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Que pasa ? |
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5 May 2010 – Green fingers After a very wet winter it’s great to enjoy the garden and that left me with a new hobby. Lidl sells a large range of flower seeds and I’m unstoppable. Out of enthusiasm (and impatienceness) I’ve already sowed over 30 different sorts of plants and herbs. Donna and I are staring at the ground every day full of expectation to see how the shoots are doing. My cherry tomato plant is loaded (nice with my home made bread), the sunflowers grow like crazy and I’m even growing my own lemon tree.
As a real amateur I’ve got no clue anymore what’s weed and what are good plants.
Because it’s a rental house with a low maintenance garden, I’ll probably have a huge lack of space, but that doesn’t temper my joy. With my big sun head and my hands in the ground I feel one with nature in the Spanish campo when our neighbour, the Sheppard, walks by with its herd. After an hour he passes by again, and I have to look twice, because now he’s driving his brand new BMW 7. Well, just as with gardening, things aren’t always what they seem to be…
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4 April 2010 - The season starts again
It’s Easter, Bagels & Tapas opened its doors after a long winter break and ‘real life’ starts again. A big change, we really need to find our routine again. Luckily our chef David has the kitchen well organized, so we don’t have to worry about that. But we also enjoy being active again and to socialize with our clients. In the 3 days we’re open now, we already saw lots of familiar faces. Obviously people missed us, so that’s a nice compliment . In these days Nerja is packed with Spanish and there’s really nowhere to park anymore. Well, good reason for having a nice daily walk in the sun! With this beautiful weather (we also had a relatively cold winter!) the beaches are already half full and some people even already dare to go into the water! Here comes the summer! How different the rhythm is over here I noticed again during a phone call with my sister at 8:30 in the evening. In Holland it was dark, raining and the children already were in bed for 1,5 hours. I was outside in the garden playing with Donna...xxxxxxxxxx
30 December 2009 - Children in Spain
The Spanish are re-known for being very family-oriented which shows clearly by the way that they handle their children and anyone else's children in the vicinity too! No-one is surprised if you take your child to a restaurant in the evening and – especially in summer holidays – children play outside until late at night. A toothless grandpa will often stick his head into your child's buggy and shop employees easily give your child a kiss or hug while passing by. A Dutch friend of ours was caught by surprise when her 8 month old daughter was quickly ‘kidnapped’ by a waitress (while expressing several non-understandable compliments) to ‘show her off in the kitchen’. That’s quite a contrast to Northern Europe, where people first ask if they can touch your baby. I personally like this Spanish habit and on the other side I don’t mind either when strangers give you well intended, but uninvited advice about your child. Most toddlers go to kindergarten early to develop their social skills. Our own daughter, Donna, goes a few times a week (in a very ugly but child friendly uniform), where they have a friendly but definite ‘regime’. It’s not only good for her learning of the Spanish language, but she also becomes a part of the Spanish traditions, and interacts with other young children within the community. Last week they celebrated 'pastors y pastoras with the children dressing up as, either shepherds or angels. The ‘ins and outs’ of this tradition still aren’t completely clear to me. Donna appeared to be the only angel, but I think we did better than the parents of the girl which came to kindergarten in het normal uniform. I can imagine this tradition completely escaped the parents. Well, maybe it becomes all clear to us once we see the photos.
Another ‘tradition’ I didn’t get yet, is why the children go extremely well dressed on Sundays. Preferably in tartan, Spencer, pleated skirt and patent leather shoes. This has nothing to do with going to church in your 'Sunday Best' or as far as I can see, any connection to their social background; these children are dressed very casually all week. Personally, I think it looks quite ridiculous to see a bold baby girl with a ribbon on her head, just like an Easter egg (and of course with an ear ring). But who knows, maybe my opinion on the subject will change completely within a few years.
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27 Augustus 2009 - “Hay crisis”...
An economical crisis, a collapsed house market, less British tourists (because of the exchange rate between the Euro and the Pound), the highest unemployment rate of Europe, ETA attacks, forest fires and now also the Mexican (swine) flu… Not exactly a good year for Spain and we notice a little less tourism this year. “Hay crisis” has become a widely accepted apology for everything that doesn’t go like it’s supposed to go. Despite all of this, the beaches in Andalusia are still loaded and every night the town is crowded with people. This of course brings a nice vibrant atmosphere until late in the sultry evening. The flowered square in front of Bagels & Tapas (Plaza de los Cangrejos) is packed and everywhere you look you see children playing and buggies with sleeping offspring. One night a flamenco singer performs, the next night a local dance group gives its best and there’s an open-air cinema. One restaurant owner put an official notice above the bar “Here we don’t discuss the crisis”. Actually not a bad idea…
Despite the economical situation this year we’re still happy we chose Nerja to be our new home town. Nerja is ambitious and works hard to develop itself for the future. The long planned marina – for example – is finally going to be constructed between Nerja and the next town Torrox. In Torrox they plan a 18-hole golf course and even a theatre with 500 seats has found its way to the drawing table. The infrastructure is being improved by connecting several foot paths through town and there will be a new cycling path between Rincon de la Victoria (next to Malaga) and Nerja. The town hall also wants to sink some old fishing boats to create an artificial reef that could attract scuba-divers. And on top of that, by the end of this year we’ll get our own Lidl supermarket. All great news!
Spanish are positive people. They just give in to the heat and make the best of it all. When I drove home yesterday evening through the ‘campo’ (always on the lookout for donkeys and ponies crossing the road unexpectedly) a striking evergreen blared from the radio: ‘Que sera, sera. Whatever will be, will be’. And also the crisis will pass…
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13th of April 2009 – Ready for summer
Time flies… the high season already starts again! What used to be dry brown hills in late summer, is now sparkling green nature with blossoming flowers from bright yellow to red, pink and dark purple. Lovely! And also the weather is really nice again. We don’t light the chimney anymore and we’ve already been on the beach. This week I’ve plannend my first (cold) dive into the pool…
In March we’ve been in Holland again for a holiday (this time we took it a little easier) and afterwards we went to Germany for two days to see relatives. In the period we were closed, we did a little refurbishing in the kitchen of the restaurant. The routing is more logical now and more adjusted to our new tapas concept. We’re really happy with the result! The kitchen has become much bigger and it looks much better than we’d hoped for.
Unfortunately our chef Mark and his girlfriend Nicole left for Switzerland to start a new life in the snow. That’s a big change for us because we spent so much time together since the opening of our restaurant. Luckily we have two nice new chefs again: David from England and Paul from Holland and we feel we’re ready now for the summer. And with some last changes in our menu we think we can lift the restaurant a level higher again.
A lot of people ask us about the crisis in Spain. Actually we don’t really notice this that much, but we do feel the effect of the bad exchange rate with the British pound a lot. Luckily there’s not only English people in Nerja, but it’s a real European mix and we hope tourism will catch up in summer. Infact: the hotels say they’re fully booked and usually that's a good reference. Well, after these years being self-employed we’ve got used to the feeling of not knowing how the coming year will look, commercially.
Our daughter Donna is still doing very well! She wanders around happily and chatters all day long. She seems to get all teeth at once, but until now that doesn’t seem to bother her that much. For us being able to spend this much time with her is really fantastic. Another nice thing is that I now often see 2 Spanish speaking friends who have children of more or less the same age as Donna: Seda (13 months, daughter of Paul and the Colombian Angie) and Ismael (18 months, son of Elisa who also gives me Spanish lessons). I’m very proud of the fact that I can finally keep the conversations mainly in Spanish! It’s really nice to all go to the beach and if Donna enjoys herself, then of course mommy also does ;-) Here comes the summer!
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