Kate seems to have been doing some maths and has suggested that my contributions to our Blog might be seen as falling a little below the number that some might have hoped for. I´ve obviously explained that quality, rather than quantity is more important in these things, though I´m not sure that actually offers me any defense.
I have however been working on a Blog. Building one in fact to integrate into our new website, assuming Telefonica ever take it upon themselves to connect us to their phone system and allow us to connect our own computers to the net. I´ve been looking at a few websites that post work for freelance designers and think it makes sense for me to put together a good demo site to show what I can do in terms of design and programming, so our to be launched website will hopefully showcase my skills at their best.
Besides this, I´ve also been writing another Blog kind of a thing. Inspired by our own experiences, it follows another Ian and his wife in their pursuit of a new life in Spain, and this will also be available on the new site, though by invitation only. Kate has expressed concerns as to whether if any of our new village neighbours were to see it, they might be less than amused than I have been writing it.
I´ve tried to explain to Kate that unless the villagers are having us on and can, to a man, speak perfectly good English, that probably shouldn´t be too much of a concern. Still, just in case, it will only be viewable by people who log-in and have been given permission to view it. Sounds rather more exciting than it really is.
It´s been quite an interesting exercise putting the Blog together and I´ve certainly developed quite a few new skills in a couple of computer languages. How hard can Spanish be in comparison.
Think I´m starting to differentiate a little more when listening to spoken Spanish. Initially it just sounded like a constant stream of drivelling gibberish. Now it just sounds like a constant stream of drivelling gibberish, very, very rarely interspersed with what could possibly pass for a real Spanish word.
Course this all falls apart the next time I try to do something simple like buy something and I can´t work out how much they´re asking for. The other day in Llerena, I thought the compost we were buying was going to be a bit of a bargain, until it became clear he was asking for 13 euros, not 3. You´d have thought that in a spirit of new europeanism, he´d have let us have it for 3 Euros. A gesture of the mutual respect and understanding between our 2 parent nations. You´d have thought that. He didn´t.
This weekend will be the first for a couple of weeks that we don´t try to travel anywhere. The weekend before last, our plans to see the flea market at Cordoba fell apart when we were stopped by thick fog. Our trip to Seville, the same weekend, started better, but fell down when we couldn´t find the flea market we were looking for.
Last weekend a second attempt to reach Cordoba started in much better form, and it was only after covering about 80 miles, with 30 to go, that we had to turn around, defeated by snowy conditions and suicidal Spanish drivers.
So this weekend will be based at home. I´ve downloaded a couple of recipes for brown sauce and so perhaps we´ll have a go and replicating a few bottles of HP or Daddies.
Think there could be a market for Uncle Chuckles Health Sauce, as we´ll be calling our version of Daddies, amongst the Extremaduran market. The ideal accompaniment for Callos y Chorizo, a local tinned delicacy I was daft enough to buy in Dia the other day. I´ve developed Kate´s love of a bargain and so the 8 cents reduction was too tempting. Besides, the tin looked a bit it contained a mix of Spanish spicy sausage and some interesting shaped pasta in a tomato sauce. Turns out Callos is tripe and that´s what the pasta illustration was meant to indicate.
In fairness, if you overlook the fact that it comes out of the tin looking like bright orange dog food, you´d be pleasantly surprised. When your expectations are that low, it´s hard for them to be fully reached. It wasn´t too bad, though I think half a tin would be enough next time. It gets a bit sickly after a while, a bit like eating fat, though I have to say I recognised the taste and texture of tripe from some of the “Steak” pies I´ve eaten back in the UK. Think some companies might be stretching the definition of stea