Swimming and so longs Part 1 - by Theo

The first of our three bathing and bidding farewell dates saw us gatecrashing a lunch party at Kirsty's down in Rivas. Kirsty had invited round some friends and their children from the Sticky Fingers playgroup, some of whom we knew, for a roast chicken lunch (hence, why we hadn't originally been invited). I was pretty impressed with Kirsty pulling this off seeing as she's 6 months pregnant, the mother of a toddler and her husband was away in Almeria! Kudos! So, with 5 babies and toddlers napping, and a newborn mewing in her mum's arms (Kate kindly took over so the mum could eat) we added ourselves to the merry chaos. Well we had to - we had to return her play ring that we'd borrowed, as we'd forgotten it last time we'd visited.

We forgot it this time too, so I spe... drove in a sensible fashion back home to get it while Rosie had her afternoon nap. Doh!Kate and I both enjoyed a swim in Kirsty's pool, though Rosie was not keen in either the main pool nor the paddling pool, preferring instead to attempt to build the world's largest ball collection (her current obsession) and hang around in the sitting room.

It was a lovely day and we're really going to miss Kirsty and Juanmi when we get back; it's a real shame we won't be around to greet their second child or see Emily Grace grow up, nor the general relaxed, laid-back attitude towards children that seems to prevail here in Spain.

Not that the hispanic love of children rubs off on everyone. As we lazed in the pool one of the other mothers present mused wistfully about how great it would be to have a swimming pool. "Well" I said, "most of the new build apartment blocks have a communal one and they aren't that pricey." "Oh god no!" replied the mum of two "then I'd have to share it with other people's children! Horrible!"

First mince pies of the season

Although we've been stuffing ourselves with turron and pannetoni, we didn't manage our first mince pies until Saturday, when Juanmi, Kirsty and Emily invited us to their Christmas party in Rivas.
We were late arriving, having had to work until 2.40pm, so there was a fair crowd clustered round the food when we arrived. It was like a meeting of Expats Anonymous, or rather, Anglo-Spaniard Couples Anonymous, for as well as our hosts our friends Fermin and Rebecca were there and everybody else we spoke too seemed to be in mixed Spanglish relationship. Just a run down of the names (Tracy & Ignacio, Manuela & James, Jason & Dolores) makes it pretty clear! I was worried I wasn't going to get a chance to practice my Spanish at all, but luckily we managed to find about the only other linguistically homogeneous couple there, Nani and Jose Ramon, who grew up in our barrio to chat to. It was a lovely afternoon, with plenty of recent or soon-to-be mums for Kate to compare hospitals and midwives with, plus some carols round the piano.

We nipped off earlyish in order to do some shopping in Carre Four on the way home, where we encountered the most impressive Belen (nativity scene) yet. The Spanish go for their Bethlehem scenes the way a certain type of English male goes for model train sets, and this one, with its functioning water wheels and hand-painted miniatures, was really quite something. For childless couples only though, methinks.