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Published: September 16th 2009
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The next day dawns before we know it and we’re up for roll call and a list of our daily instructions at 9.00am.
Today Michael and Chery will be showing us the ropes and taking us through some of the regular jobs before they leave later on in the week to teach English to Spanish students in Madrid. I’m paired with Michael and Chery is showing Dee the ropes.
Chery shows Dee how to clean the pool bar and do stocktaking (La Casa does have a lovely pool, if only the sun would come out and we had time to use it!) and then moves on to pruning and grape picking whilst Michael and I do some pool cleaning (which proves to be much harder than it looks!) sweep and clean the patio area and then head down hill to the tool shed, collect picks, shovels, spades and a wheel barrow and then head back up and down hill again to the vegetable garden which is on another terrace cut into the hillside. Once there, we begin hoeing and digging, shift the compost heap to another location and then dig compost into the holes we have just dug.
Michael is a great guy and very chatty but the soil is heavy clay, its starting to warm up and this is seriously hard work. By the time I’ve dragged the wheel barrow loaded with tools back up the 80 degree slope and we’ve finished, I’m worn out and its not even time for coffee break yet.
Michael and I head back up to the main house and join Dee and Cheryl for some more grape picking. I make everyone laugh when Chery asks us what the grape picking reminds us of and Dee replies “A Walk in the Clouds” and I say the Shawshank Redemption.
After grape picking we return to the patio, turn the grapes into juice and move onto shelling almonds which proves to be quite dangerous work since we’re using hammers and rocks in lieu of nut crackers and the almond shells have a tendency to fly off in all direction if you hit them at the wrong angle.
We stop for a quick rendition of “the rules” from Kate and then have leftovers from the previous nights dinner for lunch (one of the rules at La Casa is that the guests get
Dee and Bucket
Emptying the compost the new food and WOOFers have to eat up the left overs which is fine and fairly sensible but not very helpful if you weren’t too keen on last nights dinner in the first place!).
Our afternoon is spent squashing more grapes and shelling more almonds and then when 5pm rolls around we finally collapse in a heap wishing only for an early night. However it’s Michaels Birthday and Kate has kindly decided that we should go out for the evening to experience Tapas in Lanjaron. This initially sounds nice but the prospect of another ride in the wiff mobile puts a slight damper on proceeds.
We stop for a quick bite to eat since Kate fears that we may not find any tapas that don’t contain meat, but not finding much in the fridge apart from more leftovers, we opt for toast and cornflakes. Hmm left overs for lunch and breakfast for dinner not the healthiest of diets. Still, Kate has very kindly given us 20 Euros to spend between us on our evening since she says that she is responsible for feeding us and since we are going out for Michaels Birthday and it’s not our
Dee and Patio
Cleaning the Table - work work work :-) choice and she is going to pay for our tapas.
Not wanting to get any more clothes covered in dog hairs I opt for wearing my travel clothes again and we head off down the hill into town. The first Bodego we visit is actually owned by an English woman and is a really nice place. We have drinks and tapas of bread and green peppers and are served by a very friendly Spanish waitress. We then move onto the next bar which is apparently famous for its hams, not perhaps the most scintillating place for a couple of vegetarian/vegans to hang out, the whole of the ceiling is covered in hanging hams, but its an interesting sight and once again the young Spanish waitress is very friendly and helpful. The only disturbing moment comes when I have to head the call of nature and retire to the little boys room only to have someone rattle the door handle and then instead of thinking “oh its locked there must be someone in there” proceed to continue rattling and shaking the handle, sounding any moment as if they will next resort to actually kicking down the door, whilst I’m rapidly
trying to think how to say occupied in Spanish. I finally manage to say “un momento” and the banging and crashing subsides as the old gentleman causing it moves onto the ladies toilet next door.
We finish the night in another local bar where · decide its cold so I’m going to have a coffee, not perhaps the best choice since its approaching 11pm but even as a non coffee drinker I have to say it was very nice, the only damper being the cloud of smoke hanging over the bar despite a notice prohibiting smoking firmly fixed directly behind the biggest culprit.
The ride home is slightly scary since Kate has had a few drinks and before we have even left town we almost wipe out on a speed bump which she forgets to notice. The mountain road up to La Casa is both unlit and unfenced with large drops at each turn and we take each bend at quite a pace, but luckily survive the trip and retire shaken but not stirred to bed for another sleepless night of tossing and turning not helped by the caffeine coursing through my veins.
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