Back to Tivoli

Well the summer is over and I am looking forward to going back to Tivoli Market on Sundays to sell my wares. I used to stand on three markets a week when I was between jobs (cough, splutter), including Paloma Park at Benalmadena on Wednesdays, Fuengirola on Saturdays and Tivoli Amusement Park, Benalmadena on Sundays. My hilarious friends christened me Del Boy and I have to say I did make a good living during that time (this time next year Rodders........ we will be millionaires...). I met some great people on the markets, and it reminded me of when I used to go to the car boots in England. I sell anything I think people might buy. I started off with second hand clothes, books and furniture, and this quickly expanded to include ceramics, dvd´s, shoes, wild herbs, and even some organic Ronda tomatoes. Dad reliably informs me that people who buy and sell at markets used to be called ´tatters´ in Nottingham. Apparently they would buy any old tat from house clearances and unwanted items from the newspaper columns, and sell it for at least double the price. Actually you do develop an eye for a bargain, and quickly get used to picking out items from auctions and house clearances that you know will sell well on the markets. The people who stand at Tivoli are great storytellers, and you can pick up anything there from peruvian woodwork to aloe vera anti-ageing cream. There´s also a great food stall selling English produce. Although Tivoli is a bit hit and miss, and you can never guarantee a great profit, I love the banter and the social side of the market. The stalls are surrounded by fountains, gardens and even the odd peacock strutting around, and although the place is primarily an amusement park, it is well laid out with plenty of cafés, bars and restaurants to keep visitors refreshed. The cost of taking a stall here (and there are always plenty) is €10. The doors open at 9am for stall holders, which gives them plenty of time to get in and set up before opening to the public at 11am. Entrance to the public is just €1 between 11am and 1pm. This is a great place to entertain the kids and bag a bargain at the same time. Autumn is the perfect time a trip to the Sunday markets, and you won´t find a better location than Tivoli World. From the top airport road direction Fuengirola to Malaga, exit the road at the sign for Arroyo de la Miel (where you see the cable cars above). At roundabout turn right and at the next roundabout turn left. First right and first left following signs for Tivoli.

England - the beauty and the beast

I love going back to England on holiday. I don´t even mind the rain and the cold weather as long as it´s only for a few days. I went back to Nottingham last Thursday for a long weekend, half expecting the wet weather to continue while I was there. Amazingly, the sun shone for us, and I have come back to Spain with a better tan than the one I left with. On Friday we went to visit my friend, Mark, who has a narrowboat at Castle Marina on the River Trent. After a few drinks in the garden of one of the waterside pubs, we strolled back to the boat for a trip down the river. We quaffed champagne on the boat and had lunch on deck as we meandered further downstream. I love the Englishness of spending a day on the river, and the sunshine made it even more special. After a lazy, wonderful day, we moored the boat back at the Marina and took at taxi up to my dad´s local pub to meet him in the early evening. Situated in a quite affluent suburb of Nottingham, the Duke is a nice pub, where the locals make small talk and the landlord and landlady are welcoming and chatty. The sort of pub that is fast becoming extinct in England as more and more breweries buy up the premises and turn them into ´fun´ pubs or trashy burger bars and pizza joints. A smart outside area was quite recently added to the Duke, so that smokers could enjoy a cigarette without having to leave the premises. As there were quite a few children playing outside on the decking, the landlady politely asked a customer if she could ´keep an eye on her kids´ as they were trying to climb onto the roof of the pub which was obviously dangerous to them and others. The woman replied with a tirade of abuse and screamed at the landlady to ´mind her own f*****g business´. The landlady was kicked, scratched and punched until her husband and son intervened and tried to move the woman and her snarling teenage daughter out of the pub. The police were called and arrived within a few minutes - just in time to see the landlady hit back at the troublemaker in self-defence. As things calmed down, the landlady and his wife went to talk to the police, and were determind to prosecute the violent customer for assault. Result? The police advised the owners of the pub not to bother reporting the attacker as they had seen the landlady hit back in self-defence. Self-defence would be hard to prove and not worth the aggravation, according to the police. I don´t know what the answer is to violent crime in Britain, but surely the law has to come down harder on the perpetrators of violence - whether it be on the streets or in the pubs. Bruised and scratched, the landlady of the Duke was indeed a victim - but no charges could be bought against her attacker. Wrong very wrong - and another example of Britain´s soft laws regarding violent crime.

I know these things can happen anywhere but I have never seen it happen in Spain - and I have lived here 14 years. Maybe I have just been lucky but I can´t imagine something like that happening in Mijas-Golf.

With typical Nottingham humour, after the furore had subsided, my camp friend Mark retorted ´I didn´t realise Mapperley was quite so Jeremy Kyle darling.´ Funny if you´re not on the receiving end!

Gorgeous Granada

Having lived here since 1994, I am ashamed to say that until last week I had never visited the stunning Alhambra Palace in Granada. We decided to spend a few days in this amazing city to really get to know it. I wouldn´t normally spend a full day (or even half a day to be truthful) looking round historical monuments, but I have to admit that the Alhambra is breathtaking. To imagine how this Palace was built all those centuries ago, and the amazing, detail, design and thought that must have gone into it is quite mind boggling. The gardens are beautiful and although there were quite a lot of visitors on the day we went, there was an overwhelming feeling of peace within the walls of the Alhambra. If you haven´t been yet - go. The Alhambra is one of the wonders of the world, and you will never see a better example of Moorish art and architecture. For lunch we decided to try some of Granada´s famous tapas - which were as good as those we tried in Seville. Originally, tapas were given away free with a drink, and this is still the case in most of the bars in Granada. Little dishes of stuffed olives, dates wrapped in bacon (pigs in blankets according to my friend Debbie - but I think she made it up), stuffed squid and tiny glasses of home-made gazpacho were all served up to accompany the cold finos and beers we ordered. Although Granada is inland, we had some of the best oysters we have ever eaten in the city, and four of us shared a plateful of these marvellous molluscs - served on a bed of crushed ice with black pepper, tabasco and plenty of lemon juice. Delicious - and so fresh you could still taste the seawater. Some of the more obscure tapas we tried were - kidneys cooked in sherry with wild mushrooms, devilled octopus, pork marinated in ginger and orange, and a wonderful Spanish omelette with spinach. Great food at great prices. Even the tourist areas of Granada are not overly expensive, and much cheaper than the over-hyped beach bars on the coast. Our accomodation was basic but clean and comfortable, and within easy walking distance of all the city´s main attractions. The perfect time to visit this elegant city is in Autumn or Spring when the sun is still shining, but the temperatures are more moderate than they are in July and August. If you enjoy good food, good wine, good prices and a spot of sightseeing round the Alhambra, Granada is a fantastic destination.

A perfect Saturday

With a beautiful clear blue sky and slightly cooler temperatures, four of us ventured out yesterday morning to play nine holes of golf at La Siesta in Calahonda. I have a love/hate relationship with golf. When I first came here 14 years ago I decided to take it up, and became quite enthusiastic - never much good at it but enthusiastic all the same. I worked in a restaurant in those days and with only one day off a week, decided that trekking round a golf course for 5 hours was too time consuming - not to mention expensive. So now if I play at all I tend to go to the 9-hole courses which are normally par 3 - much more fun and much less time to get round. Another advantage of playing a small course is that you are less likely to get the tutting, huffy, arrogant golf bores behind you who forget that a round of golf is supposed to be fun. Ok ok I can see where they are coming from when I make three fresh air shots in a row but hey, a little patience gentlemen please. Siesta is situated just 2km from the coast road in Calahonda, and is a beautiful little course. Very well kept, with just enough hills, rough and dips to make it interesting, it´s perfect for beginners, improvers and lazy golfers like myself. We normally go round twice - having a few drinks between rounds at the La Siesta Restaurant overlooking the first green, and it takes about one and a half hours (including ball searching time) to get round at a leisurely pace. We went early and didn´t see another soul the whole time we were there - which considering my standard of golf was something of a relief . After a few drinks in the clubhouse, we all went back to my friend´s house to watch the big MATCH. I am referring to the mighty Liverpool v Man Yooo of course. With plenty of drinks, and the steaks sizzling away on the barbie, it was a perfect Saturday afternoon. Well, it was until Liverpool´s defence were caught napping and United scored after 3 minutes. I had visions of this turning into one of those embarrassing 5-0 home defeats which you think only happens to other teams. But little by little, Liverpool clawed their way back into it and a great goal by Wes Brown (in the wrong net) meant the teams went into half time 1-1. Liverpool strode out like giants for the second half and Man Utd were out-fought, out-tackled and out-classed in every department (out-numbered too by the end of the game when Vidic was sent off for chopping down Xabi Alonso). With the clock ticking down, and Man Yoo´s defence in slumberland, Ryan Babel scored the winner for Liverpool after great work from Dirk Kuyt on the wing. 2-1. We danced, we sang we drank a lot and we partied till dawn. Well when I say dawn, it was probably about 9 0´clock - I know I missed X-factor so it must have been one hell of a night!! I love freetime in Spain - the clear blue sky, the al fresco lifestyle, barbecues in the back garden and to top it all - a fabulous win for the Pool! And if there are any Man Utd fans reading this - better luck next time (snigger snigger).

Wyn´s Bar - a dubious past

Now I´m not sure who Wyn is but she must be quite long in the tooth now as Wyn´s Bar in La Capellania, Benalmadena-Pueblo has been going since the 1980´s, when it was Ronnie Knight´s local. Ronnie was often seen at the pub with his other gangster mates, as he lived closeby. When I first came to Spain in the late 80´s La Capellania was the only complex around this area, and the bar was surrounded by open countryside with just the odd villa dotted around. Now it is a sprawling resort with apartments, towhouses and villas on its doorstep. I last went to Wyn´s a couple of months ago after giving my friend´s son a lift to Benalmadena to deliver a TV (a long and quite boring story) . I suggested we stopped off for a beer on the way home and he was delighted to learn about the history of the bar before we entered - obviously hoping in his 18 year old mind that we might be held up at gunpoint or at the very least get to sit next to Ronnie Knight himself. So we ventured in and the only way I can describe it was ´like walking into a saloon bar´. Every wannabe hard man (who resembled wannabe soft men) seemed to be assembled at the bar and as we walked in looking like tourists in our flowery shirts and shorts (not that we always dress alike it was just a coincidence). Glasses in hand, one by one they turned to stare - like extras from Reservoir Dogs -and I felt like I was in a true life gangster flick. Just as we were about to put our hands up, the owner´s dog bolted into the bar and leapt all over poor Johno, who was by this stage a trembling wreck. We ordered a couple of beers and could still feel the steely gazes of the assembled mob upon us. What made matters worse was that nobody spoke and there was no background music so if you dare to say anything, everyone would be listening. Perhaps the menacing atmosphere dated back to the times when undercover reporters were chasing after Ronnie Knight? I do remember a particularly juicy edition of the Cook Report when Roger Cook chased one of the Costa crims out of Wyn´s Bar many years ago. Suffice to say, we drank our beers at break neck speed, and just managed to control a fit of the giggles (caused by nerves) before hot footing it back home!

There´s something about Mijas

I went up to Mijas-Pueblo yesterday for the first time in ages. Although I live only 15 minutes away, it´s one of those places that I visited a lot many years ago, and sort of overdosed on. It seemed every time I had visitors from the UK, up to Mijas we would trek. My dad is over on holiday so we decided to go for a trip to the town and meet up with some friends who live there. One thing I do remember is that it always used to be a nightmare to park, and if you couldn´t squeeze in between the tourist coaches and the donkey taxis you would find yourself lost in one of those ever narrowing streets - hoping to God nobody opened their front door- as everybody breathed in in the car. Well the new public car park (apologies if it has been there a year or two for those who know better) is brilliant. Not that I would normally wax lyrical about a car park, but it was something of a revelation. A big P sign directs you down to the entrance before you get to the main square of the town with its impoverished donkeys, and you enter well below street level. Once parked, remember to take the lift up to floor 10 (not down as we did to start with - which caused dad to mutter some obscenities as he thought we were lost in some dark, Mijas basement). You then exit right beside the town hall and the main square, which was a relief to dad as he can´t walk as well as he used to (as in the nearest bar will do). The view from the adjacent viewing platform (in front of the church) was absolutely stunning, and we could even see the outline of Gibraltar off in the distance. We also strolled over to the Casa Museo, which is home to some fascinating machinery which was used to produce olive oil and wine during Spain´s pre-Franco days. A reconstruction of a secret room, built behind a wardrobe, where the ex-mayor of Mijas, Manuel Cortes Quero, hid for thirty years from Franco´s troops is also situated on the top floor of the museum, and his story is documented on the walls of the cell. After a couple of drinks and tapas around the square, we headed back to Mijas-Golf for a late lunch and a superb menu del dia at Hoyo 19. €12 per head included three courses each plus a bottle of wine, and dad remarked that the oxtail was the best he had eaten in Spain (not my cup of tea but he was impressed). I enjoyed eggs florentine and swordfish which was excellent. Mijas Pueblo, unlike many other villages on the Costa del Sol still exudes a certain charm, and has not been spoilt at all by mass construction. The history and whitewashed houses of the town contrast with the modern bars, restaurants and facilities. But somehow it seems to work. Often some of the best places to visit are on our doorstep, and now that the summer madness is over, I would definitely recommend a day at Mijas-Pueblo.