Oops I Did It Again!

On multiply, I wrote about a rug that I'd bought hoping that it would hide some of my dog's hair only to discover the rug lost more 'hair' than Zara did. I don't remember how long I put up with this rug, which I eventually threw out. It wasn't the kind of thing that I'd give to someone I didn't particularly like let alone to a friend. Not too long after getting rid of this annoying rug, I saw another rug marked down in a shop that was going out of business, and decided it was for me.  

Now this one has several perks apart from the price. I like the colour and it combines well with any colour I decide to put in the room. Naturally I'm not going to use dark colours, since those make a small room even smaller, so the colour is perfect. Although I always wear socks to bed in winter, it's still nice to put my feet on a nice soft rug instead of the bare floor. What's not to like you may ask? Because it's so thick, anything you drop on it either buries itself or gets camouflaged. Despite this flaw, it's a keeper. I'll try not to drop anything like a needle or pin or anything sharp and dangerous on it!

Tomorrow  is a holiday for us, and I know either later on today or tomorrow I'll have to listen to a detailed and then repeated version of a flat owners' meeting I couldn't attend on Monday evening. I was so not upset about missing it. At least I have an extra day to do some of the things I want to do (hopefully). 

We're supposed to have some big rain storms today, but so far only have big clouds. Only another week until Easter holidays. I hope it doesn't rain out all the processions like it has in the past. Easter comes a bit early this year to ensure a bit of good weather. And then there are the 'Fallas' in Valencia which end tomorrow night with big bonfires to burn the 'fallas' or monuments that they've spent all year constructing, with lots of noise and fireworks, so hope they don't get rained out.

Happy St. Patrick's Day and hope everyone  has a good week.    

The Rain in Spain

It's been raining off and on, sometimes more sometimes less, for a week. On Monday evening coming home from class, the bottoms of my jeans got soaked and rain even got into my boots. I was so thankful the storm caught me coming home and not going to class. Then on Thursday, we had a cautionary (yellow) warning for winds and rain. Had I been in the street at about 4 pm, I'd have got more than my jean bottoms soaked! My photo doesn't show all the water that was rushing down my street, but I wasn't going to go out just to take a photo. There was a girl in the street taking a photo of the same spot as me from a different angle and much nearer, so I'm sure her photo was more descriptive, though mine shows the water almost getting into the hardware shop across the street. At the moment we have a bit of sun. I think it'll probably rain again tonight like it did late last night. In many areas of Spain, they've received record amounts of snow. As the saying goes: a year of snow, a year of benefits (water to drink and food to eat).

Last week I mentioned that we feared squatters had got into the abandoned house next to some friends' house, because smoke was coming out a window and the door. The police came along with the fire brigade. It's not certain that there are only two people in the house, but that's how many came out. César told me that they've been very quiet. I haven't seen or smelled any evidence of smoke whenever I walked past there. They're still there though, because without a court order they can't be evicted, at least in Spain. Now there is only one more abandoned house to occupy in the street.

I spent a couple of hours yesterday evening making a chicken cobbler from scratch. I made a potato soup (should have mashed up the potatoes more I think), cooked the chicken and made the biscuits for it. This time my biscuits came out to my liking. I had dinner with some friends on Tuesday evening. The last time we had dinner together I made some biscuits, which they really liked. This time I decided to double the recipe. Well, I doubled everything except the milk. Were they ever dry! Yesterday I told Noemí to throw them out and she said she liked them.

Even though we're not springing forward just yet, I'm not looking forward to this week. The one enjoyable event planned is celebrating a friend's birthday in a Mexican on Thursday night. Good luck to all who have catch up on a missing hour! 
 

Drinks Are On Me!

No, I didn't win big on the lottery, unfortunately. As a matter of fact, I haven't played since Christmas even though one of my friends tried to give away 10 euros that she thought she owed someone for lottery. Once a month as many of us as possible get together for lunch and a good old chinwag in a bar-restaurant round the corner. They offer 2 menus - one for 9 euros and the other for 15. I always have the 9-euro one because the more expensive menu includes mostly seafood. Both are good value, with drinks and dessert or coffee included. So there we were ready to eat the six of us. Chris was getting ready to fill everyone's wine glass when the bottle jumped out of her hand and a good deal of the liquid got me on my left sleeve and leg with a few drops on the tablecloth and some on the floor. When wine is dribbled on the table, it's considered good luck in Spain. I don't know about most of a bottle being thrown at a person, except that it wasn't too obvious (I hope) that I was wearing wine-soaked clothes. By the time we left it had mostly dried anyway, and this is why I say drinks on me! And Chris didn't pour any more wine!

Our crazy February is finally behind us. I'm the only one who thinks February drags I suppose. This past week has been freezing. On Wednesday and Thursday it snowed in Madrid. It didn't stick either of the two days. I was wishing though that I'd got out and taken a couple of photos of the Plaza de Toros in the snow. Thursday I was out in it as I had an appointment to get my hair cut. By the time I went out the snow wasn't so pretty. I wore 3 layers under my coat, because my friend Jenny had told me the last time she was there they hadn't put the heating on. We go to the same hairdresser's. I'm happy to say I didn't get cold in the hairdresser's and they had a small radiator on. Outside was a different story. I fought with my umbrella to get it up. The wind wanted to rip it out of my hands. Then I fought to close the doggone thing. So far March has been mild. What is it they say about March? Comes in like a lamb and goes out like a lion, or vice versa? Whatever it may be, winter still has something to say I reckon.

In other posts, I mentioned that there is a house full of squatters just round the corner from where I live. They've already set the house on fire once. On Friday when I left class with my friend Cielo and the mother of one of my students, we both smelled smoke and I was convinced that the squatters had started another fire. No, it was much closer to their house. It was coming from the abandoned house next door. The windows had been boarded up, and there was a hole in one of the boards and the door was open a crack. Smoke was pouring out of both places. I don't imagine the house was on fire, but that those inside had made a fire in the fireplace whose chimney was probably blocked from disuse. Cielo told her husband to telephone the police. I had to leave, so I don't know what happened. Guess I'll find out on Wednesday. Bet they're still in the house though. Now there's only one old house to be occupied on this street.

At the beginning of the new year, I never said anything about resolutions so as not to disappoint myself. I am happy that I'm a non-smoker though because I saw people outside in the freezing cold just to have a cigarette this past week. Instead I've decided to de-clutter as much as possible yet again and use my crock pot more. I found a couple of things that had got lost in my bathroom last weekend, which I gave to my friend the wine spiller, and made a chicken dish in the crock pot. This weekend I've made soup beans, and they are soup beans with lots of water! I'll take some of the water and make an actual soup I think. Nothing like starting the week with lunch already made!

And this is me for another week. Hope everyone's week is a good one. This photo is my grand reserve of wine, three of the bottles being gifts.

Anger in the Streets - Smiles in the Aisles*

On Thursday evening, I reminded my friend Chris, who works in the centre of Madrid and where there is usually some type of demonstration, that there was to be a general strike yesterday and that public transport would most likely be affected. I have no idea how she hadn't heard about the proposed strike but she hadn't. So yesterday afternoon when I braved the bitter cold to go buy a few food items, it was I who'd forgotten about the strike completely until I'd almost got to the supermarket. Not to worry! It seemed busier than usual. I really didn't expect any violent pickets from past strike experience in this area. I did, however, think that possibly some of the workers wouldn't show up. If any of the workers were missing, I didn't notice.

 *The title for my post isn't original. I got it from the Economist (online edition 2 June, 2011). Sometime in the near future, the supermarket in my photo will be opening its doors, and its right across the street from me! Apparently from the information I gleaned from the Economist, and wikipedia of course, Mercadona supermarkets are to be imitated. The chain is based in Valencia (famous for its citric fruit) and uses the same 100 or so suppliers it began with. According to the Economist, since 2009 Mercadona has cut more than 2.2 billion euros from its products by cutting down on packaging, for example. Too much packaging is one of my pet hates, so this makes me happy. In 2009, it was rated the 9th most reputable company in the world by Reputation Institute as stated in Forbes Magazine. Not only does Mercadona offer cheap products, but must be one of the few companies that gives its workers a permanent contract, decent pay and decent hours. As I say, a company to be imitated. I know having it so close to my house will cause some problems like increased traffic, both car and pedestrian. My street is busy enough I think. Nevertheless, it will be super convenient and cheaper than other places where I shop. Another drawback I see is the harm that will be done to these places.

Last weekend, someone stole the time I usually spend on composing a post. Hopefully I don't get called out today. The weekends are when I get to relax a bit and do things around the house. Yesterday I decided I was going to take everything out of the bathroom and clean it from top to bottom. I usually leave jobs like this for when I have holidays. I thought why should I spend my whole time off cleaning. I found a partially-full can of hairspray for coloured hair and an unopened bottle of Avon bubble bath. These I'm giving to a friend. It's been years since I coloured my hair, so hope the hairspray is still okay. 

Nothing left to say, except hope everyone has a good week. Now I'm going to make some banana nut bread and will tolerate no interruptions I hope! 

Disco Daze

This is another old photo. As a matter of fact, it's from the first year I lived in Spain. All six of us lived together in a 3-bedroom flat in a street that hadn't been paved yet. I think the years have changed the colour of my hair in the photo, because it looks reddish. One of my first posts on multiply was about my rainbow hair, or how I'd coloured my hair every colour of the rainbow, sometimes without meaning to. I don't remember doing anything to it in this photo though. I only remembered how my top sparkled under the disco lights.

These are the people I lived with (left to right standing): Diane, who was from my university though I didn't know her before, Lynn, and Nancy (left to right squatting): Maeve from Northern Ireland, Paula, who shared a flat with me the following year, and me, with the reddish hair and sparkly top. Lynn, Nancy and Paula were from the same university. Nancy and I are the only ones who decided to continue living in Spain. Paula came back and lived just up the street from me for another year, because I kept the flat with the horrible wallpaper and lived there until I bought the place I now live in, which isn't far from my old rented flat.

Apart from going to discos or having a party almost every weekend, I remember how difficult it was living with 5 other people who weren't family. In general, we got on okay, but there was always some people who didn't clean up after themselves, or you'd have to wait to take a shower because all the hot water had been used up, or someone had eaten your food, etc. Every time we'd have a party, the electricity would go off. The landlord would have to come since the breakers were downstairs and we didn't have a key to that room. Now I feel sorry for those neighbours who had to suffer those parties. I myself always ended up going to a disco to get away from all the wildness. Oh, and there was a butcher's next door that only sold horse meat. We would often see them bringing in the carcasses, so somebody would have bought it. Most likely it's not a recent incident that horse meat has shown up in packaged ground (mince) beef. My granny always said what you don't know won't hurt you. Or will it? I'm not fond of hamburgers or usually eat beef.

Hope you've enjoyed my rescued memories and hope everybody has a good week. Happy Valentine's Day!

Food for Thought

Recently Mimi commented that she was unfamilar with Spanish food, and I'm afraid many people will confuse it with Mexican. If you're familar with the food pyramid, that's the Meditterranean diet and that's what the Spanish eat. Hot spicy foods are disliked by the majority. Sometimes you'll get a 'piquillo pepper' which is hot, but in general piquillo peppers are just another type of pepper, the vegetable. If you buy a bunch of these peppers at least one will burn your taste buds. That's the well-known law of probabilities when it comes to these delicacies. Count yourself lucky or unlucky. Just remember Spanish people don't like that burning sensation. Apart from piquillo peppers, there are few dishes that will have you grabbing for something to relieve your burnt mouth, throat and stomach. 'Patatas bravas' are one such dish. These are chunks of fried potatoes covered in a hot sauce. The best sauce is homemade, of course, and the hottest, I think, is the sauce that you buy already made. There used to be a place near one of the universities that supposedly had the best patatas bravas in existence. I haven't been there in years to know if it still exists.

Paella, a rice dish made with different meats and seafood, is one of my favourites. My photo is pretty old - probably around 1978 or so. The chefs are three students from the institute where I worked until it closed in 2004. The tallest of the three is actually the one who prepared the paella using his mother's recipe, and it was delicious. I imagine I would have prepared a dessert. The salad my flatmate Paula would have made and I don't know what anyone else would have brought. As you can see, we also had sangría (very popular with tourists). I only like sangría if it doesn't have a lot of sugar in it. An antedote or two about this photo before I finish. Ramón, the one who made the paella, lived directly across the street from Paula and me. Actually, he's the one who told us about the flat for rent as he knew the landlords. One of the neighbours in his building was always looking out her window at us, because at first we didn't have curtains and she could see through the French windows. The day of the paella, we were being silly and making faces at her and going out onto the balcony in masks when suddenly Ramón's mother came out onto their balcony. And just look at that wallpaper! We used to see it on TV and laugh. Our furniture was all from the 1960's. Too bad you can't see the backs of the chairs. They were heart-shaped. Another day, Ramón and I were visiting my friend June who lived next door. He recognized a lamp that she had as one he used to have. His mother had thrown it out, and June had found herself a lamp that worked perfectly.

Hope you've enjoyed reading what Spanish food isn't, and I hope everybody has a good week.  

My Bath Salts Aren't The Drug-Type

This summer when I was visiting my family in Ohio, my sister bought a big container of epsom salt at the Dollar Store, probably for just a couple of bucks. I was telling her how much I'd paid some months before. I've just checked the exchange rate and in dollars mine cost me almost $18. Why such a huge difference in price I can't say, and the salts aren't imported which would possibly make them more expensive, nor are they the kind that young people like. The Kroger brand I found in a parcel my sister sent a few weeks after Christnas. There were a couple of boxes of cornbread mix too that I'll probably re-gift because they contain sugar and I dislike sweet cornbread. Nobody ever put sugar in the cornbread when I was growing up. My grandma always made sauerkraut and she never put sugar in it. I don't know any Germans who do either, but one of my former sisters-in-law did. I know she wasn't happy with me not eating her sweetened sauerkraut. I try not to be a picky eater, unless it's something that I'm allergic to like most seafood. Nevertheless, there are some things that shock and disgust my taste buds.

Yesterday I was good and got all of the big cleanng chores done before I went out to buy milk and a few things. I was surprised at how mild it was when I finally got out to the street wearing far too much clothing, of course. I came home, put away the things I'd bought and got a load ready for the washer. I then decided to take the paper I'd collected over the week to the paper bank only to be knocked about from a cold wind this time out. One of my friends from facebook posted a cartoon depicting the weather in different parts of the States and then the weather in Kentucky - 4 seasons in a day. We had at least two yesterday in Madrid. Today we've got a cold drizzle. I'm glad to be inside warm and with the place clean. I doubt this will make Monday any more bearable though. I'll let you know.

One of my friends has complained that even though classes didn't start until 8th January, January has been a long month with 4 weeks to work. I suppose this is true, but for me February has always been the long month. In February it seems a long time since we were on holiday, and, of course, there are no official holidays. There is going to be a third General Strike since September on 23rd, which is a Saturday. I don't know why the trade unions have decided to strike on a Saturday. 23-F is a well-known date in Spanish history.

I hope Terri is feeling better today though I fear she isn't as I haven't seen her on facebook, and she hasn't posted anything on blogger yet. I pray that she's soon better and that everyone has a good week.