Something happened yesterday right out of the blue and it cracked me up.
I was paying for some diesel at the service station. This can take a little while because I need to get a receipt to claim some tax back later. While this was going on I was looking at the characters queuing at the other till. One guy comes up to the till looking a little dishevelled and he said “here´s 20 euros for the unleaded I just put into the Lamborghini at pump number four.” Continue reading
Not a million miles from where I live there is a fishing tackle business which includes an extraordinary museum. We made a visit here during our second day of filming for Jara y Sedal. There is heaps of fishing gear here but it is the exhibited items of tackle that really steal the show. Continue reading
The second day of filming began in a very civilised way with a pitufo mixto and a café con leche in Éstacion de Cártama. The film crew were looking a bit weary, no doubt after a late night (it was feria time in Cártama). Guillermo, one of the producers, looked decidedly bleary-eyed through the fog of his cigarette smoke as he tried to kick start his day with a strong coffee. When he finally got to talking it was simply to express the view that it might have been good to have had one less beer the previous night and maybe one more hour of sleep. I guess many of us know how that feels. Continue reading
A little over a week ago I began three days of filming on the Río Grande and Río Guadalhorce for Spanish national television. I was joined on the rivers by my friend John Langridge who is a great character and a hugely experienced fisherman. He is also a veteran of several films on fishing and an author of a dozen or so books on fishing. The TV people got in touch with John and he in turn asked me if I wanted to be involved. As if he needed to ask! Fishing is always fun on these rivers but in the company of a fisherman like John I knew I was going to be in for a real blast. Continue reading
The stretch of river Guadalhorce which leads from its meeting with the Río Grande is quiet for much of the year. I usually have it to myself. But it was heaving with horses and people this afternoon. This is due to the annual Romería when crowds turn up at the river bank and hold a party al fresco. The most beautiful women attend this event and, sitting side saddle with drink in hand, they are quintessentially Andalucían.
I don´t know a great deal about horses. The last one I sat on would not even move until my Mum
put a coin into a slot beside it. But here at the Romería horses are everywhere and there are some real stunners. There is a real buzz here with kids, and old and young all hanging out together finding shade under the eucalyptus trees and the cool of the riverside breeze. Continue reading
Fly fishermen spend a lot of time thinking about rods and lines and reels and flies. Fair enough, that all makes sense. But here fishing the local river for much of the year I would consider a decent pair of polarized sunglasses and a nice hat to shade them to be among the most important bits of kit to throw into the car when heading off. And another thing that is equally important is a decent pair of neoprene boots.
I had a pair that the puppies chewed up so badly they had to be abandoned. These bloody dogs chew everything. Just recently the black dog, Boris, took a big chunk out of Bill Bryson and Grandad appeared one morning last week only to discover that he had left his book outside the previous night and that Boris had swallowed a sizeable chunk of recent history, including much of the Victorian era. Continue reading
Today is Easter Sunday and I came across an Easter procession, quite by chance, in Fuengirola today.
Fuengirola, if you are not familiar with it, is a town of similar size to Marbella and located just a little further along the coast. It lacks Marbella´s pretention and snob appeal and has an altogether earthier feel. It is a little rough around the edges but that is something I like about it. It certainly seems to have a greater appeal to those who are looking for a cheap and cheerful holiday. If you are an English speaker and want a bit of sunshine without everything being ruined by “foreigners” you will find that you are well catered for here. There is premiership football in the seafront bars and fish and chips if you are nervous of seeing something on your plate which is unfamiliar. Continue reading
My A level Biology students get to use the word “fart” in exams which is something I feel they should be excited about. What other subject would let you get away with that? The farts in question are emitted from the rear ends of cows and are said to contain significant amounts of methane, an important greenhouse gas. Technically, the gas is much more abundant in cow burps but the word “burp” doesn´t quite have the same appeal. This methane is a by-product of the complex process of cellulose digestion and is actually produced by microorganisms residing in the cow´s intestines rather than the cow itself.
In Southern Andalucia we are spared the worst extremes of seasonal change. The cold does not hit us as hard as further north in Europe, and even Spain. But the changes of the seasons are evident from the passage of birds in the skies overhead as they make their way from Africa into Europe in the spring and summer and returning once again in the autumn.
There is one bird which is due to make an appearance soon and which, to me at least, signals the change of season as clearly as a leaf fall in the autumn. This is the bee eater… Continue reading
Vultures are in trouble. In India their numbers have crashed by some 75% and the cause of this appears to be drugs used to treat cattle but which prove lethal to the vultures which feed on their carcasses.
One of these, a drug called diclofenac, has been licensed to be manufactured and used in Spain. It is estimated that populations of vultures could crash if even one percent of the carcasses on which the vultures feed are contaminated with the drug.
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