Our Spanish Hibernation 3:0

It’s crazy to think there is only three weeks of this hibernation to go. It really has flown by this time and a lot of that is to do with the comfort of our apartment. Aside from a bath, it really is just like home!

For the next few weeks, we will continue to enjoy the Mediterranean diet. Well, except on the nights we head out and probably eat a lot more food and drink a lot more Rioja than your average Spanish person.

When David was here a couple of weeks ago, we were struggling to find vegetarian options in the bars and restaurants. In one of the places we ate, they suggested an avocado salad. Normally this is served with tuna, but they agreed to leave this aside in a separate bowl. It is not necessarily the prettiest dish in the world, but it is light and delicious. Paul and I tried it with the tuna and it really worked.

I have subsequently recreated the dish in our kitchen. I’m no Nigella or Jamie, but …. you need a ripe avocado chopped, squeeze of lemon or lime, some chopped roasted red peppers and a splash of extra virgin olive oil. Mix. Open a small tin of tuna, adding some of the oil to the salad. Then serve the two together. I make some crispy potatoes to go along with it.

Avocado – aguacate in Spanish – are particularly good here. So fresh. When you buy them from the market, they ask when you are going to eat it so that you go home with a fruit the right level of ripeness.

Eating well and the sunshine, all help to staying healthy, but sometimes you do get sick or injured. Every time we come on one of these extended stays, we seem to bring more in the way of pills, creams, lotions etc. There’s no popping to the supermarket here for some Beechams or Panadol, anything remotely medicinal is sold behind the counter in the farmacias. So it is best to be prepared.

I couldn’t really prepare to have a problem with my left elbow – codo izquierdo. This was very unexpected and neither “Dr”Google or two video calls to a lovely doctor in the UK helped resolve it. It was very swollen, so I needed to show it to a medic.

I had a number of trips (45 minutes on the bus, still only 50 cents) to a private hospital for consultations with a handsome traumatologist. He talked about draining the swelling and sent me for an MRI. By the time the results came back, however, the elbow had started to return to normal – no big needles, such a relief!

It was certainly good we had travel insurance and, despite a few days of frustrating telephone calls with Axa and our GP in Reading, this was plain sailing once the cover was confirmed. And the international team at HM Hospital Malaga were lovely – hospitals can be bewildering at the best of times, but when you’re in a foreign country more so. These ladies really know how to make the whole process a lot easier.

So now we have Niall over with us for a few days, which is great. He came bearing gifts, including some ground coffee from Ireland. I love the power of Spanish coffee, but this ….. well it tastes of let’s have another cup now!