This week's letter is a bit different, with a more miscellaneous nature to its themes.
British residents on Menorca have a great variety of reasons for being here. A common theme is that they visited the island on holiday, fell in love with it and vowed to live here some day. In the majority of cases this involved waiting until retirement and then becoming residents or at least resident for part of the year. There is a clear distinction between those who have made their main homes here and those who spend a part of the year in their property. One thing is beyond doubt: the British residents play an important role in the island's economy, generating taxes through their properties and of course spending money in the island's businesses.
Those residents who have moved here to work are active in a wide range of occupations, although servicing properties in some guise must be the most frequently seen of these. Very often people have found a niche in which they provide a service that is predominantly for British clients; this would certainly be true for the many that run bars aimed specifically at the British holiday visitors. Look beneath the surface and you will find Brits who are not only providing a service that is aimed at the local people, but have also immersed themselves into the local community.
One such couple is Sharon and Pete, originating from Lincoln. They have run a successful bakery in Maó for the past fourteen years. Panaderia Rossana is situated in carrer de Gràcia, a road that leads out of the town centre close to the Ocimax Cinema complex. I met with the couple in their local bar, Café de Gracia. They explained how they have come to be the local bakers for a community here in Menorca. Initially Pete worked as a "Saturday Boy" sweeping up for a baker in Lincoln. Gradually he was asked to do more responsible jobs in the bakery and by doing these and being observant he served a most unorthodox and very informal apprenticeship.
When Sharon and Pete took the shop over from Colin Bond, they spoke no Spanish or Menorcan. So here they were immersed in a local community having to learn the language of that community from scratch. Now they converse easily with their customers and friends in the neighbourhood and feel integrated in this community.
The bakery business, established since the early twentieth century, requires Pete to get up soon after midnight to start mixing the bread dough before any baking can take place through the small hours of each morning except Sundays. Surrounding the bakery are the homes of their local customers. Each area of Maó has its own small bakery with its specific customer base. Sharon and Pete use traditional recipes and still weigh up the ingredients in pounds and ounces as demanded by the recipes. These include traditionally British recipes such as sausage rolls, cheese straws, scones, meat pies, quiche and mince pies. All of which have their own local fans now. So any Brits who yearn for the cakes of our homeland – help is at hand.
Sharon and Pete have noticed a definite shift in preference towards wholemeal bread which is now produced in much bigger quantities than before. However, English white sliced is pretty popular too, especially at weekends when sandwiches might be required. Wedding cakes are produced too. They also bake for the supermarkets, which to some extent have taken trade away from the local baker's shops. Seemingly not to the same extent as has happened in the UK. Each bakery still retains its loyal customers as well as having its own specialities that draw people from further afield.
In the past such customers used the heat of the ovens to heat up their own casseroles, bringing them into the shop once bread and cake baking had ceased to use the residual heat to prepare the family meal. Sometimes around Christmas Sharon will be asked to make room for a suckling pig and so the tradition continues to an extent. The gas-fired oven itself is large enough for eight people to be able to enter it.
On a completely different subject, I was pleased to see that the decision to ban yachtsmen from mooring in Cala Teulera has been reversed. As Bob Parker wrote in his excellent letter earlier in the month, the exclusion was a very bad move. This cala provides excellent moorings for visitors to the port of Maó, who cannot afford the ridiculously high mooring fees demanded by various organizations. There is also a safety angle to the availability of this cala as a mooring – it provides a sheltered anchorage for people to aim for when the weather turns nasty. I was very glad of its shelter two summers ago when a sharp northerly sent many of us running for the cover it offers.
A question for the Ajuntament de Maó: why paint the walls of the fish market in the main tourist season? This spoils the enjoyment of the customers at adjacent bars by having flakes of paint blowing around them and puts them off giving their custom.
Another question: how much longer are taxi companies going to allow their drivers to rip off young visitors to the island? An example of which was the fare charged to two young ladies for the trip from the ferry terminal to S'Albufera late at night this July – 50 euros.