måndag 23 juli 2012

Line dance party in Altafulla


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Oh, what a lunch! Our Line dance club celebrated the 4 years anniversary at Hotel Gran Claustre in our neigbouring village Altafulla. 31 persons and the most delicius lunch.
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It began with Cavadrink by the pool..some would have liked it to be IN the pool!!
drink
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After having enjoyed the food the dance began. Here Belén in action.
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What a style…2 generations..son Bernie and his father Jordi.
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Our monitors and Tonis sister.
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Dancing for 4 hours afer a 3 courses lunch…Well, well this is what keep
us young (and beautiful..) I guess.
THANK YOU Belén and Toni and all fantastic friends!! What a nice day we had!

THE WHOLE GANG!!

lördag 21 juli 2012

Breakfast in the garden of Rosa Maria!

This morning we had breakfast at Rosa Maria´s and her son Jordi´s home. It was in the name of the political party CIU. And what a breakfast!!
First one grills lovely loafs of farmers bread. Then you rub them with tomatoes and pour olivoil and salt on them (Pa amb tomàquet).
Breakfast here is not exactly like in Sweden.. We were served all kinds of sausages, cheese, ham, freshly grilled lambchops, grilled vegetables, etc. etc. Everything was washed down with wine in "porrons" (glasbottle with pipe that you can drink directly from in the air) or water, cocacola, and other refreshments. Here you can see Frank in action. He likes his wine for breakfast...
Rosa Maria and her brother Pere


I am in doubt what to choose!


The Mayor of Torredembarra Daniel Masagué and Rosa Maria's son Jordi (sitting) at the shade of the almondtrees.

The almonds are almost ripe! In one month they will harvest them said Rosa Maria


Frank decided to have some more! We had no lunch today as you can guess!!



That was a nice and funny breakfast!! Finaly Pere Font came and tried to eat everything very fast and make up for what he missed, since we arrived. They made fun of him saying that he had to grow..(he is about 1.95 tall!!) Oh, what a beautiful morning....

torsdag 19 juli 2012

Wedding of Mari Carmen and Lluis


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I went to the wedding of Mari Carmen. A very nice girl who works at my hairdressers. Here she is with the groom and hairdresserfriends from the salong. From left to right: Patricia, Nuria (owner), Yolanda and Montse.
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Here Mari Carmen arrives to the townhall
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What a beautiful bride!!

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Her husband to be, waited for her outside and they went in together..
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Changing of rings… The acting Mayor was a lady.
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Reading of the vows.
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And the KISS!!

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Then then the rain of rice..
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Friends and..
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ladies who wanted to see the bride!
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The nice old square in front of the townhall from 1700.

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A fantastic day to remember and I felt lucky to have been a small part of it!
Long live the bride and groom!! VIVAN LOS NOVIOS!!!

söndag 6 maj 2012

"Jamonada" Linedance Picnic!

Today we had a very nice picnic in the hills over Torredembarra in a nearby village named Altafulla. Here  I am with our Linedance-leader Tony. Together with his wife Belén, he is the organizer of the group "Country la Torre", as locals refer to Torredembarra. Everybody brought a lot of good things. I brought my usual pizza, baked to "Julio Iglesias concert" yesterday. Why is it called "Jamonada"?

Because we had a big Serrano ham (jamon) to cut from at will. Alfonso was the chef and his wife Pili is seeing that everything is done well! Then we began to EAT...and eat and eat ...a lot of very good things and as one of the desserts we had Tiramisu made by Maria Carmen who looked this happy


And then applecake and brownycake and... (I hope that Amanda, my Weight Watchers counsellor, does NOT read this!!). Frank was also present and he had to lean against a tree after lunch to lecture Rosalia and Salvador about who knows what ,,,


The nice day finished with cardgames and a lot of fun and laughter. Spain has very special cards.
The traditional 48-card Spanish baraja is an ancient deck that existed in Spain since between the 14th-16th century. The suits closely resemble those of Italian cards and Latin suited Tarot decks. In fact, the Baraja, like the tarot, are used for both game playing and telling the future. The Baraja has been widely considered to be part of the occult in many Latin-American countries, yet they continue to be used widely for card games and gambling, especially in Spain. They look like this





We had our picnic on the top of the hill where there is a "Hermitage" chapel named Sant Antoni.



Sant Antoni hermitage was built in the year of 1717 thanks to a donation from its first hermit, Baltasar Rabassa  with the help from fishermen of the village. It is really an hermitage of the sea and  fishermen say that several times they have been helped in need.

Altafulla is a medieval town and one does not know exactly its foundation. Anyway the castle of Altafulla was mentioned in documents from 1059. Every night I look at that beautiful castle which is seen from our house!

It looked quiet nice when we passed it in the daytime too, going back home...



A really fine day! Looking down on Torredembarra coming back, I thought of how lucky I am to live here with all these new friends and new family!!


måndag 9 april 2012

Easter Monday the day of ”LA MONA”!!



As a nice tradition here on Easter Monday all families go out

into the countryside and have a picnic with paella and dance

”Sardanes”, the Catalan folklore dance.



The ”Mona” is a cake decorated with feathers and eggs and it

can also contain figures in chocolate.

“Munna” is an Arabic word that means "provision of the mouth,"

that the Moors gave as a gift to their master. Here it is a tradition

that the Godmother and the Godfather give a Mona to their

Godchildren on Easter Sunday. And if you don´t eat a Mona,

it seems that there is no Easter!!



Here in Torredembarrra we went up in the hills to Montornès, near a small village called

La Pobla de Montornès. There is a church on the top called l´ermita de Santa Maria de

Montornès.



We went there with 3 cars loaded with food and drinks and chairs

and 10 happy people. Frank and I, our cousin Antonieta, Anette

and Birgitta, Lena and family Maude and Arne and Kurt and Åsa.

So 8 Swedes and 2 Catalans. We were not the only ones with this

idea. Lots and lots of people kept coming with grandmothers, children,

oncles and teenagers, all carrying bags with food, wine, Coca Cola

and, of course, the most important of all: the Mona cake!!



The weather was lovely and warm and we gathered just under the church

and waited for the Mass to finish. The door of the church stood open and

the congregation was singing loud and clear and the song was mixed

with birds singing outside and children playing.


In the meantime we all sat down on the steps outside the church and the
special Sardanes orchestra (cobla) arrived.



The Mass was over and the orchestra began to play and immediatly several

persons began to dance the typical Catalan dance ”Sardana”.


Very popular and everybody can join. It reminds me a lot of the Greek

dances. One forms a ring and dance with the arms in the air holding

hands.



Our cousin Antonieta and Frank were dancing and eventually I dared

to go up and try. I need some training! Here you can see Frank in action:



A little man was dressed with the typical "barretina" in the head and had a branch of thyme in his mouth. He danced ALL dances!


Then it was time for food. We all sat down and had the most

delicious lunch consisting of Potatoe omelette ”Tortilla”, serrano ham,

escalivada, artichoke pie (Torta Pasqualina), pizza, and other nice

things.


Then it was time for paella!! A team from the village prepared it in huge pans and we enjoyed it with som

nice wine.
Kurt and Frank went to inspect that they prepared the paella in the right way!!


My contribution was pizza and an Italian pie "Torta Pasqualina", which is filled with artichokes,

ricotta, eggs and parmesan cheese and looks like this:




At this stage we were quite satisfied as you can understand, but now came

THE MONA and other cakes, chocolate and a sweet wine called

Moscatell and, finally, coffee.



What a day!! The sun was by now burning and some of us layed

down under the Carob tree and had a ”siesta”.



It was time to go home and a happy caravan of cars left down the

hill. I and Åsa decided to WALK home, to try to get rid of some

of the food. It was a very lovely walk through olive plantations and

fields full of flowers. The air was perfumed with thyme and rosemary

and birds were singing.



Sometimes life is really wonderful!! Eating outside in the nature

in company of loved ones and good friends!!



An Easter to remember!

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