sensation in the shower this morning." (All those people with dirty minds go to the back of the class.)
"What was that?" he asked, which proved he had actually heard me - a miracle in itself.
"A moment of deja vu ," I told him, "But the main thing is that it gave me an idea for a story." I described my idea - an off-the-wall one as most of my story ideas are - and it will get written when it's stewed for a while. In the meantime the OH had his own experience to add.
"There must be something peculiar in the shower today," he said, "Because I was about to get out when I realized I hadn't washed my hair."
Now that IS spooky. The OH takes great pride in the fact that he still has hair at 77, and he uses an inordinate amount of 2 in 1 shampoo. For him to forget to wash the locks is strange indeed.

MORE DEMOLITION

This notice appeared in Las Galletas last week beside the houses scheduled for demolition.
It translates as:
PLAN OF THE COASTS
Maintenance and Conservation of the Coasts of the Province of Tenerife.
PROJECT CO-FINANCED BY THE EUROPEAN UNION
Many people believe "Co-financed" means "Dictated by" and I think they could well be right.

A fortnight ago a solitary villa was pulled down and the blocks hauled away.

On Tuesday the pink block of flats was reduced to rubble. Today we could almost have parked where it had been.

The white building with the concave un-plastered wall to its upper storey is still there, keeping the wind off the Italian restaurant next door. Will that be standing next week? Your guess is as good as mine - there was a Spanish restaurant by the promenade two months ago on what is now empty beach.

You might not consider the loss of a few houses in Las Galletas to be a big deal, but it's happening along the entire coastline in all Spanish territories.

It isn't only the big hotels or modern blocks of ugly apartments, some of which we wouldn't mourn if they went.

It's not even the foreign pensioners who built their villas in all good faith only to have them torn down.

Every fishing village could be affected. Every family who have lived near to the sea for generations, and who take their living from it, could be affected by the draconian law that has taken away their rights.

Look up this site for the story of CHO VITO, one such village in Tenerife http://elespritudechovito.blogspot.com.es/

CHO VITO BEFORE






AFTER

and the Policia having to hold back the homeless.

Yesterday nine of the remaining residents were on hunger strike - let's hope someone listens.




....and on another note - if you want cheering up, look at the new addition to my "Verses" page.

Turn your back for a minute...

 ...well, a month, to be fair, but they've been changing things while I was away.
Down in Las Galletas, a coastal village about eight kilometres from our home, the Government department "Costas" (Coasts) has been busy demolishing buildings that encroach on the beach.
That pile of rubble on the right was a two-storey villa, and the pink three-storey block of apartments is due to go soon.

Next to that is another weird construction with wonky walls which has been there at least thirty years. It's not beautiful, but presumably it has been somebody's home all that time.
Beyond that an Italian restaurant extends onto the rocks - how much of that will be demolished is anyone's guess.
We are all hoping that the tiny fishing cottages which have recently been converted to small holiday homes will survive - they were there long before Costas decided that the coastline should be cleared to "improve the environment" - or maybe, say the cynics, just improve the view for tourists? In other coastal villages whole streets have been demolished, leaving families homeless.

 Further along the promenade, two sewage outfall buildings remain untouched - although as workmen have been extending pipework out beyond the harbour for a year, maybe these ugly blocks are due for the chop eventually.
Who knows?
Meanwhile, this is the view from one end of the promenade - let's hope it improves soon.

And in our community gardens, two banana plants  which showed no sign of even a bud before I left, have produced flowers and bunches of immature bananas in a month - I knew they grew fast, but this took me by surprise.

So, like I said - turn your back for a minute and everything changes!