The Gazpachomonk

Who is the gazpacho-mOnk?
(his alter ego the Teapotmonk can be found here)

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Is the name familiar yet different?
Perhaps you were thinking of the elusive
teapot monk

The Early Years

BoyMeVoy in Tarragona

Having studied at Seville University in the early 1990s, I returned to Spain in 96, working in languages and I.T in Tarragona (Catalunya). After a short spell, it dawned on us (my partner Cherry and I) that were we to stay we really ought to learn Catalan. Being a linguistic Neanderthal, I chose to flee to the centre of Spain rather than learn (badly) yet another language.
After two years spent in Toledo getting lost in its labyrinth alleyways, working in its Jazz bars, language schools and publishing two walking guides to the city (one in English the other in Spanish) we were eventually forced to flee the city of marzipan and stone in a commercial white van loaded with our landlords fridge and a wild ginger-roof cat. (It's a long story).

The Coastal Spell

Attending a Coastal Artisan Feria

1998 found us on the coast of Granada working as Computer consultants and web page designers. However the Internet would not arrive to that particular village until 2012 so business proved a little slack. To play for time, we started selling jewellery and hand printed t-shirts (from our infamous Tarragonese friends - BoymeVoy) and eventually joined the local artisan traders association. But by 2005, the town had overflowed with North Europeans and resembled more a borough of London than a town in Spain. Plus we started to get itchy feet again, so we packed up the van (this time no fridge, but a small hound) and headed inland.

Inside the Tortilla

The Spooky Tortilla Town

2006 saw our arrival in the City of Water, a town that tourism eschewed and that the guide books had understandably overlooked. Having overdosed on tourism, this seemed just fine to us. We found work in the towns sports dept - teaching Yoga and Tai Chi and opened up the upper floor of our house as an Indian restaurant once a month to earn some extra cash. We set up an 'AngloParlantes Association' with the Junta de Andalucia and for the next 5 years organised food ferias, artesan markets, cultural outings, VOS cine cycles, language intercambios, weekend intensives and language classes in the 'Universidad Popular'. Then, the inevitable happened, we got really bored and closed the association down.

And then...
2007 was the year the recession returned with a vengeance. Spain still yet to recover. Corruption ran freely throughout the streets, politicians held a brave face, the people tutted and got on with life. Political parties broke apart, others formed. Catalunya prodded Madrid, Madrid, rather excessively, prodded back.

In 2016-2020 the world fell apart and the Hound drifted up to that large kennel in the sky. The gazpachomonk began to wonder what would befall his town. The world appeared on the edge of an implosion. So he took off and wandered rather than just wondered. And that's where he is today.

INTERVIEWS IN ENGLISH

*Spain Uncovered Podcast with Pilar Orti

Listen to the Podcast with the mOnk as he talks about The Ambulance Man and the Spanish Civil War as well as Geroge Orwell. Spain Uncovered with Pilar Orti can be heard here.