Chloe arrived on 16th December. We borrowed Mike's car and en route to the airport went to various DIY and furniture stores on the edge of Puerto del Rosario. The new extension to the airport has now been open for a couple of months. With the current economic problems the huge and lavish design looks a little inappropriate, and the baggage handling does not seem much improved, so it was long wait before Chloe appeared - wrapped up for the early morning frost - and bearing gifts of parsnips, Camembert, smoked mackerel, suet and duty-free champagne. A nice surprise was a new Travel Scrabble set!
The weather during her ten-day stay was "disappointing" - and included a whole Brit-tourist week of cold and wet days. She managed some short spells of sunbathing - but no pool and no beach! In the meantime we made daily visits to different shops in search of a goose. This is either ganso or oca in Spanish and we never found out the difference! We followed up various leads - including the cash and carry. Just when we thought we had succeeded the butcher at Claudio's said "Si, vino, pero se fue!" - It came but it went away! In a repeat of last year's debacle the butcher had taken a look at it when it arrived and refused it! But this year we had heard further rumours and found a last one in the Spar supermarket (shocking price, but we felt we deserved it) We cooked it for a Christmas Eve dinner using Gordon Ramsay's suggestions. We coated it with Chinese five spice and browned the breast on the electic plancha. It yielded about a litre of grease, but was scrumptious!, and a pleasant end to a foul wet and dismal day! On Christmas Day we spent a very mellow few hours outside the Blue Rock in warm sunshine, with snacks of roast meat and potatoes and the "pigs in blankets" we had taken down there. In the evening we went to La Tasca for a chateaubriand cooked by the former Mirando al Sur grill man, Sergio. It was very crowded but we had an excellent time!
Chloe went home next day. She was annoyed that it was a beautifully sunny day! We used buses to get to and from the airport, and there was much anxiety about the weight of her luggage - the space vacated from the outward journey being filled with Spanish goodies. It was a tedious wait in a badly-behaved queue before we found that -whilst she was finding the bag very heavy - it was under-weight and we could add 2 litres of Sangria. (The couple in front paid 132 Euros cash for their excess!) We waved her off in the knowledge that the flight was on time. It was only in the early hours that we heard there were long delays the other end and she missed the last Brighton coach. This led to the "journey from Hell" for her - killing time at Gatwick, and early morning trains in freezing cold over to Swindon
Meanwhile we took the buses back to Corralejo, and got off at the top of the main drag with a mob of teenage skate-boarders. We went to the new Hot Wok and had an excellent good-value meal there.
And next day it was Sunday roast at the Casbah - a prize Ruth won on the radio. (They are on Facebook as Casbah-Corralejo) This is a clever composition of tender meat, roast potatoes, fresh vegetables and gravy in a giant Yorkshire Pudding. Great value at 6 Euros - even better if half-price! The wine was good value too!
So it was then time for frugality! Ruth did her fourth session on HotFM on New Year's Eve:- a playlist of twenty tracks with the mystery word "ten" in the title or performer's name. Our dinner that night was as usual at Caracoles. The "surprise" menu was as delicious as ever, and consisted of:
- A little cup of gazpacho with a savoury pinwheel biscuit
- Smoked salmon from Lanzarote
- Plate of mussels, razor clams and crayfish
- Lemon sorbet with cava
- Fillet steak with peppercorn sauce, and a potato-stuffed red pepper
- Local cheeses with quince jelly (membrillo) and physalis garnish
Afterwards we saw in the New Year in the Plaza and then at Blue Rock. Once again, the only fireworks were from the hotels.
On New Years Day we lurked at home all day and then consumed one of the brace of British pheasants we had brought over in November to freeze.
Happy New Year 2010 to all our readers. Good Riddance to 2009 during which we lost - far too young - two good female friends!RIP Penny and Doris