People watching

Some English people abroad exhibit odd behaviours. At our casa site where we are camping in the olive grove of a small B & B, Mr (English) Host comments on the water we are drawing from his tap, into our large containers.

“You aren’t going to drink that are you?” he asks, “it’s full of calcium”.

Now I’d always thought Calcium is ok, after all our bones are made of it and water sources often come from limestone, so we made a slight reference to not being unduly concerned to which he told us, “it’s bad for you”.

Interestingly he then turned to Mrs Host as she offered him another Winston and they lit-up the evil weed together!

A couple of days ago we were walking down the road at a popular tourist spot, El Chorro when an English lady walking past us suddenly asked not politely in the slightest, “where’s the bus stop?” and when told it’s just up there, not far, said “ this is ridiculous, this is worse than the main part”.

She was annoyed because the shuttle bus is at the train station and not half a mile away up an inaccessible gorge!

Finally, walking through another lovely village, there’s a guy on the phone in a doorway, “…well I told the neighbours to ++++ off and since then when I come ‘ome from work they are bangin’ abaht and all sorts…”

That’s before I mention the English who make no attempt whatsoever to speak a word of Spanish in a café. I won’t bang on about them as we have only started to come across them as we traverse the Malaga hinterland!

The most noticeable feature of Spanish life is their natural loudness. This is a feature of their speaking and music. They seem to be tolerant of noise from others until late into the night. It’s not unusual for loud music to be heard across a village until the early hours. Even when they speak it’s a loud conversation, not at all the English way, except when you are on the phone explaining what you have said to your neighbours!

Certainly there’s no getting away from the neighbours in these little mountain villages as the buildings with their apartments are so close together they can hear everything!

A family with German parents and two young daughters, were also staying in the casa olive grove. Towing a T5 with a box trailer fitted out with storage, they are on a tour that began in January when they left their home in coastal central Norway, on a trip which will be curtailed in a few weeks, as they are expecting a third child in July.

Their two daughters are 9 and nearly 4 and they are on the road because Dad, working a six week on / six off pattern as a fisherman on a Norwegian trawler, has built-up some time off in-lieu. They seem to have triggered a home-schooling system where iPads are issued and the older girl logs-in frequently and participates in lessons with her classmates. Plenty of resources are provided to assist with this.

All they now have to do now, is get back before labour starts, to either home in Norway, where they are all citizens, or Germany. However life will be easier for baby if it is born in Norway and automatically gets citizenship as have the other siblings.

It’s getting hotter…