Curry Trips

It has been an exciting and difficult month or so for the denizens of that ‘house with all the dogs’ in Fuente Tojar. Other people keep tiny dogs in their houses but normally just the one. You know the type, yappy rat-like things that you worry about stepping on. Ours are somewhat unique in the village in that they’re bigger and there are four of them prepared to bark annoyingly at anyone passing on the street below.

Portchester Castle. A place that I have a deep affection for.

The local kids all know this and act accordingly by winding them up, especially Dora who takes personal exception to children. Sparky couldn’t care less as he wanders around the backyards beyond our patio looking mean. The two new cats, Seeni and Sambol, continue to be very naughty in and around the house but also very cute.

Unfortunately we are unable to open up the house very much at the moment, until late in the evening at least. The temperatures have been insane lately following the rain of late May and early June. It is debilitating. When the mercury reaches 40, 41, 42, there is no point in trying to live a normal life; it’s impossible to do so. You stay indoors after about 9.30 and then, if you’re lucky, get to go out about 12 hours later.

It’s the lethargy that is annoying. You can’t do much even indoors. It makes you even lazier than you already are. When the temperature is about 33 or 34 then you’re like, okay, it’s hot but I can cope with this. I can still get out into the patio, I can do DIY without worrying about things melting, I can sit upstairs on the mezzanine and do stuff on the laptop. I can even walk to the recycling bins without too much sweat.

The thing is that we did expect hot temperatures when we moved here. What we didn’t expect is that this summer weather would increase year on year in length and would get hotter year on year. Where we live is considered one of the ‘frying pans’ of Spain (which also includes Madrid, Toledo and Sevilla) where high temperatures have been a feature of life for thousands of years. The houses and people have adapted to survive them.

But this is new. This global warming in action and it’s horrible. This whole region of Andalusia is predicted to become a desert within the next forty years unless global warming can be curtailed somehow. Granted, we won’t be around to see it but nevertheless it is worrying.

Not being able to do anything is incredibly frustrating after just a few weeks of this. We still have the whole of August to get through. We need a plan B. Not THE plan B, obviously. Although it would be very cool, I’m not convinced he would be the answer to our overheating problems. We need to find somewhere cooler for the summer months. Because of Brexit and visas and stuff, it needs to be in Spain. We’re planning to change something for next summer but we’re not sure what yet.

In this regard we will be like many Spaniards (and Frenchies) who escape the intense heat of the interior to go to the coast for a few months. Millions do it. My god-daughter and her family do it every summer. Why shouldn’t we do something similar?

We love Fuente Tojar and we love our house but we simply can’t live like this for two months of the year. It’s a bit upsetting but it is the climate crisis reality that we live in. And it really isn’t fair on the animals that live with us. It’s not a lot of fun for them either. What to do?

Charles Dickens was a denizen of Portsmouth

Well, we could go to the UK like we did what seems like ages ago now but was only last month. We went to the south of England to spend some time with my mum and see other family and friends. It was a bit hectic and rushed but it was so nice. I haven’t been home for 4 years. 4 years. Ridiculous, really. One of the reasons we moved here was to be closer to the UK and yet I find that I visited more when I was based in Sri Lanka. Ridiculous. Yes there has been a pandemic in all of that and, yes, we have moved to three different cities in three different countries with three different cultures and languages but even so…

It was fantastic. I got to show Sonalee some of my home town that I am really proud of even though I had nothing to do with creating. I am proud of being a Pompey boy and I have missed it a lot and really missed showing my wife the amazing history that it has. Portsmouth is one of those places steeped in naval history that just appears in every street and in every area. It goes back to Roman times with the incredible Portchester Castle and throughout the growth of England as a naval nation up until the present day where saw one of the two new Aircraft carriers berthed in the harbour. Portsmouth is changing rapidly now. It is much more multi-cultural thanks to the university that has expanded exponentially. This is a good thing.

I know Sonalee was disappointed not to ride on the hovercraft to the Isle of Wight and to not visit Fratton Park. These treats will be for next time. But I could tell that even she was impressed by what she saw in a short space of time. And I am just going to put it out there that the Mary Rose Museum is nothing short of astonishing. If you get the chance to go, go.

Did it compare with visiting Barry Island in South Wales with my sister and family? Well…

At the house of one of Sonalee’s oldest friends, we had a curry. It was nice. At the house of my sister, my niece helped Sonalee cook a curry. It was nice. We also had a nice curry in Portsmouth with some of my oldest friends. Hmm…

One of the oddest things about visiting the UK was being able to understand every conversation that we could overhear. When we are here in Spain or when we were in Morocco or Portugal we were completely ignorant of what people were talking about. It was weird listening to people discussing where the best sausages were, why Sandra was such a slag, what happened last night down the pub and the hundreds of other small talk stuff that we have been so oblivious to.

We really need to improve our Spanish.

A week after we returned to home and our animals who had been looked after by two very young but determined Irish girls travelling around Europe in their converted camper van, we buggered off to spend some time in the tent that have used once in 4 years. We had Spanish sitters this time. Very geeky but lovely.

We chose the area around Salamanca to stay in. It’s gorgeous. Stunning. Ecologically diverse, steeped in history and very friendly. The city of Salamanca itself is just astonishing. I’ve been to a lot of places around the world and seen some pretty impressive stuff but I have never seen a cathedral like the one there; you have to see it to appreciate the sheer bloody scale of the thing. As befitting such a place that has had a premier seat of learning for many many centuries, we went for a curry.

Why not?

We also did some cultural type things, obviously, and then we went back to Madrid to go to a music festival near Getafe. On the way, we went for a curry.

The village of Miranda del Castanar. Stunning.

After much faffe and stupid officials, we eventually got into the festival via a backstage pass thanks to our friend Ken who is the guitar technician for the band The Offspring. Backstage passes! We felt young again and a bit giddy! We were really excited and slightly in awe of what we saw and where we were allowed to go. We went onto the main stage before the band came on. I waved to the dozen fans already gathered there. One waved back.

We saw Ken in action during the set by The Offspring. We saw Lizzo, who was brilliant and we saw Robbie Williams who was at his self-indulgent best. We also saw Machine Gun Harry/Henry/Kelly(?) who was okay. But we had that magic pass that elevated us from the hoi polloi and we felt great. Sonalee and I don’t have many opportunities to get away from it all and enjoy being young again but when we have done, it has been unforgettable. Like when we saw Duran Duran and Aha in Lisbon. We need to do it more often.

Driving home at one in the morning and arriving at 5 was a reminder of what my life used to be like in my 30’s. And why I stopped doing it.

And then, just like that, we were back into the rhythm of the heat of Andalusia and our dogs and our cats. And trying to find work. The latter can wait a few more weeks. Nothing much happens in July anyway. Our dogs do love it here when it isn’t so hot. It is fair to say that Luna, in particular, belongs here. Our two new cats are full of kitten energy and inquisitiveness and even Sparky has found that annoying the dog next door is very satisfying. The rest of the pack get to chase bunnies in the campo with no worries at all. It is a situation which makes us all very happy. Except when it just so bloody hot!

Dragged to Hell. Probably for putting a spoon in the fork section of the kitchen drawer

It is unfortunate that we cannot vote in the national elections happening this weekend. The forecasts say that the centre right will win the most votes but will be reliant upon the wankers of Vox to form a government. Vox are the newcomers on the block who have tapped into the racist, sexist and homophobic voters who exist in enough numbers to give them legitimacy.

*Christopher Columbus. He’s pointing the wrong way, which is ironic really.*

I fear for the next few years if Vox gets anywhere near power. All of the gains that Prime Minister Sanchez has made will go up in smoke, including his handling of the economy which has been very good in difficult times. Vox like to stoke up hatred of anything that is not considered pure Spanish and that is not a good thing. The Catalans, the Basques, immigrants, women, homosexuals, the disabled, the EU, NATO; they are all targets for Vox to attack.

Vox are also climate change deniers, which is so stupid as to defy belief.

It’s depressing in many ways but there’s absolutely nothing we can do about it. We can but hope that their reign is a short lived one, for all of our sakes.

So, why worry about things we have no control over? Well, we won’t. We will worry about the kittens who are starting to copy Sparky and make their way over the walls (those that are left) of the patio. And we will worry about whether Pompey have enough quality strikers for the coming season (I will anyway, Sonalee seems unconcerned) and we will worry about what we will do next summer.