It’s all right, folks; in the words of the immortal genius Douglas Adams, “Don’t Panic”. I have not suddenly become religious.
For the duration of our 2025 Xmas trip we are, for better or worse, on the delightful little Alcalali campsite on the Heredad de Elias Ferrer, a former bull and horse farm now run by his son, Octavio Ferrer.
Since arriving we’ve been able to enjoy some sunny afternoons which enabled us to sit outside Frodo basking, accompanied, of course, by sipping. However …
Xmas morning dawned grey and began with intermittent light rain. Gradually at first, the light rain increased in intensity until, come lunchtime, the rain was heavy. Heavy rain continued constantly throughout the afternoon and evening.
For entertainment in such locked-in situations, we are equipped with Francine’s iPad, my laptop and Frodo’s less than user-friendly “smart” TV. We have a decent wi-fi connection but it’s naturally a Spanish wi-fi connection and, being in foreign parts, our delightful UK TV apps refuse to let us see them “natively”. You need a VPN to pretend that you are in the UK.
Sadly, Frodo’s smart TV isn’t smart enough to provide a VPN app, such as NordVPN. I do, however, have a NordVPN subscription and have it installed on my laptop so I gave that a whirl. Bingo, it worked! We managed to get iPlayer streaming to us on the laptop. The only difficulty is that the laptop volume does not wind up high enough to be heard over the deafening sound of biblical quantities of rain hammering down incessantly on Frodo’s roof. The same is true of Francine’s iPad which is, again, simply not loud enough.
Happily, we had already bought enough food for the duration. (Ya gotta check the dates on the packaging to make sure you don’t run over the “die after” date.) In between straining our ears for some entertainment, we cooked our Christmas dinner, electing to try “Secreto de Cerdo with Harissa and Cucumber and Kasha Salad” – a Belazu recipe. (I skipped the Caraway seeds – never a great fan.) The definition of Kasha seems a little lax so we used some Merchant Gourmet Ancient Grains to fill the role.
Secreto is a Spanish cut of pork from between the loin and the shoulder, apparently. It’s prized for its marbling and juicy texture. Ideally it should be from an Iberico pig, though ours was from a regular piggie. Consequently, I gave it slightly longer cooking of five minutes on each side. Though leaving it pink in the middle is suggested, I don’t think n this case that it worked as well as it might, If we can get some Iberico secreto, I may give it another go.
We did buy what we thought was an innocent jar of mixed olives and gherkins, just for a pre-prandial nibble. When we opened the jar we got a mild shock. The reality was more complex and a whole lot more suggestive. An interesting idea, Spain. Well, it brightened up an otherwise dull and dreary afternoon.
Our biblical rain continued throughout the majority of the night.
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