NEW HOSPITAL & NURSERIES the A-Z Blog Challenge

N MEANS WE'RE ON THE DOWNHILL RUN OF THE A-Z CHALLENGE,

For my post for today on my theme of life in Tenerife I have chosen NUEVO = NEW.and NURSERY.

After decades of NEGOTIATION and stop-start-stop building work, it looks as if Social Health patients in the south of Tenerife are finally getting their own hospital. At present any inpatients have to go to Santa Cruz, which is an hour's drive away.

Although the private Hospital in Las Americas has an arrangement with the government to deal with some patients, most outpatients in the south go to El Mohon – a tired, crowded, prefabricated building that was never intended to deal with the numbers it gets, and certainly not for this long. 

This is the El Mohon to which we have been going for fifteen years. Parking is always a battle, and  they keep moving the departments from one hut to another so we have to give our selves enough time to search for the one we want, but the view over Los Cristianos is amazing.

The new building has been standing like this for several years - no windows and probably nothing inside but bare walls. It will probably open to great fanfare just after we've returned to England!

NURSERIES - GUARDERIAS

 NURSERIES – The extended family system which deals with the problem of both parents working still functions here, but many young people no longer live near their families and have to send their babies to Nurseries. 

When one opened recently nearby I went to look round. There was a quiet area with cots, tiny tables and chairs for meals, and the dearest little urinals almost at floor level in the toddler toilets.   Bless! and don't you love the handprinted wall by the entrance?

A-Z Challenge = CONTRASTS & CARNAVAL

C is for CONTRASTS

If you leave the CANARIAN tourist towns and drive into the COUNTRYSIDE, the CONTRAST is sudden and stark. Los CRISTIANOS is typically touristic – beach, bars, restaurants and shops – but there’s another side to Tenerife that many people don’t see. Just a COACH TRIP into the mountains can be an adventure and give your sunburn a chance to heal. This is the road to Masca - until recently it was only a goat track, and the inhabitants must have thighs like Rugby players!

CARNAVAL in Tenerife is reputed to rival those in Latin America. Almost before one fiesta is over the authorities have announced the theme for next year. This at least give the Carnaval groups time to design their COSTUMES, which can cost thousands of euros and become more elaborate every year. 

 This chap must have trained at the gym all year to be able to carry this one ...

.. whereas some outfits seem to have been made as skimpy as possible...

... and it’s strange how many macho men dress up in drag for Carnaval..

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

COFFEE IN LOS CRISTIANOS - a bit of verse

Sitting quietly with a coffee

Watching people pass

All their lives a mystery

Leaving me to guess.

 That girl with the box of cakes

Celebrates tonight

Some special anniversary?

Or then again, she might

Be having friends round for a meal

And works Canarian hours

So she won’t have the time to cook

As well as take a shower.

And that man looking nonchalant

pretending that his dog

isn't messing on the pavement - 

he'll go in my blog!

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.

RECYCLING ROCK

We see this sign all over Tenerife and usually drive light-heartedly past it.
As I blogged last week, we should not be quite so blasè, for although there was no warning sign here, on November 11th a rock face fell and almost crushed a young couple in their car.

Since then we locals have been following the progress of repairs with interest, because anyone wishing to go south on the motorway from here has to take another, more convoluted route, and the sooner it's fixed and re-opened, the better.

I walked up there this morning, and stood under the bridge to watch while a workman wrapped a canvas belt round a rock as big as he was. He then stood practically underneath it while a machine lifted it into position in what appears to be a retaining wall built from the rocks that fell. Recycling at its most basic.

Oh yes - and someone has covered "Los Cristianos" on the road sign. I looked round the back and it's just several strips of black bin liner tied together, but I suppose it's better than nothing - perhaps I should take some parcel tape with me tomorrow?

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.

FOTO - FINISH

No, you haven't strayed back into Day Six of the AtoZ Challenge - I am simply taking advantage of the Spanish spelling to make a headline.

FIRST the FOTO 
If you stand right underneath a jacaranda tree this is what you see - isn't it glorious?

FOLLOWED by the FINISH.
YAY!  I have reached the end of my re-write of HELTER-SKELTER which I began way back in March, when an agent said I could re-submit my novel to her when I had addressed some issues.
So I have tightened up the plot, cutting out scenes that, although I liked them, didn't move the story forward. I have written it more from my main character's point of view and cut back on the POVs of other people.
I've tracked down and eliminated repetitions, deleted people with absolutely no regard for how they might feel about it, and made the sex a bit raunchier.

I am a writer with no formal training in the craft, and the pages of advice from the agent were invaluable.
As was the help and support of the members of Talkback - the online writers' forum to which I belong. I have never met any of them in the flesh, but I feel I know them personally. A couple have even put aside their own work to comment on mine - a true act of friendship.

Today I had all 316 pages of HELTER-SKELTER printed at the Copy Centre in Los Cristianos - at €15.60 I considered it a bargain that saves over-burdening my own printer - and after a final read-through it will be time to get it professionally proof-read while I tackle the synopsis.

Then back to the agent.

"gulp"

One question remains - can I do all this with my fingers crossed?

CHRISTMAS PAST

This was my contribution to yesterday's festivities - a chocolate sponge with buttercream filling and Mars Bar and Pipitos topping. It didn't last long.

...but perhaps I should start at the beginning of our Christmas Day in Tenerife, at eleven am ....

We walked along the promenade in Los Cristianos, people-watching.  There were all nationalities, walking, fishing from the pier, playing volley-ball, eating breakfast or drinking coffee. There were people having their toes nibbled in tanks full of tiny fish, and at least fifty ex-pat Brits sitting in neat rows with Christmas picnics.

Strangely, despite the clement weather, there was no-one in the sea, and the life-guard was the only person getting her feet wet.

We had been told there would be carol singing, but when it hadn't happened after an hour we departed via one of the tiny seafront bars, and exchanged our presents at home.

Next stop was Massimo's apartment.
Massi has been a friend for ten years, his daughter helps to fill the gap left by not living near my grandchildren, and we were invited to share a meal - as long as I brought 'un postre de chocolate'.
Which explains the chocolate cake.

We were given lovely tender lamb Italian style, and then some hallaca made by his Venezuelan partner.
Hallaca is basically meat and vegetables cooked through and then wrapped in pastry made with maize flour, the juice from the meat, and some oil. The parcels are then wrapped in banana leaves and boiled.
Very tasty and filling - a little goes a long way!

A little wine, a little music and dancing, then we went home, fed the cat, had a late siesta and went to the local bar, El Leones, where quite a few people had spent most of the day.
Living abroad has its downside, and lack of family is the main ingredient, so the one English bar in our village is the next best thing to family for a lot of folk. Whether you speak Spanish or not, sometimes you just want to talk in your own language.

Like any UK pub we have our characters - Ron always makes an effort to dress up for special occasions and this coat must be a genuine antique.

We wound up at El Candil de la Abuela - known as "Grandma's" - for a late drink and a plate of salchichas con papas fritas. With the OH flying to UK in the morning, we were in bed by eleven, relatively sober.
Not a slice of turkey, a sprout or a mince pie had passed our lips.
Was the weather 20 degrees warmer than England? Yes.
Was our Christmas Day very different? Yes again.
Would I rather have been eating Christmas dinner with my family? Yes - every time!

And a final photo to leave you wondering if ghosts might exist after all.......

EATING IN THE STREET

We were just in time before Carlos closed for his two-week holiday - an evening out with the youngsters - his son, my daughter, two in-laws and two Polish friends.
We ate at El Cine, a restaurant in Los Cristianos that consists of a kitchen/bar and a couple of wind-out blinds that cover tables and chairs for about thirty.
They need the blinds to keep the afternoon sun off their customers, because they are all sitting in a narrow street - Calle Juan Banajo. The blinds are even fitted with "misters" that can deliver a fine spray to cool you down.

If you arrive after 8pm you have to queue up the steep approach alleyway, that you can just see behind us in the second photo, and sit on the windowsill of the Farmacia with a drink while you wait for a table.

 They serve pescado and marisco - fish and seafood - with fat crisp chips or Canarian potatoes, and tomato and onion salad with squeezy bottles of mojo verde and mojo rojo - green and red sauce.

We had 3 plates of hake, two of sardines, one of swordfish, one of prawns and one of cuttlefish, a glass of something each, some bread and coffees. We couldn't quite finish it all, and the bill with a tip came to fifteen euros a head.
Look it up - www.barelcine.com

Then we walked along the seafront and bought Italian ice-cream for pudding, which we ate watching a young man make enormous bubbles that drifted overhead in their wobbly fashion and exploded softly.

There were children kicking sand on the beach, girls on roller-blades weaving in and out, African women plaiting hair under a lamp-post, African men hawking watches, a Chinese girl throwing neon lit whirlygigs into the night sky, a man with a keyboard at one restaurant vying with a Canarian group further along.

And no, we didn't bring the dog home.

TENERIFE WEEKEND

This might not be the way an average tourist spends a weekend in Tenerife, but I take my visitors to different places. My younger daughter and her husband are staying for nine days, so we started off at the Hermitage of Hermano Pedro which, despite being situated in a ravine at the end of the airport runway, is a wonderfully peaceful spot - except when a plane takes off.

Then we moved on to El Medano  where, having moved a couple of wheelie bins to secure a parking space (naughty!) we walked along the seafront for a coffee and exfoliation - being sand-blasted by the constant wind is part of the fun as you watch the wind-surfers and kite-flyers and intrepid swimmers braving the crashing waves.

 

Then it was supper at home with my other daughter - a real treat to see the girls doing their giggly sister routine!

Sunday morning we were in full tourist mode at Los Cristianos market, haggled for a leather belt, and then had a coffee and a toasted sandwich under the shade of the palm trees.

And finally - this afternoon I made an Apricot Upside-down Cake with Caramel Topping as my contribution to this evening's barbecue on my elder daughter's roof terrace.

If you want the recipe it's on my new Cooking and Recipes page. 

And this is the only writing I have done all day!