On  Saturday morning we awoke to sunshine and after a quick visit to Herraiz jumped back in the car with a positive hope in my step I set off to buy another toy, ( I can’t say tool yet as I haven’t actually worked with it yet.) the destination is this time at Primitivo Conesa, on the old Xerta road in Jesùs, Tortosa. I cannot believe I have lived so close to this equipment outlet and no one has ever recommended it before Kerren did at a Catalan lesson.

Anna who works there speaks very good English, another of Kerren Stephen’s students – it is the old adage in force once again -“It is who you know “. The showroom is big, well laid out and wheelchair friendly (and the loos are too).The staff are friendly and give you time to browse without being intrusive but on hand to willingly answer any questions or offer recommendations. Expats always love a bargain and offers one always seem to be on from time to time.

The show room I found fascinating and not just with their choice of equipment, but high up on the walls are all the old antique equipment – even lathes and tools of such fascinating shapes and sizes- far beyond the comprehension of me being “only a woman”. But I am sure there is many a fascinating story behind each mechanism and would love to explore that avenue further. Well, in the months to come once my Catalan progresses on to a few higher notches.

In the inner perimeter of their car park there are old ,very old tractors and other machinery on display. It is nice to see people preserve the past and compare it to the future products on sale inside.

Also a pair of Peacocks in a cage in the carpark greet you – not sure if they are pets, “guard dogs” or just a bird lovers hobby. Whatever, it was interesting to see them nestled near a rusty old tractor that must have ploughed many a field to bring forth its crop.

Furthermore, I also managed to answer one of my own question as I have 2 small pot bound ornamental palms and was always led to believe they were a patio plant and needed sheltering from the elements. I think not for much longer, as they have a row of them along their fence and they are definitely opened to the elements and the high winds that batter us in this neck of the countryside. So this afternoon you will see me planting them out and mumbling a short prayer that they don’t now go and die on me.

The customer service was superb. I wasn’t allowed out of the showroom before a mechanic showed me into a workshop and patiently took me through part of the maintenance and care of my new Stihl chain saw and step by step instruction of each function. Also a handy tip for “only a woman” is not to leave it full of mixed “juice” when not in use.Very bad for the equipment. Petrol evaporates and the oil that is left behind bungs up everything and the valves – can cease up the engine. Also do not buy more petrol than what you will use in this weather and do not store excess petrol over the next 3 months. I know fellows this makes common sense to the male genes in a hot climate, but a woman would not consider that factor. Scarey stuff. But I am so happy to have a Stihl chainsaw again.

Also el camp Jesùs English gent -John Yeates( you may have seen him at the Olive oil festivals or such trade shows with his carved benches of animals heads or such like. All are very exquisite) has a few samples of his carpentry skills in benches and/or coffee tables on display as you go in. It is fascinating how he can visualize and create such a delightful and highly polished piece of work, what was once just a fallen old tree. I think the prices are very fair to the high standard of workmanship. An article that would take pride of place in anyone’s home and would definitely be commented on by all who see them.

Fascinating what you can discover if we just take the time to pause and observe in more detail what is around us. It is more than just a machine shop. www.primitivoconesa.com.

Aside: maybe one day I will be offered a private viewing of the owners’ personal antique machinery and tool collection!

I know I will be back there as soon as I have saved up enough for another Stihl toy – you can’t beat them!

Call a rose by any other name and it will smell as sweet. So they say, but this word cèdula smacks more of the horse muck – commonly used as mulch around it, than the sweet evening scent of budding roses along the garden fence.

The Cèdula refers to the Certificate of Habitation required to sell your property.

The utterance of this word across Catalonia fills the home-owners with dread. Not to mention the other people that it is having a knock on effect with:- lawyers, estate agents, buyers, town halls, notaries and yes, even, the Banks- the whole  of the Catalonian economy grinds to  an abrupt stop in a shamble of shivering shudders! Why? Bless all politicians – because the Socialist party brought in a well intended, but misguided reform bill to protect the  rustic land of Catalonia and to protect all property purchasers, be it rustic, village, urban or city houses.

Read more …. in the May article of Rosie Reay in “Tales from the EbroValley” in Catalunya Chronicles now uploaded online and out in paper print too.

http://www.chroniccat.com/index.php/2010/04/tales-from-the-ebro-river-valley/

Maybe you are in this situation yourself. Maybe you know of someone going through this nightmare. Maybe you have a solution. Maybe you have an idea how we can get this resolved.

Far too many maybe’s! So let’s get noticed. Let’s work together – please leave your comments here or on the www.ChronicCat.com.

You may also email me privately RosieReay@Foden Press.com.

Let’s get the Catalonian economy moving again. This is our homelands now.

Today is called Children’s Day around the world. In parts of the Spanish or Catalan speaking globe some may even call it “Festival of books” (for children). I just love an excuse to buy books. How much more wonderful that you give your children and other children a book as a celebration of the fiesta / festa!

Teach children to actually read and digest, to query what they are actually reading. Take for example the heading:-

<<El dia del nen. El dia del llibre.>>

No, I haven’t  written in incorrect Spanish. This is Catalan – the dialect spoken in the North-East of Spain, Majorca and a province just inside the French border. This translates as:-

<<Children’s Day / The day of the book>>.

This week I stumbled across a brilliant online shopping site for children’s books in Catalan that covers various themes with exciting illustrations to boost. http://www.editorialmediterrania.cat/. I am considering buying one of the theme sets myself to improve my Catalan. Well, why not? You have to start reading somewhere and it can often be more fun than trawling though boring newspaper about politics – all about nothing!

However, there is no rhyme nor reason why you, the parent or grandparent, can´t choose the books you want to read in order to relive your childhood  through their eyes and ears. How I miss those hours of reading stories after bath time to my sons and later on to grandsons Jordan (Jordí) and Shane (Shimbob)!

Perhaps that is why I feather my nest (and empty nest – as the case maybe,  now the children have flown to spread their wings) and write childrens’ books myself. www.Chimona.com

There are some wonderful famous authors out there doing a sterling job in encouraging children to read through their literary charities. One of my favourite’s James Patterson, himself and his better half, have “Read, kiddo, read” with wonderful suggestions of books for different age groups. www.readkiddoread.com. They have now also created a smart forum. If  the children read themselves they receive bonus points-otherwise the parents must read to them if they are too young.readkiddoread.ning.com

<<Parents, teachers and librarians, you’ve found your way here because you’ve … you the only way to get kids to read was to give them great books, cool books..>>

Let us celebrate today and everyday. Lets teach our children and all children we come into contact with to become ardent bibliophiles. Yes! Along the way they will increase their vocabulary without realising it.

There is so much available on the internet! So when Junior won’t get off the internet trying and direct his / her little cotton socks away from the computer games, to search for book to read online or just to read ! 5 Minutes for Mom Blog Directory.

What is the biggest cultural shock I had when I arrived in 2004 in Catalonia?

There were no English book shops in the Lower Ebro Valley. I always used to watch the W.H.Smith’s new listings and rush for first day release to purchase another treasure. Now we are lucky to pick up a 2nd hand book, that I haven’t read. I still am a voracious reader. So how do I manage? I moan to a brother, another bookworm in California.  Every 3 months I pop down to the local post office in Jesús and pick up a huge parcel of books that he has just read ! Now that is what I call a Result!

So parents, friends and grandparents and siblings please remember one of the greatest gifts you can give to us (young and old and doddery) is a book, another book and still more books. As a child my friends used to write copiously long lists to Father Christmas of  “Please may I have…?” Mine were short and sweet, year in and year out – “Just books would do nicely thank you.”  My request remains the same for any day or any fiesta …I need to read!

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!

Somehow I would prefer a yellow climbing rose bush and a new book – some chance of that!

Pulling into the car  park at Hospital de la Santa Creu, Jesús, I was amused to see how many ladies were leaving with a single red rose in their hands. Mmmmh…I wonder who gave them their roses? Needless to say mother’s appointment went without any dramas, so we headed off to Eroski.

I enviously looked at all the bookshops who had brought out tables onto the pavements and were displaying a wonderful array of books across them. Some folk just stopped by and browsed, others bought one or two or more. How many admirers do they have? A lady explained. These days you buy a book for every male in your household. My husband has to buy more red roses as there are more women in our home! We shared the joke in laughter and I proceeded on, but still I mused sulkily to myself, I wanted a b-o-o-k!

Pushing the trolley around Eroski, it self-propelled  to the books displayed and aah, right there in the middle of the pile was one of my favourite children’s stories.  I grabbed it and paged avidly through it. The illustrations are just positively delightful.

“Sant Jordi i el drac” – the author is Anna Canyelles and the drawings are by Roser Calafell

Who knows? My next book review may be one of  a Catalan childrens book. Now that would be a novel experience and somewhat of a challenge to me, who is just setting  out on the route of learning Catalan.

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.

Martin Lewis is the man with his fingers on the money pulse in the UK and this also benefits Expats in the EU.

In his latest newsletters he highlights travel issues exorbitant flight fees and add-ons. http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/travel/2010/04/ryanair-hikes-baggage-charges-and-plans-toilet-fee. I was rather bemused to read that should Ryanair decide to charge to to pay to use the loo thay must reduce 3 loos to 1 loo = 6  additional seats.  Well  lets hope no one gets the “trots” or do we all fly in diapers?

In every issue he shares valuable links http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/beat-budget-airline-charges.He  then goes on to offer solutions in how to avoid them.

His journalistic research is fast paced reading and informative, but he does not claim to be a financial adviser, so you must seek that professionally.

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

To share:

]]> http://www.ebrovoice.com/2009/09/correfoc-pyrotechnic-celebration-12th-september-tortosa/feed/ 1 http://www.ebrovoice.com/2009/09/did-you-book-one-of-those-bargain-ryanair-flights-for-october-or-one-with-easyjet-between-1stoct-16thdec-2009/ http://www.ebrovoice.com/2009/09/did-you-book-one-of-those-bargain-ryanair-flights-for-october-or-one-with-easyjet-between-1stoct-16thdec-2009/#comments Fri, 04 Sep 2009 15:21:49 +0000 EbroRose http://www.ebrovoice.com/?p=399 You did? Fabulous. I was thrilled to see that Ryanair was still planning on flights into Reus from the more regional airports of Bristol and Liverpool.

There has been a lot of grumbles about Ryanair slashing flights out of London – Stanstead (news reported 21st July) and Manchester (headlines 17th August) because the overheads at those giants are extortionate. This is only good news for the smaller airports. We look forward to seeing the timetable from Leeds Bradford airport, and Mr. Marketing Director, we need flights from there into Reus, not Barcelona where Jet2 fly into. Then those who flew from Manchester can now run up to Yorkshire instead of the other way round.

11th August it was reported “jobs for Yorkshire”. Great! Ryanair reckons over a 1000 local jobs will evolve to support and sustain their services on the outskirts of Leeds. So the White Rose wins the “flight” war in the War of Roses again.

So www.EasyJet.com is too offering amazing deals before midnight on the 8th September so do hurry. The perk about their offer is you can fly between … right up to the 15th December 2009.Plus you get free car upgrade and a bonus by being entered into a super duper holiday prize draw.

Booked your flight, so the next step is to decide where are you going to stay and what are you going to do out here. We can help, advise or we can point you in the right direction. www.BrighterSpain.com.

The swallows are gathering in the UK ready for a winter destination in Africa. Our swallows in the Lower Ebro River Valley are still making their nests under whichever eaves they can find. This is a sign our warm weather will linger on for awhile yet, so maybe our autumn will be kind to us again this year.

Weather update today:

Tortosa .Southern Catalonia.Spain

Sunny to hot – 35 degrees celcius

Sat writing in my costume with a welcoming breeze blowing across the Lower Ebro Valley.
Outcome: “Perfect! Just Perfect Ma!”