Costa Women Blogs

I am very excited about this weeks interview. This woman is the powerhouse behind an icon to children and adults since we first saw the fairy lights twinkling in our homes. So from a very scratchy and noisy skype call from Spain to the North Pole (those Elves can be loud)… here is my interview with Mrs. Santa Claus! Firstly, thank you so much for agreeing to this interview; I appreciate its a very busy time of year for you. You are welcome my dear and yes we are particularly busy leading up to Christmas particularly since someone wished for a communication service via computer in their Christmas stocking – thanks to the world wide web it hasn’t been the same since! What’s it like being married to a great man who is imitated the world over? Ho ho ho – sometimes I wonder if I have the right one! And of course that child spread the rumour about seeing his Mummy kissing Santa Claus, but we sorted all that out. So many imposters over the years who think they can look, dress and behave like Mr. Claus but to me there is only one Santa and when he comes home at night, ties up the reindeer and shouts I’m ho ho ho home he’s all mine  What do you think you contribute to the whole Christmas event? I bring along my women’s intuition of course – its not easy when some people don’t write a Christmas list so it comes in very useful. You know some people say they don’t believe in Santa – well have they ever NOT received a Christmas present? Where do they think they come from – the South Pole or something? Don’t you find it slightly scary that not only does he sees you when you are sleeping and when you are awake, but he also knows when you’ve been bad or good? Fortunately that only applies to children, or we’d all be in big trouble! All that making a list and checking it twice does get on my nerves after a while. Women are so much better at multitasking aren’t they. When’s your favourite day of the year? That has to be Christmas Eve – Santa’s off delivering presents to the world with the reindeers, the Elves have gone home to their families and I get to rave with my girlfriends here at the North Pole – its party time. Where do you think pole dancing was invented?  When you wish upon a star what do you wish for? Not having to wear red again – I mean seriously every day? There’s only so many outfits a girl can find in red and its not even as if its my colour! Favourite song First song on iTunes is always The Eurythmics’ song – Sisters Are Doin’ It For Themselves (yes yes “behind every great man is a great woman”) Thank you so much for your time Mrs. C – where can we follow you over the holidays? If you want to see where Santa is on up to on Christmas Eve our lovely friends at Norad http://www.noradsanta.org/en/ have the tracker going all night We’ve also got their community manager on the case on @noradsanta on Twitter and https://www.facebook.com/noradsanta One of the Elves has created an app you can download from the website too. We are very modern you know dear, we were using GPS before it even appeared on a Christmas list. (off the record GPS actually stood for Global Positioning Santa but they had to rename it when the Americans got involved) And on that note … ho ho ho merry Christmas 

Powerful Heart Energy Workshop on 4th February 2012   Gratitude Art, in conjunction with Dr. Susan Phoenix and Christine Heckel, will be holding a special Powerful Heart Energy Workshop on February 4th 2012 from 10:00 until 17:00 in the Miraflores Resort.   February is the month of St. Valentine’s Day, so this event will focus on the powerful heart chakra, which can help us to heal and improve our lives. Allow yourself to be taken on a journey of meditation, high into the universe and deep inside yourself. Science and motivation will be provided by Dr. Susan Phoenix, while Christine Heckel’s Tibetan Singing Bowls will provide the soundtrack for an intense meditative experience.   You will also be able to buy Gratitude Art products at this workshop, which is already creating interest, given the success of the last meditation day held by the same team on Friday 11th November 2011.   Celebrate the power of the heart in this traditional month of love.   You can book your place at the Powerful Heart Energy Workshop online at www.gratitudeart.com or by calling 951 712 258 or 600 659 063.    

What have Shakira, Einstein and Sarkozy got to do with the Christmas Nativity scene? Find out here: http://inthegarlic.com/2011/12/who-wants-to-be-a-caganer-2011/

Valerie, did Spain choose you, or did you choose Spain? Six of one, half a dozen of the other.  Italy was my first love but when I was 15 we had a family holiday in Benidorm and I started to learn Spanish. I always felt the urge to come back, and spent part of what they now call the gap year in Valencia.  And then all the time I wanted to come back.  After university, I came to Barcelona to teach English and fell in love with a Catalan. And so I chose to stay.                      Tell us about “creating worlds”? Creative writing is about creating  an experience in the reader’s imagination: a world that feels real, whether Hogwarts, an alien planet , a historical time and place, whatever. Or re-creating it in travel writing, for example. And in advertising copy.  There are simple but powerful tools that writers use to do this, and I share them in workshops and courses.  What could be more awesome than creating a world? Why did you start writing? As a child, I loved writing, but it got buried in academic prowess and teen angst.  Much later, during a very tough time, I did the Course In Miracles prayer to ‘see things in another way’: and suddenly I saw my life as a hilarious sit-com!  I was moved to sign up for a writing course, and then to write the sit-com as a novel. And then that love came back and I understood why I’d always felt there’d been something missing. Who is your favourite author? J K Rowling! Seriously.  But it’s impossible to choose just one.  Shakespeare.  Bill Bryson – very very funny, endlessly curious, and never ever nasty or snide.  Jhumpa Lahiri for sheer intensity.  Hemingway.  Khaled Hosseini.  There are so many authors I admire and enjoy. In the Garlic is your latest book, what is the story behind that Book coming into being? I wrote it with Theresa O’Shea who lives east of Málaga, and we hit on the A-Z formula as a way of bringing together our writings and sharing our experience in a fun and accessible way, celebrating Spain’s quirks and its incredible diversity. Back then there was a lot of pretty bad material on Spain – patronising, dull and inaccurate – and we felt we could do something  much better and above all more fun. There seem to be a lot of expat writers living in Spain; any thoughts as to why this country is good for writing? First, I think the number of writers is proportional to the number of expats, which is huge!  Also there are many different kinds of writers, so it’s difficult to generalise. Many people choose to write when they retire. In the last decade Internet and budget airlines have made it possible for many writers to relocate here.  It used to be cheaper to live here so you could ‘give up the day job’ but not really true now.  And the lifestyle and café society figure largely in ‘being a writer’  – at least in the popular imagination. What has been your greatest challenge, whether personal or business? Keeping myself and my family afloat during my husband’s long illness and after he died. Despite all, holding out for doing what I love and trying to empower my sons to do the same.  The ongoing challenge for me is to overcome my addictive tendencies and focus on my writing or whatever other task is in hand.  Mastering anxiety is a major challenge. If you’re not freaking out with fear, then you can handle anything. To relax would we find you on a beach, mountains, city or shed? Ideally you would find me in the mountains, but now, more likely, by the sea, or in my room (cave) surrounded by books and papers.  Or walking in the city at a relatively quiet time. Best piece of advice you’ve ever been given Always be intellectually honest with yourself.  Said by my classics teacher and mentor at grammar school. A Favourite memory? Waking up in the house we used to have in the Catalan pre-Pyrenees and pushing the shutters open: cool air, blue sky, squirrels in the oak trees,  the leaves glimmering and sparkling in the sun,  fragrance of pines, sound of dogs, children, chainsaws across the valley… bliss after the summer heat in Barcelona. Something you would like to promote? Creative Writing  Magic. I’m planning fascinating new workshops for 2012. If you live far from Barcelona, I can troubleshoot your writing and help you by email and Skype. And there are still copies of In The Garlic available: it makes a great Christmas gift. Check out both the websites for details. http://www.valeriecollinswriter.com If you were to be one woman for a day – who would she be? No idea: It’s taken me a lifetime to learn to accept myself rather than want to be someone else  But if you push me – J K Rowling – again, seriously.  It would be a whole day of that NLP exercise where you model someone by putting their head on your shoulders!  Nigella Lawson maybe too. If you could achieve one spectacular thing in one day what would it be? Finish my novel! Your business or personal epitaph – what would it say? ‘She always did the best she could.’ A friend once said that my catchphrase was ‘We’ll figure something out’. I’d never realised how often I said it! What gift are you most hoping Santa brings you? A Kindle.  But I’m happy to pass on that. I’d really like Santa to bring enough true compassion and caring and connectedness to the world so we can turn around this huge mess we’re in. Where do you see yourself living in the next 10 years? Barcelona and/or some country place in Catalunya.  Thank you Valerie; good to meet you!

Hopefully this blog post will inspire you to begin your Christmas shopping before the last minute rush. This week I focus on gifts for Him and for Her, it may even help you with your own letter to Santa.   Enjoy reading: http://bit.ly/vYYKR2   My previous post was about presents for the children and a few Secret Santa ideas. Find it at this link; http://bit.ly/s9aFWA   Regards from Snowy Granada   Molly

  I have to confess a secret, so secret I barely know it myself.   I love Alcalá.   Alcalá is like that dull, serious, stamp-collecting  boy you meet at university, the one that never gets drunk and seems indifferent to you, even though you have your share of admirers. You think he´s a bit of a weed and he irritates you in a way you can´t put your finger on.  He´s not bad-looking, but lacks sex-appeal.  You think you can´t stand him.   Then one day at the Refectory there´s no place to eat except opposite him.  You notice his good manners, his short, clean fingernails and how he makes formal, intelligent and completely impersonal conversation.   You choke on your spaghetti bolognese.   You´re in love with him.   Alcalá´s a little like that for me.  First up, dull and dowdy. When you study Spanish In Depth you can´t avoid hearing about the city.  Well, you could, but in my day they wouldn´t give you your degree without it.  You had to read the literary superstars, Cervantes, Quevedo, Lope de Vega and Tirso de Molina, the first of whom was born in Alcalá and the other three students at its university.     I never suspected for one moment that I´d end up living in Alcalá de Henares (perhaps more on that later). I wanted a Glasgow, a Madrid, a Los Angeles in my life.   But I got Alcalá.   And I realised that these writers did not shy away from the city´s raucous and informal motto of putas, curas y militares, (whores, clergy and soldiers).  My Spanish wasn´t up to grasping this notion as a student, but it is now. Alcalá, like any Spanish city, has its brothels, now inhabited by immigrant women. The city is also chock ablock with churches and convents and its barracks were the site of conflict during the Civil War.  But that´s not all there is to the town.   Because Alcalá is safe, quiet, cultural – with its own film festival – and modern, even though it has a very pretty historic centre with a small town pueblo feel. This is surprising, since it´s one of the largest towns along the River Henares Corridor towards Madrid, twenty-five minutes away by car. We´re always happy to get back from the exhausting Metropolis to peaceful Alkie.     The city is also multicultural with well-integrated, resident immigrant populations that are beginning to leave their mark on the city.  There are Romanian and Polish festivities every year and you can sample these kinds of cuisine in shops and restaurants.  Hundreds of American students attend the University every year – though these are short-stay foreigners. The expat community is pretty much inexistent, but I live in hope ….   Alcalá is great for shopping too with good transport networks to make getting around pretty easy. The people are welcoming and friendly and the availability of quality nightspots is growing.  There´s plenty of sporting facilities and well-kept park areas and an absolutely wonderful Archaeological Museum that runs hands-on events for children. The new Parador breaks with the historic Casco Viejo look and is chic, minimalist and contemporary.   Frankly, Alcalá is a very nice place to live.  There´s much, much more, too, but I´ve gushed enough about this World Heritage Site for one day.   My secret´s out.   I love Alcalá!   P.S. And then, of course, there´s the storks!