Instead of a cold..

This week, when most of us have been snuffling, sniffing, sneezing and other less palatable things, Romy has been in the rudest of health. She really is a tough one. And she was very brave yesterday because we should have all been going to listen to the school choir sing in Salamanca and we couldn't go. Both Romy and Ruy are important choir members as they both have excellent voices and love to sing. But we were too unwell to go and we are very sorry, Romy, and very sorry CEIP Kantica.

Instead of having a cold, Romy decided this week, she would learn to ride a bike. For years, she has really resisted the idea. She used to ride a little bike with stabilisers but when this became too small, she adamantly refused to have a go on a bigger one without the stabilisers - which is most unlike her as she's definitely a 'have a go' girl. So, we left it. She's been rollerskating instead recently.

However, Cesar was clearing out the shed in his parent's garden earlier this week and discovered about 5 old bikes - and he had the strange but ultimately brilliant idea of removing the pedals from one of them.

The theory was that if Romy tried riding the bike, using her feet to move her along rather than pedals, she would get a better idea of how to balance..
She agreed to give it a go

One foot up.. or is it down?

Look - no feet!

I think this is a moment of victory.

This morning , I took a 'recuperation' stroll to the plaza - and there was my daughter, riding a bike with pedals and no stabilisers as if she'd been doing it all her life!

 

Looks like we might have to get her a bigger bike soon! (To say nothing of some new, longer jeans!!)

Normal service will be resumed soon - I hope!

I have so missed writing my blog and reading others these past few days, but I have been feeling SO ill that I simply could do neither.
I have laid in a darkened room, sneezing, with sad, leaking eyes and a running nose - alternately hot or shivering. And poor Ruy has it too - though he seems to be dealing with better than me.
I'm exhausted now - (hand to brow for dramatic effect) I will return. Weak, brave smile.

Snuffle and sneeze

Yes, I am sneezing, spluttering and feeling very sorry for myself today. Mateo has been ill since Monday - he's always ill when it's a school holiday, poor thing. I expect he'll be feeling fine to go back tomorrow though he is still coughing quite a lot.
Ruy has also started and Amelia too. And I knew last night - I felt the little bug..s creeping up on me and by the middle of the night, I was shivery and sneezy and dozy (and most of the other dwarves as well apart from Happy!)

Oh well, cold should be gone by Christmas. We are planning on being here for Christmas, at least for Noche Buena (Christmas Eve) and for Christmas Day. There is an increasing number of Spanish households that accept delivery of presents from 'Papa Noel' on Christmas Day but the main present-bringers are the Kings, who come on 6th January. And of course, that means TWO lots of presents!

I feel rather detached from Christmas this year. All my lovely Christmas things are in the barn in Leon and I have reached the point where a lot of my life feels a bit suspended until I have my own things around me again. Which hopefully will be soon - soon in 2011. We are hanging on here with each day being just a bit more difficult but that's only because we have decided to go - go south, go to Andalucia - on 27th December. We have decided to rent a holiday house for the short term and look for our home from there. It has been impossible to look for something here - the internet is good but the photos of properties all need to be taken with a pinch of salt, more for what they DON'T show that for what they do! I am getting quite desperate for us to establish ourselves in a place we can call home. However grateful we are to have had a home for the past 4 months or so, it's not our home, it has nothing of us here and without it, I do just feel as though I am marking time. And it's scary how fast time goes - so in effect, I sometimes feel as though I am wasting time. But that's because I feel sorry for myself today. I'm not heading for Slough again and I'm going to try and make our last two and a half weeks here really good fun. When I feel better, that is.

I have been knitting recently and finished a jumper for Cesar that I started back in May when I thought we were going to live in La Urz, in Leon, in a cold chilly place! It's the thickest, warmest jumper ever and made from lots of different scraps of wool - new and old. It's different back and front and the sleeves are also 'independent' colour-wise. On purpose, honest. ( I'm rubbish at following knitting patterns but as the original for this was one colour, I chose my different shades on a fairly random basis!)

When it's not actually on Cesar

It looks best draped over a chair

I had some labels made - wish I'd thought of a better name. (Suggestions please!)

Before I left England, I bought two enormous hanks of wool from British Breed Wools in Halifax, near where I used to live. It's a thick/thin yarn in a natural cream colour and it is just gorgeous! I've been saving it for a time when I could knit something for myself and that time has arrived. I'm knitting a shawl..just because I want one.. though I probably won't need it in the south of Spain! However, I've decided it will become an heirloom. Here's where I've got to thus far - and this is the size of a ball of wool that weighs 500g! Isn't it just wonderful!

Big hank, big ball = big shawl

Detail

What's in a name?

I was thinking about my friend, Jenny - musician, nurse, baker, card-maker, creator and inspirer inspirator .. (inspiring person doesn't do it but you know what I mean - was IS the word?) a person with much 'can do' about her. I was thinking about the very first day we met, which was at a band rehearsal in Leeds many years ago. It was the day I joined the band and Jenny came in with a brand new bass clarinet of which she was very proud. Jenny always calls a spade a spade and she introduced me to her new instrument by calling it 'the dog's bollocks of bass clarinets' - by which, by her tone of voice, I assumed she meant something good. Anyway, from that moment on, we were friends and the bass was always called 'DB'.

In more recent years, Jenny has moved on to playing saxophone - progressively bigger ones. Now she's playing a new and rather special baritone saxophone*. 'DB' would be a pretty good name for this monster but for some reason Jenny requested her friends to think of a name for it. The name needed to be.. and I quote - something 'French and trollopy'. I felt game for the challenge and put my mind to work but nothing right would come. I didn't like any of the names that others thought of either. So I tried to forget about it. And isn't it strange how the mind keeps on working in the background? Just before I went to bed that evening, like a lightbulb going on, it came to me - unsummoned unsummonsed  (why today of all days can't I find the right words??) without being summoned .. and I was so pleased, I can't tell you! I giggled my way to Facebook and ignoring the other suggestions, such as Emmanuelle, Fifi and Annette von Parpsalot (which is funny but not very French) proudly announced the name of the new sax - Bari Antoinette!! It is perfect and I'm still pleased and I know Jenny likes it.

And this thought led me on to other cherished memories relating to words and names. Around the time I met Jenny - a musical, single, indulgent time - I had a friend who was planning on opening a music shop and I was charged with the task of selecting a name. On a visit to my sister's, I broached the subject with my brother-in-law, Rob - who loves words, puns, verbal images and the like - and we sat down together to try and think of something. It took him less than 30 seconds once he had the brief - a name for a shop that sells woodwind instruments. How could anyone not think of 'Windstruments'? Perfect. And now, confession time, when I went back to my friend and presented the name - I never actually said that Rob had thought of it. The name proved so popular with everyone and they all thought I was so clever that I forgot to mention where it really came from. Sorry Rob!

In deference to Rob's wit, can I share another memorable wordy exchange I had with him one day. Rob's a keen cook and bakes delicious, exciting bread - yes, exciting! This particular day's cooking involved some mozzarella cheese. The exchange went something like this :  

Rob: Bloody expensive, this mozzarella.
Me: It's probably bufalo.
Rob: Buffalo! Don't fancy milking one of those. Didn't think there were buffalo in Italy.
Me: Yes - bufalo - only one 'f' in bufalo  - in Italy.

Rob......(just a moments pause) No wonder it's so effin' expensive.


His timing was perfect and the conversation is captured in my mind like an excellent comedy sketch forever. Thanks Rob.

And on the subject of words and things that make me laugh about words - when I first met Cesar, his command of the English language was still in development, though boy, was he game to practice and try out what little he had! He was enthusiastic and confident and wholly unembarrassed which resulted in some wonderful little moments. The first day we met, he and another friend of mine came back to my flat and we were talking music and Cesar got onto the subject of Beethoven. He was describing how when he listened to Beethoven's 9th he imagined " being in a chariot being pulled along by six black whores" - an image I found quite stunning - but had to ask... 'why black?'
After a little further questioning, turns out he actually meant black horses....................

He had some famous struggles with some words, such as 'crisps' and 'wasps' but my personal favourite was unbelievable, which always came out as 'unveliebavle'. And as we lay in bed last night, I was thinking about all these things and I asked him if there were any words he still struggled with in English. There was a very long pause and I thought he'd fallen asleep or couldn't be bothered to answer... then he came out with one! It was:
Supercalafragelisticexpialadotious. I laughed a lot!!


Editor's note:
* got my story wrong and put 'bass' saxophone first draft - Jen soon noticed and put me right - see comment below. Thanks Jen!

Small joys of the English Language

Romy came into my bed this morning as I had yet another lie in (Sunday morning excuse) and brought a word search puzzle book with her.

We were searching for words relating to 'In the Kitchen' in the puzzle and I explained how it helped to look for the first letter of the object she was trying to find. So she started her search and she was so pleased to find her first word - cup. She carefully crossed it off the list. And continued her search.

When she got to saucepan - a word almost as big as 'wheelbarrow' or 'marmalade' (remember these words, Caroline?) she had a moment of hesitation - convinced that such a big word would be really hard to find.

But using the same technique of starting with the first letter, she was absolutely delighted to find it almost straightaway. When I said it was a good technique, she was very quick to correct me by telling me her success was due to her being 'good looking'. 

 

I wouldn't argue with that.

Tapas in town; churros en casa

Saturday - first day of holiday (another!) here in Spain. It's Spanish Constitution Day on 6th - though I haven't yet managed to find out what this means - I'm working on it. More importantly (apparently), on 8th it is the day of the 'Inmaculada Concepción' - which I find a bit hard to get my head round - timing's definitely wrong in my book if today is the day of the immaculate conception - ¿no? I leave you to ponder and, if possible, to explain. It could be related to the changes in the calendar over the years - I had to look this up recently when Romy asked me why there were some months with more days than others. It's very complicated and there's no easy answer that I can share here - but just consider this. September, October, November and December are named for their position in the original calendar.. seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth respectively. And going back a long time, March was the first month of the year, coinciding, as it did with Spring and the new year (in northern hemispheres at least!) and that might be why February was cut a bit shorter. And then the Roman emperors started interferring.. and oh gosh, I am getting seriously sidetracked here!

Starting again - here in Spain we have five days of holiday - two at the weekend then three more without school! Hurray!! So, on Saturday, we wrapped up warm and trotted into Valladolid to soak up a bit of atmosphere and try out a few tapas. Not something we do very often for reasons of economy and that fact that our children have neverending appetites!


Before we even got to try our first tapa, we were stopped by the sight of a beautiful old carousel in the middle of the Plaza Mayor. Mateo and I wanted to go on, but decided against but Ruy and Romy were tempted onto a top tier horse each.

Then we hit the 'Marisqueria' - seafood speciality. We were lucky to find a table!

And although we didn't have to wait long, we were treated to a few impressions by Ruy - I didn't capture 'Wolverine' - shame.

And then, I am ashamed to say, I put my camera down and ate patatas bravas and mussels in a piquant, chilli sauce and Cesar and I drank cerveza con gaseosa (shandy!) and I forgot to take photos of any of it!! So we had to go to our favourite place for pinchos morunos - delicious, spicy lamb kebabs.
They arrived good and hot from the fire!

And they were pronounced good!

 Too good for words, really.

Good enough to fight for a bit!

And all that was good but when we got home, we felt it was the sort of day to press Yayo into churro production..

And Yaya into hot chocolate production!

A delicious day!!

First chocolates in Spain

First things first - it is cold here, it is really very cold. We've had a week of falling temperatures where the walk to the bus stop to collect the children at lunch time has resulted in ears that hurt, despite scarves and various 'wrappings'. And on Thursday evening, as Cesar and I were driving back (again) from the garage - more car fixing - it started to snow. Swirling, big-flaked, blizzarding snow. And by coincidence, we were listening to AC/DC's 'Highway to Hell' as it began.  (However, we made it back home without incident despite my still lingering sense of doom every time I get in the car.) That's not my story here.

No, with the arrival of snow, I felt a welcome affinity with all of you out there who have been hit by the white stuff recently. Not that I want any of us to suffer but there is a firmly-held belief that Spain is hot - always hot - and I am pretty sure no one believes me when I'm asked what the weather is like over here and I say, "oh, a bit chilly". Here - it snowed on Thursday - look!

Look, I'm not trying to compete. I know there is a minimal covering here - but that morning, when I took Nemo out for a walk, was one of the coldest I have encountered anywhere. And at least now, my children don't feel like they are missing out either! How they have envied the thought of their English friends their snowball fights, sledging, skating and snowman-making - to say nothing of the days off school! (Though I do know their old school has remained open more or less throughout - nothing closes Rowley Lane!) So they made the most of the snow and icy conditions here - having great fun chipping away at the icy bits with hammers and throwing some rather dangerous 'ice balls' about until we decided that someone might get hurt that way.

My great joy yesterday wasn't the snow, but the fact that I made some chocolates. (I have to say that again..) I.. made.. some.. chocolates... I'm savouring the sound of that sentence. I made some chocolates yesterday.  A special recipe for Amelia with a centre of chopped walnuts, dark chocolate, thick cream and an orange liqueur.

I made the centre in the morning and let it set:

Then, later in the evening, I melted several blocks of rich dark chocolate using the microwave method. (Half power, a minute at a time, stirring to speed up the melting and distribute the temperate across all the chocolate - otherwise, it can burn and spoil.)






This is when I really start smiling - I just love the smell, the sensation, the texture and the process of stirring chocolate!


The next stage is to temper the chocolate, to get it to set nicely with a shine and a 'snap' - which I do over a large bowl of cold water to bring the temperature down to almost setting again. Then the slightly risky period getting it back to ultimate temperature for dipping - risky because I was doing this without any of my usual equipment, including my super accurate laser thermometer. Would I get it right??

I think I did OK!

I'm happy enough to show a close up, though I can see a couple of air bubbles in the chocolate itself....hmmm

Soft creamy centre with a little walnut crunch and a slight alcohol kick!

 I am SO happy to have made them and so pleased they turned out delicious. I can't wait to get settled somewhere with all my proper equipment around me to make some more!