Conil - 13th & 14th June

Once you are settled in to Conil there is very little left to tell. Read the previous posts over and over to get an idea. They had the 'Corpus' procession on so I hung around for an hour or two but time marches on. It was with a heavy heart that I left on Sunday evening after a serious sofa session watching 'The Triangle' an awful film whose only saving grace was another future ex-Mrs. Murphy called Catherine Bell. I drove through the night, well worth the extra quality time in Conil, and handed back the motor in Madrid....

Conil Friday 12th June

A tad slow this morning but tradition must be observed so the brekky was had in Conil, then off to Chiclana again to meet up with Chary and husband Coleman for tapas in the Feria. Chary runs the Spanish section of a great website for all things Irish in Europe - http://www.europeanirish.com/index.php where you can find out all class of stuff about gigs, sport but as of yet, no mention of 'Proper Sausages' - http://www.thepropersausage.blogspot.com/

It was ladies day at the feria so all shapes and sizes of lady were squeezed into the Sevillana dresses, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. There were also horses and carriages being paraded around, all very 'tipical' as they say in Spanish. In Ireland we say 'traditional' and in England they say 'quintessential'. We ended up in the 'O' Farrells' caseta, apparently there's a story as to why a family called O' Farrell ended up here in the 18th. Century, I'll investigate. The place started to fill up with women all hell-bent on having a good time while quaffing that evil drink the 'Rebuquijo'. The reason became obvious when two male strippers presented themselves and started dancing on top of the bar, the women went mad trying to rip the clothes off the boys. They also took an active part in the 'dancing'. I resisted. Then it was time to track down Encarna, my favourite Gaditana, she's working in an ice-cream parlour on La Barrosa, the huge beach that runs south of Chiclana. Trying to find her was another story as Chiclana is linked by a series of roundabouts and if you were not born there, you just end up driving around in circles. The other thing is peoples direction giving abilities, which can leave something to be desired, for example; 'around the corner' can mean anywhere, not here, that may be up to 5 Km away, '10 minutes from here' may be interpreted to mean 10 minutes by galactic-class battle cruiser travelling at warp speed or half an hour by normal transport. The number of roundabouts is inversely proportional to distance travelled, you can drive from Madrid to Cadiz sans roundabout (about 700 Km) and you can drive from Chiclana to Torre del Puerco, about 5 Km through 12+ roundabouts. Anyway, Encarna is as lovely as ever and in her element with chap and work.

Conil, Thursday 11th. June

Up at the crack of 11:00 and not a moment to lose. Full days activities planned. First stop is into Conil (about 5 clicks away) for the Gaditano equivalent of the Hearty Irish Breakfast - this one is; fresh orange juice, Molleta ( kind of bread ) with butter and marmalade, a big milky coffee (no Starmucks down here), fizzy water and a good book, I'm reading 'Master and Commander', perfect considering that Cape Trafalger is about 3 K down the road. A visit to the fishing pier at Cabo Roche to see what's been landed. I missed it this time, they were all leaving but the fish auction is quite a spectacle. It's run along the lines of a 'Dutch Auction' which means that the auctioneer starts at a high price and starts to work down, all the buyers are eyeing each other waiting to pounce at the lowest (or highest) price. Time for the beach and I've taken to going to La Barrosa, I used to go to one of the little coves but 'they' have built a big swanky hotel there, you can still access the beach but it's not the same. A great Spanish invention is the Chiringuito (actually a Mexican word) which is a beach bar, with food, brews and bathrooms. A swift shandy was had and then the towel was spread and Tubby did his impersonation of a beached whale, reading, napping and jumping around in the water. Quality. Time for a wash and hop on the bus for Chiclana for it is the Feria, where there will be all sorts of goings on. It was kiddies day so all the attractions were half-price and the place was teeming with gangs of the young, all throwing shapes and strutting their stuff. I found the grown-up part, the 'casetas', about 50 marquees set up by bars, social clubs, trade unions and so on, all with their specialist tapa and this curious drink called 'rebujuito', a mixture of Manzanilla (sherry) and Sprite, you have been warned. I got around most of them, I think. The nice taxi man brought me to the door and it was sofa and film time. A lot of sofa and about 30 seconds of tele.

A weekend in Conil - Wednesday 10th

It's a while since I've been down to Conil so the opportunity presented itself last weekend. There was the Feria in Chiclana as well as a chance to hunt down Encarna and meet up with Chary who runs the Spanish section of the European Irish website. National cars provided me with a toy car, more suitable for young ladies to flit between shopping centers, but it did the business AND IT WAS CHEAP! 160€ for 5 days. It's great to get out of town, that feeling of liberation as you pass the last set of traffic lights, the last pile of dog poo, the last slick of lung paint... A moment of panic always sets in just around Getafe when I start to wonder 'Did I turn the gas off/ close the window/ leave a tap running' and so on but that's soon forgotten about. It's a 7 hour drive down, but with the window open and the sounds blaring, it zips passed - Valdepeñas, Bailen, Cordoba, Sevilla and in next to no time I'm pulling up to the house that JM has graciously lent me for my stay. Dump the gear off and hit Conil for tapas. First stop as always, for I am a creature of habit is 'Los Hermanos' right by the arch. This bar is always packed and the boys are running around dispensing food and drink to all, quite a sight. I had a plate of 'puntillitas' also called 'chopitos', a type of very small squid, about the size of your thumb, with eyes on it. Then to 'El Capricho' on the way down to the sea-front. It's run by Antonio and he does the best 'brocheta de Atun' (Tuna on a skewer) in the galaxy. A beer and then back to the crib for the first decent nights sleep in ages for there are no builders banging holes and carving a new house at eight o' clock in the bloody morning.

It really did snow

Now it's the 4th of June and the summer is kicking in. The windows are open and all the jackets and raincoats are put to rest. I'm sitting here in my shorts, not a pretty sight, and doing yet another spell check on this blog and I realised I never put the video of the snow on. It's amazing the absolute silence when it's snowing, everything has it's price. A curious footnote to the snow, it closed the airport and brought traffic to a standstill. The politicians went ape trying to find someone to blame it on, whether it was the Socialists or the right-wing, they finally settled on the meteorologists, a tame, helpless bunch of people with their heads in the clouds.