When is a door not a door?

When it’s a concertina.

I bought this flat because a) it was cheap b) it was crap and c) it was in central Gib.

My philosophy on buying houses is to buy cheap and crappy that needs tidying up rather than pay more for something that has been done up, because it will never be to my taste anyway. And it would seriously gripe me to rip out something that didn’t need to be ripped out just because I didn’t like it. But I do try to buy in good areas.

If that doesn’t make sense to anyone else, no matter, because it does to me.

I should add that nothing is cheap in Gib. Apart from Both Worlds and Ocean Heights. Both Worlds is a strange complex on the eastern side of Gib in the middle of nowhere. One side is open purchase, the other is for people aged 50 or over.

Ocean Heights was one of the many buildings in Gib originally intended to be a hotel. I used to stay there when I came to Gib to look for a property to buy, and it suited me fine as a rental apartment for a few nights. We had a friend who lived there and paid £3000 a year in service charges. This is because there are no separate meters for each apartment – remember, it was intended to be a hotel. Similarly Both Worlds has communal services such as a laundry that is included in your bills so you might as well use it.

I would rather pay low service charges than fund someone else’s extravagant electrical lifestyle through communal utility bills, thank you very much. (Electricity is expensive in Gib).

For comparison, our service charges (for block maintenance) are around £400 year. Our water and electricity is £600 or slightly more. I can never understand their bills actually. But anyway, the total cost is not £3000 a year for a one-bed apartment.

Over on the dog’s blog there are pix of our grotty flat when we first acquired it.

It was one of the many posts imported from Blogger so the comments were lost, and the pix are small, however they do enlarge. Slightly.

So the two blocks mentioned above have flats for sale for less than £100K. But elsewhere you are normally looking at £100K plus for a small one-bed flat, unless someone is desperate to sell. You can pay more for a ‘decent’ (the term being relative) one-bed flat than you can for a larger two-bed one. Premium price properties tend to be the ghastly new-build ones or the expensive conversions, or something off Main Street. People frequently fall over when a) they find out we own our own flat, and b) they discover we are just off Main Street in the Jewish quarter.

Assumptions, assumptions. People see a decorator – actually they probably consider him a painter – and immediately assume he must be renting somewhere. What they don’t see is more than 40 years of work in the same trade, running his own business in the UK, me with a well-paid job, and us owning a few houses in our previous life. As I learned on my MBA course, ‘Never ASSUME anything. It makes an ASS out of U and ME.’ It might be old and clichéed but it is certainly true.

Back to our cheap, cheerful and grotty flat. Or the dog’s kennelflat as I called it, because really, it is not much bigger than a kennel.

When I first viewed the flat, well the only time actually, the estate agent said how delightful the internal doors were. Personally I thought they were vile and kitsch in the extreme with some appalling attempt at stained glass in the top half of the doors. I put them on my get rid of list. I like proper doors and these are foldy back doors, presumably because the flat is so small. In fact as we never shut them we don’t even need them.

A few weeks ago, Partner was asked to revarnish some doors for a customer. Inspired by this, he promptly decided our front door needed doing. Fine by me. Looks crap anyway so it couldn’t look any worse. He fished out an antiquated tin of Sadolin in dark something or other and set to work. Exterior went fine. Interior did not.

Coating up the inside (to no avail)

The following day it was still tacky. ‘It’s because you cook all the time,’ said a neighbour helpfully.

Er yes. How else am I supposed to eat? Microwave junk from the supermarket? I don’t think so.

In fact, it was only when he said that, we realised there are no other food cooking smells in the block. Goodness knows what people eat. There used to be a tomato sauce smell sometimes, but they obviously moved out. So now I am the only cook in the block!

Anyway, the offending tacky coat was taken off and the door treated with dissolvente (can’t remember the English for that).

Stripping off the tacky first coat

No problem after that. Three coats on both sides and frames.

Exterior front door

Fired up with this success, he then started on a windowsill, this time using a medium oak stain and varnish. Another good result, so he started on one of the concertina doors. Even they started to look tolerable.

Restained door frame

Kitsch door being restained

The one advantage about sleeping on camping mats on the floor in the bedroom is that it gives you space to put up a trestle table and work on the doors. There is enough space for him to sleep on the floor and I have stolen the dog’s sofa. Normal sleeping will resume when the door has been rehung.

I don’t actually like varnished doors of any type. To me doors should be solid wood and painted in white eggshell, or possibly a colour – black or dark green, never red! – if they are on the outside of your house. But it’s amazing what a few coats of well-applied varnish can do.

Oh, and it smells wonderful. Totally addictive. I can’t wait for him to start today’s varnishing work.

And from the woman who is always cooking, a couple of casseroles.

One is a veg goulash and the other is a French style daube/bourguinon with croutes. Yum.

Goulash – more or less, well it has yoghurt, peppers and paprika so it must be

Seitan and tofu casserole à la something French

What price life?

Honestly! I can’t leave Gibraltar for a couple of days before the place falls to rack and ruin.

There I am happily taking my Christmas/New Year holiday finally, when I get a notification on the Twitter account I never use, about the shooting in Gibraltar last week!

What shooting?

It seems last Tuesday that a man was shot in the late afternoon at Europa Point (photos of which were on my previous post – Europa – not a shot man). His injuries were so severe that he was moved from the local Gib hospital, to a specialist one in Cadiz.

Where, the daily bulletins were, that his status was critical. For those of you not familiar with hospital/journo speak, it means you might die, you might not. Fortunately a few days later, he was pronounced stable – ordinary speak: on the mend, and may survive.

The police arrested three men to help them with their enquiries/on suspicion of attempted murder. And then released them on bail without charge. Six vehicles were also seized. The cliff face at Europa was abseiled and a diver found a firearm on the seabed. Another gun was recovered from a local residence. As well as searching the six vehicles, police also searched four homes, two stores, two commercial premises and a garage. Ninety police officers were involved in the investigation – yes Gib does have a lot of police officers.

As for the injured 38-year-old man? He’s a member of the Royal Gib Police although statements have said the shooting was not work related and he was off duty at the time.

But this is no good. Gib is a safe place. The last time I remember a shooting was when I was crossing the frontier and the Guardia Civil opened fire. (Not at me, that I know of).

Meanwhile all this was going on, I had arrived back in Spain to chill out for a week. As soon as we arrived at the finca, José decided to come and cut back my garden. He used to work at a nursery, and still propagates carnations and roses, ferns, spider plants, and anything he feels like really. As you do at nearly 86.

However this was not what I had planned. Rushing around like the proverbial fly picking up after roses, jasmine, plumbago and everything else he recklessly chucked on the floor.

He cut down rosebuds and flowers. I decided to stick them in vases glasses. The jasmine and roses smell delicious, the plumbago is pretty, and the pelargonium may root. Or not.

Rosebuds and jasmine

Plumbago and jasmine

My first afternoon back is meant to be, have a beer, eat some food (often that I’ve left in the freezer before), read a book, and fall asleep at siesta time. Wake up and make salad. This plan was not happening. At all.

Next day, I tripped off down to the veg shop. My dear readers will know that I will never win shopaholic prize of the year, my only concession being visiting veg shops/market stalls, and health food shops.

For once, I even recorded the prices, so you can all consider I live cheaply or expensively. Prices per kilo and in euros unless pound sign added. And a Gib comparison added where appropriate.

Tomatoes – 80 cents, the cheapest ones and just as good if not better than the others. Gib price – I normally buy organic from Morrisons, £1 for four, no weight, I’d estimate around 10 ozs for the four.

Peas – 3.30/3.50. No peas in Morries at the moment, but in summer they vary between £1 on special, or £1.50/1.75 per bag. Unhelpfully I can’t remember the weight of the bag.

Setas (oyster mushrooms – but ours are huge!! and very fresh) – 4.50. In Morries they are now £8 a kilo!! They are so dear they are priced by the 100 grammes at 80 p so it doesn’t sound so expensive.

Avocado – 2.50. Mine came to around 43 cents. Morries prices – £1.50 ish for two organic ones. They didn’t seem to be ripe.

Oranges – 1.20, they were mid price range, there were some cheaper and some dearer.

Lemons – 80 cents. Around £1.75 in Gib.

Cebolleta. Fresh green onions – 1.40. No comparison with Morries because they don’t sell them and can’t remember the Gib market price.

Potatoes – 15 kg sack for 8.50 ie 56 cents a kilo. At Mercadona (Spanish supermarket) a five kilo sack is 3.50. In Gib, normal potatoes are around a quid a kilo. Organic Marie Piper salad pots are £1.40 for 750gms. The Spanish potatoes are much better.

Two barras of pan rustica in the same pack, 95 cents. A loaf of pain de campagne in Gib – 400gms, £1.85.

A block of tempeh, 250 gms, (does for two or three meals) – 3.34. Not available in Gib.

Jar of Delicious capers – 65gms – 1.20. Can’t remember Gib price. £1.75 maybe?

Jar of gazpacho olives – 1.80.

Pack of San Miguel, 12 x 33 cl – 5.10. In Gib, a pack of 6 x 50 cl is £5.20 (although went down to £3.99 before Christmas). I’m sure you can all work out that four litres for 5.10€ is cheaper than three litres at £5.29.

Bottle of cava – Jaume Serra Brut Nature – 2.15. Bottle of Montcadi in Gib, £4.29.

Meanwhile, I escaped going to the shops today and partner was chatting to a local on the bus. He’s got UK relatives so he’d been back for Christmas.

‘Rained every day,’ he moaned. ‘And so expensive.’

The cheapest cigarettes he could find were £7.50 a pack!! Really?? Just, good grief.

Beer was £5 a pint.

As far as I know because a) I don’t smoke and b) I don’t go to the pub, fags are about £2 a packet here (that may possibly explain a little of the smuggling?) and I think beer is around £3 a pint in the pubs.

Annual review 2012

Every year, some poor unfortunate in the newsroom got dropped with the round-up of the year.

The good thing was that you were left alone to plod on with ploughing through a year’s worth of newspapers.

Not so bad on a weekly, where you only had 52 editions, and usually just went for the front page headlines.

The bad news was on a daily, when there were more than 300 newspapers to go through.

Either way, I can’t resist an annual summary – it’s so easy to forget what has happened all year, and this is a neat reminder.

As I did a thematic review last year, I will stick to a monthly one this year:

January started off well in a somewhat strange festive mood for us as we went to the local Spanish Living Belen production, because our neighbour and two sons were in it, and she also wanted someone to walk her father up there.

http://roughseasinthemed.wordpress.com/2012/01/07/old-year-new-year/

Dusk, and the Roman legionaries (including two of our neighbours) on guard

Equally spectacular was the Three Kings Parade back in Gib on the evening of Jan 5th. Nothing ever happens on Jan 6th, they always do everything the night before over here.

http://roughseasinthemed.wordpress.com/2012/01/06/three-kings/

Having been bitten by next door’s cat, I wrote an amazingly helpful post about cat bites – aloe vera is the key, I tell you.

http://roughseasinthemed.wordpress.com/2012/01/08/everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-cat-bites/

January was a lonely blogging month as I’d just made the switch from blogger to WP.

However it was busy on the job hunting front. We both had interviews. He got his job (immediately), I didn’t get mine. Nothing new there. In fact he was offered another one a week later but they were too slow off the mark as he’d already started work.

Onto February, where nothing much happened, he worked and I blogged. WordPress visitors and commenters were slow but consistent. Thanks to those of you who were regular commenters (and some still are) in those early months. Then I wrote about walking to the shops – OK so it’s a nice walk – and the comments more than doubled! I mean a walk to the shops?

Followed by a post on our local historical city wall gates, whereupon the comments and visits dropped right down again.

On 29 Feb, I wrote about baked beans and had my busiest post yet. No wonder there are so many food blogs. Shopping and baked beans were my most popular posts. It doesn’t matter that people tell me they want to read about Gib history and see photos of the place, what they comment about is food and shopping!

About the only thing to say for March is that I got my first ‘First to Find’ geocache in Gibraltar. That means I was the first person to find a new cache. It was a multi-cache, which means you have to go from one spot to another (and another, and another) before you finally get to the eventual location. I ended up walking from one end of Gibraltar to the other so it was a good thing no other toe-rag had beaten me to it.

http://roughseasinthemed.wordpress.com/2012/03/04/cramps-and-caches/

April and May saw the usual flurry of bank holidays and rain. It rained in Gib and it rained in Spain. Not only did we have an Easter break but the Gib Govt introduced a new Workers’ Memorial Day holiday to make a long weekend with the early May bank holiday.

May was a rather more lively month – certainly on the international scene with the start of the ongoing incursions into Gibraltar and British territorial waters by Spanish fishermen and Guardia Civil boats, and the defence of our waters by Gibraltar Police, Defence Police, and Royal Naval forces.

And in retaliation, the border queues lengthened as Guardia Civil officers delayed the passage through the frontier of all vehicles. We spent more than an hour in the queue at the end of May, turning a less than three hour journey to the finca into a four and a half one.

On a lighter note, at the beginning of the month, we arrived in time to watch the local Romería in our pueblo, and back in Gib we made our first visit to the cinema in more than ten years to watch Contraband with Mark Wahlberg and Kate Beckinsale. An appropriate film to show in Gib given the amount of smuggling, but we had the cinema virtually to ourselves. An excellent cinema at King’s Bastion, my only gripe was that the sound was too loud.

June was another month with yet more holidays and events. Namely at the beginning of the month, the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations, which Gib enjoyed in glorious summer weather – unlike the UK ones which I gather were somewhat damp. As with National Day, we – and many others – wandered around wearing patriotic colours.

Although we didn’t get invited to the Royal Garden Party unlike this handsome pair.

Deserving prize winners – even marching in step!

Later in the month we met up with some internet contacts from Seattle, USA. Sofia, and her parents Jan and Amy, were over here for the summer holidays. We enjoyed their company and we met them again later a couple more times for Sunday morning walks and a coffee afterwards.

And June always ends with our birthdays on consecutive days. Luckily his was on a Sunday this year, so he didn’t have to take a day off work, and we had a lovely lazy sunny day en famille.

On a sadder note, June marked the first bush fire I have ever seen in Spain around the golf course at Duquesa. And the following month we would see the devastation repeated around Sotogrande.

In fact July was pretty much a repeat of the previous two months, with more incursions into Gib/British territorial waters, the Sotogrande bush fire which was bad enough for the Guardia Civil to turn traffic around and divert it via the toll road, and two good walks with our friends from Seattle.

Two agile monkeys – note the Levanter grey cloud

Along with the threatening and bellicose attitude of Spain regarding Gibraltar’s status, the other major news event of the year happened in August. This was the arrest of a suspected Al-Quaeda Turk, who just happened to have worked as contracts manager for three years on the same construction firm as partner. Brrr – shivers down spine stuff.

As far as blogging goes, I went onto summer hours in August, which didn’t seem to deter people from visiting so thank you very much for that. Partner was made redundant due to lack of work at the end of the month. At least they paid up square which was more than the previous firms did – although I did manage to extricate the owing money from the second one after some five months.

September was marked by even more summer hours on the blogs on my part, the always wonderful National Day celebrations on September 10 – and the second visit to the cinema. Twice in one year. This was to see The Bourne Legacy. No Matt Damon as Jason Bourne but Aaron Cross as Jeremy Renner. He was good and we enjoyed our evening out.

The following month Skyfall (James Bond) was due to be released so I made sure to check the programme for King’s Bastion every week. In fact, we never did go, even though it was extended for one week, and then brought back for another week. I figured if it was that popular I wouldn’t get the cinema to myself.

Back in July I’d taken on chair of the block management committee. Having chaired meetings, written board papers, acted as company secretary, and also managed rented properties in previous lives, it wasn’t exactly new territory.

In October, a nice man from Environmental Health knocked on our door and asked us to unblock the sewage or he would serve a notice on us, ie me as chair of the management committee. Have useful Partner, avoid shit happening. Although he didn’t exactly avoid the shit.

And the following month, ie November, we woke up one Sunday morning to the sound of running water. A pipe had burst underneath the hallway and was gushing gallons of fresh water down the street. We called AquaGib to cut it off, and set about getting quotes the following day. Because water pipes always go on a Sunday, yes?

It was a nightmare getting quotes. Someone came out and didn’t give us a price. Others wouldn’t quote unless they could charge emergency fees. One came out, quoted, went to price materials and nearly doubled the price (and no – the materials did not cost that much). In the end I gave up and called a Spanish general tradesman we knew and asked him to do the work. He’s good, reliable, and I knew he wouldn’t double the price at the end.

Meanwhile, some of the block residents kept asking when the water would be back on. ‘When it’s fixed,’ was the obvious answer. And I put regular updates on the noticeboard. It wasn’t as though we were without water. AquaGib had provided us with a bowser right outside the door full of fresh drinking water. But maybe I’m the only one in the block who doesn’t mind skipping outside to get a bucket of cold water and boil any hot water in the kettle. So it didn’t come through a tap. So what?

I really wonder how precious people are sometimes.

Of course, needless to state after that, the salt water pipes decide they wanted some attention too. Call back Spanish mate and fix salt water pipes. Not so much of a disruption to the block as salt water is only used for flushing toilets.

Water, water everywhere

As for December …

And as things all come in threes, not only our neighbour’s water heater decided to pack up but so did ours. Hey ho. Talk about a baptism of fire water.

My sheers (aka nets) did not survive the wash :( and we ventured on a social engagement with local geocachers which was good fun. Even better we went to find a couple of caches just before Christmas and I found them both. Clever me.

And, as you will have recently read, the Christmas holidays were devoted to laziness and cleaning and decorating. Not a bad combination as they were all productive.

Speaking of productive, here is today’s brunch. Served sometime after ten o’clock as we had been up for around four hours.

Burger, chips and salad

Toasted burger sandwiches, salad and oven ready chips. Readers may be surprised to see that I eat oven ready chips. Simple really. Buy potatoes, peel, slice in chip form, and then they are ready for the oven. Cook in fan-assisted oven on 180ish and crisp on higher heat for last ten or so. Or you could cook them on a higher heat to start with, but I was waiting for the burgers to defrost somewhat. (And writing this blog post).

But no I didn’t make the burgers. Morrison’s veggie meat free burgers, basically textured soya and wheat protein. I suppose you wouldn’t want to call them veggie burgers, even if that’s what they are, as meat free is so much more acceptable and healthy than veggie .. semantics semantics.

To finish on a serious note. Here in Gib we have a Christmas speech by the Governor of Gibraltar, Sir Adrian Johns, Vice Admiral etc etc etc, presumably as the Queen’s representative in our overseas territory.

Earlier this year, he spoke about the Spanish invasions into Gib/Brit waters and said this was no time for gunboats and it should all be solved by diplomacy. At the end of the Christmas speech, he’s changed his tune a bit. Presumably he can’t say what he thinks at all, only what the FCO says. (Foreign and Commonwealth Office for non Brits).

In fact, his speech isn’t a lot different to mine. Nice Jubilee year, Gib is a great place to live, and perhaps Spain could possibly leave Gib alone as it is a sovereign part of the UK and the Queen of Gibraltar is Elizabeth II. If you can’t be bothered with the soft words at the front, the last bit of his speech is worth a listen.

Link to GBC

For 2013 I too hope that Spain addresses its own problems, there are more than enough, – for example, in La Linea across the border, the local town council has only just paid employes their MAY wages – instead of trying to distract attention by carping on about Gibraltar.

Vain hopes I suspect. Since 1703 when the Anglo Dutch forces took Gibraltar, the Spanish have been trying to claim it back ever since, regardless of signing the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713.

I think we need a few commemorations next year. Tricentennial anniversary of Spain ceding Gib to the British.

My new year message then? Spain, I love you to bits, you are a gorgeous country with lovely people, but politicians, sort out your economy, your corruption, and please fuck off with your asinine claims to Gibraltar.

As for everyone else on the internet who I have come to know – happiness, health and prosperity, inasmuch as you can have prosperity in a global recession. Perhaps in these days, sufficiency would be a better aspiration.

Either way, thanks for participating not just in roughseas, but all my other blogs, and looking forward to seeing everyone next year. So to old friends and new ones, enjoy your New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day (as it’s already New Year’s Eve in Auckland and approaching in eastern Aus).

Roughseas

PS 1 – I added links for the early posts, but after a couple of months, many of you had started reading. If you missed any of the posts I have mentioned, and you want to read them, they are in the archive for the relevant month. A woman can only add so many links.

PS 2 – Thought I would add this …

And as for the most popular posts, or rather the ones with the most comments as I am dubious about page hits/views, they were:

In first place, gold medal – Me! – people want to know about me.

Followed by two of the top news stories I identified – Spanish invasions of Gib/Brit waters and the suspected terrorist working in Gib.

Then, the next popular couple of posts were a shopping post (!), and a food post (!).

From the serious to the frivolous in one easy click of the mouse.

Then next were: my post about Earth Day in Gib, Juan Carlos (king of Spain) shooting elephants on a private safari while Spain is suffering financial cuts right left and centre, and questions about Gib. (All had the same number of comments there – 64).

As for most hits – food of course – olive paté.

Pictorial review of the year is over on my picblog

So what did you do at Christmas?

Not being religious, nor having family, and not exactly a big turkey-eater as a vegetarian, our Christmas is hardly traditional.

There’s no opening presents by the tree, twinkling with the tiny lights as there was when I was a kid and there’s no overeating (which I didn’t particularly do even then).

And while childhood Christmases were lovely, there’s no point harking back to the past and trying to recreate it.

I did put up nice large trees in the UK, and at one point, we bought some artificial trees. They may have been plastic (or whatever) but at least it didn’t involve indiscriminate chopping down of real trees.

For a few years I kept putting up small ones in Spain, but eventually I was ordered to consign them to the bin as they looked raggier and raggier each year I got them out. So despite having boxes of ornaments and lights – I am treeless now. I don’t have space in Gibflat either.

So my nine Christmas cards are the only concession to the ‘festive season’ in our home.

What I love about Christmas in Gibraltar is the peace and tranquility. It is always quiet at weekends, but Christmas Day is even quieter.

On the Sunday before Christmas I was lured out to go visit a new supermarket in Gib. Me, the hater of shopping, having a walk to look at a supermarket. Eroski, on the far side (ie north) of the runway.

The only reason I agreed to go was because there were a couple of geocaches en route in the centre of the city, and Sunday was a good quiet day to stealthily acquire them.

Arriving in Casemates, where I confidently expected the cache to be (I have no idea why as the cache was called ‘Main Street’) I announced the clue. ‘Time for a rest?’

I figured it must refer to one of the many restaurants in the square.

Partner looked at me and immediately said ‘It must be on a bench.’ What a smart-arse. Trust him to spot the obvious.

I looked at the co-ordinates on the GPS. We had gone past the cache. It wasn’t one of these benches. We headed back up Main Street, looking for the likely bench.

There were two possible candidates together. When the occupants moved away, I took the first bench and he took the second. I felt all around the bench. Nothing. I looked at the GPS. I figured it was his bench. Rats.

‘It’s not on my bench,’ he piped up. ‘Yes, it is,’ I said assertively. I wandered over and adopted his trick of dropping down to pretend to do up my shoelace. Bingo! There it was underneath one side of the bench. I went and sat next to him and reached underneath to retrieve it and smirk.

Main Street – relatively quiet

We cleared off elsewhere to sign the log and then I put it back. He didn’t think I had put it back sufficiently well so promptly interfered. I wandered over to a shop window and then turned round to ensure it was suitably hidden. It was.

Off we went to try and find the next cache. This was in one of Gib’s old fortifications. Here is the quote from the cache site, which gives the history.

The North Bastion, formerly the Baluarte San Pablo (St. Paul’s Bastion) was part of the fortifications of Gibraltar, in the north of the peninsula, protecting the town against attack from the mainland of Spain. The bastion was based on the older Giralda tower, built in 1309. The bastion, with a mole that extended into the Bay of Gibraltar to the west and a curtain wall stretching to the Rock of Gibraltar on its east, was a key element in the defenses of the peninsula. After the British took Gibraltar in 1704 they further strengthened these fortifications, flooding the land in front and turning the curtain wall into the Grand Battery.

Today, the bastion is surrounded by reclaimed land to the west and north. Glacis Road runs along the base of the bastion’s former glacis. Smith Dorrien Avenue separates the bastion from the curtain wall, which is still largely intact. The bastion is occupied by the Giralda Gardens and a pétanque club. The government has plans to rehabilitate the site as part of a plan to develop the old fortifications as tourist attractions.

North Bastion

The clue was ‘at eye level’ so at least we didn’t need to bend down endlessly tying up our shoelaces and looking even more suspicious and furtive than we already were.

For a street away from the shops and on a Sunday morning, there was an annoying number of people walking around. We didn’t seem to be getting anywhere.

‘It could be over the road,’ he said. ‘No, it’s not,’ I snapped. Just to prove my point, we walked over anyway, and the GPS promptly said we were going away from it. Back we went nonchalantly gazing at the wall again. He thought it might be hidden behind a cigarette packet. Stupid idea. Everyone knows that stones are the most popular ways to conceal a cache. So I was looking for a crevice in the wall, with a loose stone. It had to be in the old part of the wall because the new part was too smooth. And then I found it. Extremely neatly hidden and slightly obscured by a plant. Two finds in one morning by ME!

We skipped over the road to sign the log on what looked like a former fountain with an inscription saying ‘For the animals 1934.’ I wonder what the history of that was?

Off we went to Eroski, about which I have nothing to say except that it is cheaper than Morrisons although further away and not as convenient for buses. Unless you wish to pay to jump on the frontier bus which we didn’t, it means a walk across the runway to get to the nearest free bus stops at Referendum House or opposite Glacis Estate.

Walking across the runway, Eroski on one side, Sleazyjet and the new airport on the other

White poinsettia en route – with someone’s scruffy litter chucked away

Christmas Eve started off as a nice lazy day, we curled up with a book and did very little until I got a sudden urge to clean the bathroom tiles. In fact I got so engrossed with this exciting task that before I knew it, Partner had made a seitan and tofu casserole, and put on the potatoes. Excellent.

On Christmas Day we’d planned another geocaching adventure to Rosia and Europa Point, but woke up to rain, thunder and lightning. So instead, it was curl up on the sofa with book again. This time, I used the left-over casserole and added some more goodies to it, while he cooked lots of pasta twists (extra so I could make pasta salad later).

I mention our totally normal meals in case anyone is wondering ‘What does a vegetarian eat for Christmas?’ – in our case, what we eat seven days of the week.

My boxing day breakfast – cauliflower soup and pasta salad!

In the past I have cooked fancy meals, invariably a nut roast, or steamed hazlenut pudding, or something with pastry. If I was entertaining that’s what I would do. But I don’t entertain. So that’s easy. [More on 'entertaining' on Clouds]

I discovered a long time ago, that good Christmases can be the simple ones. Many years back, he bought me a Peter Carey novel (probably The Taxman). We lit a fire in the sitting room and I happily lay on the sofa reading all day. Lunch was spaghetti and tomato sauce. It’s one of the most memorable Christmases I’ve had just because it was sheer indulgent luxury to do nothing (apart from read).

This Christmas Day was pretty similar – without the fire.

And on Boxing Day, we started Operation Bedroom. Well, he did. I was still on Operation Bathroom.

Clean the walls with a fungicidal bleach to get rid of the damp spores, let dry for 24 hours, and the following day, coat up with Dulux Mouldshield Fungicidal Matt. No idea what the UK price is, but here in Gib it is nearly fifty quid. It covers well, and looks good, so fingers crossed it will keep back the mould for a year or so before it is time for another repaint.

Applying the bleach, wearing a mask for safety

Next, the first coat of paint – hat to prevent eyes getting any spatters

Having shown everyone the inside and linings of my curtains, I thought a pic of them drawn might be helpful. The background is slightly crazed and shaded, the main design is the unicorns on the twirly pattern. There is a feng shui belief that it is good to have some type of animal representation in your decorations.

Curtains in bedroom

Back on the walls are the mirror (the only decent thing the previous owner left behind) and our Hockney print (of which more later on an art post). In the mirror you can see the furniture piled up in the middle of the room and covered with dust sheets. Part of my helpful contribution to the task as painter’s assistant. In fact, Operation Bathroom didn’t get a look in yesterday.

Mirror and Hockney

And to end with, the inevitable curry. If the shops in the UK don’t stock up between Christmas and New Year, it’s even worse here in Gib. I went to the market yesterday and the only stall open was a meat one! Not much use to me, so I said ‘Hola,’ asked if they were the only stall, and turned round and walked out.

In which case curry comes in extremely handy. Spicy red lentil dal, bombay style potatoes, mushrooms and turmeric with roasted cumin seeds and rice, and a raita (Yeo organic yoghurt, salt, black pepper, lemon juice, paprika, cayenne, tomato, cucumber, red onion, and green chilli). Recipe for the red lentil dal and potatoes are under Channa dal on the recipe page. I’ll add the other two later.

Curry

All you need is love

No! this is not yet another John Lennon tribute. Readers of Clouds will know that I have got fed up with reading blog posts about ‘John Lennon died 32 years ago,’ or whenever it was.

But, ironically, my moan came back to bite me in the wherever.

Indulging in a rare flurry of sociability, we decided to join a local geocaching event to be held on 12.12.12, at 18.12. The gib geocaching community has perked up of late with lots (well, relatively, in Gib terms) of new caches in the last 12 months or so.

For anyone who doesn’t know, this is treasure-hunting with a GPS. You buy a GPS, join the geocaching site – free, unless you decided to be an elitist premium member – and off you go.

The best thing about it, is not so much finding the bits of tat treasure, ie something hidden in a plastic container, but the places it takes you to that you probably wouldn’t otherwise visit.

I turned up at the scheduled time, signed what I thought was the log in both our names, and as they were making a move to go and eat elsewhere, dashed back to let Partner know this development (he was just coming in from work).

When I returned, I was puzzled to find I had won the raffle. What raffle? Even moreso, how did anyone know it was me? I’d signed with my geocaching name, and I didn’t know anyone there.

Geocachers doing geocaching things

But when they called out the number and no-one answered, they figured it must be me as I’d dashed off. Geocachers are not stupid!

So what was the raffle prize? A geocache coin – All you need is love. !!

All you need is love ..
in your dreams ..

You put a coin in a cache, and in theory it travels around the world as people move it from cache to cache.

I don’t like ‘All you need is love’ as a song. Far too drony for me.

But I didn’t know this:

It was first performed by The Beatles on Our World, the first live global television link. Watched by 400 million in 26 countries, the programme was broadcast via satellite on 25 June 1967. The BBC had commissioned The Beatles to write a song for the United Kingdom’s contribution.

[Thanks Wiki].

I mention this because here is another co-incidence. It was broadcast on my birthday. Destined to have links with a grotty record!

Readers of Clouds will also know that I endlessly bleat about lack of consideration and understanding about vegetarian meals so I’d been mildly impressed when the event organiser had asked if any vegetarians were attending.

In fact when we arrived at the Theatre Royal Bar, the burger menu had a vegan burger as an option. Just wow! I didn’t bother with extra trimmings but my partner had some hot chilli red bean topping.

Usual burger fare, not that I know anything about it, but it came in a teacake with salad, and chips on the side.

We were sitting next to a couple of Germans on holiday and I coveted the onion rings in theirs. Must remember to ask for some next time. I love onion rings.

Prices for burgers start at £8.50 I think, and then you can add the extras. No idea how much the beer was, but we had bottled beer which is never cheap and was extremely good. No idea what it was called either.

Anyway, it turned out to be £14 for a communal chip-in, I thought that was reasonable until I realised it was £14 each (when I added up the cost of the two burgers and worked out they came to more than £14 …. )

When we’ve eaten out in Gib, we’ve usually paid more than £20 for a meal, less than £30, £40ish being the exception.

I think it’s the whole idea of paying restaurant prices for a burger, chips and salad garnish that I find difficult to get into my head. It’s a snack really, isn’t it? Having said that, I enjoyed it, no cooking, no washing up, and that all-essential catering for vegetarians. We also asked for extra mustard and vinegar as us and the Germans were nearly coming to blows over the few sachets of our chosen dressings!

Theatre Royal Bar is on the corner of Governor’s Street and Bishop Rapallo’s Ramp, apparently the cooking is South African, which is even more surprising that they provide vegan food so that was a real plus for me. A good evening out, good company, and at our end of the table, we hardly talked about geocaching because the conversation never stopped (apart from eating).

Rare pic of roughseas, yes, the one with the white face (must have been the flash) and the smell up her nose at the near end of the table

Related to restaurants, or rather food reviews, I’ve read a few blogs recently where people pay amazing sums of money to eat tiny morsels of food as a ‘taster menu’. This is nouvelle cuisine with a seriously clever twist.

Those of you who are around my age (ie most of you) will remember when nouvelle cuisine was all the rage. The claim was that the food was fresher and lighter (and no doubt brighter), and the portions were small and the prices were huge.

Presentation was an important aspect. Um, I would rather pay for more food than someone faffing around twirling a dill leaf into a spiral or whatever and giving me a flake of salmon or a shaving of smoked salmon and adding some whacky combinations to it.

But these taster menus take it to a fine art. £50 or 50€ minimum to eat less food than you get for a few tapas? And who on earth wants four desserts? This is not eating by any stretch of the imagination. Eating so many different foods and flavours is just plain silly. If I thought £28 for two burgers and chips was dear, I sure as hell wouldn’t be paying more than £100 for six or seven bite-sized morsels, flavoured with pecan butter, dressed with lovage vinegar, topped with a whipped mousse of caviare… You get the idea.

People in western societies with enough money like to eat out, and get take-aways, or ready-made meals. Money rich, time poor (as I’ve said before).

But I don’t need to eat ten different foods in one meal. And if I ate one food, and it was nice, I would want more of it, not lots of different ones. It’s sort of greedy in a different way. ‘I want that, and that, and that.’

My burger looks better by the minute!

Christmas lights

More on ‘love’ on Clouds

Recipe pages

I’ve been revamping the recipe page(s), so for those of you who are interested, it’s now organised in sections and you can see all the sections and recipes when you hover over it. I’ll try and add more as and when, but I need to find posts from the past first!

The headings are self-explanatory so browse where your interest lies, and I’ll try and post a note when I have added more sections/recipes.

In the meantime, for those interested in the Indian bread, I have included the recipe for that.

Health warning – do not read this if you are hungry

Gibraltar has started to become a sea of red and white, if one can have a sea of red and white.

Gone is the red, white and blue bunting to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee, and in its place is the red and white to symbolise Gibraltar in advance of National Day celebrations on Monday (September 10).

Red and white down Main Street, approaching The Convent

Quattro Stagioni and Gib flags

Even Morrisons staff are allowed to abandon their green and white school uniforms for red and white patriotic clothing.

Morries supports Gib – it would do, given the prices they charge

In John Mack Square/Piazza there was a fine band.

Jazz band in the Piazza

I asked Partner to record it with the iPhone. He didn’t. When I started, they, er, stopped playing.

Pix of National Day to follow on Monday. Maybe vids too. Maybe not.

In the meantime, last night, we celebrated redundancy with a take-away pizza from Quattro Stagioni on Jumpers Bastion.

Many years ago when we were affluent, we had a phase of eating there. As did Pippa, because we sat outside in the evening sun. Here is his review and some photos.

Since the opening of Mamma Mia, Quattro Stagioni must have taken a real drop in takings. Mamma Mia is in Boyd Street, opposite the Queen’s Hotel, and basically in the bottom corner of the car park by the cable car, ie nearer to town.

These two Italian restaurants are within five minutes walk of each other. Mamma Mia is invariably busier than Quattro. It is also cheaper, and if they are aiming at tourists, they are far more likely to be visiting the cable car than wandering along Jumper’s Bastion, so not a bad location.

I’ve never eaten at Mamma Mia so I can’t compare a sit down meal at both places. I’m not planning to eat there either as I think Quattro is a much nicer location and the menu is better.

Let’s compare take-away pizzas though. A nice simple like with like.

It is my job to ring up and order a pizza. Naturally this leads to a marital dispute. For some reason my partner thinks I should order in English. I have no idea why, as I can speak and understand Spanish better on the ‘phone than he can. I doubt he could get the order right in English, let alone Spanish.

Anyway, as he set off for Quattro before I ordered I had the flat to myself and happily ordered in Spanish.

Readers will not be surprised to hear that I ordered a pizza vegetariana. Grande, grandissimo, I added. Con aceitunas. Negra? she asked. Sí.

Pizza before my additions

So we have the biggest veg pizza with black olives. I have learned it is not cheap a good idea to ask for extra toppings that I can put on myself, but I had no black olives in, (note to self – buy some) but at least Quattro does chuck a fair handful on. Once back home, I chopped up some hot green finger chillies, some garlic, and chucked on the last of the capers. (Note to self, buy more capers).

I like this pizza. I like the courgette and the aubergine, as it gives it a really fresh veg taste. Plus there is no gloopy tomato sauce sogging the dough, and very little cheese. The dough is extremely thin and crisp.

Added to, warmed up and looking good

Onto a Mamma Mia pizza. Same thing, another vegetarian one, but with no extra toppings. I added green olives, and capers, chillies, garlic again.

This is a totally different pizza, onion, sweetcorn and peppers are the main toppings, before I add my extras.

Mamma Mia pizza – with extras!

Despite how full this pizza looks, it wasn’t as big as the other one. I should have either ordered a grandissimo one from Mamma Mia, or two of this size as we ganneted it all and still felt hungry. No complaints about the pizza, good dough, and enough veg.

OK. Bottom line.

Large pizza from Quattro with extra olives (£1) – £13.50

Pizza of indeterminate size from Mamma Mia – £7.50 (no extra toppings)

Big price difference. But, we had two pieces left from last night’s Quattro one that served for brunch today, and the other one from Mamma Mia just wasn’t big enough for a decent meal for two people. Two would have been better, which makes the price difference insignificant.

I like the ingredients on the Quattro one better, but the Mamma Mia one is OK for a change.

What about Indian take-aways?

Well, we used to eat at the Maharajah on Queensway Quay, which according to the staff at their Tuckey’s Lane restaurant (off Main St, by Barclays), is currently closed.

Part of the recent take-away flurry was because I was feeling a bit off colour the other week and totally incapable of cooking, so poor old Partner came in from work and then traipsed out to pick up some food.

From the Maharajah, I ordered garlic nan, peas pilau, bhuna veg curry and sag aloo. I think the only thing on the take-away menu was the garlic nan (we didn’t have a menu at home at the time, but Partner brought one back). I do like flexible restaurants where you can order what you want, and they just say yes and get on with it.

The Maharajah meal was slightly under £15. This was for two people, and one greedy Partner had seconds. He then took the rest of it to work for his meal the next day (much to my annoyance when I fancied some reheated curry).

Maharajah meal

Needless to state, Pippa has reviewed the Maharajah restaurant on Queensway Marina more than once.. And when Partner was chatting while collecting his food the other evening, the waiter reminded him that we could always take the dog into the town restaurant too! OK, so they want our money, but that is a good way to go about it.

There are other take-aways in Gib, we have used the Mumtaz and the Mumbai, but Maharajah is still our fave. It doesn’t have that same sauce dished up with everything that only varies by a couple of spices. Or if it does, they do it more cleverly. I like the flavour of spices to come through, and not some claggy sauce with some hotness added.

So, once that flurry of take-aways was over, it was back to making more of my own Indian food. Moving on from fruit chutneys to tomato. It was OK, but I prefer the fruit ones. Oddly, they are actually sharper. [recipes may appear or may not at some point]

Mustard seed tomato chutney

I have plenty of other news but Gibraltar is chilling out this weekend. Celebrating being Gibraltarian, British, and definitely not Spanish.

Wishing everyone in Gibraltar a great National Day on Monday. And apparently the British Foreign Office in Whitehall will be flying the Gib flag for us on Monday. Good one. Just make sure you keep those naughty Spanish fisherpeople and their Guardia Civil escort out of Gib and British territorial waters.

Foreign Office ministers David Lidington and Mark Simmonds, respectively the ministers for Europe and the Overseas Territories, have said they welcome the raising of the Gibraltar Flag over the FCO in Whitehall to mark Gibraltar Day. 
 

“From now on, the flags of each UK Overseas Territory will be flown over the FCO one day every year, to mark a significant day in each of their respective histories,” said an F&CO spokesman. 

“I send my greetings and best wishes to all Gibraltarians ahead of Gibraltar National Day. It is a day to celebrate the people of Gibraltar, their community and identity.

“It is fitting that Gibraltar’s flag should be flown annually in London to mark this occasion,” said Mr Lidington, who has responsibility for the EU and Gibraltar.

Source: Gib Chron

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Saturday sarcasm

Oh! Dearest Readers! You will not be able to contain yourselves with this tastiest of posts.

The long-awaited totally unoriginal recipe for fruit chutney with some brilliant unique photos is about to be revealed.

[For anyone who has no idea what this is about you may wish to check out my Clouds post about how to become Freshly Pressed and The Daily Post]

Firstly, take some fruit. But not just any fruit. I recommend, pineapple, peaches, mango. But not all of them.

Pineapple lends a slightly tarter flavour and a different texture, peaches and mango are sweeter and softer. In fact, I haven’t tried mango but that really doesn’t matter does it?

Anyway, I had two peaches in the fridge. Here is an outstanding photo of two peaches in case you don’t know what they look like.

Two peaches

Method.

Chop peaches.

Here is another super photo, this time of chopped peaches.

Two chopped peaches

Put chopped peaches in pan. Add salt, pepper, lemon juice, cayenne, cumin and fennel.

Two chopped peaches and spices in pan

This recipe calls for cinnamon but I don’t have any because I am not keen on that – note the interesting personal touch I have added to this recipe?

I also don’t have any ground fennel in the roughseas spice cupboard but I do have seeds, so I riskily used some of those. Would that work? Was I taking my life in my hands by departing so much from the recipe?

While busy reading fascinating recipe blogs on the internet, don’t forget to occasionally get up and check chutney to make sure it is not sticking or burning. Oh, I forgot to tell you to turn on the heat, make sure it is low. I have electric which is pretty smooth, but if you have a fierce gas flame, eg bottled gas, then add a drop of water.

Another option is to put a lid on the pan to keep steam/fruit juice contained. It wasn’t an option for me as I have no lid for this pan. Another rather interesting personal touch I feel.

When you are happy with the consistency, turn off the heat.

Wow!! Wasn’t that the most unique and interesting recipe you have ever read?

To be serious, it’s actually adapted from a pineapple chutney recipe. I have used pineapple on its own, with peaches, and today was obviously peaches on their own.

Spices:

One and a half teaspoons of -

Salt
Fennel (ground – but seeds work well, fenugreek or celery seeds would be good too)
Cumin

Less than a teaspoon of -
Cayenne
Black pepper

Juice of one lemon

Courtesy of Julie Sahni and her brilliant Classic Indian Vegetarian Cookery book.

Served with curried potatoes – another amazing imaginative unique recipe which involves parboiling potatoes, draining them, chucking on some garam masala, and then crisping them up in the oven for 20 or 30 minutes, at 220/230 fan assisted. I take them out when they look ready.

Left over chard tarted up with cauliflower.

Salad of some greens from a bag at Morrisons, tomatoes, cucumber, bean sprouts, green chilli, lemon juice, salt and pepper, fresh coriander. I didn’t make enough of that.

Peach chutney with other curried goodies

And, here is the delicious peas pilao from the other day, but as this is not a cookery blog I’m not adding a recipe for that.

Peas pilao

Let’s cleverly segue onto something serious. Speaking of food I think I can neatly talk about the Spanish fishing dispute. According to the Gib Chron and El Pais, it seems Madrid is most annoyed with Gib. I couldn’t find anything on the Gib Gov website which presumably, like me is on summer hours.

Anyway, in a nutshell, Gib has announced no fishing with nets in our waters, ie the three mile limit, following the results of the environmental report commissioned earlier.

If you haven’t read my previous post on the fishing dispute, Spanish fishers want to fish in Gib waters, because apart from anything else Spain doesn’t recognise Gib/UK territorial waters.

The current – socialist – Gib government revoked the fishing agreement made by the previous – right of centre – Gib government, saying it was illegal. A nice process was agreed, lots of talks, and the commissioning of the environmental report.

Clearly Spain expected that report to say it would be OK to fish the hell out of Gib waters.

Let’s add another personal touch, aka an anecdote. My partner works with mostly Spaniards. One of these used to sell fish.

‘Spaniards have depleted Spanish waters, Moroccan waters, and now they want to decimate the Gibraltar waters too.

‘We live for today, we don’t look at the future. We want a big sack today, a bigger one tomorrow, and then, there is nothing left.’ [Sack can refer to anything, fish, money, crops, whatever].

And in terms of nothing left, unions and workers in Spain continue to demonstrate every Friday about the job cuts, public sector cuts, increase in indirect taxes, and reduction in labour rights. [Source: Revolting Europe]

But in sunny Gib, we are all still on summer hours, although the unemployment situation is increasingly kicking in here too, with more and more people struggling to find work, invariably on the black.

There are fewer available jobs in the job centre. People’s wages have been cut here in Gib, and desperate cross-border workers continue to push down the rate for the job in order to find food, pay rent and mortgage in Spain. Meanwhile other workers are content to merrily take the Spanish dole at 80% of their Gib wages for the first six months of their two year benefit. Sadly it decreases slightly after that. Is anyone still in any doubt why Spain has a problema economica?

A few more pix of sunny Gib on the slideshow from last weeks spooch mooch around the back of town.

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Revolting Europe

El Pais

Gib Chron

Saturday summary

I was going to call this Saturday spooch but apparently this word has other meanings, I’ll leave you to look it up. When I was at university one of my friends used to refer to spooching around somewhat like mooching around. I think after today’s quick urban dictionary lesson, however, I will start to mooch and no longer spooch. {Or maybe she knew just what it meant]

Anyway, we spooched, mooched hiked up the hill to the Moorish Castle to find a new geocache. Only published a few days ago but it seems a few resident Gib geocachers are getting a bit keen on nabbing the First to Finds (FTF), so there was no hope of that, just an early morning walk uphill struggle.

I spotted the potential hidey-hole, but Gib Monkey Partner had hiked off ahead of me with the GPS, so I had to catch him up, grab the GPS, only to discover he had gone too far so back down the hill we went, to exactly the spot I had seen. Note, to any potential Gib geocachers – no GPS needed for this one!

A rare pic of roughseas. As usual most unflattering taken by Partner. Note the natural sunstreaks and the one grey hair. Or is it two?

On the way back down we visited a few tracks, back streets, shrines, steps, chicken sheds and former military quarters. More pix in a later post. Possibly.

Cristo, with the rather flattering bougainvillea surrounding him

Now where do these exciting looking steps lead?

In other news, the Daily Mirror (British paper) reported that the suspected al-Qaeda terrorists arrested in Spain were not only planning to bomb Gib from the air targeting open air bars, they were then going to shoot the shit out of everyone there. This has of course, been heavily denied by our leaders in both Gib and the UK.

Reading up on security threats against the two, apparently the UK is classified as serious and Gib is a mere moderate. These classifications are apparently done by our leaders in London. Oh, good. How reassuring. At some point, they might want to consider that publicising the intense security around the Olympic Games, and having a soft target like Gib does not make terrorism a moderate threat to us – or does it? Just my view. No doubt there are tick boxes to sort that one out though.

Olympics – congrats to Aus and NZ for taking golds in the sailing knocking us into second place twice (sadly). Deserved winners though.

In boxing – big shout to both Nicola Adams for her gold and the first woman to win an Olympic gold boxing medal, and also to Katie Taylor from Ireland. Britain and Ireland are fighting in the men’s bantamweight final today so that should be a fight to watch if you like to see people hitting each other about.

Commiserations to Keri-Anne Payne and Daniel Fogg who narrowly failed to get medals in the 10km swim around the Serpentine. Rather them than me. What an endurance test, and due credit to the winners from Hungary and Tunisia. In particular, Anderson from the USA did a class job getting silver in the women’s race.

And as for Jade Jones, wow! 19-year old Olympic Gold tkd champion. Great result there – and two years ago, she couldn’t afford to go to the Junior Olympics in Singapore, so the people from her home town of Flint, in Wales, raised the £1600. She won gold at that event. How wrong is it, that we don’t invest in a young person with such sporting talent, dedication, and promise?

Speaking of which, a huge congratulation to the first Gibraltarian to perform in the Olympics, Georgina Cassar, who appeared in the rhythmic gymnastics team. This has to be one of the most demanding sports ever. A mix of ballet, dancing, gymnastics, juggling and all to be co-ordinated with a) music and b) each other. If the individual event is impossible, the team events are beyond belief. Popular too, one of the first events to be sold out. The standards set by the former USSR countries are incredibly high, although other countries excel too eg Italy, so hopefully the appearance of the British team in these Olympics will spur on some enthusiasm for this demanding sport.

Apparently the team were initially rejected from the original selection, appealed against British Gymnastics’ decision, and were then allowed to represent GB. I seem to remember reading they were self-funded AKA, a lot of help from parents – around £80,000 – with no money from UK Sport.

And back in Gib. It is warm. Main Street is full of tourists, who don’t seem to realise I am trying to go about my daily business and insist in meandering across the street in front of me. Or holding hands with their partner and taking up all the street. Or……

On the heat theme, I snapped a pic of the temp as we came back across the frontier last week. Just to prove it is warm here. In case no-one believes me.

35 Celsius on La Linea’s eastern beach

Finally, what’s better in hot weather than a delicious curry? Here is eggs curried. OK, I suppose it is curried eggs, but when I lived on them in India, they were always called eggs curried (as distinct from eggs scrambled, eggs fried etc). Today, to be served with a freshly made pineapple chutney. Recipes may or may not follow later.

After all, I am on summer hours……

Eggs curried, in sauce with onion, spices, tomato, lemon

Invasion! Diplomacy! Spies!

Yes, yet again.

It seemed the Guardia Civil thought it would be a fine old idea to invade British Gibraltar territorial waters and arrest, take to Spain, and then detain a couple of locals, ie Gibraltarians. Oh and confiscate some of their gear too. (No not gear as in drugs, just legal equipment on boats).

Her Majesty’s Government of Gibraltar has received confirmed reports that officers of the Guardia Civil vessel Rio Ceden boarded and took control of a Gibraltar registered vessel in British Gibraltar Territorial Waters and then forcibily conveyed it and its occupants to Algeciras at high speed and without navigational lights.

They subsequently confiscated perfectly legal equipment aboard the vessel. The individuals aboard the vessel were not suspected of being involved in any illicit activity of any kind.

This, and subsequent quotes from the HM Government of Gibraltar press office website.

Good to know that you can’t even safely sail in your own three-mile limit without the Spaniards coming to give you grief huh?

Official reports received by the Government state that the Guardia Civil even turned off the navigational lights on the Gibraltar vessel that they boarded and on their own vessel as well in an attempt to avoid detection. This points to the fact that they must have known that they were acting in British Gibraltar Territorial Waters where Spain has no jurisdiction.

It is important to recall that the Civil Guard commenced these illegal incursions in 2009, unrelated to any fishing dispute and that they have continued at regular intervals ever since. Indeed, at one point Spanish Civil Guards even entered the Port of Gibraltar and landed on our soil. This has been the case regardless of who was in Government in Spain or in Gibraltar.

Except of course, one should point out that regardless of politics, Spanish governments of whatever colour continue to bleat about Gibraltar. How much of this is Guardia Civil policy and to what extent are they doing their job at the behest of the politians?

This belligerent act of provocation by the para-military armed forces of Spain, akin to the actions taken by them previously in respect of merchant shipping and pleasure craft in our waters, cannot be allowed to go by unchallenged.

In this instance, to add to the gravity of the situation, two Gibraltarians, British citizens, were illegally detained and forcibly transferred from Gibraltar to Spain across the international dividing line in the Bay of Gibraltar. This criminal false arrest and illegal detention continued for almost two hours.

Now I do think that is rather naughty. I must say. What right does the Guardia Civil have to arrest Gibraltarians in Gibraltar? Of course, Spain doesn’t recognise our waters. Or even Gibraltar as far as that goes. So of course it is ok, to gaily sail up, board someone else’s boat and cart them off to another country.

According to Spain, the Gibraltarians were illegally fishing for tuna in breach of EU regulations. And as territorial waters weren’t mentioned in the Treaty of Utrecht 300 years ago, Spain considers they don’t exist around Gibraltar.

Funny how the Treaty of Utrecht is invoked by Spain for one reason and disregarded for others…

Remember people, the Guardia Civil are armed. They are the civil guard and colloquially known as Franco’s boys. They were the ones who would cart off your friends and family for imprisonment and torture when someone informed on you (irrelevant whether or not the accusation was true). You do not argue with them.

I can give you the ins and outs of each side of the arguments, but basically, Spanish armed civil guard officers arrested Gibraltarians a few hundred yards off Europa Point (Gibraltar) and ‘invited’ them to go to Spain. Yeah, right, and I’d argue with armed Guardia Civil officers at night – or any time.

Simon Hughes, Deputy Leader of the UK Liberal Democrats, has been in Gib this week.

“I will take back a clear message to UK Ministers: Britain must be tough and unbending in insisting that Spain respects international law,” said Simon Hughes MP.

Mr Hughes added,

“But my immediate message to my UK Ministerial colleagues on my return to London this week is that Britain must be tough and unbending in insisting that Spain respects international law. Incidents like that last Friday night are unacceptable.

The UK Government must make sure that the Spanish Government gets this message at the highest level. Madrid must understand that unwarranted interference with lawful activities by Gibraltarians should stop once and for all.

Spain is a civilised country with a proud history. It does itself no favours in the international community when provocative and unjustified actions are taken like that in Gibraltar waters on Friday night.”

Let’s leave the last word on this issue with the government press release:

The time has now come for action, not simply written protests from London to Madrid. The United Kingdom needs to ask itself how it would act if these events had been perpetrated by Argentine paramilitary forces in the oil and fish rich waters around the Falkland Islands or in the areas around the coast of the British Isles.

Ah, there we have it. Our waters are not rich enough for the UK to actually DO ANYTHING. Quick Gibbos!! Discover some oil. Now!!

I am beginning to wonder if Gibraltarian loyalty to the UK is an annoying nuisance to the powers that be……..

Monkeys to watch over us
(For non Brit readers – there is a legend than when the monkeys (apes) leave Gib, then Gib will cease to be British)

Ironically a couple of other bloggers have raised related issues.

Liz, over at ec-cen-tric asked a pertinent question. Does talking actually solve problems?

Well, it is doing stuff all so far, quite frankly, in the case of Gibraltar.

Our Governor, Sir Adrian Johns, said gunboat diplomacy is no longer appropriate. No? So what is? Because sure as hell a few little verbal protests are doing jack shit nada.

Slightly more broadly, Pigpen wrote about what he wanted from his politicians (and it wasn’t their views on Britain has no talent)

Are we all just really full of rhetoric these days and incapable of any sensible or decisive action?

In Len Deighton’s world, his spies are always full of action. Cynical, tired, jaded, but pull out all the stops.

A few good reads

I read ‘An Expensive Place to Die’ the other day – it was so good I had it finished within 24 hours.

British spy in Paris is set up to deliver American nuclear info to Chinese via some crazy guy who creates strange sexual dossiers on powerful people. It sounds weird, but believe me it was good. Gotta read it again before I take it back to the library. Published 1967 – and already talking about Chinese world domination.

And… The Tailor of Panama. I saw the film years ago while staying at my mother’s in the UK. It had the delectable Pierce Brosnan of Bond fame (this is a short vid link), so clearly it was worth a watch. Brosnan is like Richard Gere, far better as a sleazy baddy than a good guy.

I watched the film in Spanish as well, I bought the DVD, I still enjoy it. And then, browsing in the library near D for Deighton I noticed C for le Carre. The Tailor of Panama was written by Le Carre – although why was I surprised?

Great film, great book. English spy goes out to Panama and inveigles a British tailor into reporting on non-existent resistance to the government. It always reminded me of Graham Greene’s Our Man In Havana, and at the end of Carre’s novel – he mentioned that as his inspiration.

There are some changes between the book and the film, but either way, good read, and good film. Try either or both if you haven’t done.

XPD – I haven’t yet read, next one.

And – a quick food fix. For vegetarians out there, these salami slices are superb. And, on the right, Morrison’s yeast extract on toast. Also recommended. (I think Americans call it nutritional yeast – I suppose it is really, nutritional I mean).

Veg salami, eaten far too quickly. Fortunately a jar of yeast extract lasts longer.