Letsgoloolala with Lily Anne
Not the usual
The second leg of my home exchange commenced on Sunday 8th September. While I was on the Dublin to Valencia flight a baby girl called Ga- La was born to a couple from Almassora called Judit and Jorge. Judit came to my home with her boyfriend Jorge in tow in 2009 adding her aunt Montse and Montse’s friends Monica and Mary to the guest list, which made it the all the more interesting. Then in 2013 Judit and Jorge arrived with her parents Carmina and Jarques (Josep Manuel). Jarques hired a car and he also hired a bike and was able to keep his lifelong fitness regime.
Since my return visit to Almassora in 2012 I have a very clear memory of something I thought unusual walking along the dry river bed one day with Carmin mother of Judit. I suppose we were in a manner of speaking casually foraging for asparagus. As we got close to the beach I found an old tv frame so we messed around with it, pretending to be news announcers. Within minutes an incident occurred as though someone had said I’ll give you a story. I spotted movement in the sand dunes. It appeared for all the world as though a young guy was crouching in the way a jockey would do when determined to win a race. He seemed to be holding on tight with his head poised in one direction moving back and forward in a tight rhythm. The strange thing was however that there was no horse beneath him. One could only conclude that there was another person beneath him and that what we were witnessing was a half view of a couple copulating within spitting distance of where we needed to pass to get back on the path to home. I exclaimed not in any prurient way that you wouldn’t see that in Ireland. Well what I meant was that I had never witnessed anything at such close quarters out of doors on a beach in Ireland. We were quite amused and excited about the fact that we had some story to tell Jarques on our return to base.
Judit had arrived at my home, her first time in Ireland, in the summer of 2007 when she was almost 20. She was one of many students and later supervisors who had spent a few weeks in my home in Kilkenny attending Isha’s language school The MacDonald Academy. Her arrival was dramatic. Unusually I was not there to greet her but I had cooked dinner in advance and had told the organiser that I would be at the other end of the country in Buncrana Co Donegal attending an 80ieth birthday party. My home has two front doors. Judit arrived at the smaller one and got a shock that no-one was there to answer it. She rang home to share her anxiety with her mother. In any event she walked a few more steps and presented herself at the main door. When my daughter greeted her and said that dinner was ready she looked at the steak and kidney stew, reached down to smell it and declared that she couldn’t eat it. It was an uneasy start to a significant friendship that has endured until now.
Even back then Jorge was indeed a ‘significant other’ in Judit’s life and the fact that I was on my way to their part of the world on the day that their first child was born seemed highly significant too. It was relatively easy to travel to Almassorra from Aldaia – just one train change and Judit was able to pick me up in her car. I visited on three occasions during my second two months in Valencia including the Bull festival. It was a chance to meet all the characters in the family that I had heard about or met before in the NUCA close knit community. Sometime after Judit’s first arrival to Kilkenny aged 19 I heard in detail about the various tiers of her family that included not just Carmina and Jarques and her nana Carmen at the helm of this now 4 generational family. I also celebrated a birthday party in Jorge’s parents’ house – that of Ga- La’s Grandad, and enjoyed a delicious meal of rape fish in a delicious tomato sauce made by Jorge’s brother Jose Luis.
Jorge Judit and Ga- La managed to squeeze in a memorable visit to the coach house just before I left my home in Aldaia to return to Kilkenny. Judit made sure I overheard her whisper in Ga-La’s ear sweet words about her future visit to Ireland.
Judit with Carmina Jarques & Ga- La