Category: Spain

Dear Celia, Abrao,
There is small butcher shop on the street close to the apartment where we are staying. Two butchers, one man one woman each with a steel mesh glove on their left hands were working behind the counter and two more men were working in the back. Today Saturday there were quite a few customers, nearly all women, and I noticed as each came in they asked “la ultima” and someone nodded. After a while I figured it out, the question is “who is last.”
The little greengrocer shop on the corner is run by an eccentric man who when someone asked is this fresh replied; “Fresh, I am constantly bothered by government inspectors wanting to know how come my customers are so healthy”. To the question do you have eggs, “no but I am saving up for an operation to look Chinese, (there are a lot of small Chinese stores selling some of everything, mostly cheap junk) then I can sell eggs.”
La Ferreteria, the tiny hardware shop around the corner, normally with three customers max at the wooden counter is run by, dare I say it, an older lady and her daughter and after 5 or so visits I have never seen them return from the shelves in back without what the customer requested. They clearly know many of their customers and the customers know each other so a lot of chatting takes place when one of the owners is cutting a copy of a key or searching in the back.
The smaller shops open at 10:00 close at 14:00 and open again at 17:00 and close at 20:00. With all the catastrophic news you hear about the Spanish economy these days a lot of life seems to go on normally; in the morning the school yards are full of small laughing, screaming kids and in the afternoons there are streams of older children returning home wearing their school uniforms, precluding an annual expensive clothing style competition.
The large clean double length buses run regularly, a trip costs 85 cents and younger riders give their seats to older passengers. On a sunny day the sidewalks in front of the restaurants are full of people seated at tables having a coffee, beer or glass of wine. Mostly groups of older ladies chatting and rueing with a smile that dear Paco or Mi Pepe is finally with God.
Aurelia is sitting on the couch laughing at a book of Mafalda cartoons by Quino, who fled Argentina for Spain in 1964 before the dictator Peron could have him killed. La plus ca change….
It is nearly 20:00 so we have to go out for a few potatoes and a stop at the coffee shop with wifi so I can send this to you.
When we asked the green grocer which potato was best for steaming he said take this one it is good for boiling, steaming and frying, you you must have seen the ads for 3 in1.
LOL
John