Andalucia and its horses have been synonymous for generations, and the Andalucian breed has played a major part in the history of Spain. The Conquistadors took this breed to the New World in the 17th century, and it was one of the fore-runners of the American horses as seen in so many Westerns. The horse is still revered in the culture today, as you may have noticed whilst driving through the local villages, especially during the summer months. This is the time of the ‘romerias,’ many with an ancient religious significance, but the main thing is a gathering of horses and riders. It’s really just an excuse to show off with your horse, greet friends, and have a few beers. Great fun for all.
If you don’t feel up to this, why not visit ‘Los Caballos del Puente’ in the village of Puente de don Manuel and take the opportunity to go horse riding? It doesn’t matter if you’ve never ridden before, or if you’ve years of experience under your belt, Rob and Les will give you a warm welcome and offer a horse to suit. There are many tracks and trails to explore in the area, and from horseback it all looks so different after whizzing past cocooned in your car. If you’ve never ridden before, then you can try your hand in the paddock. If the idea takes your fancy, give Les or Rob a call on 697594824.

If you haven’t been already, then when the romeria is on near you, pop along for a treat, I always feel it’s nice to join in with the local traditions; even though we cannot be a part of it, we can pop by and get in the mood, drink a beer or two in the beer tents which just seem to pop up overnight, and see the wonderful floats, watch all the children having fun on the bouncy castles and just feel the general buzz.
Tiffany’s are having great success with their Sunday lunches, they are also holding discos on a Friday evening, live entertainment on Saturday evenings and with their new Thai evenings every Wednesday fortnight, they are really making the place swing. The first Thai evening was such a great success that they are holding one every two weeks, so make sure you make a date in your dairy for these events. They have also now introduced a new evening menu, so we will be trying this out soon and will let you know next month how we got on.
This month is the start of our tips and ideas, so if you have a good tip, please let me know on This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and I will let all the readers know as and when I receive them. Here are a few to get the ball rolling.

If you suffer from hay fever, try putting a small amount of Vaseline just on the inside of your nose: it is supposed to stop the pollen from entering. If the children get sunburned, try something that I was told in the 80s: cut a tomato in half and spread over the sunburn, try to remember if you take it out of the fridge it will give the patient a shock (as I did to my mother). Rachel has given me the following. Put your fresh ginger in the fridge in a paper bag, and it will last much longer. Kath says wrap your bananas completely in tin foil and keep in the fridge; it stops them from getting brown. Finally, from Sadie: “Don’t eat yellow snow!”

We had the most wonderful third anniversary party, more than 150 customers turned up for the afternoon, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. The food was wonderful, prepared yet again by Angela Dent, and as always, everyone commented on how lovely it was. We had a wonderful day, and a big thank you to everyone who attended. Next year, let’s hope we can increase the numbers, as customers often say that they don’t like to come because they don’t spend much! It’s our way of thanking everyone, whether you spend 1€ or 100€, every customer is the same to us.

A lovely unplanned reunion happened on the day. Tom and Lorraine Ford, who live in Canillas de Albaida, came to the party with their daughter, Vicki. Lorraine’s maiden name is Houghton. Lorraine was talking to some people when she was tapped on the shoulder by a lady called Davina Houghton. Davina is on holiday from Perth, Australia, for one month and it turns out that her mother is sister to Lorraine’s mother. These cousins have only met once before, and Davina had no idea that her cousin Lorraine had moved to Spain. The chances of them meeting up must be so remote. The other uncanny thing is that Davina married a Houghton, so now has the same name as her aunt. To add to their day, Tom actually won our free hamper raffle as well, so a good day was had by all. The photo left to right is Lorraine, Davina and Vicki.

 We are still finding our feet after the move of our food items. We have also located one of our suppliers whom we used when my daughter had a small gift shop in Cornwall, so in September we are off to visit them. Some time shortly afterwards, our card shop will be filling with gifts and lots of interesting items, just in time for Christmas. We have already started to fill the shelves with gift items such as beautiful jewellery boxes in the form of handbags -- ideal for going on holiday.