La Boda Real (Royal Wedding)

We enjoyed the Royal wedding as much as the rest of you and we were gathered around the Commonwealth table with people who were:

• English
• Irish
• Scottish
• Welsh
• Australian
• American
• Orcadian

We missed out on an invite to the Embassy but that would have involved too much paperwork and we have done nothing but fill in forms since we got here - Spain has forms for everything and some more besides, plus of course none of the forms are available in English so who knows what we have signed up to do. If you want to see how it feels watch this wee clip...

Conference 2011

Here we are - the WEC Spanish Field - I think some of you will recognise Wayne & Miriam Cowpland (on the left) Miriam was a Eunson and is still Lindsay's cousin. In the past 12 months we have met them in Scotland, New Zealand, England and now Spain. They were the speakers at the event and did a great job - good ambassadors for Scotland and about to move to Singapore. This was them before the Ceilidh - people from 15 different Nations (if you include Orkney!) all in for a strip the willow. Good fun and nobody injured!



Do not even think of it! The cess pit is full already!



Flat in

 Well here we are all flit - to be truthful we have never had such a clean or tidy house. There are 2 bedrooms, one of which has a desk but also two beds so you can plan a visit. The kitchen has an "ootby bit" and the sitting room has a terrace big enough for two wee chairs - it gets sun in the morning so you can relax while we are at language school. It also has a hob oven & microwave so you can cook our dinner for when we get back at 2pm - lunchtime in these parts.

People have their main meal then but eat again sometime after 9pm. Thankfully there is also merienda or afternoon tea at the back of 4pm so nobody is going to starve.

We were pleased to find a furnished place as we had no furniture and all we had to buy was plates, pots and pans as well as sheets and towels. The idea of a visit to IKEA ended up being the best way forward and we can even see it from our balcony!

Eva's Flan

Flan of muffins

-3 eggs
-100 grams of sugar
-1/2 liter of milk
-cinnamon (branch)
-5 small Muffins (about 125 g.)
-Liquid caramel
Preparation:
First caramelized the mold.
Then boil the milk with sugar and cinnamon, and when it is warm, add the Muffins (desmenuzadas) and after a while, add the beaten eggs.
Then pour everything into the mold and put 7 minutes to 700 w. and 5 minutes, more or less, to the maximum of power, until leaving the needle clean.

Treasure hunt...

So today we went on a hunt for treasure from Les's past  - the Church at Azuqueca where Les spent Easter 2008 and specifically the "Club de Tesoro" . This wee kids group which they started has gone on really well and there were  lots of kids there today helping clear up the Church lunch who were just tiny three years ago. Les's friend Eva made a delicious cake - when I asked it's name it was something like "flan de magdelenas" she asked her friend if she knew the English name.."Muffeen" she suggested then an American lady translated muffin as "Bun"  well it was much nicer than a bun - rich and moist - very good  - will have to ask for the recipe. We hope to get our flat on Wednesday then we will need to buy a cake tin! We found treasure indeed. PS - found the recipe on Eva's blog so you can try it too!

Flat out

We sure are flat out after week one - perhaps we should say "flatted out". We have seen flats on every floor furnished or empty, clean or mingan' (look it up!). To begin with we queued with other immigrant families on the pavement to see inside but we have since upped our budget to avoid the smokey rooms or the smelly drains. Still no sign of Casa del Cowan but maybe mañana. Our friend Maritza is searching with us and so far we have only dropped two cultural clangers: firstly eating our lunch on the pavement bench (the shame!) and secondly licking my fingers rather than using a serviette. We had a great chat with one landowner in Spanish but I mistakenly claimed his flat was my cousin - I wonder why he felt it necessary to tell me that he was a Psychologist? We didn't take the flat, even if we were related.