A Parting Shot as we retreat from Álora
With any luck Mrs. Sánchez and I will be on our way back to Inglaterra tomorrow.
It feels like Napoleon's retreat from Moscow (1812). You could say that luck has been in short supply here recently, what with both of us breaking limbs within a week of each other. I'm happy to tell readers of this venerable journal that our bones now are mending well thanks to the Spanish Health Service and The European Health Insurance Scheme. We are on first name terms with the staff at Barbarela now and I can recommend the new Málaga Metro which stops right outside this busy hellhole.
Like all the best TV detectives I don't believe in coincidence but I must admit I wobbled a bit when our good friend and carer Colin 'Ginger' Laycock' found where we had hidden his passport and headed home to Hale, a pretty village on the banks of the River Mersey. He'd only been back a day when, strolling along the shore, he dived for what he took to be a ten pound note blowing in the wind, missed it and landed on his shoulder, snapping his collar bone. Bad luck eh? I don't believe in luck either but when two days later my cuñada (sister-in- law) fell over and broke her shoulder too.........
When (and if) we get back to Blighty I'm going to have to take a serious look and my belief system. As Lady Bracknell might have said,
'To have one fractured limb is unfortunate but two seems like carelessness, three is unbelievable and four is grounds for believing in a vengeful god or that someone is out to get you'.
Despite our injuries Mrs. S., Colin and I found time for a very enjoyable couple of days in La Herradura, just east of Nerja and very close to Almuñecar where the poet, fiddler and author Laurie Lee lived for a time in the early 1930's.
He wrote a famous book 'Cider with Rosie', (starring Timothy Spall) , 'As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning' and 'A Rose for Winter'. The last two are about Spain. In the books he describes how he was living in Almuñecar when the Spanish Civil War kicked off in July 1936 and how he fought against Franco's fascists in the Civil War. When nobody who was there could remember him some people said he made a lot of it up. That doesn't, in my opinion, make him a bad person. A lot of ' serious' British authors, like Kingsley Amis, were a bit snooty about him anyway and Amis made all of his stuff up. Funnily enough Amis's most famous book was called 'Lucky Jim'
There's a monument to Laurie Lee in Almuñecar. It's tucked away at the far end of the prom next to a much more impressive monument to the Phoenicians who lived in Almuñecar well before Laurie, the Romans, the Visigoths, the Moors and the Reyes Catolicos.
News from Álora
Even though we've not been able to get out much for the last 6 weeks there's been a lot going on in Álora. The big event on the religious calendar was Corpus Christi, which was invented in 1246 AD. to remind people about Easter now that the car tyres have stopped screeching on the festive candle wax of Semana Santa. Corpus Christi (the body of Christ) merits a procession but not a public holiday here, so Mercadona is still open on the first Thursday after Trinity Sunday which is the eighth Sunday after Easter and far too complicated to predict with any certainty. They put an altar up on our street for the morning and I provided them with some vine leaves just to enter into the spirit of the thing.
The history of Corpus Christi in Granada is particularly interesting as Los Reyes Catolicos (Ferdinand and Isabela) used it as a tool to Christianise a population that had been under Muslim rule for about eight centuries even when the rest of Spain had gone over to the Catholics. They ordered the ayuntamiento (town hall) to spend buckets of ducats on a big street party and urged the town to celebrate until they “appeared crazy”. Being the obedient citizens they were, the “Granadinos” willingly complied.
No such luck here. We went to have a look at the olives instead. They are looking good.
Bad news on the bar front. One of the best bars in Álora has closed. Lo D'Antonio on La Rampa by the theatre is no more . Antonio has pulled down the shutters for the last time and he's moving to what was the 'Jamonería Díaz' on Vera Cruz. It's a tiny place with no kitchen so goodness knows what he's playing at! Lo D'Antonio (known by some as La Rampa) had the best tapas in town and I've spent many happy afternoons there over the years.
On a positive note the marisquería La Lonja de Mamely has become one of the best places to eat here. It's on Calle Cervantes.
Speaking of closures. Supertodo has shut too. A great little 'supermarket' by the police station. So has La Faenera frutería on Calle Carmona. And they say that CUDECA ( the popular charity shop where Mrs S. works when she's able-bodied) is closing too.
'This town is coming like ghost town' (The Specials)
At this rate there will nothing left when we get back in August.
There are three English language newspapers available round here; The Costa Del Sol News, The Olive Press, and Sur in English. The first two are what you would expect and are mainy aimed at the massive Brit community down on the coastal strip from Torremolinos to Estepona. Sur in English, though, makes an attempt to inform English readers (there's a German version too) about what is going on in the south of Spain. The translations from Spanish to English are perfect - they even print a political cartoon each week. It's a digest of Spanish national and local news with extra articles by Brits. I try to read it every week to find some ideas for this worthy organ.
In this week's edition my favourite was a story about Paloma Park in Benalmádena. It seems that this large popular park has been 'invaded' by 'hundreds of cockerels and hens'.
According to the story, these fowl are fouling the park and preventing park strollers from 'walking comfortably' along the pathways. There are more than four hundred of them. The town hall says that people are abandoning unwanted poultry there. They are asking anyone who wants a hen to come and take one.
A couple of enterprising lads are making a few euros selling free range organic eggs. In fact they are selling so many (4.50 € a dozen) to the holiday makers in the self catering apartments of Arroyo de la Miel that the local Mercadona ( 2.70€ a dozen) has had to increase the order from its supplier.
That's all for now.
Juanito Sánchez.
June 11th. 2018
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