24 EWN 27 April - 3 May 2023
euroweeklynews.com
FEATURE
NEWS FLASH: NEW FOREIGN SPECIES SPOTTED IN SPAIN! NORA JOHNSON BREAKING VIEWS
Nora is the author of popular psychological suspense and crime thrillers and a freelance journalist.
“IT’S that time of year,” Sir David Atten borough will breathily tell you, “when you first really start to see them.” Tourists, that is. After all, they’re the easi est to recognise as a species. They’re the pastylooking white blobs on the beach unless it’s been unusually hot and they’re red as lobsters and being given the kiss of life by paramedics. They’re the ones who hold you up. On the roads because they don’t know where they’re going. In supermarkets be cause they’re counting out their change. In restaurants because they’re confused about the difference between salmón and salmonete but, in any case, would prefer burger and chips. If the weather suddenly turns bitterly cold and showery, they’re still dressed for summer. In summer, they’re the ones wandering around shops, streets and restaurants with hardly a stitch on. Tourists could never be mistaken for two other species you encounter in Spain. The newly arrived expats and the
Nora’s latest thriller.
longterm expats. The former you’ll see enthusiastically attending every Spanish class, Flamenco, bull fight and obscure fe ria and club imaginable. Whereas longterm expats are the complete opposite and the hardest to spot. They dress like the Spanish, wear
summer clothes only in summer and dress more formally in town. Like the Spanish too, they’ve learned to accept the way of life. Mañana really does mean, err, mañana. Recent research showing that Nean derthals came to spend the summer on the south coast of the Iberian peninsula also puts a new gloss on package holi days in the sun. Thirty thousand years ago, when Europe was going through an icy period and snow covered practically everything north of the River Ebro, homi noids searched for somewhere warmer to give them a greater chance of survival. We now know that Neanderthals ‘holi dayed’ in what is today the south of Por tugal and Spain after their most recent footprints were found in a quarry in Gibraltar. So, first Neanderthals, then the Ro mans. And with all the Roman ruins vil las, roads, marketplaces being un earthed here, it struck me that the Romans were among the earliest ‘long term’ tourist species. You can just imag ine them, can’t you? Hurtling along the carreteras to the nearest encampment in their horsedrawn chariots. Holding up traffic at the roundabouts. Counting out their silver denarii coins in the markets.
Overseeing another luxury villa reforma. Before advancing over the Alps into Italy, Hannibal first got the show on the road in Spain when he breezed in from Carthage with his, err, caravan of nose totail elephants. So is all the TAILgating you occasionally observe among local drivers yet one more vestige of those an cient times? Give a final thought to Strabo, an un lucky general who not only took a pasting from the locals, but died of the plague during one catastrophic campaign. Just as he was about to expire, lightning struck his tent and reduced it to ashes. So, not a happy camper either... Not to be outdone, though, the worst UK campaign was in 1216 when King John, marching about dealing with a re bellion and a couple of invasions, caught dysentery in Norfolk, lost the Crown Jew els in the Wash, and died in Notting hamshire. Nuff said. Nora Johnson’s 12 critically acclaimed psychological suspense crime thrillers (www.norajohnson.net) all available on line including eBooks (€0.99; £0.99), Ap ple Books, audiobooks, paperbacks at Amazon etc. Profits to Cudeca cancer charity.
Nora Johnson’s opinions are her own and are not necessarily representative of those of the publishers, advertisers or sponsors.
The ‘charity of last resort’
The British Benevolent Fund was established over a cen tury ago to act as a “charity of last resort” to provide fi nancial assistance for Britons in Spain facing extreme dis tress and with no other re courses to help. Margaret was a lady in her 50s who applied for a grant to help her get back on her feet. She had moved to Spain with her husband, but they separated shortly after mov ing her in the late 90s and she decided to stay here where she lived alone and worked as an administrator for a real estate office close to where she lived. She made a small but suffi cient salary to make ends meet and provide a little bit more for herself. She was diagnosed with a serious illness which was ag gravated by a growing multi ple sclerosis problem which made it difficult to move around. She was officially resident in Spain and would receive treatment for these.
The Mediterranean diet LINDA HALL
Olaf Clayton of BBF.
The issue was that was un able to take early retirement and any medical benefits would not cover her living ex penses – she might be able to wait for a mobility scooter to get around including going to work but that would take time. Through one of the BBF´s many charity partners https://www.supportin spain.info/ we were contact ed to see if we could help with the expenses of a mobil ity scooter so she could go to work. By enabling her to continue working she would be able to earn and not be reliant on handouts and charity. The BBF was able to pay for the mobility scooper along with the insurance to keep her on the road.
With that she was able to go back to work and continue earning. The BBF can only help peo ple like Margaret with the generosity of others. If you would like to support our work with a donation please go to www.britishbenevo lentfund.org. Thank you on behalf of all those your mon ey helps with. Olaf Clayton, Chair BBF
AH! The Mediterranean diet! Is there anything better? Not if you take in every adulatory word written about it in the international media. The funny thing is, though, that the Mediterranean diet I read about is rarely the same one that is common in Spain. What always bring me up short are the whole grains. Olive oil, check. Vegetables, check. Pulses, check. Nuts, sort of check. Seeds, again just a sort of check because the only seeds commonly eaten in the part of the Mediterranean that I am familiar with are sunflower seeds. But whole grains? I exclude the young from this because they’ll eat anything, but offer whole grains to a nolonger youthful Spanish person and you will receive a polite refusal and what was once known as an old fashioned look. They won’t give brown rice the time of day and white rice must be coloured bright yellow to be edible. That’s why Spanish home cooks cheer
fully use E102 food colouring as it’s cheaper than saffron and gives a bet ter colour. Incidentally, E102 which can cause migraine, blurred vision, rhinitis, itching and purple skin patch es is already banned in Norway and Austria. Never mind, probably Mediter ranean Spain has developed immunity to dodgy E102 so let’s move on to ‘lean proteins and healthy fats’. I’ll give you fish and lean protein. Serrano ham has fewer calories than chicken breast and even pork is con sidered white meat these days. Nor is there a great liking for beef outside cocido, apart from fillet steak or en trecote for high days and holidays. And I’ll give you healthy fats, too, because there’s not a lot of butter in Mediterranean food although those healthy pulses swim alongside fat laden chorizo, morcillas and belly of pork. What everyone forgets about the Spanish Mediterranean diet is that it was once eaten in moderation by peo ple who expected to walk every where, who worked hard and prac tised a frugality imposed on them by hard times.
