4 days and counting...

I called Mr. James early evening, his time, yesterday. I dialed the number of the Holiday Inn, and nothing seemed to be happening, just dead air. But, aha, after living in Spain now for almost three years, I have come to learn to just sit and wait because people do things in their own time. After about a minute, there was some static and I was connected. After Mr. James and I worked out the 4-second delay, he managed to tell me he's probably just going to stay in the hotel for the duration. It costs only a little more than a guesthouse, and he says the staff is just superb, and the hotel has excellent services, etc. Very Alan Partridge, I say (sorry Americans, English joke). He is simply loving the food. He and his driver had three-course lunch yesterday, including real Tandoori naan, for something like $1.20, for the two of them. DVDs cost $3.50, although I would question their origins. He found me a hand-embroidered head scarf to wear on my probable visit for $4.00. I have asked him to note where it is acceptable for women to go; I ask him this because when we went to Morocco, he wanted to take me to this tea house he had been to with T. and G. on an earlier trip. When we arrived, the place was filled with about 200 men, not one woman. Mr. James claimed not to have noticed this on his original visit. I later asked someone at the hotel about the absence of women in these places, and he responded that only "whores and prostitutes go to tea houses." I am slowly checking items off of my pretrip "to do" list. Still have some "work" work to do, but I do seem to have the laundry situation pretty much under control. Fortunately, the weather has been cooperating with sunny breezy days, ideal for clothes drying. C. popped around yesterday and surprised me with lunch. He made 5-spice pork and a shrimp, chicken, and tofu pad thai. I could not have been happier....I had been planning to make pan-fried noodles myself as I am trying to use up the last bits of vegetables in the house before I leave. Last night I had miso soup and cornflakes. A few things I plan to buy in the US:

• Bagels, of course, plenty so I can freeze some when I return
• Deorderant, I think I have tried them all here, and none of them work properly. The worst is creamy stuff made by Dove, that comes out of a small hole on top of a very phallic-looking dispenser. It's just wrong.
• A couple of new Kongs for the pups
• Broccoli rabe seeds, I was addicted to this vegetable before I came to Spain, and I have never seen it in any of the markets

The only thing Mr. James is missing, besides us, is beer. He's English, he likes a pint, what I can I say. He reports the closest "bar" to the hotel appears to be a brothel as well, and not really his kind of place. I told him there must be an Irish pub somewhere in the city....we visited the Guinness brewery on a trip to Ireland a few years ago, and I was amazed to find they had official pubs in places like Eritrea and Peru. I'm sure he'll find an O'Reillys or something similar eventually....

Hasta manana,

mylifeinspain