I’ve close friends returning to UK and they have the most amazing and comfortable mobile home for sale in beige and green trim with full window shutters and beautifully maintained.

When you walk inside it you will be amazed at the homely 2 bedroomed, full bathroom, comfortable lounge and fully fitted diner-kitchen.

There is more!

All furniture is included in the price.

Still more! Washing machine, dryer and gas cooker as well as fridge Freezer also included in the price.

The bottomline: 20,000 euros. This price is so good and less than 50% of the full price.

Located along the Ebro River on the outskirts of Benifallet off the C12 in Catalonia.

The buyer must collect and transport it.

Call Tracy or John  977 260 119

Oh well Christmas decorations are all packed away so what can we do  for a change before January is out that is something new and exciting?

Well my friends Valerie, one of the authors of “In the Garlic”, along with a colleague are running another creative writing course as an introduction session. This is for a half-day so you have plenty of time to enjoy Barcelona for the rest of the day or have an evening out in Barça!

So please take a moment and read this email below – you won’t regret it. Never written a paragraph in your life! So what ? These charming ladies will show you how easy it is! You will wonder afterwards why you never tried before. It is never too late to write. My late maternal grandfather only started writing at 70 and then his gardening regalias were published all over the place.

“Hi everyone We hope you had a great holidays and that 2011 will bring you the best of everything. This is to remind you that enrolment is open for ALQUIMIA 101: INTRODUCTION TO CREATIVE WRITING on Saturday 22 January in central Barcelona (Urquinaona). The cost of this fun and festive half¨-day workshop is 60 euros. Please write to us here for more details and testimonials or visit www.creativewritingmagic.com/2010/03/alquimia/ Looking forward to writing with you soon.

Valerie and Nicky”

Postscript: I have always loved writing but surprised myself when I found I could write children books. Check out www.Chimona.com and also now available on www.Amazon.com

So guys don’t expect the normal six weeks turnaround on your letters or phone calls.

The Uk Government doom and gloom cuts are being cut and spliced to the barest syllable this morning. Expats have relied  heavily on the online information and websites to gleem data on the Uk blur for Pensions, health and general research.

Mr Ian Duncan Smith (Work and Pensions Secretary) and Osborne Esquire have reached a tentative decision  with him about introducing a universal credit – moving all benefits onto one system of payment over 10 years.

The Foreign Office has been hit as well. William Hague’s one solution is that they will use the media network of Twitter to relay information more cheaply. So all Expats will need to take up twitching of a different type to stay up to the trill of the tweets Twitter. Well all that drivel will be limited to a mere 140 characters – perhaps it will be launched in code or he may resort back to the old carrier pidgeons..coo coo.

You can tweet your comments to me @RosieReay if you haven’t fallen off your perch laughing.

Aside: The defence cuts are worrying though!

But what do you do with all this figgyness ripening all together?

There is only so much fig  jam you can make! Figgy pudding seems to sit well on the stomach at Christmas time. So September is a touch early for stodgey food.

Fresh figs are interesting, so too are figs bottled in a dry white wine and (are ideal for up to three months or more)  served with scoops of Nestlé vanilla ice cream. If you are fortunate or crafty enough to have made drying trays you can dry them in the open air through the day and bring the trays under dry cover on an evening and then packet and freeze them.

But I want something different. I want cake!

Oh Yum Yum and more yum- totally yumtious -go on give them a try!

  Check out the these websites below. Let me know which is your favourite by adding  a comment or share with me yours.

http://allrecipes.com/Search/Recipes.aspx?WithTerm=fig%20cakes

Ooh look there are more:

http://www.applepiepatispate.com/fruit/pan-de-higo-spanish-fig-cake/  This looks so easy to make too!

Now this is a must for all my gluten free friends (and tempting to others too) to try: – chocolate fig cake

http://glutenfreeday.com/?p=39

Oh yes, madre mia bake me another one!

Now I wonder if there is a recipe out there for fig fridge cake?

Do I write or do I weed?

The voice of practicality commands, “Weed girl. Get them weeds up before the earth is sun baked and rock hard!”

The voice of emotion whispers, “Sod the weeds! Write away to your hearts content. The weeds will still be there tomorrow. Write while the ideas are tumbling about – that fountain of ideas may not be flowing tomorrow. Never waste an idea. Write it down. Write it now!”

Okay, okay, I hear you both. Write first and weed later – maybe or maybe not.

I had oodles of email from my www.LinkedIn.com writers’  and Expats groups to catch up on. This is not a complaint, mind you, I do enjoy them. I do learn an awful lot from them. I relish hearing the debates between  professional writers of all different calibres. I feel like I am on a steep learning curve on some of the discussions. I am not feint-hearted. I hear what they are saying. I mull it over (while weeding, when I do eventually get outdoors) and often think  “Hey, that idea / style  might just work in another series in my Chimona Chronicles.Mmmmh…”

www.Chimona.com

Chimona Chronicles: How kelvyn got his name

When I first moved to the Ebro River Valley I felt starved of intellect momentus. I craved discussion and debate outside the normal Expat lament of dodgey builders and not quite British building materials. I soon tired of eavesdropping and hearing the character assasinations of fellow expats, “If you are a fisherman first by definition,  then of course you are a bona fide brickey, plumber, sparkey or lumberjack!”

My sons then home on leave, hooked me up to Facebook and I can track them wherever the MOD send them. Aha! I also became a Scrabble-maniac, but my sons beat me into a word pulp, but I am not a quitter. I have made very good friends of  like minded lingusitics stature around the world and just good friends, old and new, who love to play for fun. You needn´t feel lonely out here. It is also a great place to share your photo albums and reunite with long lost classmates ( I know I have found mine from South Africa – be then scattered around the world) and even mislaid cousins – one is settled in New Zealand. Now I never did get to new Zealand. I wonder what she would say I turned up one day like Dick Whittington.

Another great source of inspiration, both mentally and inspirational for writing and contacts have been joining www.LinkedIn.com. It is so easy to do. All you need is an email address and a password and slowly you develop your profile, or edit it as you see fit to do. I have found a huge cluster of other Expat writers and writers of children books on there. Illustrators and publishers abound to. You can choose which groups you wish to belong to under the Category you have assigned yourself to. Often my friends on LinkedIn are my friends on Facebook too. These casual social networks can interlink with the more professional ones. If you are wearing the entrepeneur cap or would aspire to be one,this is just the place to share your views and ask questions or start discussions. You will be amazed how the right and brighter people home in to help you.

Not quite sure if I did ever answer my rhetorical question: Should I write or should I weed?

Oh well better show willing…Weeds Attack! Attack!

Now Mums and Dads with hyper kids this summer may stroll on leisurely down the refurbished and wider aisles of the old Sabeco, with its new name for supermerkat or abbreviated as súper in Catalan. ( Note: when the word is used in full it drops the accent over the “u”).

The marketeers have seen fit to simply call it HiperSimply.

Now “h” in the Catalan alphabet is called hac. Exemples (Examples)= hola, hivern. However, the h is silent. So how would they pronounce it – I -per-sim-pli? Whereas, the Expats Anglo-Saxons would merely say -Hi -pe-sim-plee and not even utter the r in the middle.

It is pleasing to drive pass the car park now and see the vibrant green and yellow and dash of red on their logo. The logo is bright and cheerful. We love it! The green of the agricultural orchards  kissing the banks of the Ebro River, the yellow of the wild flowers and sun-kissed valleys and the red for the setting sun adorning our mountains in teh cool of the evenings  – or is it simply “ketchup red”?

Perfect just perfect!

The cynics utter it is just a tax fiddle! Why? Sabeco and those Sabeco Sambo’s, the old name is tired and what does it mean anyway? Bringing all its branches under the family umbrella of HiperSimpli will be strength and sustainability to its brand. Besides, to the competitors like Carrefour, who seek expansion into a super duper hyper store off the C42, it shouts -”We are still out there in front with you guys!” Eroski have bought into Caprabo and their brand has nowtoo been enhanced with new investment and more experienced European partnership.

Competition is good for everyone.

p.s. Remember to change your old Sabeco bonus point card at the Information desk for a new HiperSimply card.

Don’t forget tomorrow 12 th September, 2009 when Correfoc will start at 20:30 in Tortosa

English version

The Correfoc is a pyrotechnic celebration, celebrated mostly in Catalonia. It has its roots in the “Ball de Diables” (devil dance) in the 12th century. In the Correfoc, the attendants participate more actively than in the “Ball de Diables.”

Explosions, the brilliance from the fire and the whispering from the percussion create a deafening environment and accelerates the vibrations. It’s an indescribable feeling. In the darkness, horns silhouettes dancing and jumping in the middle of the deluge of the fire in an breathtaking environment of sweat and burnt gunpowder.

Catalan version

El Correfoc és un acte pirotècnic celebrat majoritàriament a Catalunya. Té les seves arrels en el Ball de diables ja documentat en el segle XII. Al correfoc, el public participa molt més activament que al Ball de Diables.

L’esclat del tro, la lluentor del foc, el fum i el remoreig dels tabals creen un ambient ensordidor i acceleren les vibracions. l’efecte és indescriptible. En la foscor, siluetes amb banyes dansen i salten enmig d’un diluvi de foc en un ambient irrespirable de suor i pólvora cremada.

Gerard Vidal Pallares

http://www.youtube.com/user/logolafre

http://www.logolafre.com/catala/contingut/secundaries/diables/diables.htm

http://www.logolafre.com/catala/contingut/principals/fotos/fotos.htm

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]]> http://www.ebrovoice.com/2009/09/correfoc-pyrotechnic-celebration-12th-september-tortosa/feed/ 3 http://www.ebrovoice.com/2009/08/who-knows-not-where-the-wasp-does-wear-its-sting-in-its-tail-taming-of-the-shrew/ http://www.ebrovoice.com/2009/08/who-knows-not-where-the-wasp-does-wear-its-sting-in-its-tail-taming-of-the-shrew/#comments Wed, 19 Aug 2009 07:31:18 +0000 EbroRose http://www.ebrovoice.com/?p=372 This saying sprang out of the blue yesterday while I was pegging out the washing in the Lower Ebro Valley . The pesky little enemy stung me on the side of my big toe, between the sandal straps, and I was hopping about wailing trying not to drop a wet double sheet in God’s fairest earthy sand.

Oh William Shakespeare we do indeed know all about these waspish stings, this glorious hot summer. We seem more inundated with wasps, bees and hornets of varying camouflage of tiger stripes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Wasp, pitch-tar black and the dreaded red soldiers, than flies of annoying shapes and colours (mind you they are not entirely discreet in their appearances), who only seem only intent on homing in on Casa De Miramonte!

While we admire the design and flight of the magnificent hornet, we endeavour a hasty retreat from his flight path. I say ‘his’, because surely a woman would not be that devious in attack?

Hmm!  So what do we do about them? Spray them, trap them or let the cats and dogs chase them- all can have harmful outcomes.Be careful out there, they will get angry and turn on you if cornered or under attack. I know. I have lived in Africa!

I see Southern England too have been plagued with them this summer and the Sun paper reports in their article so aptly coined as “S.W.A.T TEAM” (caption of the year!) firm hold hairspray as being an effective way in glueing their wings and stopping them in full flight to be disposed of later under a heavy workmen’s boot, no doubt. I hear Greenpeace protest that damaging their wings will only cause a long and painful death. Do we care as we pullout another long sting out of my already peppered potted toe?

Living closeby to Tortosa, Catalonia, we have various large chain of Asia stores and , don’t laugh, we have found two of their products work very well and each are under an Euro. One does in fact stick wings together but they seem to die as rapidly as the flies do. The lilac “lavanda” container called “Instant Yuki matòn insecticide”. Oh this works on mozzies and flies too.

The other option has nothing to do with insecticides.Wasps don’t fly at night. So with, ” Alin Salfumant” you coat the honey comb with it, while you have a running hosepipe in your hand just in case any soldier wasps are still hovering about. Within 10 minutes you can remove the wasp and sling it over the fence ( make sure the neighbours aren’t at home first!) or burn it on the BBQ.

I know this latter product declares “potencia superior; acid clorhìdrico 20%; agua fuerte; regulador del Ph en piscinas; limpiar de inodors & desincrustador de cement y cal”. Hey if it takes the paint off the bottom of my newly painted pool, when dilution is incorrect, imagine how powerful it is when squirted neat into the waspish homes. Boom! Wasps die! A result!!!

EbroVoice – game – set – and match!

Postscript: Article worth reading:

Uns 800.000 espanyols són al·lèrgics al verí d’abelles i vespes

http://www.lamalla.cat/societat/salut/article?id=275774

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]]> http://www.ebrovoice.com/2009/08/who-knows-not-where-the-wasp-does-wear-its-sting-in-its-tail-taming-of-the-shrew/feed/ 2 http://www.ebrovoice.com/2009/08/miss-sunday-shopping-english-goodies-available-this-sunday/ http://www.ebrovoice.com/2009/08/miss-sunday-shopping-english-goodies-available-this-sunday/#comments Sat, 08 Aug 2009 07:30:44 +0000 EbroRose http://www.ebrovoice.com/?p=350 Dreading the queues and crowds of Saturday supermarket dash in the Lower Ebro Valley or Montsia? Well lets lighten your load today.

This Sunday is the 2nd Sunday of month, when the amicable Brian Parkins holds his gathering of the Expats and locals at Casa Madera, off Camino Terrapico for his International social club, on the outskirts of Roquetes and Raval de Christ. Just follow the luminated arrows when you turn off by the Cemetery.

Tim and Elisa (696 -894 – 134) will be displaying their wares up there of ‘your’ one-stop convenience British shop supplies. They also have a wide range of Curry paste now in stock. Come along and have a root. You will be surprised at their variety of English goodies. They are the best in town on prices on British stock. Obviously, they can’t carry all 2000 categories with them at one time, so if you don’t see what you want just ask them and they will deliver. On the other hand give them a call today and place your order and pick it up on Sunday morning from Casa Madera.

I don’t know if you are aware but you can place subscription orders with them for all your British magazines.

Perhaps, you yourself would like to try your hand at a carboot store. You are more than welcome just to turn up with what you have to sell. On the other hand, you made have a service or business that other people are interested in. Bring your flyers, bring your business cards, but above all else bring yourself and your friends or local neighbours. This is open to everyone and often you will here a range of languages burbling about.

A time to meet new and old friends. May be you chose just to sit in his fly free zone and listen to the banter. Feeling shy, lonely or need in of some company, you will receive a warm welcome and be surrounded by much laughter. Drinks and sandwiches are available.