It's Halloween here ín Álora too. Most of the young children went to school dressed as witches, demons, monsters and ghouls and tonight some of them will be ringing our bell. I've bought a bag of 'Halloween Truco Trato' caramelos (sweets) from Mercadona. I hope they don't expect cash.
Tomorrow is El Día de los Santos' (All Saints) which is very important here. Families go up to the cemetery with flowers to visit the niches of their dead relatives and then have a bit of a do afterwards. Many will be eating huesos de los santos (saints' bones) which were on sale at the bread shop today. El Dia de los Santos is a national holiday so the shops will be shut.
Trick or Treating is an imported thing as it is in the UK. Eloisa at the library asked me what it was all about. I don't really know. 'Truco Trato' is a mistranslation too . 'Un trato looks a bit like 'treat' but it means 'a deal'. 'Un gusto' would be closer. That is unless you take to 'treat' to mean to 'deal with' (as in 'treaty') and then it's all OK.
It's getting colder now and I had to change our first bombona (gas bottle) for months. We have no mains gas supply here, only the big cities do, so in the winter it is a common sight to see people lugging these big orange gas bottles around on their shoulders or on little trolleys. You can exchange bombonas at garages and some shops but most people in town wait for the the Repsol lorry's weekly delivery (Wednesday afternoon on our street and make sure you have the right change!). Bottled gas is cheaper here than in the UK (16€ at the moment).
Periodically we get a letter telling us to arrange an inspection of our gas appliances. This usually costs between 50€ and 150€ and as there have been numerous bogus companies doing 'inspections' most locals ignore the letters, tell the 'tecnicos' to clear off and renew their own tubing. I went to the Repsol office in the Plaza de la Fuente Arriba to buy some official (dated) tubing this morning. The office is tastefully decorated with original oil paintings.
We had three trick or treat visits but lots of caramelos left for me.
31/10/2012
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