Competa´s Noche del vino: Night of wine

Posted on August 20, 2012 by Marianne under Axarquía, Fiestas and Festivals

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La Noche del Vino (Night of Wine) is held each year on August 15th in the mountain village of Cómpeta and has become one of the Axarquía´s most important events.

Every year, thousands of people descend on the village to witness the ritual treading of the grapes and share in the fun and festivities to herald the start of the grape harvest. There is a free lunch of migas (fried breadcrumbs), salad and, most importantly, a glass of the locally-produced muscatel wine for everyone.

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La Noche de San Juan: Families, fires and football!

Eating your Greens: Acelgas

Fifty Shades of Grey: What´s going on?

Cost of Living: East of Málaga, Spain August 2012

Posted on August 13, 2012 by Marianne under Axarquía, Slice of Life

Whenever I travel, I´m always interested to know how much things cost, and every day, people from around the world find my blog by searching for the cost of living in Spain.

I was interested in an idea I saw on My Sardinian Life, where Jennifer published receipts for her everyday grocery shopping. Alyson at the Algarve Blog and Diana of Canadian Travel Bugs also posted their grocery receipts from Portugal and Shanghai, China respectively.

I wanted to do something a bit different, so I decided that rather than post the prices of random items of shopping that you may, or may not be interested in, I would come up with a list of standard grocery items, which I will update the prices of, three or four times a year. This list can easily be changed, so if there are any other basic items you would like me to include, please let me know in the comments section, below. This way, if anyone else wants to do something similar, we can have a direct comparison between countries.

For this month´s prices, I used the Spanish Supermarket – Mercadona

Standard Grocery List

Milk (semi –skimmed UHT, own brand), 1 litre 0.54 €
Loaf (white, baguette 250g) 0.45 €
Eggs (12, medium) 1.35 €
Chicken breasts (1kg, boneless, skinless) 5.50 €
Apples (1kg, green, Golden Delicious) 1.35 €
Oranges (1kg) 1.39 €
Bananas (1kg) 1.25 €
Potatoes (1kg) 0.92 €
Lettuce (1 head, Iceberg) 0.85 €
Water (1.5 litre bottle) 0.45 €
Domestic Beer (1 litre bottle, Cruzcampo) 1.29 €
Fish (1kg Salmon steaks) 8.75 €
Toilet rolls (pack of 6, own brand) 1.95 €
Washing powder (Box, 35 washes, Elena brand) 5.94 €
Olive oil (1 litre, extra virgin, own brand) 3€
Coca-Cola (1.5 litre) 1.09 €
Butter (250g, own brand) 0.98 €
Sugar (1kg, white) 0.95 €

I´ve also included my store receipt for the few groceries I bought – mostly of items not included on my standard shopping list.

Currency Conversion from XE €1 = 1.23   USD
0.78   GBP
1.17   AUD
1.22   CAD
1.52   NZD
9.99   ZAR

Other household expenses

Gas: We don´t have mains gas here, so we use bottles of butane gas. A 12.5kg bottle of Butane gas costs 16.45 €. One bottle lasts (on average) 21 days (for two people… though around 4 weeks in summer) for all hot water, showers and cooking.

Electricity: For a 3 bedroom/2 bathroom detached house in the countryside with a swimming pool, we pay an average of 80-90 € per month. The cost of consumption for us is slightly lower in winter with heating/lighting, as opposed to air conditioning/lighting/swimming pool pump running for 8 hours a day, in the summer months.

Water: We are not connected to mains water, so when we bought our house part of the purchase cost was for a share in a local water company. We have a water deposit to store our house water. Our water share gives us an allowance of up to 17500 litres of water each week at reduced cost, after which the price rises steeply. Needless to say, we don´t use this amount of water, even allowing for swimming pool top-ups and garden irrigation. Our annual water bill is approximately 60 €

IBI – Council Tax: Paid yearly to the local council. This year´s bill is 338€

Internet: 29 € per month with unlimited downloads (within reason). Speeds up to 3 Mbps

Petrol/Gasoline: 1 litre of 95 octane petrol is 1.49 €

Vehicle excise duty: We have a Peugot 307 1.6 and pay 51 € per year.

Eating out: Glass of wine or beer, including one tapa is 1 € – 1.50 €. Menu of the day (three course meal, served at lunchtime, including bread and one glass of beer, wine or a bottle of water) 8 – 10 €

How do prices compare where you live?

You might also enjoy these articles:

All at sea with the Virgen del Carmen

La Noche de San Juan: Families, fires and football!

Patatas a lo pobre: Poor man´s potatoes

Travel Theme: Signs

Posted on August 12, 2012 by Marianne under Laws and Customs, Photo challenges

Being a petrolhead, I usually make the pilgrimage to Jerez de la Frontera each year when the Moto GP rolls into town. There´s always a fantastic atmosphere on race weekends, with more than 120,000 fans (mostly arriving on motorbikes) making their way to the motor racing circuit just outside the city.

The roads along the route to the circuit are perfect for motorbike riding, and I never fail to be amused by the roadsigns warning bikers that they may come up behind slower moving cars!

This post is my response to the Travel Theme photo challenge – Signs

Other interpretations:

Four Deer Oak
Sounds like Wish
Broken Light
Practicing Simplicity
The Gingerbread Cafe
News of the Times
Canadian Travel Bugs

A Slice of Life: A Trip to the Post Office

Posted on August 6, 2012 by Marianne under Axarquía, Laws and Customs, Places, Slice of Life

Living in the countryside (el campo), east of Málaga, means that many of the things we might have taken for granted, living back in England, are done a little differently here.

Take the postal system, for example. Our mail isn´t delivered to our home by the postman, so we have to jump in the car and take a trip up to the village to collect any mail from our post office box at the Post Office.

Being an enthusiastic driver, I enjoy the challenge of negotiating the picturesque, curvy mountain roads. The beauty and tranquility of the local landscape is enough to lift the spirits, even on the greyest of days, especially when you come face to face with a herd of ninety goats meandering along the road. I love meeting the goats and always wind down my car window to say “hola” and pass the time of day with the goatherd, as well as telling the goats what good girls they are!

It´s amazing how even though some of the goats climb up the rocks above the road to nibble at whatever plants take their fancy, and some stray perilously close to the edge, they all stay pretty much together. I dread to think how many would be left in the herd if I was in charge of them!

Just before the road drops down into my local village, I often stop at the Gaudi-esque mirador to marvel at the sight of the white village tumbling down the hillside overshadowed by the majestic backdrop of Monte Maroma.

This also gives me chance to drop off our rubbish bags and empty bottles at the rubbish and recycling centre (basura y reciclaje) next door, before making my way into the village.

Once I´ve parked the car, it´s a quick and easy job to walk to the Post Office (correos) and unlock our individual post box (apartado de correos) to see if there´s anything to collect. After exchanging a few pleasantries with the Postmistress, I might wander around a few of the streets photographing the pretty balconies and their flowers, or have a cool drink at one of the many bars or cafés in the village.

Every Saturday morning there is a street-market on the main car park of Cómpeta village, making it convenient to pick up fresh fruit and vegetables, before heading home along the mountain road once more, having spent a most enjoyable couple of hours.

It certainly beats having the post popping through the letter-box or queuing outside an English Post Office on a cold, damp December morning!

Which everyday job do you enjoy doing? Do you sometimes go out of your way to make it last longer?

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A Slice of Life: The Spanish Postal Delivery System

The heart of Cómpeta: El Paseo de las Tradiciones

Fifty Shades of Grey: What´s going on?

Posted on July 23, 2012 by Marianne under Axarquía, Slice of Life

The rain in Spain may fall mainly on the plains – but today it´s arrived east of Málaga! I can´t remember when it last rained in July.

Anyway, I´m sure it wont rain for long and it´s great for the garden as well as the toad who came out to enjoy the unusually damp weather!