New Tricks!

January has been the month of "Learning New Tricks". Firstly Ruth has been gradually taking the reins down at the radio station on Thursday afternoons (2 till 4 Canarian/UK time). She has been encouraged to move to the side of the table with the mike, and to handle the various sliders, culminating in getting through the daunting 3pm news slot. Last week she was left in sole charge and made only one gaff!
Friend Eileen has needed to give up her slot in order to take on paid work so Ruth is now officially its keeper, and has a 2-4-1 Sunday roast to give away each week, thanks to Mike at The Casbah next door to Blue Rock. She has homed in on a "Who am I?" quiz associated with the music theme she has used. So far we have Shirley Bassey for the Bling for Kings week, Queen Sofia for the "Ladies with an S" and Rolf Harris for the "Heaven" progamme. An overambitious week with Music Film Soundtracks went down like a lead balloon, with the only correct answer coming from Scotland on the web! Some dumbing down has taken place!

The weather in early January was very good at times, so eventually we arranged to go and claim our own prize from before Christmas of a round of golf at the new 9-hole, par-3 course on the outskirts of town, called Mirador de Lobos. It is a long bicycle ride from our end of town to this freshly-developed end and it was a very hot afternoon. We had a wonderful time! Joe helped us with grips and coached us in both the driving and putting areas then let us loose with 3 clubs each and 8 balls to try the course as a whole. It is exquisitely laid out and maintained in a deep hollow with an oasis-like water feature in the base. Holes 3 and 4 have their tee up-top and it isn't easy to reach the greens down below. There are a good few balls in those pools! Everyone who has been sings its praises - whatever their golfing skill. Bob was pleased to have completed many holes in 3, and went back just two days later with Gary our neighbour and his dad.

Speaking of whom - last Friday we went on a trip to unknown territory. Ian and Audrey took us in their hire car over to the mid-West of the island - via the delightful agricultural town of Pajara to Ahuy. This is allegedly where Europeans first set foot on the island, It is difficult to see why - as it has very rough waves nearly all the time and the route up to Betancuria, which became the capital is ghastly! We insisted on taking the gentle route to get to the bay at Playa Negra. There is a black beach and a couple of restaurants. We walked up to the top of one of the cliffs for a view and as we stood contemplating we heard a voice saying. "Do you know any good restaurants round here?" It was John - brother of Julia whom we meet every year in Paleochora! He was in Corralejo for a week with Sally -one of Jill's twins. A real "small world" moment! They joined us for lunch in Pajara and later in the week we went for dinner together. They enjoyed Caracoles so much with us that we heard they went back the next night (their last) without us.

Their final days on the island were cold and wet. We have been suffering night temperatures of 12 degrees - unheard of; and evenings have been chilly too! (Put away those violins, we know we should be grateful!)

Today shops shut a little early at lunchtime causing some inconvenience. This is in anticipation of Monday and Tuesday being festivos. Also we had trouble getting a table at La Lonja - the fishermen's bar - which only happens at such times. We had no idea about this as they are not national holidays that come up on the calendar, but local ones for a patron saint. It means two more days of schoolchildren on the streets, and we had only just got shot of them after Kings! Ex-pat parents grumble particularly about this. We think Spain beats even France for official "days off" per year. Next will be three days for Carnaval. Ah, the hypocrisy of the jubilados (retired)!

Clever decoration ideas and some others!

Today the town returns to normality. At last the kids go back to school, and the decorations - that traditionally go up on December 8th - will start to disappear.

Some have never quite worked! On "smelly corner" at the ferry port entrance we have the unspecified message "Happy" -

At the other end of the scale for imagination and attention to details we have had the Blue Rock ceiling. This tiny bar always rises to the seaonal challenge, and this year the theme of festive fare is "reflected" on the ceiling with intricate displays.

Note particularly the cardboard model turkey carefully crafted by Mark. Futhermore, as far as we know, nothing fell from any of the displays in the whole month.

The town council pulled out all the stops to have the "prettification" finished on time, and we have now lost all but a few skips in terms of plant. In Calle La Iglesia the cobbles are gone, and in the music square there is new central lighting. All the businesses in the two areas have the same retractable canopies, and they will receive - apparently - uniform tables and chairs. Then further planters etc can be placed by the owners to put back some character! The council's attempts at decor qualify for the Silly Idea of the Decade prize. Down the middle of the old cobbled street they have put some items. The seats might work, but the rectangles made of hardwood planks do not. One month on and they are warping and lifting - as surely they would, and as for the see-through thing - well! This may have been inspired by a clever idea used in a little bar (that is now closed) called El Muro Alto. In line with their nautical them they modified their
tables so that through a glass top you could see shells, pebbles and so on. Pretty! The coucil have tried to do the same thing for a 3m square display in the paving of the pedestrian area. As soon as it was it finished the perspex developed condensation so that nothing of the nautical bits under it could be seen, and the slippery surface meant it has had to be cordonned off.

A (Wild) Goose Chase & Some Dinners!

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