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Two things have happened today that have made me realise (even more) how much I love England.
The first was listening to a conversation with one of the Polish guys who work in my office. He was saying he is going back to Poland in a few days to buy a plot of land to build his house. When asked: “So, you’re planning to leave us and go back to Poland?”, his answer was a massive “Of course”.
I wasn’t surprised to hear myself thinking aloud “Of course he won’t stay. He’s just come to this country to get rich* and bugger off”. I wasn’t surprised because in very little time I’ve become very protective of England (despite being an immigrant myself). And all these cases of foreigners who come to the country to work for a pittance, live in infrahuman conditions and then after a few years go back to their own homecountries, where they can exchange their savings in pound sterling for their lower valued own currency, well, it annoys me a lot. I find it very unfair.
But I not only get annoyed at the Polish (who are the most obvious, but not the only ones!). I also feel embarrased at some Spaniards’ behaviours. Obviously the political/economical situation in Spain is bad. Worse than it has been in years. And I don’t blame the people who want to make the best of themselves and try to prospere abroad. But you have to be a bit more humble and respect the society that has accepted you and given you a chance!
I read in the Spaniards forum all these cases of people despising and looking down on England, or Scotland, or Ireland, or whatever country they live in. ALWAYS comparing it to Spain. And it annoys me. Hell, it does. You only find a few cases of people who actually realise that they have to be grateful. “Don’t quarrel with your bread and butter”…
That was the second reason that made me realise today how much I love this country. I found myself very worked up over one of those posts in the forum where someone said that, actually, a study said that life in Spain is better, much better than in the UK. So how come everybody is desperate to leave Spain? I ask…
What really drives me up the wall is that the only figures in that study in which Spain was higher than the UK were “hours of sun per year” and “holiday allowance per year”. The rest of the figures (overall salary, working hours per week, education spending, etc) clearly favoured the UK! I’m sorry, but “quality of life” comes with much more than more hours of sunshine…
I’m not feeling very “inline” with my fellow countrymen at the moment. It’s not that I don’t feel Spanish, it’s just that I don’t agree with most of their way of seeing things. Actually, because of the forum, I’ve been doing more and more “Spanish” things lately, like cooking Spanish food and listening to lots of Spanish music. However, my nationality does not define me.
Today I’m feeling 50-50.
So a new season of the X-Factor has just started. My excuse for watching it last year was that there was a Spanish girl and I had to support her. This year I have no excuse. I’m watching it because I love it!
I can’t make this post too long. The first elimination round has just finished and I am too annoyed to write anything sensible at the moment. But I’m also too outraged not to do it!
I just cannot believe that John and Edward, the evil little bastards twins have not been sent home tonight. Actually, I am quite annoyed at the X-Factor programme for calling them out first and making everybody go o_O! Consequently, making their egos grow bigger!
I should be even more annoyed at Louie Walsh for “giving them an opportunity” of becoming pop stars when they obviously can’t sing or even dance to the beat of a song! He clearly did it because they are Irish… Very, very biased.
I can’t pick a favourite just yet. I still like a lot of them, but if I had to, I think I’d go for Stacy Solomon. She is just so cute and likeable. Everytime she speaks I want to cuddle and stroke her 
I’ve been on the Spaniards forum for more than a year now. I didn’t have great beginnings there, but bad things are easily forgotten and I’ve kept on participating more and more with time. I’ve been quite addicted to it in the last few months, and I must admit that I’ve met some very nice people there.
Well, the thing is that as Spaniards living abroad, we all are always trying to “connect” with those little details that we miss the most about Spain, and the most recurrent topic is always food. And I love food, that is a fact, so I don’t really need much encouraging or challenging in order to get in the kitchen and practice!
It all started with the simple and basic: Jamón and Queso Manchego. I’ve been able to find some Jamon Serrano in tesco but it’s really not worth it. It’s far too pricey and it’s not even a very nice one. However, I have found some proper, real extra mature Queso Manchego:
Bought from a local Spanish food importer – Quite good value for money!
Then there was a craze about Tortilla de patatas (Spanish omelettes = potato and onion omelette). Everybody in the forum, and I mean everybody, was making them and posting their pictures. And of course, I wasn’t going to not take the challenge!
Quite proud of how well this one turned up!
Then someone reminded me of “Arroz a la cubana” which is a dish that my mum used to make a lot for dinner when I was little. It consists of rice (boiled and fried with garlic and german “frankfurt-style” sausages) with tomato sauce (similar to passata, but sweeter) and a fried egg on top. I remember this dish very well, it was one of my favourite ones as a child. So I decided to try my luck.
What a disaster. I think the problem was that the ingredients were all wrong. I couldn’t get the right sausages, the rice was basmati and the passata was tasteless! (how much I miss “Fruco“!)
Not even looking that apetizing!
And last but not least, my latest creation has been “croquetas”. This is a very traditional Spanish dish. It’s basically made to take advantage of chicken left overs from roasts or casseroles, etc. The ingredients are: chicken leftovers, onion, flour, milk and stock. You’ll also need a couple of eggs and breadcrumbs. The theory is very simple and I had watched my mum making these for years and years, however, something, somewhere went wrong and I could simply not shape the “dough” into the croqueta shape. Nonetheless, they were super tasty and were highly enjoyed. I will just need some more practice to get the consistency of the dough just right!
They are supposed to be rounder and homogeneous!
Apart from all these, I have also cooked “estofado de cordero” (lamb stew) and Spanish-style rice, although you could never call it paella, it was quite tasty and nice. Let’s see what typical recipe I try next!
