I must change the name of this blog...

I am planning lessons for classes I will start tomorrow. Hopefully I survive. They should be nice kids.

A moment ago I heard a mumble, "just a little hole..." and then a loud drilling sound in the kitchen. Geoffrey is sticking a piece of construction re-bar into the kitchen wall to hang more pots and implements off of.

Yesterday I put my hair in pigtails and had only a big tweed flower on an elastic for one side, so Geoffrey tied the other side with plumbing tape. We went out to see some live flamenco in the Tabanco and a bar. We ended up at Los Tres Reyes, where we ran into the king of palmas, or so Geoffrey says. He was really cool and invited us for drinks. Then to the Feria - they have a second Feria now. We hung out with some people that got progressively more drunk and then I was just tired of it.

Angel, who is the owner of the apartment next door helped Geoffrey throw the escombro (junk) off the roof into a cuba (skip) yesterday. Angel (whom Geoffrey calls "Ankle") has been itching to help out somehow. Maria laughed when I revealed to her what was in the new pots in the courtyard. "Ha ha ha, he brought them from Extremadura!" She thought it was hilarious that Geoffrey had dug up a bunch of oak trees and brought them all that way.

On Friday we met Nada and Charles on Calle Higueras, a few houses down from where I first lived when I came here in 2010. They were looking at a beauty of a horrible run down house and wanted Geoffrey's opinion or just our moral support. The house was huge, and would have been incredible once. Lots of amazing character - old tiles, archways, wooden doors and windows. Old ceiling beams, a place for a garden, currently inhabited by garbage and cats - dead and alive. We went up to the rooftop of the Palomas hotel where I stayed when I first came here, and looked down on it. My Dad would probably pronounce it fit for nothing other than a wrecking ball, but Europeans think differently. It was totally charming.

That evening we went to see Nada dance at a nice hotel on the rooftop. Clara, another friend of friends alternated with Nada: belly dancing and bollywood. I was completely blown away by Nada's dancing: have never seen anything like it. She is extremely good - nothing like the Greek restaurant performers in Canada. Hers is true art and has something profound about it despite being nearly erotic, I suppose. Anyways, it had class and elegance, something like good tango Argentino.

The night before that we had Manuel and Pati over for dinner: chicken with olives in a cazuela - a clay pot.

Geoffrey has been stewing figs that mostly he gathered off the ground in Montanchez - at his friend's finca in Extremadura. We managed to get two 5 liter plastic jugs of local wine, and a third 2 liter bottle. We discovered it last time. An "expensive" bottle at 4€, is something I would really have paid $25 for at home. (The 5 liter jugs are 6€ each). We missed the farmer's market where we previously got amazing cheese, 5€ for a kilo, and had to buy similar stuff for double the price.

I am starting on my flamenco shoes and have made a toe cap sucessfully. I don't know about the rest though. I may have to have wooden lasts. I'll see...