 Changing Places Week 164 W/C 12th April 2009
The supermarkets of Majorca, full of brightly coloured fruit and vegetables and there is me with an empty shopping basket. It is at this time of year that I get bored with what is on offer and long for the selection at Waitrose or Marks and Spencer in London. In Soller the parsnip is considered either an exotic veg or cattle food because they are never on the shelves. If I see another carrot this winter it will be too soon and the recipe book comes out more and more for a million things to do with the wretched things. Carrot soup, carrot and squash puree, grated carrots - I could go on and on and bore myself even further. I stood behind a local lady and watched as she unloaded the trolley in Carrefour- squash, leeks, onions, cabbage, and carrots - the same items as me. I asked her how she cooked them hoping for a few new tips. `I boil them together and then blend them with olive oil' she said and here we go again - another soup recipe. We are at the stage in the season where winter food should give way to salads and barbeques of the next but the weather has stuck us in the soups and stews mentality. While I'm on the subject where can I buy cooking apples? I made an apple pie with granny smith's apples this weekend and it is just not the same. `Irritated of Soller' needs new seasons produce to break the monotony - Trev obliged by picking our little harvest of broad beans and it made a welcome change!
This week heralds the arrival of the Kids Reps to Majorca. This team were recruited by us at Sun Search Recruitment in the UK just a couple of months ago. Rainy interview days in Liverpool and London and now a young team arriving in the sun (?) in Majorca this week. The E3 group led by Vicky Donovan is waiting to receive them and train them for Hi Hotels. If you ever thought that Kids Reps were just baby sitters think again. Ofsted ratios and standards, child care qualifications, first aid training and more is just the tip of the ice berg on this training course. When the work is done all fifteen of them relocate to the east of the island to set up the children's club in Cala Bona. Then its time for goodbyes as half the team go off to Minorca to look after the lucky children there. There is such a lot of time invested in this group, they are young and enthusiastic and some of them have never worked abroad before. They have left jobs in children's nurseries near their homes for their summer in the sun. I feel like a mother hen clucking over my little chicks and we will be keeping a watchful eye on them on behalf of the mothers of Europe! As for the lucky kids on holiday they are going to have a great time with new clubs, new equipment and a great team of Kids Reps!
Relocation has brought about immense change for us ex city dwellers. Central London never had us putting sandbags at the doors or towels to mop up the rain In fact we have a pile of towels that do double duty - in the winter they mop up the leaks and in the summer become the swimming pool towels. Our kitchen door needs replacing after this winters battering of rain and our Entrada dries out with the help of a calour gas heater! We can't believe that we have made such a change. Sophisticated Londoners maybe once but now we are flexible Sollerics - able to react with nonchalance at what ever the climate throws at us! The benefits of all the rain is clear to see with the most wonderful greenery around and such clear light. No wonder the artists flock to Majorca to paint for the beauty and the light is second to none.
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