I don’t know if it’s my imagination, but I have a feeling that there are an increasing number of people with allergies these days. It could be that we live in such a clean, sterile world (where children aren’t allowed to play in the dirt as they used to), that our immunity and intolerance to certain foods and materials, is slowly being eroded. Please don’t quote me on this thought, it is based solely on my own personal observations, and is not necessarily a scientific fact. Whatever the truth, I now find myself living my with own personal sensitivity…..

This winter I have been suffering from a throat irritation that only occurs when I am working in our bodega. This does however, exclude the offices, which are the only part of the wine cellar that have any form of heating. This being the case we are able to keep them dry and warm for the most part, during our long, cold, humid winters. My problem is that the minute I step out of the offices I can feel my throat tightening, and almost immediately, the irritation begins, resulting in a rather annoying dry cough. This is compounded when I spend a lot of time working outside the office, and means that sometimes I actually become short of breath. This week I finally decided to get it checked out. (Why are men always so reluctant to visit the doctor?)

After a battery of tests with a specialist in respiratory problems, resulting in a forearm that resembled a pin cushion, it was finally determined that I am now allergic to fungus and mold. Now, please don’t imagine for one second that our bodega is a filthy hovel, with dark, damp, black walls covered with mold, because I can assure you that it’s not – but inevitably, wherever there’s darkness and humidity, then there’s going to be fungal spores hanging in the atmosphere.

So, what’s the solution? Tablets? Stay in the office all winter? Well, apparently the suggestion is that I should probably wear some sort of surgical mask to filter the air that I breath when working in the cellars. (I do of course, already use a full face mask with filters for working with sulphur dioxide, but for this minor irritation that might be just a bit extreme!). I will have to try it and see.I don’t know if it’s my imagination, but I have a feeling that there are an increasing number of people with allergies these days. It could be that we live in such a clean, sterile world (where children aren’t allowed to play in the dirt as they used to), that our immunity and intolerance to certain foods and materials, is slowly being eroded. Please don’t quote me on this thought, it is based solely on my own personal observations, and is not necessarily a scientific fact. Whatever the truth, I now find myself living my with own personal sensitivity…..

This winter I have been suffering from a throat irritation that only occurs when I am working in our bodega. This does however, exclude the offices, which are the only part of the wine cellar that have any form of heating. This being the case we are able to keep them dry and warm for the most part, during our long, cold, humid winters. My problem is that the minute I step out of the offices I can feel my throat tightening, and almost immediately, the irritation begins, resulting in a rather annoying dry cough. This is compounded when I spend a lot of time working outside the office, and means that sometimes I actually become short of breath. This week I finally decided to get it checked out. (Why are men always so reluctant to visit the doctor?)

After a battery of tests with a specialist in respiratory problems, resulting in a forearm that resembled a pin cushion, it was finally determined that I am now allergic to fungus and mold. Now, please don’t imagine for one second that our bodega is a filthy hovel, with dark, damp, black walls covered with mold, because I can assure you that it’s not – but inevitably, wherever there’s darkness and humidity, then there’s going to be fungal spores hanging in the atmosphere.

So, what’s the solution? Tablets? Stay in the office all winter? Well, apparently the suggestion is that I should probably wear some sort of surgical mask to filter the air that I breath when working in the cellars. (I do of course, already use a full face mask with filters for working with sulphur dioxide, but for this minor irritation that might be just a bit extreme!). I will have to try it and see.

For the last couple of days I’ve been having my own personal cyber-crisis. For no apparent reason my laptop decided to throw a fit, and to stop loading programmes (‘programme not responding’). Of course the immediate reaction is to retrace all recent keystrokes (and any updates) to see if you’ve done something wrong. Unfortunately I found nothing obvious, and a system scan for corrupted files revealed nothing either (and only succeeded in wasting the best part of a day to carry out).

Consequently I am now studying all sorts of forums and websites trying to sift out the useful advice, and systematically working through the suggested fixes. It all takes time and patience, and does not really help to sell wine! I will soldier on….

For the last couple of days I’ve been having my own personal cyber-crisis. For no apparent reason my laptop decided to throw a fit, and to stop loading programmes (‘programme not responding’). Of course the immediate reaction is to retrace all recent keystrokes (and any updates) to see if you’ve done something wrong. Unfortunately I found nothing obvious, and a system scan for corrupted files revealed nothing either (and only succeeded in wasting the best part of a day to carry out).

Consequently I am now studying all sorts of forums and websites trying to sift out the useful advice, and systematically working through the suggested fixes. It all takes time and patience, and does not really help to sell wine! I will soldier on….

If I’m being honest ‘cellar door’ business does not represent a huge percentage of our annual sales – in fact we really don’t do very much at all. Part of the reason could be that we are not actively involved in any of the local wine tourism campaigns, and therefore do not receive too many potential customers at our door. This is not because we don’t want to participate in wine tourism, it’s simply an issue of time – we just don’t have enough people to host a stream of visitors turning up at random moments throughout the day.

Fortunately, we do however, receive visits from customers that come to buy our wines (sometimes because they’ve tried it somewhere and enjoyed it). Until now, one major drawback has been that all transactions were restricted to cash, as we could not accept cards. Of course it might not seem like a big deal in this day and age, but we have finally installed our very own POS machine to pay for goods. Obviously this means that our customers now don’t have to rush to the bank to draw cash, or organise time consuming bank transfers if they are ordering by phone (a very cumbersome system that is still widely used here in Spain).

A giant leap into the 21st century for Castro Martin…. Who knows what will come next – telephones without cables or perhaps cameras that don’t require any film?

If I’m being honest ‘cellar door’ business does not represent a huge percentage of our annual sales – in fact we really don’t do very much at all. Part of the reason could be that we are not actively involved in any of the local wine tourism campaigns, and therefore do not receive too many potential customers at our door. This is not because we don’t want to participate in wine tourism, it’s simply an issue of time – we just don’t have enough people to host a stream of visitors turning up at random moments throughout the day.

Fortunately, we do however, receive visits from customers that come to buy our wines (sometimes because they’ve tried it somewhere and enjoyed it). Until now, one major drawback has been that all transactions were restricted to cash, as we could not accept cards. Of course it might not seem like a big deal in this day and age, but we have finally installed our very own POS machine to pay for goods. Obviously this means that our customers now don’t have to rush to the bank to draw cash, or organise time consuming bank transfers if they are ordering by phone (a very cumbersome system that is still widely used here in Spain).

A giant leap into the 21st century for Castro Martin…. Who knows what will come next – telephones without cables or perhaps cameras that don’t require any film?

Black Friday is one of the biggest shopping days of the year in the United States, traditionally signalling the start of the Christmas buying period. For many years it was common for the larger stores to open their doors as early as 6am, but this has gradually been eroded in recent years, whereby many sales now actually start at midnight on Thanksgiving Day itself! To take this one step further, on-line retailers have now started to ‘open their doors’ for Black Friday business as much as one week in advance. Amazon, for example, started selling their special offers today, but not just in the United States…. Although Thanksgiving is not celebrated outside the States, many other parts of the world have now caught Black Friday fever (largely as an excuse for retailers to kick-start the Christmas rush), and shoppers are joining the annual stampede in countries around the world.

Out of interest I had a quick glance at the Amazon site to see what was on offer, and to be honest I was more than a little surprised by what I found. Looking for a bottle of Louis Latour Chablis? Well, it’s being offered on Amazon! The price and level of discount has not been posted as yet, but I have to say that I really didn’t expect to find Burgundy on offer – I’m not exactly sure why, it just seems a bit odd to me. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve bought a fair bit of wine on the internet in recent years – but just not on Amazon, and certainly not in a Black Friday sale!

Black Friday is one of the biggest shopping days of the year in the United States, traditionally signalling the start of the Christmas buying period. For many years it was common for the larger stores to open their doors as early as 6am, but this has gradually been eroded in recent years, whereby many sales now actually start at midnight on Thanksgiving Day itself! To take this one step further, on-line retailers have now started to ‘open their doors’ for Black Friday business as much as one week in advance. Amazon, for example, started selling their special offers today, but not just in the United States…. Although Thanksgiving is not celebrated outside the States, many other parts of the world have now caught Black Friday fever (largely as an excuse for retailers to kick-start the Christmas rush), and shoppers are joining the annual stampede in countries around the world.

Out of interest I had a quick glance at the Amazon site to see what was on offer, and to be honest I was more than a little surprised by what I found. Looking for a bottle of Louis Latour Chablis? Well, it’s being offered on Amazon! The price and level of discount has not been posted as yet, but I have to say that I really didn’t expect to find Burgundy on offer – I’m not exactly sure why, it just seems a bit odd to me. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve bought a fair bit of wine on the internet in recent years – but just not on Amazon, and certainly not in a Black Friday sale!

On the last leg of our journey home from Madrid to Vigo last week, we flew on the recently created Iberia Express – supposedly the discount airline of Iberia. I had noticed on our outbound flight that they had boasted 97% punctuality for the whole of 2014, but it wasn’t until the return leg that I fully understood how they achieved this remarkable number…..

On boarding our flight in Madrid the captain announced that our flight time to Vigo would be 45 minutes – this was quickly followed by a further announcement that our take-off would be slightly delayed. Twenty minutes after our scheduled departure time we eventually took off, and our journey time was exactly 45 minutes, as the pilot had previously confirmed. Imagine my puzzlement therefore, when the stewardess announced that we had actually landed 10 minutes early, and that their record of 97% punctuality remained completely intact….. But how? Had we landed in a different time zone? Were we travelling in a flying machine built by H.G.Wells? Well, no actually. The simple truth is that the published schedule allocates 75 minutes for a 45 minute flight. A 66% margin for error……. Talk about massaging the numbers!

On the last leg of our journey home from Madrid to Vigo last week, we flew on the recently created Iberia Express – supposedly the discount airline of Iberia. I had noticed on our outbound flight that they had boasted 97% punctuality for the whole of 2014, but it wasn’t until the return leg that I fully understood how they achieved this remarkable number…..

On boarding our flight in Madrid the captain announced that our flight time to Vigo would be 45 minutes – this was quickly followed by a further announcement that our take-off would be slightly delayed. Twenty minutes after our scheduled departure time we eventually took off, and our journey time was exactly 45 minutes, as the pilot had previously confirmed. Imagine my puzzlement therefore, when the stewardess announced that we had actually landed 10 minutes early, and that their record of 97% punctuality remained completely intact….. But how? Had we landed in a different time zone? Were we travelling in a flying machine built by H.G.Wells? Well, no actually. The simple truth is that the published schedule allocates 75 minutes for a 45 minute flight. A 66% margin for error……. Talk about massaging the numbers!

On the last leg of our journey home from Madrid to Vigo last week, we flew on the recently created Iberia Express – supposedly the discount airline of Iberia. I had noticed on our outbound flight that they had boasted 97% punctuality for the whole of 2014, but it wasn’t until the return leg that I fully understood how they achieved this remarkable number…..

On boarding our flight in Madrid the captain announced that our flight time to Vigo would be 45 minutes – this was quickly followed by a further announcement that our take-off would be slightly delayed. Twenty minutes after our scheduled departure time we eventually took off, and our journey time was exactly 45 minutes, as the pilot had previously confirmed. Imagine my puzzlement therefore, when the stewardess announced that we had actually landed 10 minutes early, and that their record of 97% punctuality remained completely intact….. But how? Had we landed in a different time zone? Were we travelling in a flying machine built by H.G.Wells? Well, no actually. The simple truth is that the published schedule allocates 75 minutes for a 45 minute flight. A 66% margin for error……. Talk about massaging the numbers!

On the last leg of our journey home from Madrid to Vigo last week, we flew on the recently created Iberia Express – supposedly the discount airline of Iberia. I had noticed on our outbound flight that they had boasted 97% punctuality for the whole of 2014, but it wasn’t until the return leg that I fully understood how they achieved this remarkable number…..

On boarding our flight in Madrid the captain announced that our flight time to Vigo would be 45 minutes – this was quickly followed by a further announcement that our take-off would be slightly delayed. Twenty minutes after our scheduled departure time we eventually took off, and our journey time was exactly 45 minutes, as the pilot had previously confirmed. Imagine my puzzlement therefore, when the stewardess announced that we had actually landed 10 minutes early, and that their record of 97% punctuality remained completely intact….. But how? Had we landed in a different time zone? Were we travelling in a flying machine built by H.G.Wells? Well, no actually. The simple truth is that the published schedule allocates 75 minutes for a 45 minute flight. A 66% margin for error……. Talk about massaging the numbers!

In the years that I have had my car, the only damage that I have ever suffered has been caused by other people…… whilst my car has been parked! And, of course, not one person has come forward to admit any sort of liability. Door dinks, bumps and a couple of scratches, all from car parks.

At Castro Martin we are quite fortunate that when Angela’s father built the Bodega over 30 years ago, he had the foresight to include a loading area for trucks, and also a generous area for parking. Until now this was simply an open area of concrete, and parking was simply a free-for-all – you parked your car where you could squeeze it in (and with Angela around, that was never going to be the best arrangement – for vehicle safety purposes). Suffice to say that she has a bit of a reputation for bumping into things, and suffers horribly from walls and posts that have a habit of reversing out in front of her!

Anyway, after painting an exterior wall the other day, we had a bit of white paint left over, and decided to paint some ‘official’ parking bays. We have made sure that each space is very generous so that even Angela has no excuse for causing any door dinks!!

In the years that I have had my car, the only damage that I have ever suffered has been caused by other people…… whilst my car has been parked! And, of course, not one person has come forward to admit any sort of liability. Door dinks, bumps and a couple of scratches, all from car parks.

At Castro Martin we are quite fortunate that when Angela’s father built the Bodega over 30 years ago, he had the foresight to include a loading area for trucks, and also a generous area for parking. Until now this was simply an open area of concrete, and parking was simply a free-for-all – you parked your car where you could squeeze it in (and with Angela around, that was never going to be the best arrangement – for vehicle safety purposes). Suffice to say that she has a bit of a reputation for bumping into things, and suffers horribly from walls and posts that have a habit of reversing out in front of her!

Anyway, after painting an exterior wall the other day, we had a bit of white paint left over, and decided to paint some ‘official’ parking bays. We have made sure that each space is very generous so that even Angela has no excuse for causing any door dinks!!

Today will be a day of mixed emotions here in Spain, as they welcome a new King to the throne of Spain, whilst at the same time bidding farewell to their Kings of Football ‘La Roja’, unceremoniously dumped out of the World Cup by Chile. Perhaps it’s a bit disrespectful to mention the new King and a football team in the same sentence, but in the past few years football has become even more of a religion than it was before.

Yesterday in Madrid King Juan Carlos signed his final Act of Parliament, a law approving his abdication in favour of his son who will be crowned King Felipe VI in a low key ceremony today. During times of austerity in Spain it was deemed, quite correctly, to be inappropriate to have a lavish celebration. However, the centre of Madrid has still been decorated with tens of thousands of Spanish flags, and large crowds are expected to line the route between Congress and the Royal Palace to cheer the new King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia, who will then greet the nation from the Royal balcony.

In an even more low key ceremony, the Spanish football team will fly home after their final group game against Australia on Monday. The euphoria of 4 years ago, when they were crowned World Champions, long forgotten.

Today will be a day of mixed emotions here in Spain, as they welcome a new King to the throne of Spain, whilst at the same time bidding farewell to their Kings of Football ‘La Roja’, unceremoniously dumped out of the World Cup by Chile. Perhaps it’s a bit disrespectful to mention the new King and a football team in the same sentence, but in the past few years football has become even more of a religion than it was before.

Yesterday in Madrid King Juan Carlos signed his final Act of Parliament, a law approving his abdication in favour of his son who will be crowned King Felipe VI in a low key ceremony today. During times of austerity in Spain it was deemed, quite correctly, to be inappropriate to have a lavish celebration. However, the centre of Madrid has still been decorated with tens of thousands of Spanish flags, and large crowds are expected to line the route between Congress and the Royal Palace to cheer the new King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia, who will then greet the nation from the Royal balcony.

In an even more low key ceremony, the Spanish football team will fly home after their final group game against Australia on Monday. The euphoria of 4 years ago, when they were crowned World Champions, long forgotten.

This week signals our move to a summer timetable – working from 8am to 4pm, instead of the 9am to 5pm that we work in winter. Of course we are at the extreme western edge of Europe, which means that the sun rises just a little later, but on the plus side we do enjoy very long, light summer evenings (now all we need is a bit of sunshine!) However, the real reason for starting a little earlier is based around the summer heat. Clearly, we do not suffer the extreme temperatures that they do in other parts of the country, but it does at least mean that we are able to complete much of our working day in the vineyards before the mercury hits its late afternoon peak. (Note that during periods of excessive heat our vineyard guys do start at 7am).

I should also say that our bodega is fairly unique in that our working day is not split in two – as practised by many other industries around Spain. The tradition is normally to have a break of some two or three hours in the middle of the day, but for many different reasons (not least of all efficiency), we actively chose not to follow this practice.

This week signals our move to a summer timetable – working from 8am to 4pm, instead of the 9am to 5pm that we work in winter. Of course we are at the extreme western edge of Europe, which means that the sun rises just a little later, but on the plus side we do enjoy very long, light summer evenings (now all we need is a bit of sunshine!) However, the real reason for starting a little earlier is based around the summer heat. Clearly, we do not suffer the extreme temperatures that they do in other parts of the country, but it does at least mean that we are able to complete much of our working day in the vineyards before the mercury hits its late afternoon peak. (Note that during periods of excessive heat our vineyard guys do start at 7am).

I should also say that our bodega is fairly unique in that our working day is not split in two – as practised by many other industries around Spain. The tradition is normally to have a break of some two or three hours in the middle of the day, but for many different reasons (not least of all efficiency), we actively chose not to follow this practice.

The scape crappers of New York (click to enlarge)

Now, I’m the last person that has the right to mock my wife’s English. I’m ashamed to admit that my Spanish is so poor that I still don’t know my ‘month’ from my ‘table’ (sometimes confusing ‘mes’ and ‘mesa’ when I speak Spanish}.

Last night we were watching a programme on TV about the construction of tall buildings (probably Discovery Channel) when Angela suddenly started talking about ‘scape crappers’. Of course she meant skyscrapers – all the right letters, but just arranged in the wrong order!!! I nearly choked on my drink…..

The scape crappers of New York (click to enlarge)

Now, I’m the last person that has the right to mock my wife’s English. I’m ashamed to admit that my Spanish is so poor that I still don’t know my ‘month’ from my ‘table’ (sometimes confusing ‘mes’ and ‘mesa’ when I speak Spanish}.

Last night we were watching a programme on TV about the construction of tall buildings (probably Discovery Channel) when Angela suddenly started talking about ‘scape crappers’. Of course she meant skyscrapers – all the right letters, but just arranged in the wrong order!!! I nearly choked on my drink…..