30th June 2004

I could not believe my alarm when it went off this morning! 7am has never seemed so early before. Still, downstairs I went to start the day. Wednesdays are a little different. Julia took the boys to school and then goes to another house. After breakfast I came up to do my weblog.

The boys finished school at 1pm today, so Becky and I met them from school and then went to Campello, a town just down the coast where her parents have a holiday home. Today turned out to be a day of new experiences, the first being Campello where I had my very first "tapas" meal. Now, for those of you who don´t know what that is...much like I didn´t, it´s a meal made up of lots of small dishes. Think of it as about 4 mini courses rather than a large one. We started off with "Ali Oli" which is bread, which comes with a spread made from oil and garlic. Similar to garlic bread but served cold. This was followed by a plate of grilled cheese that was delicious! Next up was a red pepper salad with onions and a bit of fish, this was called "Escalibada" - it was a little bit like a salsa dip and went really well with the bread. Then came 2 not very Spanish items but still something I´d not got around to trying before, artichoke and asparagus. Both came in a mixed grilled vegetable dish with peppers and onions, tomatoes, aubergines and mushrooms. It was dressed with lemon juice which really was yummy!

It was followed by 2 very typical spanish dishes. "Jamon Serrano" which was a really rubbery, quite salty ham and "Queso Manchego" which is a semi-soft Spanish cheese. Both really good with olive oil and bread. Tapas is definitely a very hands on experience! One dish that I backed out of trying really did freak me out a bit. It´s called "Chopitos" and is a dish of grilled beans and tiny little squid. Eugh. I have to admit I´m not a sea food fan and I couldn´t really bear all the little squid eyes looking up at me!

Well, that was all from the tapas bar but back at home I was subjected to more experimentation!! Not against my will let it be said! "Limón Granizado" is much like a slush puppy but made from fresh lemons (something the Costa Blanca region is well known for), it is seriously refreshing-and of course if you are as unprepared as I was for how lemony it is then get ready to pull some seriously tangy faces! With the we had "fartons", now luckily in Spanish the "r" is rolled so it doesn´t sound quite as rude as you´re thinking! Fartons are just a sweet bread in a finger shape with crusted sugar on top. It´s really good dipped in the limón granizado. Finally, with dinner I tried pistachio ice-cream which was bizarre as I expected it to taste of pistachios but it reminded me much more of marzipan.

When we got back from Campello the boys and I went down to the pool for an hour. It reached a whopping 37 degrees c in Alicante today and I made the most of it by the pool with my book, watching the boys play. After we got back I invented an unbelievable number of games to coax David into the shower, telling him to imagine how pleased his Mum would be with him if she came back to find him clean and in his PJs. That just about swung it, along with me counting in the German the whole time he was in the shower to see how long it would take him. :o)

Once he was all out and sorted we settled down with Danny to watch the tail end of Monsters INC before dinner. Nice and peaceful!

So that was my day. I´m really feeling settled here. A routine is starting to kick in and I´ve found my feet quite successfully.