The first holiday I took with Herbert was to Spain, to stay in my Aunt’s villa near Alicante.
Actually, there was a horrible week on a canal barge in Brecon with Herbert’s friends, but we prefer not to speak of that. We had to start drinking at ten every morning just to keep the cold out. And one of our party got so drunk one night that he took a dump on the cabin steps. As I said, it doesn’t count.
In sunny Spain, everything was perfect. We had warmth, privacy, cheap rosado and a roof terrace with a barbecue. We also had a Twingo that my Grandad rented for us, and an adopted ‘stray’ cat that we named Cloudy, but who actually turned out to be the extremely greedy pet of the people next door. It was a veritable utopia.
It was during this holiday that we ‘invented’ barbecued asparagus. I say ‘invented’ because I’m aware that we probably weren’t the first people to do such a thing, but we did so without anyone else suggesting it. Personally, I’d been bought up to treat asparagus with a little more reverence. My Grandad only managed to grow about five spears a year, and they would be carefully boiled and served up for table of eight to fight over.
In Spain, the sheer abundance of the asparagus let us get all rock’n’roll with it. Hot off the grill, we’d dip it in mayonnaise (Hellman’s) and take it in turns to feed it to each other, stalk by stalk. Those were the days before our sex life needed re-booting.
Nowadays, I’m afraid to say we don’t have the patience for co-feeding. But in May and June, we like nothing better than to take our little barbecue down to the beach for wine, asparagus and a good sunset. Even I can’t fail to relax under such circumstances.
That’s one of your posts that makes me think- monogamy might not be so bad…
Then again…
I often used to find holidays a pressure in my relationship. Partly as we didn’t live together so holidays were like a test. Or something. There is something very romantic though about a beach at dusk. I have some nice memories of those-minus asparagus.
Funnily enough we don’t tend to argue on holiday, but we always have a massive barney on the way there. Packing, getting the car loaded up, leaving on time – it all adds up to a screaming match. Usually we effect a detente during the journey there!
Ah asparagus, I have spent two years cultivating a bed of the stuff and it had better be BRILLIANT next spring or I shall have something to say
Barbecued sounds divine – shall stock up from the supermarket to try this (oh right, instead of slaving over my veggie patch I could just buy it… bother)
I gather you have to grow loads of it to get a good feast, but it must be lovely to eat home-grown! I’d definitely recommend it barbecued – it’s lovely dipped in chilli sauce too.
Ooh I have to try that. I love asparagus in every way shape and form but I’ve never had it BBQ’d.
Your holiday sounds fantastic. The only boyfriend holiday I’ve had was a long weekend in Prague which was fun but not all that romantic really.