Germaphobia

I have not revised my position on germaphobaphoboia, but.....

Apparently, Spain is microb-resistant. Dishes of warm beef cheeks, tuna with mayonaise on crosscut bread, little curls of jamon (that’s ham to you) sit artfully perched on top of slices of boiled egg garnished with a bit of smoked salmon, all day, possibly for many days. People enter the many bars of the old town of Bibao, buy a beer and swallow down a vertible hoard of bacteria. The pickled calamari rubs shoulders with the blood sausage which eyes off the stewed red peppers. They know each other intimately because they have been togeather for such a long time: they have fomed a relationship, a biological relationship. Nobody can explain why everyone in Spain does not constantly have some sort of stomach ailment. Perhaps germs are a myth, or perhaps after Guernica, nothing can hurt these people.

In the Basque country (which is where we are right now) they have another word for tapas; it’s pintxos. I am not sure of the literal translation, but the idiomatic translation is mashed fish substance mixed with creamy stuff marinated at room temperature for a long period of time.

But tonight’s dinner was spectacular. Rather the eating pintxos, we had a proper meal at La Delicosa and it lived up to its name. There was duck, crab stuffed peppers and medallions of foie. I drank a dry sherry and loved it.

Debbie did not kiss the guy who presented her with her bag, firstly because he had the audacity to ask her for her passport number in order to receive it (the gall) and secondly because Julie and I held her back. So voting blog members, she is out of the running for longest suffering member of the girl band. I, on the other hand have taken the lead with a rash that is so remarkable that Juile and Debbie banished me to the bathroom when they saw it. Exiled to the en-suite, I was instructed to put my feet into the bidet to try to settle the red, blotchy, raised hot welts that are creeping up my ankles towards my knees. (Sexy I know.)

Bilbao is the town of flowerboxes overflowing with geraniams, street lamps, great coffee and streetlife. We still love it.