I guess that if you have lived your entire life in a town with a population of 550 you have talked through most matters with all your neighbours, so it must be good to get hold of a tourist to chat to, or certainly that seemed to be our landlady's thought as she sat with us for 2 hours of chat on our first evening! Very quickly, the conversation turned to children and families and so the usual question of 'how many children do you have?' was rather stunted when I said 'none'. As usual, this was followed by 'why' but then we entered a new dimension of questionning as she wanted to know how I ensured there were no children! This was a moment for good old British floundering and a total loss of all fluency in spanish, but oh no, she was prepared for this barrier; she decided to go for multiple choice with sign language and she knew a lot of methods: 'like this ..?' + mimed gesture or 'like this .. '. I can honestly say that the only mime that left me not blushing was the contraceptive pill. I noted that Richito was a very long time absent, he later confessed he could hear the conversation so there was no way he was leaving the safety of the bathroom!
Our landlady also invited us to their New Year's Eve party at her father's house so we decided we had to accept as the French girl staying downstairs had cried off as a vegetarian - a French 'vegetarian' - really?! - and the couple lodging downstairs, described as Portuguese by the landlady, had said they were too 'tired' and didn't drink. Hmm. We went along with 2 young men who were also lodging at the hospedaje for the promised dancing and drinking, but first the meat - a whole lamb skewered onto a pole and being cooked in the garden over an open fire with dad and hubby supervising and putting away a bottle of spirit; I was offered a swig of what is a very tasty cream liqueur, think Bayleys Cream, and as the lamb slow roasted I admired the decor; 2 recently removed skins nailed to the wall for drying and another lamb carcass hanging from the cross beam. The party got into full swing and various family members rolled up adding to the pressure on the dance floor and we 4 did our best to keep up with these latinos, but we failed miserably, bailing out from 12.30 whilst the family went through until about 6a.m! (As we cooked our breakfast on New Year's Day we met the 'portuguese' couple, they were lovely indeed, rather shy and awfully Korean for Mediterraneans.) But that was the old year, today is the first of the new year and that has to be welcomed; so take 2, that second lamb is being roasted, the stereo is cranked up and the coffee liqueur is chilled ... Feliz Ano Nuevo indeed!
