Domestic Goddess

Don’t laugh, I’m practically Martha bloody Stewart. On Friday, I cooked almost all day to stack up some meals for the weekend. I was craving some chilli, and best I could come up with was Chilli Con Carne, a nice change. We love Spanish food, but it does get a bit same-ish and it is a bit bland. Also made beef in red wine – for 2 nights.

AND, I’ve been painting again. We (the royal we) decided that the white cupboards looked so good that I should continue what I started in France. Of course this time, I had to sand back what I already done (decided to use acrylic paint for longevity) and then sandpaper the wardrobes and bathroom door. Lawrence of course declared “I’m hopeless at sanding!”. This in reality means “I hate sanding” – geez, most people love it…

Anyway, bless him, he did get on MoJo to go and buy me an orbital sander, plus more gin, both essentials for interior decorating. I’m sure Martha drank plenty of gin.

The Mog is starting to look a bit brighter, and I like putting my stamp on it. We are very happy living in our 2.5 metres by 4. Amazing what you can get used to. We’ve been shopping again though, this had to stop as we really are at capacity now!

We are still in El Peurto de Santa Maria, simply because the weather is great, the sun is shining, the wine is cheap, and we get 2 weeks free if stay 4 weeks.

Arcos de la Frontera

As car hire is so cheap, we are basing ourselves here and touring around. 22 euros a day gets you a Kia (which unfortunately didn’t included a working handbrake, that must be an optional extra). We drove up to Ronda for 2 days nights via the ‘white towns’ and the Sierra de Grazalema. Stunning country and beautiful towns set in dramatic locations.

Ronda

The 'new' bridge, Ronda

Ronda of course is the jewel, with its deep gorge running through the town, and lovely winding streets and white houses. We stayed in a cute 6 room hotel and just wandered around the town. We had our Australia Day lunch at a lovely restaurant overlooking the gorge. L had roast kid (again!) and I had slow roasted lamb shank. We accompanied this with a Rioja Crianza 2000. Another memorable meal.

Australia Day lunch

We stopped in Grazalema on the way back. This is the prettiest town I’ve seen in Spain so far, set among steep rocky mountains. We stopped into a tiny shop and bought some local produce, olive oil, sheep cheese and jamon.

Grazalema

Lunch was in a roadside café. 7.50 euros for the ‘Menu del Dia’. Huge delicious entrée eggy thing, followed by oxtail for L and a chicken dish for me. Both absolutely delicious. Amazing value!! Dinner was a piece of cheese..

Next week, another cheap car, hopefully with working handbrake, will take us to Gibralta for one night. From what we’ve read, there really isn’t anything much to see apart from a bloody great rock. It’s really the novelty of a tiny British outpost in south of Spain.

Today after painting we walked to the beach and had beer and seafood in the sun!!!

Larry, Barry and Mo

Our friends Mo and Barry left last week to head to El Rocio, before going onto Portugal to meet their daughter. We had a farewell lunch, and hopefully will catch up with them in France.