Today its raining in Escorial, my washing has been out for 3 days now. I took the dogs for a walk as usual to the park behind the Monastory. As usual all I ventured was "ola" to other dog walkers, I did not dare broach the subject by saying my other bit of Spanish "Buenas" fearing that as it was not particularly "buenas" I might end up being drawn into a converstaion. I am always ready with "no habla Espagnol" its a pity but people shie away when I utter those words. Its good for the beggars in Madrid - all except one who spoke impeccable English..........

After a week of being on my own (Maria is in Ecuador) I just HAD to get out, do some shopping, I needed my staples. Beer, Cidra, Butter,Milk and something other than homemade pizza and pasta - all you need do is drop it in 500ml of boiling water.

I went to the local DIA which I had hoped would be closed the I could scuttle away and not have to face the locals and worse explain that I "no comprende". Alas it was open. Ok leche entera, semidesnadata, all confusing because I go by the colours of the carton. They are opposite what I get in the UK, RED is WHOLE milk, I remembered my loving wifes words as she gave me some Europounds - just in case. Yup got it RED, whole milk. Milk with nothing taken away, all the bad stuff for hearts and cholesterol inclusiv.

On my way out I espy some chicken, pollo, or is that octopus ? Looks like chicken - I ma going to roast me a chicken for supper, declared the foolish English voice in my head.

Aha pollo quarters, pollo breast, ah POLLO ENTERA, neat price only 3 Europounds, wassat in real money ?? Ok it'll do, tonight we feast.

Feeling well pleased at not being thrown in jail on my first major solo excursion to the shops I rushed away with my purchases. I had of course hovered around until no-one was at the checkout, just in case someone spoke to me - ola, buenas have you got a coin for the trolley , that sort of thing. Jees I was almost blown away when the girl asked me about bolsa's . I wagged my finger at the trolley to show I had got some carriers, it seemed to pacify her enough to get on with doing other check out stuff. I paid, no major probs, I think

Ok, the whole point of my meandering , the chicken sits on the counter waiting for my attentions. Seems that ENTERA is good for what it means, my chicken was indeed ENTERA. So much ENTERA it still had feet, it still had its ENTERA head on its ENTERA neck. And inside was its ENTERA gizzard, liver, heart and who knows what else.

I think it will sit on the counter for a little while longer ...............

Overall : pleased at plucking ( no pun intended) up the courage to actually do something other than surf all day. Have added a new word to my vocabulary, one I wont forget.


MM : do I win story of the mes ????

Good shopping story, desmo! If you're asking about my "call for Madrid stories" it has to be about Madrid. Sorry.

desmo,

Nevertheless you get my vote as being about as "kitchen savvy" and "Spanish fluent" as I am. My wife is constantly telling me that I'm the only person that could scald water when he boils it - Of course my first response is to say, "HEY! I resemble that remark!"

She now makes up plates of "leftovers" for me to nuke each day, and there's specific instructions attached to the things on post-its. I just put them on the cabinet by the microwave and have at it. Of course I call it a cooking triumph.

Back to the frozen pizza - My last venture with that included what turned out to be something that produced enough plumes of smoke that they overcame the ability of the exhaust fan over the oven to do its job. End result? Every smoke alarm in the house went off, and I'm standing around with half the windows open, and it's below freezing outside, wondering if the smoke billowing out the windows is going to draw the fire department to our house "AGAIN!," because of my cooking.

This whole thing is making me hungry. Maybe I'll just go in and whup up a pizza. Even those that I get right taste worse than the famous "TelePizza"/frizzbies I've had in Spain.

Wolf (Whose culinary skills abandoned him before he even learnt how to boil water right! )

[ 01-23-2002: Message edited by: Wolf ]

Ok MM how about this.................

Today its raining in MADRID, my washing has been out for 3 days now. I took the dogs for a walk as usual to the MADRIDS RETIRO PARK . As usual all I ventured was "ola" to other dog walkers, I did not dare broach the subject by saying my other bit of Spanish "Buenas" fearing that as it was not particularly "buenas" I might end up being drawn into a converstaion. I am always ready with "no habla Espagnol" its a pity but people shie away when I utter those words. Its good for the beggars in MADRID - .

Wolf, thanks for your vote - I must be winning now.

maybe we should have "culinary disaster within a 50 kms radius of Madrid Story of the month"..

I think MM is a liitle bit harsh on me, I mean I do live in the county,province or whatever it is of Madrid, and I do go when I am commanded too.


Of course as this thread is about shopping maybe i should tell about LAST week when I cornered a guy in a computer shop, I dunno who wanted to shoot who the most but in the end I got the wall socket for my RJ45 network extension........poor man !!!!!!

And in the local electronico domestico ....
Have you ever tried to explain that you need twin phono / RCA cable with 3.5 mm jack at the other end. Aint no phrase book got that in.

Coincidentally it rained that night too.

Hasta Luego Wolf

desmo,

I tried "plugging your phrase,"twin phono / RCA cable with 3.5 mm jack at the other end," into the Altavista online Babelfish translator, and it came out as shown below.

cable gemelo del phono / RCA con el gato de 3,5 milímetros en el otro extremo.

When I translated it back to English it didn't quite look the same, but I guess it would work. I suppose that's why people look at me funny in Spain when I throw one of those Babelfish translated phrases at them, from English...

By the way, I finished making that pizza. It didn't turn out nearly as bad as I expected. Are they supposed to have cold centers, and frozen pepperoni on them?

Wolf (Who checked the package to see if it was called a "popsicle" pizza - )

That story was very funny desmo

"twin phono / RCA cable with 3.5 mm jack at the other end" should be "cable RCA de doble canal con una clavija de 3,5 mm en el otro extremo" (it's very difficult!).

But in El Escorial you may go to the Gigante Supermarket or to the Carrefour of Villalba. Then you may find the cable for yourself hang somwhere in the market. Thus you won't have to explain it to anyone

Anyway, why do you think is embarrasing not to speak spanish? Noone is born knowing everything... You will find that it is usually that when you say "No hablo español" someone will start speaking in english... Also, the number of forgeiners in El Escorial is quite high.

Regards.

Fernando

Hey Fernando.
I get lost in Carrefour, and always end up with loads of other stuff I dont need and forget what I went in for. I am just a country boy, born and raised in the sticks. The bright lights and stuff hypnotise me into doing strange unnatural acts ..... like spend money.

Actually the local Electronico Domestico has a load of little trays all stacked against the wall tucked away behind the counter. Inside are magical things, switches,connectors...............
multimeters,(dunno why but on a recent audit I realised I had 5 multimeters)soldering irons................
Oooooooooooh - I just wanted to look officer

To update: the aforementioned pollo is well n truly roasted sans its appendages.

Now it looks like the fish man left the heads on my trout. So they'll be watching me with those sad eyes as I wield my chopper (oops can I say that here), can I eat them after decapitating them ???? maybe I'll have the fish steak I bought, communication broke down ENTERA ly at that point. I think its swordfish, but who knows.

Incidentally I dined on a chip butty and later on opened a packet of 500ml easy to cook pasta in cheese sauce. The gremlins snuck up on me again, I figured that what looked like a half pint mug MUST be 500ml.
Oh for leftovers cooked nice and crisp in the micronde .

Hasta manana

Hey wolf.



I figure if the cheese is all gooey and its all stuck to the bottom of the oven its ready

Desmo - the reason people flee when you tell them "no habla espanyol" may be because it means "YOU don't speak Spanish"!

On one of my first trips to Spain when I was struglling to order a beer I was told the following joke (in Spanish) which seems to me to sum up the plight of the novice.

Little Pepe knows only one thing, how to order a glass of vermouth (vermut). So every day he goes to his local bar...
"Un vermut!"
The camarero gives him his glass of vermouth and Pepito is happy. But one day Pepe gets tired of drinking vermouth and resolves to try something else. After much effort he learns to say "un cafe" to ask for a coffee. Having mastered the expression he goes to the bar, and proudly approaches the counter...
"Un cafe!!"
The camarero stares at him...
"?Solo, o con leche?"
Pepe stares back...
"Un vermut!!"