Modes of transportation

The corner view project at Spain Daily looks at life around the world: This week's theme is modes of transportation.


Cars are the major mode of transportation around here. I have a car myself, but no photo - it is just a small silver grey thing. In fact, I prefer to be transported rather than to drive myself. Finding parking is really a stress factor.

Every morning when schools open, we have a heavy traffic of parents dropping off their children - traffic chaos rules for about 20 min. and you should see how some park throw their cars anywhere in the road in panic not to be too late.

The custom down here is that it is perfectly ok to leave your car in the street obstructing the traffic if you just have your emergency lights flashing ...

I rather prefer to be transported by train. We have the local railway, Renfe Cercanias and then we have the AVE - Fast train to go to Madrid and Barcelona in (almost) no time.


During the annual festival - Ferias de Malaga - in August the number of horseback riders increases significantly ...


And finally, the motos - there are lot of them down here. The postmen and -women ride yellow ones :-)

Here are the participants for this week's corner view. Check them out!
jane, ian, bonnie, esti, sophie, modsquad,caitlin, joyce, ani, couturecoucou, kim, a day that is dessert, natsumi, epe, kaylovesvintage, trinsch, c.t., jeannette, outi, schanett, ritva, dongdong, francesca, state of bliss, jennifer, dana, denise, cabrizette, bohemia girl, ruth, dianna, isabelle, amber, a girl in the yellow shoes, mister e, janis, kari, jgy, jenna, skymring, elizabeth, audrey, allison, lise, cate, mon, victoria, crescent moon, erin, otli, amy, ida, caroline, lisa, dorte, kimmie, la lune dans le ciel, nicola, malo, samantha

Pls. don't switch off you cigarette here

These signs are planted in all the large flower pots in Plaza Mayor.

What a day !

Málaga Airport is not an interesting place to spend a whole day ... which I did today.

I was just going to bring my daughter to the airport this morning to catch the Norwegian flight to Copenhagen after three very nice days down here.

But oh, at arrival to the airport at 9:30 am, the flight was 1 hour delayed according to the information board - and so it continued the whole day. Norwegian does not have an office at the airport and so, the information was handled by the Flight Care office - very nice people, but they could not provide us with any useful information - just - wait a little more and we may know more :-(

We did, however, make a short escape to Plaza Mayor to drink coffee and look at the departing planes.


The positive part of it - we had almost one day more together :-). She is supposed to land in Cph. 30 min after Midnight.

Earth Mosaic

Calling all photographers and Earth-lovers! Help record a day in the life of our planet, in pictures.

Did you take a photo on Earth Day - 22 April - of the world around you. If yes, you can participate in the Earth Mosaic Project (until 30th April). Select your best one from this day and opload it on the Earth Mosaic site. The aim is to make a giant mosaic.

More info here EarthMosaic


I just oploaded this one - the weather around here was very strange today - big clouds came rolling in from the sea obscuring everything quite suddenly.

Beauty contest in the Pueblo

Just read in Benalmádena Digital that the annual contest (this is the second time) to beautify window railings and balconies in the pueblo will take place 18-22 of May.


The house of this wall has a plate stating that it won the 2. prize last year.


I guess this house is getting ready for the contest.


The winner will receive € 400, second € 300, and third € 200. All three will get plates for their walls.

Pescado a la sal

I am not (yet) very confident when it comes to cooking fish. Since we moved down here I have, however, tried preparing a few new dishes like this very simple, but delicious fish baked in salt.



(serves 2)
- 1-2 sea bass (or sea bream) 1-1.5 kg - cleaned, but not scaled
- about the same weight in coarse sea salt

Preheat the oven to 200C. Make a thin bed of salt on an ovenproof dish. Place the fish on top and then bury it completely under a thick layer of salt. Sprinkle with a little water. Bake for about 25-35 min (depending on size and longest if it is sea bream).

Take the fish out of the oven. Scrape away the salt and pull away the skin. It takes a little practise to take out the flesh of the fish in nice whole chunks.

Gougeres - puff pastry with cheese

This recipe is from a 5 year old issue of a Danish magazine Bo Bedre. I made them some weeks ago, and they were quite nice as a snack with a glass of wine. Tonight I will check if they are just as good when out of the freezer.



(Makes 22 units approx.)
1 dl water
40 g butter
60 g wheat flour
2 small eggs (whipped)
40-50 g of blue cheese
black pepper

Bring the water to boil with butter. Pour the flour in while stirring vigorously.

When the dough easily slips the pot, transfer it to a bowl and cool for some minutes. Stir in the eggs little by little and then the crumpled cheese. Season with pepper.

With two teaspoons put the small rolls on the baking sheet and put them in a 200 degrees C warm oven for about 18 min until light golden brown.


Do not open the oven to check on them or they will collapse.

Like a sun

Mercadillo ecólogico

This morning we went to Cártama just north of Málaga to explore the ecological market that takes place there every first Sunday of the month. In fact, you can find an ecological market every week somewhere in the Guadalhorce region of Andalucía.


The supermarkets around here are not well stocked with ecological products - and even though I am not a fanatic, I prefer to buy ecological products when possible.

And today I bought lemons - I like you use the lemon zest in many of the things that I cook, but they definately have to be organic. Well one of the next days I am going to make preserved lemons ...

Brownies for dessert

As the lunch of artichokes was not such a success, there was still appetite enough to squeeze down one or two slices of these brownies.


I have this very old notebook with just as old recipes. Slowly, I will get those recipes online that I want to keep ...

Artichokes

Yesterday I was a the market and bought about a kilo of fresh artichokes because now was the time to try something new. They look delicious, but I must admit, this is not something we would like to eat again soon.

I had followed the very illustrative instructions from Simply Recipes, but either I did something wrong or this is simply not my kind of food.

I read somewhere that you have to taste something at least 11 times before you know if you like it or not, so I may try it again but prepared without all the outer leaves.

Street art

I am rather facinated by the artwork on many shops' shutters. This one is on a board shop in c/ San Juan in Arroyo de la Miel.