It's not over yet

Although the 25th of December has been and gone, we've echanged lots of presents, eaten way too much food and drank far too much...pity us here in Spain! We've got to do it all again next month!

The Spanish predominantly celebrate the epiphany (6th of January) which is when the three kings bring presents to all the children. As our kids are in a Spanish school we want them to celebrate the three kings too, it will be like Christmas again....

So whilst most of you may be relishing in the sales in UK, it will be a couple of weeks for us before any sign of a reduction appears anywhere. Still, 2 Christmases a year isn't so bad really....

Where's Christmas?

There really is very little feeling of Christmas here. As you probably know, the Spanish principally celebrate the Epiphany (6th of January) which is when they open their presents. So I don't know if it will pick up in January (a bit late for some of us still trying to find a Santa!) but it will be interesting to see.

I even went into Gibraltar today but to be honest it doesn't feel very festive there either. I think we'll spend Christmas in England next year!

Ventas - The only places to eat in Spain

I remember many years ago when "ventas" were extremely cheap places to eat and you got served some impressive portions of wholesome Spanish food. "Ventas" are basically restaurants that you find on the side of the road, usually in the middle of nowhere.

These days venta owners are after tourist money and prices are not quite what they used to be. However, today we found a brilliant one (recommended to us by a Spanish friend). It's called Venta San Juan and is litterally at the entrance to the small town of Jubrique (from the Gaucin end). This venta is stunning. Most of the food is cooked on a wood-burning stove and the portions of food (generally local meats) are huge and very tastey! The surroundings, the food, the service, everything was excellent. And best of all, a meal for the 4 of us, including starters, main course, deserts and drinks came to just 50 Euros!

It really is a little treasure of a place. It's a bit of a drive to get there and the roads are very windy, but it's a great drive, stunning views and a great meal at the end of it!

We're on the hunt to try out some more of the old-style ventas....we'll report back soon!

Holiday week in Spain

Tuesday was the official start of Christmas in Spain. Therefore, Tuesday was a public holiday as was Thursday (another religious day). When you get these holidays in the middle of the week, which are very common in Spain, people usually take the Monday or the Friday off to create a "bridge" with the weekend, this is know as "puente" meaning bridge.

Puente weekends are a notorious time for road accidents. Until today I had no idea why so many people die on the roads on these long weekends all the time. Today is the first time I have truly understood why. Coming back from the brilliant Myramar shopping centre in Fuengirola today we encountered every form of bad driving you could possible imagine. It was is if everyone was on a death wish. We were just grateful to make it home in one piece. Someone should really look into why driving in Spain becomes particularly risky as these times. Seeing is believing!

Watch out, thieves about!

We've had a bit of a set back. My partner was in McDonalds on Saturday with one of our little ones and she had her entire bag stolen from under her nose. Purse, money, cards, contacts book, mobile and....passport (!!) all gone! She didn't even notice it was gone until she went to look for it.

Where was this? McDonalds in Puerto Banus at 2 in the afternoon. We have since found out that thefts in the area are very common. Usually its rife in the hight of the the tourist season.

So, just remember to always be careful as tourists are easy targets for thieves.

As her passport has gone we wont be making the trip to London this week. We've cancelled our flights and we learnt something we didn't know today. If you cancel your flight you can still claim the money back for the "airport taxes" paid. The majority of the cost of our tickets were airport taxes and we've managed to get most of this back. I think that not a lot of people know this!

So, please remember to always have your wits about you when your abroad as it's just so easy to get caught out.

Slow down!

We live in a nice smaill village called Manilva which is just 2 minutes from the coast. The village is VERY relaxed (which suits me just fine). "Rush hour" does not exist and life is generally really slow. In fact, we went to the local bookshop this morning (not really a bookshop, more of a "we sell a bit of everything" type shop, but it was closed. This was at 10:15 this morning. Asking an old lady nearby we were informed that the shop opens "around 10:30...give or take an hour"! What a great life. The funny thing is that the other "bookshop" in the village doesn't open until half five in the evening...becasue the owner goes to work during the day!! How bizarre is that.

Sitting outside a coffee shop this morning by the sea, reading my paper (Daily Mail...just can't help myself) I actually had to get out of the sun and into the shade as it was just too hot! Not bad for the first day of December really.

Must really try and get some work done today....still, there's no rush.