Fillet Steak 40 Euro!

Our friends Willie and Kirsten from Denmark told us the other night they had pork instead of fillet steaks at a restaurant down at the beach front in Los Cristianos. The restaurant was running out of beef and asked 40 Euros for a fillet steak which is an incredible price.
We thought the ban of the Brazilian beef import finally wouldn't cause the tourism here on Tenerife any problems but now the effect of the crisis starts to be seen. A normal price would be about 15-20 Euros.

Fifteen Camels

Some years ago when we were abroad a man started looking at me in a funny way. You know in the way similar to how a horse buyer look at a horse he is going to buy.
Then he walked up to Clas and asked if he would be interested in selling me. He said he was able to pay as much as fifteen camels if he would like to do business.
Oh, I´m so glad and thankful Clas resisted the temptation!
What would my life had been like? And I really wonder how many camels they normally pay for a woman in that culture. Was it a good or a bad offer? Would be interested to know.

It's terrible that there is still a woman trade. In my case it didn't go through but I think of all the girls that still, in reality, are sold without the possibility to choose who they like to marry.
It has to be in opposition to the human rights and I can't understand how it still can happen.

He,He! What would Clas have been doing with the camels?
I tell you, he is as far from being a farmer as you can be! I think he would have changed his mind later when he for sure would prefer soft and feminine humps more than the humps of the camels.

To Sta Cruz

Oh, I have lost the visitors counter that was on my blog, but Clas is going to help me to get it back as soon as he get time.
We have been in Sta Cruz for shopping today and he has bought a lot of stuff there that he is trying to get a clear understanding of.
He bought a new DVD player (we have already got four!), a new CD/Mp3 player for the balcony + speakers, and a small Mp3 player that also can show pictures and movies which he is going to use when he travels somewhere. He love technical things and to figure out how they works. I call him a `thing puck´ (Prylnisse in Swedish).
I didn't find anything else than a vest. But I grasped instead the opportunity to buy some new make up and two new nail polishes + some cream tins.

Summertime

Remember to adjust your watch forward one hour at 2 am Sunday morning!
There is a saying to help you remember how to adjust the watch;
`In the springtime you take forward your garden furnitures ( adjust the time forward) and in the autumn you take them back into the storage ( adjust the time backwards)´. He,He! here we keep them out the year around!
I have a chocking experience about forgetting to adjust the time.
We were on an island called Poros in Greece in April 2002. The night before our journey home the time changed to summertime.
When we took in at the hotel a week earlier we were offered to change to a better room than the one we had booked and agreed. We got a room higher up in the complex and got a nicer view.
The day before departure our travel agency were placing notes under everyones door to remind us of the adjustment. They didn't know that we had got an other room and because of that we didn't get any reminder. Busy being on holiday we forget about the summertime and missed the fast ferry, by an hour, that would take us to Athen . It was really chocking!
We went over to the office of the travel agency but it was closed when it was very early in the morning. After a while we met a man at a bar and told him about what had happened to us.
He started calling around and after a while he had arranged a private transport to get us to Athen.
First we went by a small taxi boat from the island over to the mainland of Greece. It took only about 20 minutes. When we arrived at the shore on the other side of the sea there was a taxicab waiting for us that would take us all the way to Athen. The taxi driver was speeding in 100-140 km per hour for about two hours and risked both his life and our lives to get us there in time.
The mountains are high at the coastline and there is a lot of turns and we were like flying back and forth in the backseat. After a while Clas started feeling ill and had to stare at the road the rest of the travel to not start vomiting.
Fifteen minutes before the departure we arrived at the terminal. We had called the travel agency from the car and they knew we were on the way by taxi and they were waiting for us at the check in.
After getting our tickets we had to run for about 300 meter to get to the plane.
Oh what a nightmare this travel was but we finally made it. Thanks to the local man at Poros who started helping us and tanks to the taxi driver who maybe was doing the Grand Prix of his lifetime.

I maybe shouldn't tell this. But last spring we were telling everybody to adjust the time but forgot about it ourselves. We arrived at the restaurant a few minutes before we should start playing in the night and again we were like in a nightmare.
Oh, I hate this! If I could meet William Willet he would get to know what his idea about summertime has caused me. And I am sure not only me!
If you have got bad experiences, please tell about it in the comments.

Hard-working

I have been very diligent today.
First I took out everything from the refrigerator and cleaned it inside. Then I started cleaning the inside of the cupboards in the kitchen. And now I am on the way to start doing the ironing.
I know I should have been doing all this before Easter but you see, sometimes manana manana fits me very well.

Computer repair

When we got our internet back about a week ago our new computer suddenly gave up. The windows program in it didn't even start.
Clas brought it to a company that will fix it. They promised to work on it yesterday and to call when it's ready. They never called!
We stoped by on the way to the work last night and they hadn't even started looking at it.
They promissed it will be ready today.
Clas went there about twelve o'clock today and when he showed up they started working on it and promissed it will be ready at 5.00 pm.
Now he came back home and said we are not going to get it. They had fixed it but when they started the computer it broke down again. Now they are going to change the whole system from Vista to XP. Hopefully it starts working.
I am now using the old computer. Good luck we haven't been giving it away yet!
I really wonder what is going to take place next. It seems like everything we own is under attack!
When one thing is working the next thing gets out of order. Why?
Is this all happening to us because we need to be trained to be patient? Without a big measure of patience you probably can't make a living in Spain where everything is manana, manana.
Thinking that way we maybe should be happy about all the problems that occur.
Possitiv thinking is always good. Isn't it?

Grand Prix

The race in Malaysia is over and Kimi Raikkonen won. I am so happy and we have hoisted the Finnish flag on our balcony to show the neighbours we are excited and proud of him. Second was Kubica and third was Kovalainen who is also from Finland. Hamilton (England) was number five and Alonso (Spain) number eight. Massa (the stable mate of Kimi) spun of at lap 31 and was out.

Next race is 4-6 April at Bahrain. Hopefully we'll see Kimi and Heikki among the three best even there.

Nico Rosberg is also interesting when his daddy is from Finland. I see him as a Finn but his nationality is German.

Easter Saturday

It's many years since I last saw an "Easter witch".

In the area where we come from In Finland the children dress up to look like witches today.

Then they walk around knocking the doors begging for candies. They bring a coffee pot where the people can lay the gifts. Sometimes they even get money and fruits.

I was doing it when I was young and I got every time about 10-20 Finnish marks, a lot of candies and maybe a couple of apples or oranges.

In the night the families gathered around the "Easter fires". Then we grilled sausages and had limonade.

Later in the night the youths were doing mischief to the house owners. Like blowed up mail boxes and put the broom in front of the doors so that the people inside couldn't get out.

Or maybe put hay poles on the road so that the cars couldn't pass etc.

I have been involved in the broom placement and even been involved in hiding brooms. It maybe sounds like criminal activity but this is something that almost everyone from our area has been doing. It was more like to safeguard traditions.

I don't know how popular all these things are today but I think there are still at least witches and Easter fires.

Surprise!

What a surprise I have got so many visitors now. Even from Asia!
I think it´s because I was blogging about Grand Prix some days ago.
Maybe they have found my site by searching on the words ` The Grand Prix´?
I read somewhere that you can get really many visitors if you use keywords as headlines.
I didn´t plan it but it seems like that´s what has happened to my site.
I have had about 250 visitors this last 5 days! Guess if I am happy.

Happy Easter!

Our signs again

We got a nice surprise yesterday when we arrived to Lewinski for working.
Our both signs were back in the restaurant. They looked very dirty and the police had put a small sticker on them.
Now the signs have got new places where to hang as you can see on the photos.
The big sign is hanging so high up that the police can’t reach to take it down anymore! *smile*
It cost 150 Euros to get the signs back.

Home furnishing

I like home decorating and would like to show you this photo of my favorite chest of drawers. I bought it from a shop with old things up in a village here on Tenerife. It has got three drawers and three doors and we restore all our CD´s and DVD´s in it.

I like the antique look and many of the things we have in our home here in Los Cristianos are in dark wood and gold. But I also like silver and tin in a combination with black like you can see on the other photos. The chandelier I bought last December in Finland.

The Grand Prix

The Grand Prix started today and I got up 4.30 am to watch it. Clas didn’t go to bed at all in the night when he was watching the preview program that started at 3.00.
Hamilton won like you could have guessed and Kimi Räikkönen ended up number nine.
Heidfield was number two and Rosberg number three.
Next race is on already next Sunday and we have decided to not do anything else at the Easter than watch the race and relax. The qualification starts at 6.00 Saturday morning, here on Tenerife, and the preview program starts already at 5.00 Sunday morning.

Our day off

It was our day off yesterday and Clas had his birthday.
We don’t like to celebrate and make up big parties when we are turning odd numbers and because of that we didn’t tell anybody about it. But some of our friends had somehow got to know about it and he got both presents and cards.
In the night we were out for dinner to El Toro with Mick and Frances, from England, and later we went to Acapulco for line dancing.

A short update

Clas has heard EU is now allowing Brazilian beef to be imported to the Canarian Islands again. That’s nice. Hopefully we don’t suffer at all because of the ban they stated some weeks ago.

Our signs are still locked in at Buzanada. The owner of Lewinski will continue working on getting them back this coming week.
We heard the polices have removed signs from other places as well. Not only from us. The sign shops will probably get a lot of work now.
We have decided to buy our signs back when it probably will become more expensive to make new ones.

Clas has promised to start recording the vocals for our new CD this week.

Our internet isn’t still working. Hopefully they get it in order this week.

Salmiak and Finnish bread

There are two Finnish products that I start missing every time I live abroad.
One is Salmiak ( salt and liquorice sweet) and the second is the finish coarse rye bread, special one called Revitty.

Since Christmas time we have been provided with the delicasies all the time. People we know who comes down to Tenerife have brought us the products and right now we still have got some bread in the freezer.
About a week ago a friend of us, Tomas, who works as a steward on Finnair, brought me two big boxes of my favorite Halva Salmiak.
In the end of the night at Lewinski I invited our workmates to taste how good candies we have in Finland.
One of the waiters, Kumar from India, has tasted Salmiak before and didn’t like to have any.
But Raul, the man from Cuba, who is employed to watch our sound equipment out on the terrace during the night time, had one.
He put it in the mouth and started sucking it with an expression on his face that said `what is this tasting like´? After a while he asked in spanish – What is this sweet made of? I think it is licqorice or ammoniac or something like that, I replied.
Now he really looked like his brain was working on full capacity and suddenly the candy just popped out from his mouth. Poor Raul! I knew he wouldn’t like the taste of Salmiak.

When we lived in Florida 1996-97 Clas asked his mum to send us ABC Salmiak.
We hadn’t had any for a long time and were dreaming of it constantly. The corners of my mouth were almost moving up to the ears if I only started thinking of how it would taste to have a salmiak. I missed it so much.
She had bought 4 bags and, I tell you, the candies were the most expensive Salmiak we ever have had because of the postage.
One day we were out in a park with our friends from the church and Clas invited them to taste Finnish Salmiak.
You could see on their faces that they didn’t like it. After a while somebody asked what the candies were made of and Clas was joking and told them it’s made of Camel shit.

Like timing the sound from a horn they all spitted it out in the same time and somebody almost started vomiting. We were laughing like crazy.
Salmiak is not made of Camel excrement even when the taste probably is similar to it!

For finish people it is very delicious and it is my favorite candy.

Breakfast

This is my breakfast of today.
Finish bread with Salomon cream cheese, gravlax and fresh dill and Coffee with cream. Delicious!
I would be very happy if somebody from Finland, Österbotten, would like to move down to Tenerife and start a bakery similar to what they’ve got up there. Maybe they could make a fortune of it when the bread here doesn’t taste anything. We really need a finish bakery on the island!

Our signs

The owner of the restaurant Lewinski called the government of Arona yesterday and asked where our signs are.
They got to know that they are behind a fence up in Busanada which is a small town about 10 km from Los Cristianos and they will have to pay money to get them back. The person in the phone couldn’t tell when they can come and get them and they were told to call again later.
Hopefully they can get an appointment soon and go there and get them back.

When we started playing yesterday it was only a few people at the restaurant and it looked really bad.
After playing about one hour we started becoming crowded and I think we had about 130 visitors if we count everyone that were in during the night.
Some told us they had seen the signs were not there and they had thought we are not going to play in the night. Later they had heard the sound when we started playing and came over to dance and listen to us.
It seems like our signs are very important and maybe we will have less guests until we get them back.
The worst thing that can happen now is that the government is delaying the answer of when we can come and buy them back.

The police force took our signs

Last night when we were eating our dinner at Lewinskis the restaurant suddenly was crowded with three policemen and one police lady. It has happened before so we didn’t take much notice about it.

About a couple of months ago there were a lot of polices visiting the restaurant and we heard they were out checking up the business permissions etc. and they even had been complaining about the sound that our music is causing in the nights.
Why they had to be as many persons for such a reason, is something I don’t understand. When I think of our home country Finland, where you seldom see any polices, it looks like a waist of money.

We continued eating but after a while Clas told me somebody is taking our sign that were hanging on the fence of the restaurant. I turned over and saw a man, wearing a yellow west, walking away with the big sign with our faces on, and he throw it up on a truck that was waiting on the street. I stood up and went quickly out to see what’s going on.
Out on the street there was a policeman who seamed to be the boss for the two assistants who were carrying stuff to the waiting truck.
I went to the policeman to ask what’s going on and if I can get our signs back when they are quite expensive to buy.
He seemed to be very nervous and started yelling at me that I have to go back into the restaurant directly. I was really surprised of the way he treated me and went back in without understanding anything.
I have never seen a policeman in such a state of stress. I expected him to kindly answer my questions and to be helpful like polices are in Finland.
This was a new experience for me. Why was he so angry? And why was he acting so desperately like he was afraid?

Back in the restaurant everything looked like a movie that is played in slow motion. Everybody was very quiet and had put on stone-faces and the owner of the restaurant had to show some papers. Nobody was saying a word. You could have heard a pin drop!
It seems like many people are afraid of polices in Spain. Maybe they believe you can be put in jail for no reason if you just open your mouth?
My picture of polices is that they are there to be helpful and to keep everything safe and in order. They are people you can trust and who you can turn to in need, like I did.
Maybe I am stupid and should change my mind now when I live in Spain?

We still didn’t know why all this was going on and you could feel it was not the right time to start asking.
I sat down with Clas and we continued the dinner waiting for the police force to leave.

When they had left we got to know that our signs had been on a space of the government of Arona community when they had been hanging on the outside of the fence.
The police force had taken both of our signs, even the one at the other street that has got light bulbs inside. They didn’t take the light-cable that also was hanging on the wrong side of the fence when they only were interested in signs this time.

There is a lawn between the street and the fence. Lewinski has, for free, been taking care of it even when it belongs to the community of Arona. Now the restaurant was fined when our signs were hanging like an ornament on the fence of the restaurant. The signs didn’t even touch the ground of Arona that would be a prohibited area. This looks like a bad `Thank You´ for the goodwill of Lewinski!

We have still difficult to understand why the policemen didn’t give a warning first and tell us the signs have to be on the inside of the fence. And why did they have to be so many polices for such a small thing? Did they believe that we are dangerous people and that we probably would attack them? All together there were 4 polices + two assistants + one truck driver to take our signs.

Today the owner of the restaurant is going up to the town of Arona to try to buy our signs back. I don’t know if it is right or wrong to pay to get them back, but you know, this is Spain! I just hope we will get them back.

The bus stops

I went shopping one day last week to San Isidro, a town here on Tenerife.

I decided to go there by bus when many of the buses here in Los Cristianos pass the town that is beside the motorway.

The bus stopped in the lane that is specially built for the reason and we were three persons who stepped out.

I started follow the other ones when I didn’t see any pavement or path for the pedestrians, hoping they are on their way to the town.

First we had to cross an exit-road of the motorway with no visibility. I was running to be sure to not be run over by the speeding cars.

After passing a small grove we were all claiming up to the bridge that is crossing the motorway. Up there you really had to keep the balance to not fall down while you were claiming over a fence that was about three foot high (80 cm). It was a lot of sand and stones at the hill and I was lucky I had comfortable shoes on my feet.

When we had passed the bridge I had to cross a couple of more roads with speeding vehicles before I out of breath got to the town.

Imagine there are no lanes or sidewalks built for the people that choose to go by bus and you really feel like a cattle that is wandering around as soon as you get out from the bus. You feel you are in the wrong place wherever you walk. Special when you have to cross the exit-roads of the motorway. That is a place where you never should be allowed to walk.

After scanning the stores and shopping a lot of silk stockings, a brown skirt and a dark red shirt to Clas and the dining table and the chairs for the balcony I was finally ready for returning back home.

Now a new adventure started. First I had to walk through a small field of sand, lava stones and bushes. Good luck I had the right shoes on!

Then I had to claim over a fence that was about 3 foot high and I also had to cross an exit-lane with speeding cars from the motorway. Oh, I was really scared.

I wonder how the old ladies can get over the fence. Maybe they are creeping on the ground under it?

I know this sounds like I have missed out the lane that ought to be there, but there isn´t any lane or path to walk on! This is for sure really how it is! It´s unbelievable! The bus stops are built between the two exit-roads of which one is going into the town and the other one is going out from the town. And when you check it out you can see that´s how the bus stops are placed in the most of the places along the motorway.

Down at the bus stop lane it looked terribly. There was trash every where. I thought I need to take a photo with my cellular phone and blog about it.

Oh, I really feel commiseration for the people that have to go by bus every day. It’s really uncomfortable to get to the bus stops and it is dangerous too.

Please, click on the photo to get it enlarged. All the white spots are trash!

The questions of the day

Will we run out of beef on Tenerife in the end of March?
European Union stated, the first of February, a ban of Brazilian beef because of the mouth and foot decease that is common over there.
The commission said the ban is not causing the member nations of Europe any problems when only about 20% of the meat in the union comes from this country.
What they didn’t think about is that here on Tenerife 80% of the beef is Brazilian and now there seems to be a problem to quickly find meat at the same cheap price from another producer to fill up the gap.
The gap of 20% in the rest of Europe will not cause any big problems when they can fill it up with European produced beef that is more expensive.
The beef that is already on the way from Brazil will be let in until the 15:th of March and the shops and the restaurants will probably buy it all and put it into freezers and sell it out later. Maybe for a higher price?
What about the tourists? Will they become unsatisfied if they have to pay a very high price to have a fillet steak?
Maybe there will not be any beef at all in the restaurants, for a while, when the restaurants have to get their prices approved in Santa Cruz before they can start using the menus. They can probably not sell the meat for the prices that are in the menus today if they will have to pay a lot more than before to get the meat.
It seems like many of the statements of EU are making it worse for the citizens who are living in the outer areas of the union. Of course we don’t like to have bad beef but why do they forget to think about a new provider for us when they make the statement?
Should we start recommending the tourists to bring meat in their suitcases in the end of the month?

Our day off

Yesterday when it was our day off we went out shopping. Clas hired a car and we went to Chafiras looking for a new barbeque grill. We would have preferred one with a lid but when there wasn’t any good ones in that style we finally bought an open one that has a plenty of space for the meat. I think we now can prepare food for up to 8 persons at the same time. But our table is only for 6 persons so we will probably not invite more guests than that.
When we got back home we started making a barbeque party for ourselves.
As a starter we had a plate with prawns, eggs, gravlax, Italian salad and white wine. And then we had fillet steaks of pork, mashed potatoes and a cucumber salad with pineapple and basilica and red wine.
I was eating too much and thought I need to be aware of how much I eat this coming week when my stomach probably has expanded and have room for more food than normal.

A short update

We have been into a lot of things since we lost the internet and I will write a short update now.

We didn’t buy the car I told you about earlier. We decided we don’t really need it. We drive very seldom and it wouldn´t be clever to pay the road taxes, the insurance, the yearly check up and eventually other services. We thought it is less expensive for us to just go by taxi or rent a car when we like to go somewhere.

I have been looking for a dining table and chairs that would fit on our balcony for a long time. A couple of weeks ago I finally found them and I am so lucky. We are decorating the balcony in a Texas country style and the dining set I found is in Mexico style and is made in the right type of wood .

We caught colds again a couple of weeks ago (the second time in 6 weeks!) and have sounded like parrots in the end of the nights. We both got fever, sore throats and running noses. This has also caused our new CD to be postponed for over a month so far. Hopefully we can start recording the song soon when that is the only thing that’s left.

A report about us was broadcasted yesterday by the Finish national TV company.
The pictures was from last year when Sundom NärTV ( a finish local TV company) visited us at Lewinski and in our home here in Los Cristianos.

The Finish Radio also broadcasted a twentyfive minutes long program with us last Monday.
The interview was made at Lewinskis the Friday before.

The internet

Our internet is still out of order. They say a cable has been broken somewhere and they try to fix it. They are working on it and have now opened up two holes in the street outside the house.
Imagine they have to open up holes in the street to get down to the cable!
The whole house where we live is without the internet and yesterday when they were working on it the connection to the house opposite the road was broken as well.
There is a PC shop that has an internet cafe. It looked empty when I passed it a while ago.
I wonder who pay them compensation for the time they don´t have the internet connection?