No spitting on the Álora Bus

 

 

No Spitting on the Álora Bus

 

 

 

I was walking  though the Plaza Baja the other morning with Tommy. As we  were about level with the doorway to Antonio and Flores's corner shop a sizeable glob of spìt shot out of the door and into the road. It missed my left cheek by 40cm. The woman said 'Perdón' so that was that.

It happened to Samuel Pepys too:

"here I am, sitting behind in a dark place, a lady spit backward upon me by a mistake, not seeing me, but after seeing her to be a very pretty lady, I was not troubled at it at all."

Spitting (escupiendo) is still very common here in Álora. A few  years ago we woke every morning to the sound of our neighbour Pedro passing our bedroom window with a long bubbly  clearing  of the throat and a big spit. He died and we use a clock now.
It's still very common to see people spitting in the street here. Someone narrowly missed my foot the other day. It's a good job people don't have fitted carpets around here, what with all the dog muck, horse muck, cow muck, cat pee, candle wax and gob. Even the latest Dyson would  struggle to keep up.
Yesterday afternoon I passed a chap standing in the Plaza de la Fuente Arriba  (top square) eating pipas (sunflower seeds) and spitting out the husks. He was going at it like the clappers and had obviously developed a technique. It is a common sight here. I often come across a carpet of pipa shells on the ground. Some people can get though a half pound bag in a matter of minutes. There's even  a competition for speed- eating sunflowers seeds.

 

Contestants at the annual Alora sunflower eating competition

There's one for cherry stone spitting  (the record is 96 feet 6.5 inches (29.45 metres)and cricket spitting (the record is 32 ft. 5 inches (9.766 metres).

It's not really spitting, though, is it?

Proper spitting ie. expectoration, gobbing,flobbing or hawking, often preceded by a 'gutteral growl´ is now frowned on in many countries. Until 1990 spitting in a public place was a criminal offence in the UK carrying a five pound fine. Eric Pickles is backing a campaign in Enfield to bring in a new ban.
They are trying to ban it in China too.
Apparently it's OK to spit if you're doing sporty things unless you spit at someone on purpose, like Wayne Rooney who now has a criminal record for spitting at a photogapher who wasn't playing football .

 

Wayne Rooney

 

When we were kids we used to spit a lot. We had contests. It was always a good idea to avoid people with colds. In those days there were signs in buses saying 'No Spitting'.
Spitting was associated with TB which was also a feature of the good old days.

 

Mrs. Sánchez has a friend whose family had a farm at Strinesdale  on the hills just outside Oldham. There was a TB hospital and an 'open air school' up there for children with TB or 'delicate health'. The patients used to take walks and spit in the surrounding fields  Apparently the cows contracted TB from the spit and had to be put down . The farm went bankrupt and the farmer (her dad)died from TB.

On a more cheerful note, today was  Romería (procession) day in Álora. The festivities  got going with some more loud explosions which Tommy enjoyed no end and now he refuses to go outside. Down at the bottom of our Street La Virgen de las Flores (The Virgin of the Flowers; one of Álora's two patron virgins)was being placed on her bullock cart which was then decorated with flowers. Two big strapping cows that looked like bulls were strapped to the cart. At 10.o'clock the procession started up Calle Atrás. The cows were encouraged to walk up the steep hill by men with pointed sticks.

 

                                            Calle Benito Suarez 9.30am.


Up in the top square the virgin was greeted by hundreds of fans, many of them wearing beautiful flamenco dresses or traditional riding suits. (trajes típicos) (prizes for the best!) and twenty or so carrozas pulled by tractors, 4x4s, bullocks, horses and donkeys. (prizes for these to). Polka dots (lunares ) on everything.

 

Inside una carroza

 

 

 Un burro aburrido

 

Tres guapas

 

 

 

                                                               La multitud


Then off they all walked or rode up to the convento fairground. Two hours to go about a mile. The carrozes are equipped with fridges full of beer or  Manzanilla wine (a dry fino from Sanlúcar de Barrameda). We went home for a bit and drove up later to the convento which still has a very worrying big crack in the bell tower.

 

Ana Molina working in the El Capirote caseta. 

 

 

The convento fairground

 

 

Caballeros

 

It's a public holiday tomorrow

 

 

All over for another year.

 

 

I went to Carrefour yesterday in Malaga because I saw their advert in the Sur newspaper.  "20% off 5000 laptops" it read. When I got there they had 12! 'What about the 5000?'  I asked. 'That refers to the number in all our branches'. said the lad. Carrefour has 9994 branches.

It's enough to make you want to spit.

 

16th. September 2013