Anyone who’s been to Arcos will know how narrow the streets are. Driving can be a nightmare, as I have witnessed first hand and second hand in the last few days.
On Sunday there was the stranded Englishwoman, who had reached the end of her tether. She had driven as far as our street, losing her friend in the car ahead, and was trying to communicate with the hard-accented locals in her non Spanish. Said locals banged on my door and urged me to help.
I climbed into the Englishwoman’s car in the manner of a clumsy Starsky or Hutch, there being no room on either side to open the door, and backed the car into a manageable position. Having by now located her friend by telephone, the Englishwoman regained her senses once again, and drove slowly down the hill. As we said goodbye she called me an angel. Heaven’s above!
Then yesterday, the angel got a puncture. I was edging down super-narrow-street when I came across a moped. Sometimes mopeds turn around, wait at the bottom of the incline and let you through. Other times they squeeze up against the wall and wave you past. But you’ll only have a couple of inches to spare. On this occasion, one of my back wheels came into contact with something sharp on the moped. Bang! Tyre burst.
With the streets being as narrow as they are, anyone wanting improvements done to the outside of their house 
has to think hard about how to go about it. In our case, we have needed permission to close the street for seven days. But there must still be emergency access should an ambulance need to come up here. So traditional scaffolding is a no-no. In the end we plumped for La Tijera, The Scissor. As you can see in the photo it’s a concertina affair. And it works like a dream.
Finally, for any readers who want their children or grandchildren to learn Spanish, I’m delighted to announce the launch of a new Spanish learning system Emma and I have been heavily involved with. From March 16-18 we’ll be presenting Speekee at the Viva España Show, Olympia, London. And if you fancy coming along for free, we can get you a special pass. Just send a quick email to losporter@gmail.com. We’d love to see you there.
Speekee is a DVD-based Spanish course for children of preschool and primary age. It features Spanish children from here in Arcos, plus puppets, animation and much much more.