Ups and downs of living in Spain | Spain Uncovered

Essential Spanish Conversation

Anybody living in, or going on holiday to, a non-English-speaking country will no doubt have a bit of sympathy for their compatriots who decide to play it safe and keep to English-speaking areas. It’s not easy to learn a foreign language especially for those of us who are, to be honest, a bit more mature, however once you decide to live inland, away from the tourist areas, it becomes a necessity.

There are lots of books and courses out there, claiming that you can learn Spanish/French/German/Turkish (delete as applicable) in 7/12/30/90/100 days (delete as applicable), or just 10 or 15 minutes a day. What I would like to see is one saying that you can speak Spanish fluently after three years. We have been here for three years now and, although we know lots of Spanish words, we are far from being fluent.

We can get by on an everyday basis without too many problems and, through watching Spanish TV every day, we have learnt to understand a lot of what people say to us, but our main difficulty is gathering our thoughts quickly enough to be able to reply confidently in Spanish. We have British friends who have lived here a lot longer than us who say the same. Somebody, who will be nameless, has a catchphrase: “No problema”, which is fine but it does become a bit repetitive if you don’t say anything else – and that of course is a problema.

Listening to Spanish people talking to each other, I started to realise that lots of phrases came up on a regular basis. I also realised that many people talk at the same time, without listening too closely to what their friends are saying, which is when I came up with the idea of my” Essential Spanish Conversation” course for all social occasions. The good news is that it is totally free!

You need enough of the basic language to be able to follow the conversation, even if you don’t understand every word, and then all you do is insert any of the following words and phrases at what seems to be the appropriate moment.

“Si, Si, Si.” or “No, No, No.” You will immediately stand out as an extranjero if you use only one Si or No at a time.

“!Claro!” – meaning of course – is particularly helpful if you aren’t sure whether Si or No is the right response.

“Poco a poco” – little by little – is the correct reply when asked how your Spanish is progressing. (If you are already fluent in Spanish, you won’t need this course.)

“!Madre mia!” is the acceptable exclamation when something shocking or surprising is said to you. It is particularly appropiate when a firework goes off unexpectedly and startles you (this happens frequently in Spain!) or a motorist totally ignores the fact that you have a green man and therefore right of way, accelerating over the crossing ahead of you.

“Más o menos” – more or less – is used a lot when talking about time in Jumilla, where punctuality is virtually unknown. A friend asked us the other day what time the concert started, to which we replied “A las ocho. Más o menos”.

“!Jésus!” is the most common response when somebody sneezes, though some people prefer to say “!Salud!”

“!Qué guapo/guapa!” is a compulsory phrase whenever you peep into a pram to admire a baby (which is in itself a compulsory action). It doesn’t matter if the baby is ugly – Spanish babies are all guapos or guapas. If the baby really is good-looking, a superlative is called for: “guapisimo” or “guapisima” is what you need. You know, of course, that guapo is for males and guapa is for females: usually masculine words end in “o” and feminine words end in” a” in Spanish, though obviously there are exceptions. Who said learning a foreign language is easy?

Spanish people are naturally very helpful. A common greeting here is “¿Qué tal?” quickly followed by “¿Bien?”, hinting at the expected response, which is of course “Bien” or possibly “Muy bien”. They also have an uncanny ability to recognise when they have lost you conversationally, asking “¿No entiendo?” If you didn’t understand, you will then tell them “No entiendo”.

So there you have it. Instead of just nodding to show that you understand (más or menos), just learn a few common expressions and impress your Spanish friends and neighbours with your language skills. !No hay problema!

I am sure that this principle also applies to people living in France, Germany or any other foreign country, trying to learn the language. Do you have any key essential phrases to add to my list?

Why won’t the Spanish…

Once a week we buy the Costa Blanca News, partly for general information of interest to British expats, and partly to shake our heads at the insular lives some British expats lead here, especially on the coast. Of course that is their choice, but I do wonder if they realise what they are missing by not integrating more.

The letters page is usually where this attitude is highlighted and most weeks there is at least one letter to incense me, however last week was the first time that it actually drove me to replying. The title of the letter was “Why won’t the Spanish try to speak English?” The writer (who was anonymous – why do you think that was?) went on to say that most Spaniards now have compulsory English lessons in school so they have little excuse for not trying to speak English.

Good point. I think that those Spaniards who learnt English at school should try to speak English – when they go to the UK. The writer’s argument is based on the fact that he and his wife learnt French at school, so when they visited Paris for the first time in their forties they were bursting to try French for real. Right. So if you learnt French, you should try to speak French in France. If you learnt English, then you should try to speak English in England. I hope that you are following me so far, as everything is nice and logical. Million dollar question is coming up now: does that mean therefore that if you learnt English at school you should try to speak English in SPAIN?

The classic quote from “Enquiring citizen in the Hondon Valley area” now follows. “The Spanish appear very resistant to even coming half way to meet you and this, I fear, is more to do with their unfortunate history and insular attitude to foreigners.” I think there is a very good case for substituting the words “Enquiring citizen” for “The Spanish”, don’t you?

He follows this up by saying: “Moreover, there can be no doubt that they get exposure to English in their everyday lives in the shops and streets of Spain.” This is probably because there are so many other British people like “Enquiring citizen”, who walk around the shops and streets of Spain expecting everybody to speak English to them and complaining when they don’t.

He adds: “It seems most Spaniards who must have studied English in school don’t want to venture an occasional “good morning” to me.” I suggest that it would be more appropriate, and courteous, for him to venture an occasional “buenos días” to them.

In my reply, which was one of five responses published in Friday’s paper, I stated that we live in Jumilla, and cannot walk down the street without niños calling out “Hello” or “Good morning”. Young people are always apologising for their English not being good enough, to which we usually respond “it is far better than our Spanish”! We don’t expect anybody to speak English as we are living in a Spanish area, so we are trying to learn Spanish at the local adult education centre. Local people appreciate our efforts to speak their language, and those who speak some English show their appreciation by occasionally speaking our language too. When we venture into Bar Canarias, we never know whether the owner will speak to us in Spanish or English. I think it all depends on what mood he is in that day.

We also organise occasional intercambios, with Spanish people trying to improve their English and British friends (plus John and me) trying to improve our Spanish. I suggested that “enquiring citizen” might want to try that in Hondon where he lives.

I finished my own letter by saying that, contrary to his experiences, “Jumillanos on the whole have been very welcoming; many people here do try a few words in English (though we don’t expect them to), and our Spanish neighbours have been very friendly and helpful. Dare I ask whether it is more to do with the attitude of individual British retirees rather than the attitude of the local Spanish people? What do other readers think?”

I would love to hear your thoughts on this too especially if, like us, you are an expat.

Música entre vinos part 2½

Why part 2½ you may ask? Well my post about last Saturday’s Música entre vinos should have been part 2, but I got carried away and named it Saturday Night Fever instead. I couldn’t decide between calling this post Música entre Vinos part 2 or part 3 so I decided to compromise. I am British after all, and we like to find a diplomatic solution where possible.

So how did last night’s event in Bodegas Alceño go? How did it compare with the seven events in total that we had already attended this year? John rated it no 3, however I decided it was equal second: being diplomatic again.

We expected the organisation to be good, which it was. We knew that we would enjoy the wines, which we did. Juan Miguel is meticulous about how his wines are stored and served so that you can enjoy them at their best, and he always delivers. As soon as we spotted the familiar figure of the boss of Casa Canales with his efficient staff, we were reassured that the food would be good too.

We have enjoyed listening to the music of Jumilla Black Band in previous years, so we knew they wouldn’t disappoint. My only criticism is that I would have preferred them not to wear their trade-mark black clothes, as they don’t show up very well in my photos!

Our friends John and Lesley have visitors so they decided to give this event a miss, making us the only “ingleses” there last night. Fortunately we didn’t need them to chauffeur us this time as Bodegas Alceño is within walking distance of our apartment. Officially the bodega’s name is Bodegas Pedro Lúis Martínez, however they are better known as Alceño, which is a far snappier title.

The evening started well, as Casa Canales had already set out plates of savoury pastries and almonds, and soon we were enjoying a glass of vino blanco to wash them down with. We were outside, and it was a very warm evening, so we both appreciated the perfectly chilled wine.

We were joined by some friendly Jumillanos, who soon took us under their wing. One of them hunted down a bottle of chilled rosado, which they told us was “fresco” and perfect for such a balmy night. A plate of jamón appeared, which they offered to me, however I declined and explained that I didn’t eat any type of meat. Seconds later one of the señoras caught the attention of a waitress who had a plate of cheese and purloined it for me.

We were also joined by a friendly black and white dog, who bore a startling resemblance to our own dog Lisa. So much so that I almost said to John “You did lock the door behind you, didn’t you?”

Once again there was a great atmosphere, helped by the swing music that we were listening to, with everybody tapping their feet or swaying in time to the music. The food kept coming with hardly a break, and in spite of our best efforts we were having to pass plates on to the next table where a group of young people were willing to help us out.

As the temperature dropped, most people decided to taste the vino tinto, which was being served natural. For the benefit of readers living in the UK I would like to point out that, even though it was now after 11pm, cardigans and jackets were still superfluous. Instead of being hot, it was now pleasantly warm.

Juan Miguel had a quick word when passing by, advising us that the Tinto Dulce 2010 was muy bien. It arrived just in time to accompany the desserts and chocolate – and he was right: it was indeed very good. As, of course, was the whole evening.

Is the earth moving?

This topic seemed a natural follow-up to my post about the weather. When we were considering whether to retire to Spain, the word earthquake (or terremoto) never came up. The advantages of moving here were many, and pretty obvious: good weather (though estate agents tend to gloss over the cold winters!), relaxed lifestyle and cheaper cost of living – especially as we were living in London then.

Our specific requirements included the wish to be close to a large town – with plenty of shops, bars and restaurants – and also good transport links. However we didn’t want to be living in an expat urbanisation on the coast, as we wanted to experience the “real” Spain.

When we were first taken to Jumilla we discovered that, as well as ticking all the right boxes, Jumilla had a special attraction: it is the ciudad del vino! It wasn’t a difficult decision to make. We were going to retire to Spain and specifically to the city of wine, Jumilla. It never crossed our minds to ask whether Jumilla was in an earthquake zone.

Apparently Granada, Malaga and Almeria provinces are the main seismic risk areas in Spain, but Murcia region isn’t far behind. Nobody thought to mention this to us, and obviously we never thought to ask the question.

We had been living in Jumilla for two or three months when I experienced my first earthquake. We were living in a rented apartment at the time, on the fifth floor of a small block. John had gone to the Vodafone shop to sort out a problem with his mobile phone and I was on my own in the apartment. Suddenly I felt the whole building move sideways, then back again. Pausing only to grab my keys, I was out of the door and racing down the stairs.

The door to one of the two flats on the third floor was open, and our neighbour was peering out. “Terremoto?” I asked. “Si!” he replied. With a whimper I continued on my way, as he laughed at my reaction. When I reached the safety of the street, I was surprised to see that life was carrying on as normal.

John didn’t believe me at first, as he hadn’t felt anything in the Vodafone shop, however he read the report in the local paper a few days later and apparently I wasn’t the only person in Jumilla to have been shaken up.

A year later, after we had moved into our own apartment on the edge of town, I experienced my second earthquake and this time John shared it with me. I was woken up in the middle of the night by the sound of the bedroom window rattling. I realised that John was awake too and asked him if he thought it had been an earthquake. He agreed with me, but as there was no further tremor we decided to stay put, turn over and try to go back to sleep.

We met our friend Nataliya the following day and mentioned it to her. “Oh, this is an earthquake zone,” she said in a matter-of-fact tone. “Now you tell us!” we responded. We were slightly reassured by the fact that we live in a modern block, where a seimic study had been undertaken, and by Nataliya saying that though earthquakes occur here frequently, they are usually minor ones with little or no damage.

Our third year living here, and our third earthquake, but this time it had tragic consequences for the people of Lorca. We were sitting at home relaxing, having just returned from the shops. John was watching the news on Spanish TV, while I was checking emails, when he suddenly said “Look, there’s been an earthquake in Lorca and it seems to be pretty bad.” As I turned in my chair, it started vibrating. We looked at each other and both said “That was an earthquake!” just as the TV cameras showed the church tower collapsing. It was a surreal moment and it took us a few seconds to realise that, as the first earthquake was being reported on, a second one had struck. It was horrifying watching the story unfolding on TV and knowing that a lovely city in the south of our region had been devastated, with the loss of ten lives.

Casa de la Ermita and eclipse 008 — Benefit concert - just before the downpour

Jumillanos are compassionate people: they raised funds for Haiti after the earthquake last year and naturally they were quick to offer help to their neighbours, with many volunteers going to work there. A benefit concert was held last month, “De la mano por Lorca”, with various local bands and dance groups performing, which raised around 7,000 € in spite of the bad weather that night. Tomorrow we are going to a smaller concert, with just one local band, which will also be raising funds for Lorca.

Fortunately, as Nataliya had told us, most earthquakes in this area are small ones and cause little damage. Ironically, we heard on TV a couple of nights ago that there had been an earthquake in the English Channel, so it can happen wherever in the world you decide to live.

Who is obsessed with the weather?

The British love talking about the weather. It’s a national pastime, or so we have been led to believe. Other nations have more important things to talk about like politics, religion, life, football….! Living in Spain we soon realised that for the men, at least, football is life. What other nation would be celebrating the anniversary of winning the World Cup? However since moving to Spain three years ago we have noticed another popular topic of conversation. Believe it or not, the Spanish are always going on about the weather.

To be honest, when we first noticed this phenomenon, we assumed that our Spanish neighbours were just trying to make us feel welcome. They were obviously thinking, “What do the British like talking about? Of course, the weather!” before saying “¡Mucho calor!” to us as we walked past.

Storm clouds — Looks like a "tormenta" coming our way

Then, gradually, we realised that wasn’t the case. Spanish señoras were going into shops and saying “¡Tengo calor!”to other Spanish señoras as they fanned themselves. Spanish señors were walking outside, looking up at dark clouds in the sky, before muttering that “tormentas” were due. Eventually the penny dropped – we are fast learners – the Spanish are just as obsessed about the weather as we British are!

Most Spanish phrase-books give you lists of useful phrases, but very few of them have much to say about the weather. Even the otherwise excellent BBC language website doesn’t have any meteorological expressions in their top 20 essential phrases. They include the all-important “Qué tal?” with the typically British response of “Bien, gracias” – but after these niceties, surely a comment about the weather would be appropriate?

It has been said that the reason the British talk about the weather so much is that there is such a variety of weather in the UK, so people may be surprised to read about this Spanish trait. After all, surely every summer is hot in Spain? John and I are now well into our fourth summer here, and can confirm that most days in July and August are very hot, though we have an occasional summer “tormenta” – but that doesn’t stop the weather from being a “hot” topic in Spain!

Talking about hot, there is one phrase to be very careful with, unless you want to be misunderstood. The Spanish word for hot is caliente, however if you wish to say “I am hot” in Spanish do not say “Estoy caliente” as it has other connotations! It is far safer to use the phrase “¡Tengo calor!” and, if you are a woman, you should be carrying the essential summer accessory and fanning yourself at the same time. I think that using a fan is a reflex action for Spanish women of all ages. During the summer months, even when touring a cool bodega where a fan is superfluous, both señoras and señoritas can be seen clutching their fans and automatically fanning themselves.

Must go now, as “el tiempo” is due on Spanish TV, and just in case you think “el tiempo” is the Spanish for “the time” – it is, but it also refers to the weather. Hopefully tomorrow will be “Mucho calor” again – I must remember to mention it to our Spanish neighbours!

Beware of Festivos

calendario — Nobody warned us that 15 August was a Festivo!

Those of us who live in Spain have learnt, sometimes the hard way, to be wary of Festivos. They have a habit of sneaking up on us without us noticing. Back in the UK things are more structured: we all know when a bank holiday is approaching, so it can’t take anybody by surprise. The rare extra day’s holiday is always announced well in advance by the press – for example the Royal Wedding at the end of April – so everybody can take advantage of it. In the UK you don’t have to worry about shops closing either, but things are very different in Spain, as we found out not long after moving here.

Most people are aware that Spain has a generous allocation of national holidays however, in addition to the 11 national days (compared to only 8 in the UK), there is a regional day plus two local days. These are the sneaky ones that we are all very wary about, especially as the Ayuntamiento can change them from one year to another!

My friend Lesley told us this morning that she had noticed the 25th July was a red day on her calendar, and wondered if this meant local shops will be closed. I have reassured her that 25th July is a regional day, but not in Murcia where we live. If you live in, or are visiting a different region, you might want to check it out now!

During the hot months of July and August, John and I enjoy wandering around the supermarket in the afternoon, escaping from the heat and making the most of the cool interior. An added bonus is that our Spanish neighbours are either lingering over their lunch or having a siesta, so it’s usually a lot quieter then.

We had been living in Jumilla for two months when we discovered that Spanish bank holidays are very different. We had heard that August 15 was a holiday however Consum, our nearest supermarket, was open that morning. We followed our usual routine: lunch at about 2pm, then a stroll along the road with our shopping list, hoping to find a deserted supermarket. Instead, we found a closed supermarket! There was a procession that day as part of the Fiesta de la Vendimia, so we assumed that Consum and the other shops nearby had closed early because they were on the route. No problem, we would just have to walk a bit further to Mercadona. There we found another closed supermarket! Hmmm. Aldi? We were lucky as Aldi was still open, though we spotted a notice pinned up on the door announcing that they would be closing early, so we managed to buy the few things that we needed.

The apartment that we have bought is in a different part of town to where we were renting, so Aldi is now conveniently on our doorstep and Mercadona is just a short walk away. We have got into the habit of checking the noticeboard near the back exit of Mercadona, which shows which days, if any, the store will be closed that month. We know we are safe for the rest of July!

The good news, if you are caught out by an unexpected festivo in Spain, is that lots of bars and restaurants will be open. We discovered this on a festivo that fell on a Monday, when we were surprised to see that one of our favourite bars, that normally closed on Mondays, was open that day. Even better news for us, Bar Paraiso offers its bargain 8€ ménu del día any day that it is open, which includes weekends and festivos, so if we are taken by surprise again, we know where to go!

Walking the dog

How can I justify a post that is solely about walking the dog? Well, we are not talking about any old dog here, we are talking about Lisa, who is probably the most famous dog in Jumilla. Every time we take her out for a walk, somebody will call out “¡Hola, Lisa!” Do they say “Hola, John” or “Hola, Sue”? No! Not only that, but if they spot us without Lisa they ask us where she is! Walking the dog, therefore, is an important part of our life in Jumilla. It is a bit like moving to a new town when you have young children: they are natural ice breakers and it’s a good way to get to know people.

Similarly, having Lisa beside us means that her many friends are now our friends. A group of us were enjoying the fiesta in Fuente del Pino last year, about 15 minutes outside Jumilla, when a young man we had never seen before asked us how Lisa was – in no time at all, we were all socialising.

Videos 001 — Lisa with one of her favourite toys

I think it’s a fallacy that only the British love animals. Before Lisa adopted us, she lived on the streets. We used to see her around when we first moved to the area, however because she was wearing a collar, and because the neighbours used to call her “Lisa”, we assumed that she had a home. She also looked well-fed, unlike most strays, but we later discovered that was because so many of our Spanish neighbours were feeding her.

Lisa has her own dog-blog, as part of my blog on AngloINFO. I have been told that she has fans throughout Spain as well as in the UK, and from comments received it appears that she is far more popular than me. I have to admit that I am a bit miffed about this! You can read Lisa’s account of how she came to adopt us, plus her many other posts, here : http://blogs.angloinfo.com/jumilla-journal/

Now temperatures have risen to over 30 degrees, we tend to take her for shorter walks during the middle of the day, and where possible we stick to the shade or “sombra” as our Spanish neighbours would say. Her longer walks are early in the morning and later at night, and it is then that she bumps into her many friends, both canine and human. Other dog owners, when spotting her for the first time, ask us whether she is “macho” or “hembra”. Or sometimes they just ask “perro?”, which means “male dog?”, to which we reply “no, perra!” (obviously, female dog). I can’t remember being questioned about this when I owned dogs in the UK!

Lisa enjoys socialising, and on a nice day we will sit outside one of the local bars with her, having a coffee or glass of wine, depending on the time of day. It can be disconcerting though when Lisa heads for one of our favourite watering holes at other times, expecting us to stop there! Only last week she stopped outside Cerveceria Borneo, which happened to be shut, looking slightly put out because there weren’t any tables or chairs outside…..!

Lisa and Borneo 003 — Why aren't they open?

PS Lisa would like you to know that she now has her own page on facebook. Please take a look and “Like” it! https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lisa/160754743994818

How many fiestas?

How many fiestas are there on any one day? You would expect the answer to be one, however last weekend two different Fiestas were being celebrated in Jumilla: San Fermín, as discussed previously, plus San Cristóbal, the patron saint of all travellers including lorry drivers. The official days are different, but why restrict yourself to one day’s partying when you can have several days of celebrations? Exactly. The Fiestas de San Fermin ran from 7th to 10th July, whereas the Fiesta de San Cristóbal took place on Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th July.

As honorary Jumillanos we feel it is our duty to support as many local events as possible, which made the weekend a rather frantic one, especially as we also have a duty to support Música entre Vinos, which meant we were committed to attending the event at Bodega Viña Campanero on Saturday night. Readers, it was hard but we did our best.

Friday night was San Fermín night and Saturday night was Música entre Vinos, so what should we do for Sunday night? It had to be San Fermín again, as we knew Al Golpe was the closing act for this year’s Fiestas, but we needed to show a bit of solidarity with the lorry drivers, especially as one of our dog Lisa’s favourite walks is down the road and past the lorry park.

The local niños come out in force every year to watch the lorries parade through the streets of Jumilla. I suspect that this may have something to do with the packets of corn snacks, sweets and toys that are thrown from the cabs to the waiting children! Even John and I went home on Saturday evening with a bag of goodies after watching (and listening to) the lorries. The tooting of horns seems to be a compulsary component of the parade, and when we covered our ears they just laughed at us.

The parade on Sunday morning was a more musical affair, as this time the statue of San Cristóbal was carried from the lorry park to the Church of San Juan Bautista for a special mass, accompanied by the local band. After watching the morning parade we walked Lisa into town to buy the Sunday papers, then stopped for a cold drink on the way home. We managed to glimpse the Pasacalles for San Fermín as well, where the statue of San Fermín was carried from house to house, accompanied by another local band.

Lisa was not impressed by the loud firewords that were being set off at regular intervals, so we decided to head home with her. Our timing was perfect, as the mass for San Cristóbal had finished, and we saw the procession arrive at the Monumento de los Camioneros with their offering of flowers. The Policia Local were on duty to stop the traffic on the main road and I was beckoned across by a police officer so that I could take photos.

After such a busy morning we decided to relax during the afternoon – after all, we needed to save ourselves for the evening’s events. We had arranged to meet friends in Bar La Casa at 10pm, however we soon discovered that we needed a Plan B as the bar was closed, in spite of Cristina having told us they were going to be open all weekend! Apparently they were all exhausted after a busy weekend (!), but luckily Bar Central, which is usually closed on Sundays, had decided to take advantage of so many potential customers and had opened.

John and I set up a rota to go and check whether Al Golpe had started their performance. We knew what time they were due to start, but this is Spain, moreover it is Jumilla. Although Bar Central is on one side of the plaza where the stage had been set up, there was a children’s fairground in between, and the fairground was very noisy, with a combination of loud music and excited children.

About half an hour later than advertised Al Golpe started their act, so we downed our drinks and finished off our tapas before heading outside. As always their performance was superb and the audience loved it, calling out “Bravo!” and “Guapos!” before chanting “Otras!”, after the final number had been performed. Al Golpe added a couple of extra songs before packing up, so everybody was happy.

It was nearly one in the morning when we left, pausing only to watch the final firework display.

Saturday night fever

Saturday night is party night in Jumilla – or it has been so far this month. We thought that last week’s event at Bodegas JM Martínez Verdu would be hard to beat (what a party that was!) but Música entre Vinos at Bodegas Viña Campanero last night was great fun too. One advantage was the location, which is within walking distance of our apartment, so there was no rush to get there on time. I have to confess that this is one of my favourite bodegas: it is the smallest one in the area, so a tour doesn’t take much time; we like their wines too, which is always a bonus; it is very friendly – even our dog Lisa is made to feel welcome by Pedro and his father, though we had to leave her behind on Saturday night!

A lovely evening at Bodegas Viña Campanero

We had assumed that the concert was being held indoors, as has happened in previous years, but when we arrived we discovered that everything had been set up outside. It had been a lovely hot day, and it was starting to become pleasantly cool when we arrived just after 8pm, so we had no objections to this change. One of the joys of living in Spain is that summer evenings aren’t cold, so we can enjoy lots of outdoor events. Even when we left the bodega after midnight, I didn’t need to wear the shawl I had taken.

I went in search of a bottle of water, so that we could all have a cold drink while waiting for the wine to be served. Our friends Lesley and John had arrived before us, while Lesley’s son Nick and his friend Tracey weren’t due to arrive until 9pm. None of us was surprised when Nick and Tracey arrived to find that they hadn’t actually missed anything – have I mentioned the fact that punctuality isn’t a Jumillano characteristic?

We all agreed that the wine was worth waiting for, though we couldn’t agree on our favourite. I really appreciated the chilled white and rosado wines on such a warm evening, but John soon moved onto his usual red wines and pronounced the Tinto Joven as his favourite wine. We expected the food to be good and we weren’t disappointed: I particularly enjoyed the tiny portions of tortilla, the cheeses and the churros, which were served in traditional style with hot chocolate at the end of the evening.

An unexpected bonus was the arrival of our friends Jaqui and Melissa with a couple of our Spanish neighbours. plus we saw lots of other familiar faces. We heard a few other English voices, however I suspect that we were easily outnumbered by the Spanish community, as there aren’t that many British people (or indeed other foreigners) living in this area.

Andrés and Cristóbal were joined by a friend for this number

The music was provided by Andrés Martínez and Cristóbal Cutillas, who played some brilliant riffs on his guitar. The infectious music soon had the appreciative audience nodding in time to the beat and rumour has it a couple of Brits were spotted dancing, along with several Spanish couples. There were loud calls of “Otras” at the end of the evening, and the duo happily obliged.

We were glad that we didn’t have too far to go home, as we have another late night ahead of us. One of our favourite groups Al Golpe is playing tonight, to bring the Fiestas de San Fermín to a close, and they aren’t due to start performing until 22.30. It’s a good thing that we don’t have anything on the agenda for tomorrow morning!

Fiesta fun during San Fermín

Hopefully I whetted your appetites in my previous post, so I thought I would do a quick update today on yesterday’s fiesta fun.

Our friend Jaqui invited a few of us to join her and her daughter Melissa for menú del día in Restaurante Monasterio. For those of you not in the know, the Spanish fixed price menú del día is a wonderful invention, started in 1965 under the Franco régime to guarantee workers a good cheap meal at lunchtime. The cost of our lunch was 9€ per head, with so many starters, mains and desserts to choose from that we had to ask our patient waiter to repeat the choices a couple of times.

Friends enjoying San Fermín 010 — Waiting for our main courses to arrive

We shared a generous salad to begin with, and then the waiter kindly brought fussy old me a tapa of ensalada marisco as I didn’t like any of the starters. In my defence, my choice was slightly limited by the fact that I don’t eat any meat! The starters included salmorejo (similar to gazpacho), consomé with pelotas (meatballs) and arroz tres delicias, which looked like vegetable rice however, as I suspected, some ham had been added. Main courses included sardines, boquerones, chicken, meat kebabs and escalopes – I can’t remember all the choices, just the dishes our group selected. We begged for a break before we ordered desserts, as by this stage we were all feeling pretty full! I had a yummy tiramisu (I received some envious looks from my fellow diners) and other homemade desserts included tarta de queso, flan and natillas. We had a couple of bottles of good Jumilla wine to accompany our meal, and coffee to finish.

John and I were offered a lift home but declined, as we needed to walk off some of our huge lunch. Just to remind you, the menu was 9€ each: amazing value!

We also walked into town that evening, to meet up with Jaqui and Melissa again, plus other friends. The meeting point was Bar La Casa, because we knew that Cristina was due to play a starring role in the evening’s events, as she is one of the Reinas for 2011. When we arrived Cristina was working hard serving us and other customers, dressed in her everyday clothes, but she assured us that she would be changing later on.

Friends enjoying San Fermín 012 — Cristina wearing her sash

After some tapas and red wine, and once a totally transformed Cristina had emerged, we all wandered across the road to join in the festivities. The plaza was already crowded and the atmosphere was buzzing, as families watched their children dancing on the large stage. In between the dance performances, the Fiesta Reinas were being crowned and presented with bouquets. We all cheered loudly when Cristina received her award, calling out “Guapa!” There were also bursts of fireworks in between performances, as I predicted. When we left just after midnight it was obvious that many of the revellers would be partying for a long time, however we had two more late nights ahead of us, so decided it would be wise to pace ourselves.