English in Asturias

lights, camera…

The day after the party was my most enjoyable day for ages: I watched an entire film snuggled up with my boys on the sofa, played endless hallway football, ate enough left over cake to sink a ship and brought the lego down and built extravagant flying machines next to the fire.

However, living with a constant low level sense of guilt and inferiority, I allowed myself 24 hours off before I had the chance to finish everything I didn’t manage to finish in time for the party. The local TV company had phoned earlier to invite me to take part in a programme they have about foreigners living in Asturias. It’s not something I would go for under any circumstances except our own which is that we have a business to start up and the local TV has up to a million potential viewers. Like my camera shy husband said, ‘we don’t really have a choice’. So on Friday, with the top floor painted, the wall transfers in place, the shower trays up and filled with colourful lotions, cream teas and a victoria sponge made and laid out to the best of my artistic capabilities, we waited for the man with the camera to turn up.

It was a strange experience and one I could possibly warm to with a little more experience, but as a one off, I felt awkward, stiff and slightly maniacal and without seeing the end product, I am currently battling nightmares about what a fool I’ve made of myself and what I should have said instead, but I have no choice but to wait until it aires to judge my performance.

The rain just about held off, the crew were lovely and encouraging, putting words into my mouth, which I then struggled to replicate. I had wanted to talk about the complexities of raising bi-cultural children, of the things we struggle with as well as the benefits we enjoy but despite practising phrases in advance, my overloaded brain could only see about 8 words into the future and I had to leave such complicated thoughts.

We had enlisted our ever helpful neighbour to do some talking and our newest friend, a retired man who makes and sells hazelnut walking sticks to raise money for UNICEF to add a little local colour to the piece, so hopefully at least we will have shown the area in some of its beauty and encouraged the people who do come to buy our friend’s wares and help him raise money.

blame it on the rain

Saturday April 14th was probably the worst day this year to have
had a party. Rain fell in determined torrents without let up from the moment I looked
out of the window as the first blue light was spreading over the valley until
long after I went to bed. It was freezing cold. I wanted to cancel. In between cake
icing disasters and general moodiness I suggested
many times to Leon that we call the whole thing off-he just looked at me
witheringly. The invites had said, ‘from 2.30’ and banking on Spanish tardiness, I was still in my scruffy jeans making the last of the savoury food thinking about how I would get the glass lamp shade down to give it a dust before I got changed, when Leon’s face drained
somewhat of colour and he said that he was suddenly certain that somebody would
arrive on the dot. A lambs whisker later there was knock on the window and the family Leon had suddenly thought of peered through the living room window hair already slicked down their faces from the rain.

From that point on it didn’t stop, I never got changed, I didn’t dust the lamp shade and I didn’t take a single photo. Loads of people came, filling every corner of the house, talking and mixing, bringing an amazing array of gifts. I felt very touched that so many people had come so far on such a rubbish day. That people were so positive about the house and so appreciative of the work we’ve put in. It would have been amazing if the weather had been better and people could have enjoyed the garden, the balcony and the front yard, but as Leon pointed out in his irrepressible optimism- had the weather been better, it’s much more likely that people would have splintered off and stuck with their own in some sunny
corner. They would never have talked to new people and socialised, so maybe it
wasn’t the worst day of the year to have a party.