Another day, my friend Jenny and I were perched on a couple of stools in the kitchen area of the casa, quietly chatting, and during a momentary lapse in conversation a woman I recognised but whose name I didn't know appeared right in front of us! She must have thought no-one was in, because we were so quiet, and had crept through the garden, sneaked through the side door and was now in my kitchen!
'Oh, I didn't know you were here,' she said, startled.
Yeah. I bet you didn't. If Jenny and I hadn’t been there she'd have taken what she fancied – slipped it into her bag and even if I’d seen her coming out, she could say she'd popped in to say ‘hola’. I could hardly ask to search her bag.
'Aurelia' (we later found out her name) recovered her composure quickly and casually began chatting as though she were an invited guest. I tried my best to be off, but I was too shocked to think straight. Suddenly, seeing my potato masher, she piped up:
‘I like that. Get me one of those from your país.’
‘Muy bien’, I replied. 'Let's see. It cost me five libras esterlinas, so that will be seven euros.'
‘Que?’
She was astounded – either at the price or at the fact I’d suggested she pay for it. Some of these little users thought us guiris would do anything to integrate.
This was all because I'd been kind enough one day to give her a lift to the village when I’d seen her walking along the main road in the heat. It’s a strange (though not all that exceptional) person who thinks that because you do them a favour, you are now going to do anything else for them that they might want you to do.
I made the mistake of buying another woman a coffee now and again in the bar. She was the sister of a lovely guy we'd made friends with, called Andres (we used to fight with him, in a nice way, over who'd pay). The sister seemed pleasant enough and I thought she must be a good person, being Andres' sister. My reward for buying her coffee was her 20-something son coming around one evening asking to borrow 50 euros.
'Mi madre needs it to take the grand-son to school on the coast tomorrow. She has to buy petrol.'
50 euros would buy a lot of petrol, I thought, and I was suspicious about getting it back. He looked a bit rough around the edges. Bad teeth.
'She can give it to you back on Monday,' he said, jerking about a bit as he spoke, as though his nerves were on edge.
'Sorry, but I've only got 20,' I said (I never liked lending money as I hated having to ask for it back, so I would at least minimise my losses). I took a note out of my purse.
At that moment, Adrian walked in and when I explained and despite my pointed look, he said:
'Oh, wait, I've got another 20,' and off he went to fetch it.
Of course, we never saw that 40 euros again. We asked, we went around her house - it was demeaning, but it was the principle. And we found out she owed money to everyone - had even borrowed 200 euros off a poor Romanian woman and never given it back.
(And the stupid woman even to this day will try and catch my eye and smile when she passes. I look straight through her.)
Anyway back to Aurelia. One of our cortijo guests who had stayed for a week told us that the woman had managed to get lifts off them five times; they loved the restaurant where she helped out in the other village, and after them offering her a lift one night early in their stay, she proceeded to make them wait every night they went there until her shift had finished near midnight, to give her a lift. They found it a drag, but didn't feel they could say no. Yes, she definitely thought we Brits were a soft touch. (she was right)
A British acquaintance once said to Adrian what a ‘kind’ woman Aurelia was. Adrian challenged her:
'Kind? If that's the case, tell me one thing she's ever done for you for which she didn't stand to gain.'
'Well, usually she offers to clean our house.'
'What? For nothing?'
'Mmm, no... Oh, okay. I give in. You’re right,’ she said. 'Actually, come to think of it, when she did do some cleaning for us she wasn't very good at it and charged rather a lot!'
To see the end result of all the work on the casa, take a look at the house now:
http://www.homeaway.co.uk/p86636
And also another of our completed projects:
http://www.homeaway.co.uk/p475271