Privacy does not exist in Spain. It doesn’t cease to amaze me how indifferent organizations and official persons are concerning sensitive information. A handful of examples from these past months: Coincidentally the doctor was at the receptionists’ desk when somebody phoned about a test result. Those were not discussed in the solitud of the consulting … Read more
This torture device is present in most Spanish households. It took me a while until I figured out what it is. Then I saw the same thing in restaurants with a pork’s leg squeezed into it. Ah, so that’s what it’s for. They have a big, sharp knife next to it and cut pieces off … Read more
“You don’t want a TV? Are you sure?” We are looking for another house to rent for November. The house we were visiting had a TV in the living room that was almost as big as the room itself. The landlord’s son likes to watch it with friends and pizza. So we said we wouldn’t … Read more
In the Netherlands, you hardly hear people singing in the street. Professional street singers excepted of course. Now that we are located in the middle of a village, I often hear singing at the end of the day. Usually, it’s an older man or woman strolling at ease on the boulevard. In my – still … Read more
In our hunt for a house, we have a lot of viewings. Sometimes the real estate agent has a key. Sometimes the owner or tenant is in the house and opens the door for us. What is interesting in the latter case is that always, always, the television is on. Sometimes muted, sometimes blaring. And … Read more
Some things over here are still old-fashioned. On a regular basis, we encounter livestock of either sheep or goats. The shepherds wander around the villages and the agricultural terrains. I am not sure though you could call this type of old-fashioned-ness ecological. Given all the plastic and asbestos that is lying around, I doubt there … Read more
What I am missing Of course there are things I miss. And strangely enough one of those things is a siphon. It turns out most Spanish plumbing is done without siphons. Usually that’s not a problem. But it becomes one when it rains. Argh, that smell… Rain and dirty sewer air are inextricably linked in … Read more
As a side note, I mentioned the groups of people standing in the water before. It’s an amazing sight for us Dutchies because we never saw anything like that in the Netherlands. And I thought it was due to the heat. But even this evening in the dusk we spotted several groups in the water … Read more
Whenever we sit down for a drink, the regular orders are Coca Cola Zero sin hielo for Tom and Agua con gas del tiempo for me. Meaning, Tom wants a sugar-free coke without ice and I want bubble water at room temperature. More often than not my order contains a glass with a big lump … Read more
Right before we left for the south of Spain after spending 3 weeks at our son’s house we managed to get a Spanish bank account. What I didn’t anticipate is they would send cards by mail. Both debit cards and credit cards. And no good to us in Leganés while we are here of course. … Read more