Flipping Tortillas

So sorry to keep posting about food but this recipe is nice.. first get 7 people into a small kitchen to peel & slice 5 tatties and dice one onion - fry both in a frying pan with about 1" of olive oil for about 10 minutes. (Meanwhile have a meeting). Beat 5 eggs in a jug with seasoning. Pour off the spare hot oil then pour tatties into the egg mix. Return to the pan and fry until the bottom is cooked put a foil covered lid on top of the mix and turn upside down. Then slide it back into the frying pan to cook the other side. Our team leader reccomends repeating this last step after a bit. (Means you get a second round of applause?) It was delicious served with Spanish roast chicken. At 9 months it was the best Susannah had tasted.

What a load of tripe!

Sorry for the long silence - however the flu is now past and things are kicking off again. Like Conversation classes. We have started two in our community room so people who are neighbours can all meet downstairs and practice speaking English together. So far we have 12 people over two evenings with more to come. However... as the classes are free they want to treat us to give something back for a free lesson. They took us out for a beer after class and the complimentary "tapas" turned out to be the only thing I don't like - tripe. (Ah OK, I don't like spoots either.) I managed to avoid it but Les had already made a stab... keep swallowing Les! However it is great that so many people are coming and we are humbled that for most of our neighbours they have never even spoken before despite living in the same block for 22 years!

Esta Fiesta

This weekend was the Fiesta in Vallecas - the barrio next to ours. A bit like shopping week but fewer drunks. Les stopped the marching band to offer his services and so is lined up to go and practise with them once they recover. The closing fireworks were right outside our bedroom window so getting home was not a problem. It is a bit like having a house on the Bignold Park Road - We like it!

Knife Crime?

Here he is the man we have been waiting for! He only appears every other month aand you hear him from the top floor as he plays his wee tin whistle - the tune is unique to the trade of knife sharpeners. The pedals turn the grindstone. As soon as we heard him, Les grabbed every blunt knife in the drawer (including the "lifetime sharpness guaranteed" ones) and set off with them all in a bag. In Britain he would have been arrested for carrying so many weapons - in Spain he also got charged and at 5 euros each it sure was sharp practice!

One wedding, five flights and a ferry.

 

 

 

The wedding was SO worth the trip and in 5 days I had five flights and one ferry trip. Thanks to those who sponsored me with air miles and gifts of money. At the end of the day I still have a return portion of a trip to Westray. (Sadly not from anywhere in the world.) This reminds me that when Miriam gave me my leather passport holder it had a ticket for Westray in it already - now only 5 years since it expired!

Cog and Cake!

As some of you know I had to fly home for a wedding on Saturday - my friend and former tenant Sarah was due to marry Roy and I had baked the cake when I was home in July. You can see the newly weds carrying the traditional cog round the hall with it's hot potent brew inside.
And if there wasn't enough alcohol in that I had to admit that the cake aslo contained a bottle of brandy. No wonder the lobsters look happy! The cake was fine and the lobsters had been specially commissioned from my neice Julie Hagan of Gogo Olive fame.
http://www.gogo-olive.com/