Spanish Practices

Today Mary Poppins and Locusts Day Thirty eight of the Spanish Lockdown, the sometimes amusing, diary of a Brit in southern Spain under the 'Alarma' - normal life has stopped.   To find out more:  https://www.thesecretspain.com Day 38 Mary Poppins and Locusts It is day 38 of our Spanish Lockdown and yesterday evening I made perfect custard.  I usually just guestimate the ingredients but as Birds Custard is an expensive commodity here I actually followed the directions on the side.. and blow me you get great custard including the revolting skin which Chris likes and I hated so much at school.   I think lockdown has now made the most mundane of things a highlight of the day.  Whereas in a past time, maybe going to see the premiere of a west end play with a decent buffet press party with wine would be a good night, now it is custard.   It is shameful; but being members of the press we got to see a great many plays and musicals, and for the life of me I can only remember a handful, sometimes I can only remember t

Today Mozzies and Orgies  Day Thirty six of the Spanish Lockdown, the sometimes amusing, diary of a Brit in southern Spain under the 'Alarma' - normal life has stopped.   To find out more:  https://www.thesecretspain.com Day 37 Mozzies and Orgies It is day 37 of our Spanish lockdown and I have been bitten on the bum, it happened the other night.  I had thrown the duvet off as it had got to warm, half asleep and half aware of a mosquito in the room, he must have got me right between the cheeks.   As he flew passed my ear I grabbed our handy fly killing aerosol, and sprayed there was the usually angry strangled high pitched buzzing and then silence.  I don’t usually get effected by bites, usually just a bit of a red mark.   But I woke up in the morning and my inner left cheek is stinging like hell.  I found the culprit on the floor… a tiger Mosquito.  These are nasty little creatures that have come over from Asia and are making their home here.  They carry all sorts of exotic diseases with them.   Here in Spain

Today Scream and the Gas Board Day Thirty five of the Spanish Lockdown, the sometimes amusing, diary of a Brit in southern Spain under the 'Alarma' - normal life has stopped.   To find out more:  https://www.thesecretspain.com Day 36 Scream and the Gas Board   Day 36 of our Spanish lockdown and the wind is blowing across the sea and through the mountain. It can be very windy here, I believe before this coast was called the Costa Tropical it was called the Costa Wind.   It rattles everything, plays musical notes through the glass balustrade and generally gets you down.   Breakfast and then the three good legs cat walk on his lead, in which, yet again he fell down the mountain trying to get to next door.  I think the problem with male cats if they have a wanderlust and see each door or fence as a new opportunity to increase their territory. As you know we try and keep him away from feral cats, they sometimes have cat leukaemia, which can be passed on by a bite or scratch.   I returned and did an Audition for a

Today Biscuits and knickers Day Thirty five of the Spanish Lockdown, the sometimes amusing, diary of a Brit in southern Spain under the 'Alarma' - normal life has stopped.   To find out more:  https://www.thesecretspain.com Day 35   It is Sunday and day 35 of our Spanish Lockdown.  We got up and had breakfast, and I finished my work in the studio.  I needed to paint the bottom of the walls, I found some paint and it was still OK.   Normal life seems so long ago now, we are now into our second month and I think I have had enough, I can understand why all those Americans have come out into the street and demanded that they can reopen for business.   It does sound selfish, but there really is only so much lockdown that you can cope with. I really admire the Italians they have gone through hell and back.   Day 35 and I was thinking about school and had I had been better academically would my life have been different? It probably would, I do remember working at the BBC and the subject of which University did you g

Today Dead Man's Coat Day Thirty four of the Spanish Lockdown, the sometimes amusing, diary of a Brit in southern Spain under the 'Alarma' - normal life has stopped.   To find out more:  https://www.thesecretspain.com Day 34 Dead man’s coat   It is day 34 of our Spanish lockdown and the day started fractious, we bickered about something or other, so I took the three good legs cat for his walk to get some space.   We are very, very lucky in that we have more than 150 square metres of terraces and even a narrow mountain garden that separates us from our neighbours.   I have a workshop down in the pool room and Chris has his gym area up behind the garage.  It allows us to stay home but enjoy some space.  My favourite space that I also share with the cat, is our little voice studio that sits behind the house, between the mountain and the back wall.   I have spent most of the day sticking back the acoustic tiles that were removed for the electrician when we had our building work done.  Again this is not an easy pr

Today Pigs and Puppies Day Thirty three of the Spanish Lockdown, the sometimes amusing, diary of a Brit in southern Spain under the 'Alarma' - normal life has stopped.   To find out more:  https://www.thesecretspain.com Day 33 Pigs and Puppies   It is day 33 of our Spanish Lockdown and the day dawned gloomy and it was again raining slightly.  This is unusual weather, many of the plants in the garden are looking a bit sad, not only are they recently planted but they are clearly not enjoying the rain.   Down below onto the mountain side where the cactus grow, the most amazing thing has happened we have sweet peas growing up and around the cactus.  I have never seen that here before and it brings a weird incongruous mixture of the Mediterranean and English country garden.   Three good legs cat has learnt how to balance himself at the end of the swimming pool and escape down to that garden on his own.  We have a child gate that normally prevents him from going AWOL. He has yet to fall in the pool and has chosen t

Today Quiz and Crazies Day Thirty two of the Spanish Lockdown, the sometimes amusing, diary of a Brit in southern Spain under the 'Alarma' - normal life has stopped.   To find out more:  https://www.thesecretspain.com Day 32 Quiz and crazies   It is day 32 of our Spanish lockdown, three good legs cat managed to have at least a couple of his fits before breakfast.  They have the look of an epileptic fit but are caused by him catching the painful part of his hip.   Last night we watched a great deal of television, we don’t usually binge watch anything. We caught a bit of Paul O’Grady looking after some poor sick dog that seemed to have a similar problem to three good legs cat.  The dog had an operation to remove the piece of hip that was causing him pain, and was much better.   Normally we would go to the vet and sort out an operation, but only emergency visits to the vet are allowed and our neighbour Lena was stopped by the Guardia taking her dog to the vet as she went to the vet in Almuñecar which isn’t our l

Today Custard and Daleks Day Thirty one of the Spanish Lockdown, the sometimes amusing, diary of a Brit in southern Spain under the 'Alarma' - normal life has stopped.   To find out more:  https://www.thesecretspain.com Day 31 – Custard and Daleks It is Day 31 of our Spanish Lockdown; I am starting to get quite blurry eyed.  All day peering into the new computer that arrived yesterday from China, has made me quite myopic.   The first thing we did when it arrived is to wipe the whole thing down with alcohol, starting with the box it came in.  I have to hand it to Apple their logistics are to be admired.  The machine started in China moved the Chinese Export Zone and then flew to South Korea where it went on to Germany, from Germany to Portugal and from Portugal to Spain, it took more than two weeks.   It does prove that many businesses are quite capable of operating within lockdown.  The delivery driver left the parcel on the step and sat in his cab; I received an email to confirm delivery.   Chris gets his co

Today Rulers and Prince Caspian Day Thirty of the Spanish Lockdown, the sometimes amusing, diary of a Brit in southern Spain under the 'Alarma' - normal life has stopped.   To find out more:  https://www.thesecretspain.com t is day 30 of our Spanish Lockdown and the sun has shone through the high cloud.  the weather though is unseasonably cool.  The traffic this morning is noticeably noisier, there has been a very slight lifting of the Lockdown to allow some industries and some construction return to work.   I have started recording my work for children's literacy, I am the computer voice for quizzes that tests whether a child has read a particular book.  If they pass they can move on to the next book.  I love books, I didn't always.  When I went to school in the swinging sixties, teachers wore caftans and one thigh length boots and an impossibly small mini skirt that showed her teaching credentials every time she bent over to pick the chalk up from the blackboard.   In the 1960s at school we were experimente

Today Tuna and potties Day twenty nine of the Spanish Lockdown, the sometimes amusing, diary of a Brit in southern Spain under the 'Alarma' - normal life has stopped.   To find out more:  https://www.thesecretspain.com Day 29 of our Spanish Lockdown, we woke to horrible weather, thick fog, pouring rain and a damp chill to the air.  When we get this kind of weather it always reminds me of a disastrous holiday I went on with my father, his new wife two toddlers and a baby, my fathers second attempt at a family.   I had reached a crisis point in my career.  Career huh! I worked on a Production line that made Britvic 55 and Pepsi Cola.  It was sweaty dirty work, I still bear some of the scars where broken bottles had sliced into my hands, the place was crawling with cockroaches. My mother had got me the job following unemployment during the famous winter of discontent, then a rubbish job at a Petrol station, that I hated so much I used to turn the lights off on the forecourt in the hope I could quietly sit and li

Today Villa Paula and the rats Day twenty eight of the Spanish Lockdown, the sometimes amusing, diary of a Brit in southern Spain under the 'Alarma' - normal life has stopped.   To find out more:  https://www.thesecretspain.com

Today impossible hair and toads. Day twenty seven of the Spanish Lockdown, the sometimes amusing, diary of a Brit in southern Spain under the 'Alarma' - normal life has stopped.   To find out more:  https://www.thesecretspain.com

Today Flash Harry and the Poof test. Day twenty six of the Spanish Lockdown, the sometimes amusing, diary of a Brit in southern Spain under the 'Alarma' - normal life has stopped.   To find out more:  https://www.thesecretspain.com

Today Sick dogs and angry cats. Day twenty five of the Spanish Lockdown, the sometimes amusing, diary of a Brit in southern Spain under the 'Alarma' - normal life has stopped.   To find out more:  https://www.thesecretspain.com

Today Ice cream and drains Day twenty four of the Spanish Lockdown, the sometimes amusing, diary of a Brit in southern Spain under the 'Alarma' - normal life has stopped.   To find out more:  https://www.thesecretspain.com 

Today Fiestas and Freddie Mercury Day twenty three of the Spanish Lockdown, the sometimes amusing, diary of a Brit in southern Spain under the 'Alarma' - normal life has stopped.   To find out more:  https://www.thesecretspain.com 

Today shocking electricity and the bright yellow car. Day twenty two of the Spanish Lockdown, the sometimes amusing, diary of a Brit in southern Spain under the 'Alarma' - normal life has stopped.   To find out more:  https://www.thesecretspain.com 

Today scary Cheesecakes and Church Bells. Day twenty one of the Spanish Lockdown, the sometimes amusing, diary of a Brit in southern Spain under the 'Alarma' - normal life has stopped.   To find out more:  https://www.thesecretspain.com 

Today scary Martha and the kitchen urinal. Day twenty of the Spanish Lockdown, the sometimes amusing, diary of a Brit in southern Spain under the 'Alarma' - normal life has stopped.   To find out more:  https://www.thesecretspain.com 

Day nineteen of the Spanish Lockdown, the sometimes amusing, diary of a Brit in southern Spain under the 'Alarma' - normal life has stopped.  Today 'filthy fincas and feral cats' To find out more:  https://www.thesecretspain.com