La Vida Alcalaína

Victor, our local greengrocer It's the melon season.  The local shops are full to bursting with great green globes, rolling off the counters and piled up on the floor. Men with van-loads of them are knocking door to door. Little old ladies totter out of the greengrocer's with a carrier bag in each hand, containing watermelons that weigh almost as much as they do. Melons have been enjoyed by humans for at least 4,000 years.The Prophet Muhammad is reported to have said: "Whenever you eat fruit, eat melon, because it is the fruit of Paradise and contains a thousand blessings and a thousand mercies. The eating of it cures every disease." The word is probably derived from Melos the Greek Cyclades Island best known for the Venus de Milo). All melons come from the Cucurbitaceae family. They are closely related to cucumbers and squashes, but due to their sweetness they are used as fruits rather than vegetables. Apart from the watermelon, the many varieties around...

Last night was one of those soupy, humid August nights you get in Alcalá when there is no wind to stir the air and the white buildings, like giant storage heaters, release the heat they absorbed during the daytime. As soon as it got dark we dragged ourselves down to the Paseo de la Playa for a beer, and sat outside Siglo XXI chatting to the owner, Manolo, about the UK riots which he mistakenly believed marked the beginning of the English Revolution. As usual on a Saturday night  the whole town was out; small children raced up and down the Playa on their rollerblades and tricycles, teenage girls were dressed to kill in their micro-skirts and six-inch heels, their male prey chatted to each other pretending not to notice, while their parents and grandparents clustered round tables in front of Pizarro's Restaurant in large noisy groups, putting the world to rights. Suddenly we heard shrieks and shouts from the direction of Pizarro's.  Children were sprinting in all directions...