Contents of article "20. December 2006"
Wednesday 6th December
Tuesday 12th December
Saturday 16th December
Wednesday 27th December
Wednesday 6th December
I haven’t really had time to pop up for air recently, never mind register that December is now the place to be! In between the next PO Life, the site, some translation that I’m doing for somebody, decorating the house and new extension, a-shoppin’ ’til I’m a-droppin’ for furniture, taking long walks in the warm November and early December sunshine....... I just have not had the time to see December in! However, I just had to open this page today to say.....great excitement....there’s snow on the Canigou! Woooohoooooo! I woke up this morning and it was still its usual winter grey-green; looked up again at lunchtime and it was white! There has been quite a sudden change in temperature, with a cheeky wind starting to whip around the breeches - still not OH-SO-COLD but a very definite nip in the air. Oooo - I just want to jump up and down and scream - it is SO pretty!
Tuesday 12th December
I keep thinking it’s Friday! Everyday, when I wake up I have this delicious feeling of anticipation - something exciting in the air which I can’t quite harness! Living here in Winter is a little like being on a permanent ski holiday (without the ski of course - it’s pretty flat chez nous) - that clear, crisp feeling - pure air, blue skies, bright stars on a black canvas, warm days and cold nights.
We had a total power cut over the weekend. No electricty at all which is a bit awkward when you are all electric! Turned out that a tree had fallen onto the power line and cut off the whole area. We had no phones, no heating, no cooking... and had to resort to log fires, BBQ’s and mobile phones. Oh, life is so cruel!
I can’t find my flippin’ camera AGAIN. I have some great photos to show you of the PO in December but once again, the aforementioned pain in the butt has disguised itself as something else and is no doubt cowering under a discarded newspaper or a half eaten bar of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk (ooo, Freudian slip, did I say chocolate?) So, no photos for the time being but I will seek out the little villain and set it bang to rights!
Anyway, if you follow the forum, you will know that I have been ’targeted’ by one of the anti corrida groups. Well, targeted is perhaps a little too strong. Maybe ’harassed’ describes it better. I suddenly, out of the blue, received four e mails from complete strangers, accusing me of not caring about animals, telling me that I should be ashamed of myself for promoting the corrida on this site and so on. I took it quite to heart at first, defended myself fiercely in e mails to each ’attack’ until I suddenly realised that I had nothing to defend. The best thing to come out of it was the forum members who closed around me like a warm overcoat on a freezing day - I know it sounds so cliché but I felt so proud to be involved in our forum - it was like being defended by family. I don’t know how many of you read this but thank you so much for your support - the unpleasant e mails got to me more than I showed and the immediate leap to my defense of so many forum friends meant a great deal to me.
Found it! The little rascal had cunningly concealed itself in the glove compartement of the car. Anyway, this weekend was the telethon - a charity event throughout France in aid of Muscular Dystrophy. Maureillas put on an English tea room event which was a great success. Local Brits contributed cakes and scones, there was a second hand English book sale, band, and a generally good atmosphere. The locals of Maureillas poured in to buy British patisserie believe it not. The great British scone has a great reputation and can hold its own, even in a pastry-reputed nation like France, and the good ol’ ’thé au lait’ is finally catching on. How have they taken so long to see the light?
Well done Barbara, who was at the helm throughout. A well organised and successful event. Not forgetting, of course, the firemen down the road at Prats de la Farga who were washing cars - the first wash my car has had in two years! The poor thing is still in shock!
Saturday 16th December
After a day of heavy rain, the weather is beautiful again. Clear and sunny, quite warm, Spring-in-England weather.
On Thursday, we visited new shopping precinct just south of Girona. It’s fabulous - loads of shops, not crowded at all, cafés, restaurants, loos..... clean.... a pleasure to wander round. However, there is also a pet shop with a dozen glass cages holding dogs and cats. It absolutely broke my heart. In one glass cage, there was an alsation puppy along with another race - the cage was hardly big enough for one dog, never mind two. All dogs were asleep or sleepy - possibly drugged in my opinion as it’s rare to see so many puppies in such a floppy state. If not drugged, they were certainly depressed, unhappy and unable to express themselves. What a terrible start in life for an animal. Surely this is illegal? I tried to express my disgust to the others in the shop but ’non bueno’ didn’t really work! I felt so helpless. Yet another reminder of how important it is to speak the language of the country you are living in/visiting.
A Cataln Santa shirks his duties
And on a lighter note...... if you followed My Life in the PO (last year), you will have seen Colin’s Catalan santa taking a well deserved rest on the beach after a hard Christmas which stretched him to his limits This year, apparently, och aye, due to seasonal inclement Scottish weather, he is being a "miserable old git" so here we are - Colin’s santa - you have been named and shamed.
Wednesday 27th December
Christmas day in the PO
still plenty of colour around
Get that BBQ out! The weather has been absolutely fantastic over Christmas - a little like being in Australia I would imagine, but not quite as warm and the right way up!! Christmas day and dinner was spent here and I actually managed to make dinner for everybody (about 12)without too many catastrophes, unlike the last family/friends Christmas in Leeds, several years ago, when Sue, Rosy and myself decided to liquidize the turkey, sprouts and roast potatoes into a baby food-like paste. It seemed like a good idea at the time - a liquid lunch following on from a whole lot of other liquids, but didn’t go down too well with the guests who had expected a slightly more lumpy offering! The French side of the family who came to dinner this Christmas of course take their food much more seriously, in true French style, so I resisted the pull of the red wine bottle until the bulk of the preparation was out of the way, and dinner passed without incident. Oysters, foie gras and coquilles st jaques, mushroom tartlets with carrot and ginger, topped with fresh asparagus, turkey and trimmings, cheese and chocolate gateau buche .... a typical French Christmas dinner which involves several hours of eating and drinking.
ecobuage
Incidentally, out to do some last minute shopping on the 24th, I was ’gob smacked’ (hate that word - just had to use it to irritate others) to find the Intermarché, Champion and other large supermarkets around here, virtually empty! I can’t believe that I’m the only one around here who forgot a Christmas dinner ’must have’!
The weather has been so beautiful that we have spent much of Christmas outside, in between eating and entertaining of course. Yesterday we walked up to the ermitage de Saint Ferréol under a bright blue sky and warm sun, and wearing T shirts! Yes! T shirts at Noel! What is the world coming to? On the way up to the ermitage, we passed an interesting example of ’écobuage’ where farmers burn the vines, brambles or old vegetation to make way for new or to clear a path.
Bisou loves a walk but gets her hairy snout into anything going!
It supposedly improves soil structure. There were sparks flying everywhere, and although there were four men present, it didn’t look too safe to me, particularly with the recent lack of rain and the dryness of the terrain.
On the down side to this beautiful weather, the ski resorts are having a hard time of it - no snow since the 12th December (and nothing to write home about even then) and it means lean times ahead for the many small businesses that live off snow revenue. Last week, we were quite hopeful for snow, as there was one morning when there was a sprinkling on the Albères, but it was gone by lunchtime. Apparently ’les vieux’ are saying that they expect a very cold January with very little snow.
December snow on the Alberes
(’les vieux’ being the ancient Catalans who pop their noses out on a morning, sniff, and pronounce the weather forecast, more often right than France Méteo in my experience!)
