Christmas at Sotogrande

December 20th - January 1st 2010
Soto Grande.
We had the most excellent Christmas at Soto Grande . The girls arrived at different times with husbands so that by late on Christmas Eve the family was complete. We were slightly worried that there would be major delays on the flights because of atrocious weather conditions both ends but all was okay, although Rosie and Simon, the last to arrive had very shuddery/bumpy flights. Spain then decided to have a monsoon season in Malaga . We have since learnt that this was the wettest part of Spain over the holiday which is not really a surprise. The electric storms were amazing and we have never heard or seen rain like it. However, being British/Irish we put our best foot forward and braved the elements. Jim had an early morning dip most days in the pool and probably most households in the surrounding area knew when he got in!
We explored the local hillside town of Jimena de la Frontera, Gibraltar, the fortified castle at Castella and Tarifa where there were some mad people kite surfing in huge seas. We also got to know La Linea rather better than we wished as we were trying to find the market and spent hours driving in ever decreasing circles. We almost got to Morocco for a day trip but left late, got stuck in traffic and decided we would be better off going there with more time to spare, so returned home.
On Christmas Day we decided as true ‘Brits abroad’ that we were not allowed a drink until we had swum in the sea. It certainly focused the mind and we parked on the beach at Soto and ran as fast as we could in to a very bracing and well churned up sea. The local police came to tick us off for parking on the beach but on realizing we were obviously mad, left us to it. We ate a marvelous fillet of beef cooked on the barbeque (under an umbrella) and we had a feast. We had agreed to do a ‘secret Santa’ present for 1 person each for less than 10 euros. The Chinese here run excellent bazaars full of terrific rubbish so we had a happy time choosing gifts rather furtively, Some Santas were a lot more generous than others but there was a good collection; a cowboy hat, Maracas, DVDs, a couple of pairs of red Santa Claus pants, dresses , stockings, fireworks and an enormous amount of chocolate. These all helped as props in charades.
The whole family took it in turns to cook which was a joy with excellent results and the sons-in-law were not to be outdone, producing the fillet cooked perfectly and a wonderful Panatonne bread and butter pudding accompanied by a 1978 Dessert wine. The girls were as creative as usual .All in all a very stress free Christmas.
We all saw a mongoose crossing the road on Christmas day which is very exciting as they are quite rare here. He wasn’t at all fazed by us taking photos and was probably off to raid some of the dustbins. (these are emptied daily here which is pretty impressive)
On 27th we were able to lie by the pool most of the day which made the girls very happy.
New Year‘s Eve was spent quietly as the girls had all left. We went on a shopping trip to Morrisons in Gibraltar to replenish stocks, and to look around the ‘Rock’ which was looking rather tatty. Presumably the credit crunch has hit the Civil Purse there too as the buildings were much in need of some t l c. It reminded us of an out of season/fashion seaside town. We meant to see the monkeys but in our usual way were not allowed in as they were closing early so we went to the light house instead and watched the rain storms sweep across from Morocco to Spain.
The firework displays were most impressive all around us with a fabulous full moon and a partial eclipse. Presumably that was seen all across the Northern Hemisphere?