Although I don’t like to boast about it I owned a rather stylish boat when I was younger, it gave me hours of pleasure, sadly it got damaged beyond repair when I dropped the soap on it, bathtime has never been the same since. My mind raced back to those happy splashy days (I was 23 at the time) on Saturday as I walked around the Expo Nautica at the Fred Olsen ferry terminal in Santa Cruz. A large gleaming red Stingray speed boat was one of the stars of the show and what a snip at just 57,000 euros.

It was a good day up in the capital of Tenerife, I’d gone up early to check out all that was going on before heading to football – least said about that the better. Anyway I started with a look at Los Caminos Del Mar, a new exhibition at Sala de Arte La Recova, just behind Teatro Guimera. The free exhibition of mainly paintings looked back at a golden age of Canarian art inspired by the linking of the 7 islands by a series of steam ships. Entry into the hall is through a covered wooden walkway with the sound of lapping water feeding up through speakers to give a feel of walking along a ships gangplank. The paintings were pretty impressive and marked a good start to my day.

Now in a nautical frame of mind I headed for the boat show, the display area is the roof of the Fred Olsen terminal which connects at street level to the Plaza de España and its surrounds. There were around 30 boats and a few jet skis on show and little marquees selling support services like dingys and life rafts, I did notice a few attractive young sales ladies and hoped they might be draping themselves over the shiny body work of the powerful boats but they seemed content not to roam.

The setting made a great scene as the port behind was busy with the Armas and Fred Olsen ferries coming and going and 2 large cruise liners moored up for the day. I’m not a speed junkie but can see the attraction of these fine sporty boats, I have tried jet skis and loved the feeling of power and the spray of the water in my face. There were a couple of top of the range jet skis on show looking sleek and compact. A pair of professional racing speed boats looked like rockets with gleaming chrome engines glinting in the hot sun, I bet they would soon leave me in their wake on my little pedal boat. I don’t know if any of the companies were selling much, most people seemed to be looking and longing until the price tags dispelled their day dreams.

Taking off for a stroll around Santa Cruz I was eager to see the street entertainment put on for the days La Vive Calle programme, several plazas were putting on music and dance to attract more shoppers and get them in a happy money spending mood. Plaza del Principe had a good sized crowd spilling onto the pavement with lots of children sitting cross legged lapping up the musical theatre offering. It was a small team quick changing in a hastily assembled back stage dressing room and the sound system made sure that their light opera stories kept attracting more enthusiasts.

The most impressive street show was at the Plaza Isla de la Madera in front of Teatro Guimera, a duo called Mooba Mu were quite spellbinding with a mix of music and dance. They were performing on a small square area of matting and when I arrived the young lady was on all fours writhing and singing a mournful soul song to the guitar backing. What a great performer, she used eavery inch of the “stage” and wrung every drop of emotion out of the songs. Rising slowly to her feet I could see the microphone headpiece partly hidden beneath her long wild hair and she continued to use her emotive performance as her co performer moved from guitar to an amazing electric upright string instrument.

Santa Cruz council are definately on a winner with this street entertainment, hopefully it will become a regular thing, it all helps to enliven the capital and add to the diversity. What a pity the football wasn’t as entertaining.

At the end of a brightly coloured rainbow you will find…Birmingham, well the bankers had the pot of gold and shared it around their friends years ago. It was a nice welcome as I moved through Birmingham airport en route back to Oxford from Tenerife, it had been raining as the plane landed but just as I passed the sliding glass doors from arrivals the sun peaked out and the rainbow arched over the top of the nearby hotel. A train soon had me in Oxford and I was able to sample a few pints of real ale before heading to my Aunts.

Doing my whirwind tour of my home town it was nice to see that the previous weeks sun had lured the spring flowers out, a host of golden daffodils caught my eye and put me in a chipper mood. At the train station I had found a chunky programme for the Oxford Literary Festival, they had an amzing line up of visiting writers over the week and I was tempted to try to get tickets for some talks, Brian Aldis, Adam Boulton, Melvyn Bragg and even Stephanie Powers all looked tempting. Sadly my lack of time made it impossible and the several hundred events all started at 10 pounds and rose quickly and steeply, I’d definately begrudge paying good money to the filthy rich University.

Oxford is a city of contrasts and my patch Cowley looks distinctly rough these days, the local pub The Nelson where I first put lips to a pint glass is a bit of a war zone, it was always basic but now I’d want a tetnus injection and an armed guard before going in there. On the plus side, in recent visits I have found a cracking proper chippie in Headington, Posh Fish had me drooling over a stack of chunky chips and a whale sized cod in a crispy overcoat, all drenched in salt and vinegar. I restricted my beer intake to evenings but it was good to taste some rich dark ales in the city centre pubs, sadly a few more have either closed or been turned into up market foodie haunts.

The lower end of Cowley is student bed sit land and the pretentious young things call it Cowley Village, it’s a real melting pot of nationalities and you can eat your way around the world at the cafes and restaurants. There used to be a great West Indian eating house that did amazing food and played ska music as the owner sat at the bar smoking a huge aromatic rock and roll Woodbine. I spotted an Ethical Property letting building that included the HQ of the Sumatran Orangatan Society, I hope the wages are good cos if you pay peanuts…….. Further up the road the O2 Academy is a magnet for up and coming new bands and lots of old ones getting some late mileage out of their careers. The listing promised Ali Campbell, The Alarm, Magnum, and The Stranglers, but i was most upset to realise I would miss Big Country, back out gigging again but with Mike Peters (formerly of The Alarm) in place of deceased Stuart Adamson.

I wont bore you with the legal crap I’m still chasing following my Dad’s death last year, needless to say the solicitor performed open wallet surgery on me again. Wednesday was a revelation, it was sunny and hot, apparently the hottest 6 April since the dawn of time. I took the chance to be Tommy the Tourist and went up the tower of St Mary The Virgin church in the High Street . There was a collection of International Baroque Players tuning up in the belly of the church (built 1280) ready for some evening concerts, they were pretty nifty and I could still hear them as I climbed the 127 tight spiral stone steps up to the gallery outside the tower. The views were nice but I’m not great with heights and the crumbling masonry did little to reassure me. I hoped that the attractive American tourist didn’t notice how I clung to the back wall as I manouvered past her.

Back on firm land I headed into the Botanic Gardens in the shadow of Magdelan Bridge, they were restful and fragrant and best of all lots of scatily clad posh young totty were sprawled out on the grass areas exposing as much as they dared to the sun. A few punts were being propelled along the river and under the bridge, this May Day morning the bridge is being opened up for the first time in years for dawn revellers, many of the Hooray Henrys and Henryettas will try to plunge off the bridge into the murky, shallow and supermarket trolley infested waters, not the brightest of ideas.

Anyway my short jaunt soon expired and I found myself back in Brum and heading through the labyrinth security zone, one of the most intense I have seen, I was scanned, prodded, grilled, and sniffed before I got through. There was one treat though, this was the first day of their new hologram helper, Virtual Lucy was projected onto a stand and with the cheeseiest of smiles took me through the basic security measures as we all shuffled along through the cattle grids. At one point she clicks her fingers and her tunic jacket is removed in a blink of an eye, how long till some geek hacks the programme and gets her to do a virtual striptease. At the other end of my journey there was something quite pleasing about the low tech digital readout board at the Titsa bus stop outside Tenerife South airport. The time and temperature were way off scale and it didn’t even list the bus that pulled in to take me to a cold Dorada. It’s good to be back.

I knew it was going to be a good Los Cristianos Carnaval this year, dates were confirmed weeks in advance, posters were up and they even produced a nice colour leaflet. In Tenerife terms those are all minor miracles, publicity is not their strong point, health and safety is also a bit on the back burner with the handle hanging over and a young child reaching up for it. I watched the car park next to the Valdes Centre undergo its week long conversion to a showground complete with impressive stage, and the fair arrived on the other car park at the same time, both featured off cuts of wood, breeze blocks and lots of crossed fingers. The Carnaval theme was the Circus so thrills and spills seemed about right.

My first trip down was on Friday night for the election of the Carnaval Queen, it of course started alte so I had a wander around the busy, bustling fair and was as always transfixed by the bull stampede ride. Considering there is a recession on the plastic tat was selling well and many people had little plastic houses with a bored goldfish trapped inside. Lots of families were enjoying the preamble to the stage show and my word what a lot of yummy mummies there were. Eventually the stage cranked into life and amid a plume of smoke rearing white horses were propelled around the stage before acrobats and jugglers did their bit. With 6 royal candidates to come and no sign of the intros I retired to The Merry Monk across the road returning briefly later to check on progress, the Dorada won the war with my patience and I never saw the coronation.

On to Sunday and the Coso, the big parade, I felt quite bad that I could only see the first half of CD Tenerifes away game on tv in a local bar, in the end I felt bad about having watched any of it. Duty called with my piece for Tenerife Magazine hanging in the balance and with blazing sunshine it was a pleasure to head down to Paloma Apartments to round up the usual suspects. Many of the young ladies were just adjusting their costumes; of course I didn’t peep. It was baking hot, drink lots of liquids they say, well that advice was being taken in many forms. The parade seemed longer than ever, so many people made an effort to put together floats and performing groups, there were liberal amounts of men in dresses and women nearly popping out of theirs and all to a vibrant musical beat. The new Carnaval Queen Khar Ndoye milked the applause as she travelled in her gilded cage under the chosen name Queen Of Africa, at least she didn’t have to dance, feet were pounding out to the drums and whistles, many of them in very challenging heels. It must have been a relief for the revellers as they turned into the side road at the end of the parade just as dusk was moving in, but the thousands watching, myself include, loved every minute.

Monday brought the farewell act of Carnaval, the sardine funeral, my favourite, packed with bad taste and outrageous outfits it’s a gesture of defiance to the church from when they would preach abstainance for the people during lent while living the good life themselves, for the poor, sardines were plentiful from the sea and kept them going. This years giant silver sardine was a particularly proud and perky specimin complete with pouting lips and a glint in the eye, the music was cranked up, the bottles tipped back and dresses lifted to display various wares and off we all headed towards the beach on a strung out back street route. The mourners are a key part of the fun and split their time between saluting the sardine and chanting its praises and rolling around on the floor weeping for the upcoming loss.

After a few years of sardines so heavy that they could hardly be moved, the fish now rests its gills on a trolly so it can be propelled easily leaving more bodies free to gyrate, dance, and generally go wild. Down below at the old beach many tourists had take the pre advertised timing at its word and were sat along the sea front promenade, I could see it would be a long journey so adjourned to The Devon Arms to raise a few Doradas to my fishy friend before cutting down to the beach just in time. As the dancers shepherded the sardine into the marked off area on the sand some rushed down to line the barricades while others kept to their vantage points that they had guarded for hours. Most of the mourners squeezed into the pen and danced around the doomed fish as fuel was sprinkled over it before the match was struck. Flames leapt out of the hollow belly and devoured the carefully crafted fins on its back, a few fireworks were sent skyward but the death wasn’t long and lingering. The glow of the fire on the now unrecognisable frame warmed my face, the dancing was set to continue here and at the showground for hours but I headed home via a bar stop just to make sure the smoke hadn’t dried out my throat. But as far as this years Carnaval goes I could see the end.

There are some news stories in Tenerife that keep coming around every few years like Haleys Comet, one of these old chestnuts is the future of Los Tarajales beach. For those not familiar with the name, it’s the scruffy undeveloped stretch heading out towards the Sunday market and Arona Gran Hotel. I was surprised to read that the Los Cristianos neighbours association are pressing Arona council for some definate plans to redevelop the area and the coast back towards the ferry port. Isn’t this the same area that had plans drawn up 3 years ago and later had tons of sand dumped on the uncleared and unlevelled beach? Sure is, and as most people predicted the sand washed away and that was about it till the next lot of promises.

The neighbours probably feel it’s a good time to ask for action as the council elections are held in May, as well as the beach being improved they want the old crumbling house on the beach (below)Â restored as part museum and part restaurant, sounds good to me. The whole stretch was due for demolition at one stage but recently the white Cristian Mar apartment block was given a facelift and new concrete supports installed so they obviously have long term plans.

Back at Los Tarajales beach there is some new graffiti, a few of the modern unused locales have now got bars in, and the manky wild cats are still roaming wild and planning a Broadway musical. Never mind, look out for my next update on the area in about 4 years time.

Carnaval season is well underway, today was the big parade in Santa Cruz and today was also a holiday, the schools have even got the week off so that hungover parents don’t have to get up early. After sacrificing several small animals in an attempt to ward off any future defeats for CD Tenerife, I headed down into Los Cristianos, yep definately Carnaval season, a troup of musicians were gathering with their large bongo drums outside the Apolo centre ready to head up to Santa Cruz.

Todays holiday was only loosely observed down south so I made my daily call at the Los Cristianos cultural centre where a new exhibition of Carnaval paintings were on display. The works by Javier Isidoro Aixa, a local wind surfer, are delightfully surreal and captures the sense of fun surrounding the annual celebrations, there’s no charge to feast your eyes on the small gallery, they always have at least one art exhibition going on. The paintings await you until 31 March and you can pop in weekdays from 8am to 10 pm and Saturdays from 9am to 1 pm.

It was of course Shrove Tuesday so naturally I wanted a shrove, failing that I settled for a pancake. One of my regular haunts is Via Vai on the old beach front and they do a very nice Quita Penas (no worries) rum and raisin ice cream and vanilla with a nice sized pancake, very yummy. The wind was up a bit today but thankfully no sign of the heavy rain from up north last night. Heading along the front I noticed a small tent by the Plaza del Pescadora and popped over to have a nose. The other claim to fame for today was International Womens Day and Arona council were doing their bit with a free drop in centre, shame it wasn’t publicised in advance. A small seated area was set up not far from the fisherwomans statue for promised talks and advice but in the tent there were free massages. Two volunteers were being neaded like some fresh dough and several others were hovering around for their turn, much better than being ripped off by the illegal oriental girls on the beach. The special area was open from 10 am to 10 pm today, you never know what you will find during a stroll along the front.

…Are there enough double entendres in that title? If you think I’m being rude, shame on you, all will be revealed phnarr phnarr. A funny thing happened on the way to the bus stop today. It was an early start for me from Los Cristianos to Adeje to cover the European Day of 112, the emergency service here in Tenerife as in most of Europe. Getting on the bus there was the usual little scrum down when suddenly a second driver sat up front on his way to the station leant out and shouted at people to hold their bags tight and gestered at 2 men in the middle of the melee. The Titsa bus driver then pulled out his mobile and rang the police as these 2 men made their melted away from the scrum.

There has been some problem with pick pockets at the Los Cristianos main bus stops and this observant driver had recognised the 2 culprits and did all he could to warn people. The chancers got away but it’s good to know that someone is looking out for us, often there are now plain clothes police patrolling the area and they have nabbed quite a few scum bags. All very appropriate as the 112 event  I was headed to included representatives from nearly all branches of the Tenerife police force as well as ambulance, fire and rescue staff. It was a fabulous show and tell morning with pride of place going to a government rescue helicopter that had the many school kids attending spellbound. The climax, oh there goes Finbarr again, was a reconstruction of an emergency car rescue involving the chopper dropping in medical staff and air lifting the dummy passenger. You can read a full account af that at Tenerife Magazine.

Back with the buses and lots of changes going on, you may have noticed the new stream lined bus stops reflecting the new logo on the buses with no emission exhausts. There is also a new timetable so throw away those old fold out map formats and pick up the new booklet style, damm it’s too tall to fit into my shorts pocket, no consideration. Titsa have also taken delivery of a fleet of new mini buses for short hops around urban areas and hope to have the new La Laguna station open by Easter.

The 112 open event finished at 2 pm, before the word got around that today would be a good day to go on a crime spree elsewhere. I was long overdue a trip up to T3 – Tenerife Top Training in La Caleta to see what was cooking up there so headed across on the bus. You may recall that T3 was were Robinho did a bunk from his Man City team mates a couple of seasons ago, hope they come back soon, be worth it to see Tevez sat in the scorching Tenerife heat still wearing his snood. The football pitches are just a part of the complex, the swimming pools are used a lot by Olympic swimming teams and many a top athlete has used their state of the art gym to pump some iron. It was pretty quiet for my visit, just a few rippling the water and some keen volleyball players kicking up the sand on the beach area. Hopefully I will get a nod next time a big name football team takes a break at T3.

What do you do in Tenerife when it rains? People on Tenerife Holidays would be surprised if they knew the full extent of possibilities. For me it meant a day up in Santa Cruz chasing my arts, I seem to be almost living there this week with 3 home games on the football but on those trips there isn’t much time for exploring anything more than the bar. A bright start in Los Cristianos enticed me to travel without a coat and half way up the motorway the rain was lashing against the Titsa bus, oh well I had indoor destinations so would dodge the spots. First stop was the Robert Capa retrospective at Caja Canarias HQ in Plaza del Patriotismo.

Capa was a famous war photographer who covered 5 major wars and defined history through his lens, this was an exhibition I had been looking forward to. I’d never class myself as a photographer, I just take photos to back up my written work so I have great respect for those with the real talent and Capa was the best. I paid my 2 euros residents entry price to get in, they could have given me a freebie as I had my CD Tenerife shirt on with Caja Canarias emblazoned on the chest but maybe the ticket man was a Madrid fan. Anyway once inside I was soon engrossed in the 98 black and white portraits and impressed with his style described as so close to the action you can feel the ground shake. Tunisia has been in the news lately due to civil upheavel, some of Capa’s pics showed Tunisia during the Second World War fighting, sadly some things remain constant in the world. I won’t go into depth on the Capa exhibition as I have done a feature on Tenerife Magazine but I recomend you go and have a look before it ends on 12 March.

It’s been a few months since I visited TEA and as the Tenerife Espacio de Las Artes has a steady turnover of exhibitions I knew I would find new stimulation. On a rather dull afternoon the packed study area in the library shone out as I walked down the entrance ramp, paying my 2.50 residents entry (5 euros otherwise) I decided to take it logically and start with Sala A the first of the halls made up of several interlocing rooms. The main show was El Cuerpo Inventado (the invented body) with some typically unusual looks at the human body including this nifty hat on a leg (tempted to say kneecap). A smaller exhibition inside was Si Quebro El Cantaro, a look at child abuse through art, full of distorted nightmare images drawn mainly by children.

The TEA building is as much a star as the exhibits, it’s modern and very stylish, the library is huge with plenty of comfy areas to research or go through the large newspaper and magazine section. On previous visits the cafe has been closed but I was in luck and gave it a try, pretty standard snacks but the empty chalkboard still had the heading Menu del Dia so maybe they do offer something more substantial to feed the body as well as the mind. Anyway back to Sala B and Era Asi, No Era Asi from Lanzarote artist Juan Gopar, something of a beachcomber the rooms re-used driftwood and waste to add vibrant colours and shapes to discarded objects including a complete beach shack. As I walked around I could hear the rain pounding on the roof and through the brick sized windows could see Barranco Santos flooded and racing by in a brown sludgy hurry.

There’s one thing you could never accuse TEA of, playing safe, it’s a great champion to new artists and is always open to the unusual and downright bizarre. Sala C has been split into 7 workshop areas for resident artists under the title Arterias Visuales. Each has been given a small grant for materials and is free to develop their ideas, only one artist was actually at work and I was intriqued to read on her bio she has a Master in Sexology from Madrid – put me down for lots of homework. Some of the projects hadn’t got much beyond the scribbled design stage but a few had assembled some pieces like this pink creation. It’s an 11 week experiment so maybe I will get to see some end products and have a chat with the sexologist.

After 2 good hours I felt lifted, challenged and in some cases baffled but certainly happy that Santa Cruz has such a wonderful art space – even if there are hardly ever more than a handful of visitors. My challenge for the afternoon was to get to the bus station without looking like a drowned rat, I achieved it at least in part.

Noddy moving his house around, that’s what we used to call thunder when I was a nipper, but the almighty claps along with lightning and torrential rain in the early hours of this morning were like a pile driver pounding Tenerife. A yellow alert had been declared but it still disturbed me from my slumber and I awoke to find a Cabildo (government) press release advising that access roads to Mount Teide were closed due to snow. It does happen from time to time but will pass in a few days leaving a beautiful snow capped peak on the volcano and hardly a trace of the rain once the sun puts its hat back on.

In the meantime I dodged the heavy showers to experience some of the strange sights the weather produced down in Los Cristianos. Holiday makers especially Brits are very resourceful and resilient, I love that spirit that says we paid for this holiday and nothing is going to stop us from enjoying it. As I sipped an early coffee at a bar in the Valdes centre I could see a lone walker on the small peak of Montaña Cayofita that overlooks Las Vistas beach. It was hammering down with rain and pretty windy but this defiant individual seemed totally unruffled, I quite expected him to get out a picnic basket.

Suddenly the tap turned off, the clouds parted and hot sunshine emerged, as quick as a flash people peeled off layers and were ready for action. I took the chance to pop into Via Vai on the old beach front but was half way through my cheese roll when the next episode of rain arrived with a vengence. We all scattered from the exposed tables and sheltered under the awning as the chirpy Candy used a broom to push tidal waves of water off the sagging cover. Back came the sun within minutes so I made a bolt for it, a trick I learnt in metalwork.

Just down the promenade I spotted the fisherwomans statue in Plaza del Pescadora had aquired a brolly, it looked quite fetching but was now more like a sun shade. Strange how these things come in pairs, just round the corner a local chap was snoozing on a bench with his umbrella perched protectively. Las Vistas beach was almost empty of sun worshippers but a few were risking the big waves, one lady stood at the waters edge with her walking poles looking like Queen Canute holding back the waves. For those worried for swimmers (and surfers) safety the flags were set at yellow and the lifeguards were keeping watch, but it was still too wild to entice me in.

The forecast suggests that this wet spell will go in a few days, no rain for our CD Tenerife game in Santa Cruz tomorrow night please. The afternoon ended warm windy and sunny and most seats along the sea front were taken, I even saw a few enjoying ice creams, I was almost tempted to sing Oh I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside but resisted the urge as it frightens the seagulls.

Any excuse for a party, I’m sure each year they slip in a few new saints days in the Tenerife calendar to keep us on our toes but there are always some old reliables that fire up the party spirit and this week the weather was at it’s scorching best. Sunday kicked it off with San Antonio de Abad in Arona town, a lovely unspoilt haven just up in the hills and a starting point for many of the mountain walks. I had far less energetic pursuits on my mind this visit and after squeezing onto the Titsa bus I dived straight into the fun and games.

San Antonio is a protector of animals and they come out in force with oxen pulling carts leading the way and everything down to dogs, cats and even ferrets joining in. Drink plays a key role in fiestas, local wine is cheap and plentiful and the bars off the main tourist trails are very reasonably priced, it’s great sampling the atmosphere in the local hostelries as singing and dancing soon has them swinging. The more religious minded packed the church for a service but already the beer was flowing in the plaza among the stalls and various musicians were wetting their whistles.

The parade did a wide lap of the town coming back up alongside the plaza with all guns blazing and food and drink being handed out to anyone willing to reach out a hand. Daytime fireworks? why not, I was just worried that the rockets might scare the oxen and goats into making more street deposits, I did well to avoid stepping in any and also not to get bitten, chewed or nibbled by the animals on show. As I was covering the event for Tenerife Magazine I did my best to clamber on walls and hang off dodgy railings to get better pics through the lively crowd. You can’t beat a Sunday afternoon scoffing a huge baked potato as old ladies in Canarian dress dance and sing for your entertainment, when I left late afternoon there was a natural lull as the stage band took a break but it was sure to burst back into life in the evening.

Onto Thursday and San Sebastian patron saint of Adeje was waiting in the wings, another guardian of animals it was time to rouse the horses, goats and sheep but this time with the end result of riding the horses down into the sea at Playa de La Enramada in La Caleta. Seeing the goats and sheep in their pens reminded me of the old cattle market in Oxford, one of my favourite trips as a nipper, the smells and the chance to stroke the animals. The Tenerife sheep and goats were loving all the attention and the pigs were really hamming it up. Stars of the show though were the horses and foals, groomed to perfection and decorated they looked magnificent, the really keen ones trotting up and down the road to be joined by the ones in the paddock just before the parade marched off.

There were around 30,000 people gathered for the climax of the celebrations, most of them perched in precarious vantage points looking down on the beach. I followed the horses and riders down to the sand and then scrummed down as a wave of people washed over the beach as the horses galloped along the shore line and danced in the waves. The police kept people back at a safe distance but the shifting shingle and incoming tide made it fun keeping our footing. A few riders slithered off their horses and a brave little terrier of a dog raced after them snapping at their hoofs but backed off at the sight of the foaming water. San Sebastian made an appearance carried aloft but as he was carried away the crowd subsided all buzzing with the spectacle they had seen.

Full reports and different photos are on www.tenerifemagazine.com I musr scan my diary and see what other delights are coming up in the next few weeks before Carnaval fever kicks in.

Does bullying go on in the fish world? If it does I think my dinnertime tuna could have been one of the enforcers, maybe even The Codfather, it was big, a whopper, I didn’t know whether to eat it or offer it a seat at our table. I looked around and my friends plates were also dominated by equally generous and tasty portions. This was of course all in the line of work, albeit in very good company. The setting was the La Cofradia (The Brotherhood) restaurant in the newly restored fishermans block by the Muelle Pesquero, and the gathering was for Tenerife Magazine.

On yet another cloudless sunny Tenerife day I met John Beckley at Sorted Sites in downtown Los Cristianos and he drove us to Santa Cruz to pick up Arantxa Ros, one of the more enlightened social media users in the hotel and tourism trade. Heading on to Puerto de la Cruz we met Jack and Andrea Montgomery and followed their recomendation to try La Cofradia in Calle Las Lonjas. The functional frontage was soon contrasted by the bright modern interior but we chose the outside terrace looking out onto the festive fun fair on the quay side and the turret of the old battlements complete with a sturdy canon peeping over the mottled brick wall. In the distance the sea was lapping over the sea wall while the small harbour offered a much more sedate scene with fishing boats gently bobbing up and down.

A new year and a time to reflect and plan ahead, the last few days Tenerife Magazine has been getting 1,000 visitors a day and the Facebook friends are about to spill over the 3,000 mark. Arantxa was able to give us a refreshing insight into some possible new ways to spread the good word based on her local knowledge and experience. The arrival of a large plate of sardines was a welcome interuption and a good curtain raiser for the main course, my Atun en Salmorejo sauce was a challenge even for my ravenous appetite and the side order of canarian potatoes shared their bathing pleasure between the tangy salmorejo sauce and the usual choice of hot or mild mojo sauce. Dessert seemed the natural way to round it off, a bowl of caramello ice cream hit the spot for me with a coffee afterwards to keep it all tidy.

As the sun crept onto and across the terrace several of the other tables filled and emptied, a very popular spot, luckily Jack and Andrea had pre booked (Tel 922383409) the previous day. Suitably fed and watered we reluctantly departed to digest the ideas we had bounced around, hopefully you will appreciate our plans for Tenerife Magazine in the coming year, and La Cofradia has definately reeled me in for a return visit.