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Made in Spain
Whether you’re an expat chasing the dream, a traveller inspired by European elegance or a foodie seeking the perfect paella, Made in Spain is your insider’s guide to all things chic, cultural and quintessentially Spanish.
Join hosts Nalini Sharma and Laura Senior García for a glamorous mix of travel, food, fashion and the rich cultural narratives that make Spain a global icon of style and sophistication.
Nalini is a former Canadian TV presenter, who has previously covered red carpet and live events, and major news stories. She channels the same wit and curiosity to the Made in Spain podcast, offering sharp, unscripted takes on everything from Spanish traditions to expat surprises.
Laura, a seasoned leadership coach and global traveler, shares her deep, first-hand knowledge of Spain—not just as her birthplace, but as a country she continues to rediscover. With a British father and Spanish mother, she considers herself a global citizen with deep roots in Spain. Her insights connect Spain’s rich past with its modern evolution, offering a unique and personal perspective on life, culture, and luxury in Spain today.
Every episode of Made in Spain explores the country’s hidden gems and exclusive experiences, but it’s more than just a guide—it’s a conversation.
The show’s Slice of Life segment gives listeners an unfiltered peek into Nalini and Laura’s daily experiences – the joys, frustrations, and unexpected moments that make life in Spain, and beyond, full of surprises. Sometimes, it’s about the reality of settling into a new country – at other times, it’s about their travels, funny mishaps, or behind-the-scenes stories from researching the podcast. No matter the topic, listeners feel like they are right there with them, stepping into their world.
Made in Spain
Summer Round Up
Saddle up for a refreshing summer roundup as Laura and Nalini return for Season 4 of Made in Spain! After discovering a shared passion for horseback riding (despite choosing Spain's hottest months to begin this adventure), the hosts swap stories of how they navigated the notorious Spanish summer.
Nalini whisks us away to Toronto, where she rediscovered her hometown from a new perspective, tried heated dark Pilates classes, and even traveled with her surprisingly well-behaved dog Luna—though hilariously, no airport official ever actually checked if there was really a dog in her carrier! Meanwhile, Laura reveals her highlights included magical sunset trail rides overlooking the Peñón de Ifach in Calpe and precious beach moments with her family.
The pair doesn't shy away from the realities of Spanish summers—the exodus of locals, quadrupled hotel prices, impossible parking situations, and the futility of trying to accomplish anything beyond tourism in August. As Nalini puts it, "It's like Groundhog Day—you wake up and it's vacation day again." They share candid insights about attending a White Party (complete with belly dancers and an unexpected baby wild boar), traveling to Formula One qualifying in Austria, and discovering the refreshing joys of zero-alcohol drinks for beating the heat without the hangover.
Whether you're planning a Spanish getaway or simply curious about expat life on the Costa Blanca, this episode offers both practical wisdom and entertaining anecdotes about making the most of summer's challenges. Subscribe now to catch upcoming episodes featuring La Tomatina festival, Benidorm Pride, and Alicante's rising gastronomic recognition!
Welcome back everyone to the Made in Spain podcast. We are back after a pretty interesting summer, and my name is Laura Senior-Garcia and I'm your co-host along with Nalini Sharma Garcia, and I'm your co-host along with Nalini Sharma. Today we are doing the first episode of our season four and it's a summer roundup. We're going to be sharing with you a little bit of our experiences this summer, which have been a lot of fun and very diverse, so we're really, really looking forward to it. So maybe, nalini, you want to kick us off and tell us a little bit about Made in Spain Summer Edition.
Speaker 1:What was your summer like? Summer Edition, okay, well, first, I have to say, between the two of us, we've taken up horse riding, or horseback riding. Apparently, there's some controversy as to what you call it. You get on the back of a horse.
Speaker 2:Well, my thing was I saw an Irish comedian and again me being kind of half Spanish, half English. I don't know if there is a correct way but I did see an Irish comedian talk about the fact that he's like is this like an American thing, or North America, or that they say horseback riding? And his point was well, where else are you going to? Ride a horse if it's not on its back, so it's like horse riding. Yeah, that makes sense, yeah.
Speaker 1:So, anyway.
Speaker 2:so we have taken up horse riding, We've taken it up as a sort of a joined hobby. Yeah.
Speaker 1:We did a trail ride a while back and then we thought well, why don't we take some lessons? So, we've been taking lessons um it's been going, uh, I think. Well, I love it.
Speaker 2:I think it's probably uh, I would call it more than any found passion. I think it is quite interesting that we decided to take something on like this in the height of the summer. Oh, so again this is our summer roundup, yeah so. So, nalini, do you want to describe to our listeners what summer, particularly, let's just say the kind of July, august is like here in Spain? So for those who haven't visited, they know what to expect.
Speaker 1:OK, first, I think it's really interesting that people who have time off choose to come to a country whether it's Spain or a different European country that is at the height of its tourism, high season prices, as well as heat, and I know for a lot of people it's the time when their kids are off from school, so they they are kind of forced to take their holidays then, but summer can be enjoyable here. However, it is very, very hot, especially if you are in a city and you don't have access to get to the beach or water. Things tend to be quite crowded. You have to make sure, even if you're in a little town, that you make a reservation for you know, an afternoon lunch, a lot of places that you go, especially in August. I've seen a lot of funny TikTok videos and Instagram videos where people turn up in the middle of August and everything is closed in the town, but not closed as in for a couple of hours. They're closed like they've left. They're not there.
Speaker 2:Mostly not in the area where we are in the Costa Blanca, because it is super, super high season, but absolutely in kind of more rural towns or even cities where you have people just basically leave for the whole month of august. It is almost, I will say, other than tourist related activities right it is almost impossible to get anything done here in august yeah anything from fixing your car to getting a visa, to whatever it is.
Speaker 2:Anything it's, yeah, it's just people aren't working hard. No, and the way I kind of perceive it is it is super tough to work in august because of the weather, the heat, it's very, very hot. Then you have the fact that there's a ton of people who are not working. So if you're trying to get something's, a ton of people who are not working. So if you're trying to get something done, like half of the country's not working, so it's kind of pretty annoying. And then, on top of everything, it feels like everyone's on holiday like vacation.
Speaker 1:yeah, it's like kind of groundhog day. You wake up and you're like, ah, vacation day again. I mean, that being said, people do tend to travel. You have family that come in. I have a friend at the golf course where my son golfs and I said, hey, how was your summer? I just saw him this past week and he said great, we had 60 visitors over the course of the summer. And that's when I say to myself I'm really happy I'm not a European, because it's a far flight for Canadians to make it here, whereas if you have family in Europe it's an hour, maybe two hours, and you know they hop on a flight and they're yeah so was the great genuine?
Speaker 2:yeah, because, like I think that would be like the ultimate nightmare for me.
Speaker 1:I mean, I think like 60 people, I mean not, they weren't in, not at the same time but over the course of the summer and he said at one point they had 30 guests staying in different locations, but to the point that he had to call for reservations at a restaurant and it would be different people calling to make a reservation for five and then a reservation for five and then six. Because he's like there's no way you can call a little restaurant in the Costa Blanca and say, yeah, can I have a reservation for 30 people?
Speaker 1:it's impossible anyway, I thought, yeah, that that was an interesting, busy summer. So for I typically go home to Toronto at least one or two times a year, so we had a family function to attend to in July which we went for, so that was nice. And then I spent three plus weeks in Toronto, my hometown, and I will say for me, even for me, even though I was born and raised, there this is the first time that I've lived in the downtown area I mean the center of the city.
Speaker 1:So I did not grow up there, I grew up on the outskirts and I would always travel in. So if we went out with your friends you're growing up or even when I had my kids it would be sort of a day out. You know let's go downtown and you know, for a lunch or walk along the boardwalk or go to the lake. But now I live there and the last time oh it was.
Speaker 1:It was incredible. I was really, really happy, and the last time I was there, which was November, uh, I had an accident last year, so I couldn't walk properly.
Speaker 1:I remember it was taking you a while to get from A to B yeah, and I had a cane in November and it's slippery and there's snow, um, and I was in a lot of pain, like the cold really bothered me. So I was very, everything was a chore, everything just to walk somewhere. It would be one hour of preparation, mental preparation, like I don't want to slip, I don't want to fall anyway this time as soon as I landed. Oh, I also traveled with my new little doggy, luna. She traveled I don't know, it's like a gift really from another planet. She is so good. She's a tiny little multi-poo, not a sound for the entire trip.
Speaker 1:And I will say they make a big deal about the pet passport. So I think it's super funny. You cannot check in online if you have a pet we flew Air Canada. You cannot check in online If you have a pet we flew air Canada. You cannot check in online. So you need, and they tell you, with a pet, you need to go now, even extra early. So now you're four hours ahead, right? So?
Speaker 1:And my husband, he's like the flight's noon, we should leave at 5.00 AM. You know he's one of those, but anyway, we show up, we get to the counter and you know he says, oh, we have a pet and it's all four of us standing there with this little dog in the you know the carry little carry bag thing and the girl says, ok, great, and my son is standing and he's watching what she's doing. So she opens the pet passport, which they're only looking for a rabies shot to make sure that you have the proper vaccinations before you board the plane. I don't even think Kai told me he says she didn't really look at anything, she just kind of opened it to a page, closed it, put it back into the folder, gave it back to us and we're still standing there and I thought she's going to ask to see the dog. No, you know, like check the dog, that there is a dog. It's not a guinea pig or a cat or something.
Speaker 2:Tarantula nothing, zero I had. Maybe she didn't even really know what she was looking for.
Speaker 1:You fill it out like you have to fill it out that you're traveling with a dog and she did not check anything and we walked away. That took us all of to check in. Maybe seven minutes, oh my goodness seven it Seven.
Speaker 1:It was nothing. And then, of course, you know whatever three hours in the waiting in the airport. And when we entered Canada we thought for sure they're going to be asking questions about the dog. Check the dog. You know we're bringing a dog that's not from Canada but from here back into the country. Make sure she has all the paperwork. To this day nobody has looked in that bag to see if I was actually carrying a dog or any other paraphernalia in the bag. That is actually kind of scary. Nothing, that nothing. And we got pulled over at Pearson airport for two hours, detained because of my purse, because they wanted to check if it was real yes and how much it was and that it was considered importation.
Speaker 1:And I kept asking the customs officer do you want to see the dog? No, and he said no, no, she's fine. I said what you don't want to see. Do you want to see the pet passport?
Speaker 2:No, you're good. No, we just want to know if we can get money from you for your purse. He's like sit down and wait there.
Speaker 1:I was like that's crazy, yeah, and we left with the dog and I said I think this is the most hilarious thing that nobody ever checked to see if Luna was a dog. If we're just crazy people traveling with a stuffed animal, nothing.
Speaker 2:An emotional support stuffed animal.
Speaker 1:Zero, anyway. So as soon as I arrived in the city and we got to the apartment and the kids went upstairs, I immediately went out with her for a walk. And that's not me. I normally get off a plane, I have to shower, like my clothes have to go in the laundry. I feel very dirty. I was just like I'm going for a walk. I'm in downtown Toronto. Anyway, we had a walk and everybody stopped me, everybody with the little dog.
Speaker 2:So if you want to see Luna, you should check out our TikTok, the Made in Spain podcast TikTok. You can see her there. She is a people magnet.
Speaker 1:She is, but I was just so happy to be in my hometown and anyway, the city itself was at its best. Toronto in the summer is really at its best. There's a lot of festivals, people are out Everybody's, you know, in a good mood, people are dressed very nicely.
Speaker 2:So the sun's out for most of the time, yeah, and it's not boiling hot.
Speaker 1:And it's not boiling hot like it is here, so you, when you go out in the morning for a walk, it's just really fresh and nice and so what is like the kind of like average temperature in celsius that you will get there in august?
Speaker 1:I mean you can get up to 30s mid 30s, it gets hot yeah but it's very rare that it gets where you get a wall of heat for three, four, five weeks on it. You'll get a couple of hot days or a hot week and then you know of course everybody's complaining Like, oh my God, the heat. Meanwhile we're all outside. This is like it's not hot at all. I did where we live. It's very convenient that we across the street they have some of these very interesting sort of health places, health and wellness. So one of them is Jaybird.
Speaker 2:Oh, sort of health places health and wellness, so one of them is Jaybird, or is it?
Speaker 1:like the Equinox of Canada. Equinox is in Canada, by the way. It's just down the street, the other direction, but they and here's a recommendation If you go anywhere into any city and you're there for a week or two and you're staying at an Airbnb an Airbnb, your friends or family most gyms have a little pass you can buy.
Speaker 2:that's a fraction of the cost so you can either buy a week pass and the other thing. Sometimes, and without being cheeky or anything, I have gone into gyms before and go look, you know I'm here just for a week or I'm traveling give you a pass and they're like, yeah well, why don't you just actually some gyms?
Speaker 2:they will just say, just come in for the day, because we have like a day that you can just come check out the gym. And I always feel bad because I'm like, but I'm not going to move here. So you do understand that you're letting me come in for free. A lot of places are okay with it, particularly Particularly the big gyms.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but Jaybird is. I don't know if they have other locations, I just know the one across the street from where we are, but it is an indoor Pilates. So of course it's going to be indoor Pilates, not outside.
Speaker 2:But it's heated Horseback riding. Yeah, heated yeah. So, okay, so like a B-crime yoga sort of thing, right? So?
Speaker 1:the rooms are heated and it's also in the dark. Oh right, so my first class here and I'm I'm always the person who'll go in and be like you know what? I'm going to try this, so I never think what am I doing? Like? This is not a good idea.
Speaker 1:Pilates in the dark, pilates in the dark, and the, the, but like reformer, or there's two. Did I not tell you this? No, the reform, oh my god. Okay, the reformer, it's a class, it's a reformer class and I mean, I work out here, I think I'm pretty strong. Um, uh, yeah, it's a whole, it's a whole other level in a reformer class. Um, you need to know the machines.
Speaker 1:There's straps going yeah, there's legs and your arms and just moving the actual bed itself is really heavy. I call it the fun torture machine. Oh my goodness, I thought oh, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do my 14 classes that I paid like nothing for every day I'm coming to reformer class. I did that twice. No, you didn't. I went two times and then I had to go to the regular dark Pilates, which again very hard. You're sweating, it's dark, you can't see anything, so you can't look at what the other person's doing.
Speaker 2:What's the whole deal with it being?
Speaker 1:dark, so you can be free as a J bird and nobody will judge you. There are no mirrors, laura. You're just on your mat in your own moment yeah, and I also did a bowl class. You know, that is where she's just with the bowl banging.
Speaker 2:Oh, you mean like, oh, the sound healing, right, sound healing but I thought there actually would be pilates.
Speaker 1:It was a full hour of that Listening to the bing the bowl and she comes right next to you and you have to have your eyes closed with a towel.
Speaker 2:It's like meditational sound healing.
Speaker 1:I thought I was going to work off the fried chicken I had for lunch in that class. No, that did not happen.
Speaker 2:Tibetan bowl sound healing.
Speaker 1:But listen, super cool concept. I really.
Speaker 2:I mean honestly, I wish we had stuff like that here, because you know you can do you know there was a whole sound healing thing with the bowls and everything like an event that they did. I think it was like the 28th of August. Oh, okay, yeah, in LA County. I just think a lot of things happen around here and we don't find out about them until it's yeah, and I mean I love jaybird.
Speaker 1:It was a super cool experience. I, you know, I really um, it was a huge part of my stay there because I scheduled my day around going to the class and then my son he went to this other place called other ship okay, which is an odd name, but it's um a heated, it's a sauna, but it's really, really hot and they do breath work with you in there and then you immediately do the ice plunge and they was this kai, yeah, so he went and then you.
Speaker 1:A lot of the professional athletes in the city use it so like high performance yeah, so when the basketball on, all the Raptors are in other ship doing their heat and ice bath. So he loved that. We went to a couple of museums, we went to parks, we visited family, what else? We ate out quite a bit, so that was nice. Yeah, did a couple terraces, you know, to see the city.
Speaker 2:We went to Toronto, but before you actually went to Toronto, you did go to the Formula One. Yes, we went to Austria. That's still summer, that's still summer.
Speaker 1:We went to again and we took the dog. Not to the dogs are not allowed at Formula One but we took her. We actually hired a babysitter for the day. A girl came For the dog For yeah, and she just walked her around Vienna. Oh cool, yeah. So, and I have a friend who from Mallorca. She lives there, so I got to see her but the Formula One was, I mean, really fantastic, but it's very far away from Vienna. It's a good two-hour drive.
Speaker 2:It's probably a longer drive than the flight from here.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, it was long. I mean, it's a straight road, it's not hard, but and it's very pretty, it's very, very pretty. However, once you get there, there's nothing. There's no shops. There's a gas station, that's all.
Speaker 2:You have A gas station and a Formula One track and the Formula One track, which the race.
Speaker 1:well, we saw qualifying. We went to qualifying, which sometimes is more exciting than the race, but it was. That was an amazing experience. So yeah, and then we had some nice food and walked around. Vienna is a small city, have you been?
Speaker 2:No, I have not been. Austria is on my list. I think I've only been to the airport. So you did Vienna, you did Toronto. We've been to Madrid a couple of times. We've been to Madrid, we've done a little bit of everything. I will say this for people, and I always mention this to people when they ask me like should you know when is a good time to visit Spain, particularly and you can hear that Nalini and myself included, you know we tend to kind of try to leave during this kind of hot, hot summer period. So I always tell people, come any time of the year, but try to avoid July and August.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and also just for your own enjoyment. I mean, if you're coming here to see the, the sights are very crowded and it's very hot and the air conditioning in most of Europe is not the same as you might be used to in America, let's say, where you walk into a shopping mall and it's zero degrees.
Speaker 2:And also prices really do vary. So you know, we were checking out some hotels in the area just to kind of do like a little staycation for a couple of days, you know, for the weekend. Some hotels that you can get for just over $100 any time of the year were over $400 for the same room. So you really need to watch it. So those are the things that you did Now together before you left.
Speaker 2:We did have a really neat experience at this white party. Oh, have we not talked about the white party? No, we have not. It's been a minute. It's been a really crazy summer so I think we should do a shout out to dj sean lester and his white party was absolutely amazing. It was actually a very funny experience because neither Nalini or I knew where we were going. And, by the way disclaimer, this is not like a Puff Daddy or PDD white party or anything like that. Okay, just to be clear, although, like the timing of it and him calling it a white party when all this stuff was going on with the PDD trial was kind of like interesting. But it was called a white party because we were supposed to dress in white and it was extremely hot and it was a day party it was fun, though it was super fun and it was a great concept because it's, uh, you know, during the day, and a lot of partying here, you know, in this country does happen very, very late at night.
Speaker 2:And I think for me I've turned into one of these people that like turns into a pumpkin at like 10 pm at night yeah me too, so for me it's like, oh great, there's a party and it happens during the day it was. It was a pretty comical experience that there was a lady doing like these, you know, belly dancing, dancing and again, check out our socials. We've got some videos up there. Uh, one gentleman that was there actually somehow managed to get a little baby wild boar this is not a lie.
Speaker 1:This is true this is true.
Speaker 2:Like he walked in and he's like, look what I have. And I'm like where did you get that? And where is the mom? Because, by the way, they tend to be very aggressive animals and I'm sure she's not appreciating that you took?
Speaker 1:her baby. She went, she's like, oh, I want to go see the baby pig. And I said no, nothing's like I'm not getting near that?
Speaker 2:yeah, I'm not so so you know we are in the middle of nowhere, which raye was like a little place that I don't know how you would even describe it. It's like a town towards in, like more rural.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's in the interior.
Speaker 2:Getting further away from the sea and there's a lot of people from the UK mostly. I think we may have. No, there's a couple of Spanish people, not really that many people that weren't from the.
Speaker 1:UK. The thing with his Sean's party, the white party, was that Sean's party, the white party, was for the slightly older crowd. There was a variety. Yeah there were younger people there, but I think that was his deal. That's why he put it in the day for the old, I don't know.
Speaker 2:May I remind you, nalini, that you did have one kid we're going to call him a kid who must have been all of like 18 years old. He was 18.
Speaker 1:Yeah, who proceeded to ask me how old are you?
Speaker 2:I said how old he's like? You're not really doing this, are you?
Speaker 1:yeah, I'm like how old are you? And then he's like 18. I said yeah, well, I got two kids older than you, so go away yeah move.
Speaker 2:So that was our kickoff to our summer was the white party, which was absolutely hilarious. And you've done traveling as well. I have done traveling. Sadly, I will say that this summer a lot of my travel has been for work, uh. But I am uh saving up for the great vacation, just time-wise saving up for the great vacation that we have planned for next february when we go to trinidad for the carnival. But I did travel for work this summer, uh, to angola, which was super interesting because, even though I have been to Angola before this time it was actually to a camp and so, first of all, how do you get to Angola from here?
Speaker 2:oh, my goodness, well you. I'm actually lucky in the sense that a lot of people have it a lot harder in terms of route, but from here you go to madrid, okay, lisbon, and then lisbon, luanda, which is the capital of angola, right? Uh, it is very easy to actually go to luanda, angola, even though it's a country that a lot of people don't travel to for any kind of like vacation or tourism, but it's got some really cool places to go to if you want to go like off the beaten path let's put it that way Do you recommend that?
Speaker 2:No, I would not recommend it. I mean, let's just face it, like there's cool stuff there, right, and if you're there for other reasons, then you will find like very interesting things to do. Like, would I kind of say, go there as a holiday destination? No, absolutely not. But it's an adventure to go for work, for sure. And what happened for where I was going? Normally I go to the capital city, stay there, but this is for a particular camp, right? So you actually have to get this Dash 8 smaller plane, not like a propeller plane, yeah and kind of go into the camp and you know there's monkeys everywhere in the camp and I was facilitating a session and you have to be exactly on time, because all the food's outside and if you don't let people out on time, the monkeys can get a hold of the food so it's like okay, this is a whole different reason to ensure that I'm on time and we're taking breaks on time, so the monkeys don't steal the food but they didn't let you
Speaker 2:take any photos no, they did not not, uh, not going onto the plane or you know, it was kind of like no photos in the airport and that kind of thing Interesting, like security thing. But the interesting thing is I was expecting to have to stay in kind of a smaller room or somewhere not so nice, because I know other people who you know stay out there. And it turns out that you know we land and then we kind of drive for like 40 minutes and the back roads that look like you know the favelas or whatever in Brazil, and we end up at this like really nice five-star looking hotel. I had an amazing room. So it was a real interesting experience. So that was Angola, and I have been to Paris recently as well and I'm going actually back to Paris tomorrow as we're recording this for work and it's always, you know, it's always nice going to Paris because it's there's always something going on in the city and it is beautiful time of the year.
Speaker 2:Paris is one of these cities that gets extremely cold, so now it feels totally different yeah you know when you're showing up, but I definitely think that the the highlights to me in terms of of travel Madrid, angola, paris, but yeah, most of it for work yeah this time, this time round but that's okay.
Speaker 2:But sometimes it's nice to actually just be in your home no, yeah, I know we've really loved it and I know we'll talk about it in the slice of life, but we have had some really, really great moments being able to enjoy the area because, as mentioned, I think many times in August everybody's kind of like running away from here. If you live here because you know you can't park the car anywhere, I will go places in a taxi because I just don't want to deal with having to try and get parking. No, like that, and that's all up and down the coast. Yeah, so that's something else as well. Sometimes I know people want to get, like, a rental. It makes sense for many reasons, depending on where you're going and especially if it's the height of the summer, I really think it's better to just take taxis or take the public transport, because it is an absolute mess to try to park your car.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's do's do that, Laura. Let's take the bus to Albir.
Speaker 2:Yay, let's not, not the bus. Okay, so let's go to our slice of life, our first slice of life of season four.
Speaker 1:Keeping it wholesome here with zero this is our secret. Zero, zero. So the reality here is that alcohol is very cheap.
Speaker 1:Cheers, take a sip, you can really find it's delicious, actually drinks for not a ton of money and it's hot. So sometimes it's easy to go overboard or to maybe, you know, every day have a drink if you go out somewhere. It's just very common. Yeah, so to give yourself a break, maybe try the Zero Zero. And what I found really interesting is that the big supermarket near us, Carrefour, I saw the. They have a whole section I don't know if you've seen this and it's different brands. So we have the Seagrams. There are a few other brands that have the 00, but the section was actually completely empty.
Speaker 2:It was completely sold out. I think there's a generational and there's a cultural thing happening that is moving people towards sometimes not wanting to drink alcohol, related to, you know, either partying or going out, and I think it's great for people to have choices. Actually, my dad yesterday was asking me like, oh, you know like what, do you want this choices? Actually, my dad yesterday was asking me like oh, you know like what do you want this? Why would you drink non alcoholic gin? I said Well, you know, you have to understand. He says why would you just drink water?
Speaker 2:I'm like because, like, imagine that you're out, for example, and everybody else is drinking and you don't want that social pressure, exactly, and you're like you know what. So then if you just order, like, an alcoholfree gin and tonic, no one has to know, it's up to you. Or if you want them to know, you know you can share it. But what I'm saying is it is helpful sometimes, you know, if you don't want to drink and you don't want to have to listen to people, because sometimes there is a lot of peer pressure or people around that will say like oh, you know why don't you have a drink, and sometimes you know you never know what's going on with people, but they may not want to drink Exactly and also just now that I've started using this in the summer and it's really refreshing.
Speaker 2:It quenches your thirst, and I use the sugar-free tonic as well, so we have that here as well, which is in this case it's like zero Schweppes, which is quite interesting because, again, if you're not just counting calories but let's just say if you are aware or conscious of your calorie intake, tonic has a lot of calories, it does and when you have a drink like this and you're in mixed company, nobody says anything to you and you feel in a way because I always thought it was very strange to the you know the zero non-alcoholic beer like why would you drink that?
Speaker 1:but then you just think, listen, you're in a mixed environment, you're at a social function, you go to somebody's house a barbecue, whatever. It's just easier. Sometimes you have something in your hand, you're still quenching your thirst, but you're not partaking in something that you don't really want to partake in at that moment in time.
Speaker 2:Or you know like, know like the awkward moment. I just thought of this. But you know like, when people just find out that they're pregnant or something right and they're at this event, and everybody's like why aren't you drinking? Like this is a perfect opportunity to kind of like hide it.
Speaker 1:So anyway, it's interesting and obviously very popular.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so Seagram 00 with tonic and nice little light refreshing gin and tonic. So for our slice of life. Today, since it's our summer roundup, we wanted to talk about our favorite moments of the summer. So, nalini, do you want to start?
Speaker 1:Sure, I will say one of my favorite moments, first of all being together with my three kids. That was super fun.
Speaker 2:I love the pictures yeah.
Speaker 1:That is always a special moment, I I think, for any mother to have her children reunited in one place at one time. But another really favorite moment was for your birthday. We did that sunset horseback, horseback riding, I don't know horse ride. We went to, uh, staples do you remember the name now?
Speaker 2:so I believe it's like fantasy party or fantasy farm or something like that, I think it's fantasy farm.
Speaker 1:It's fantasy. It's in calpe. It's this little place um where they do unicorn parties for kids yes I did not have a unicorn party for laura for her birthday.
Speaker 2:I wish we had a unicorn party. So actually I was writing notes for this episode and thinking about what we would call different sections and for the slice of life I was thinking I saw a unicorn and you saw a big mic as the kind of title of the slice of life.
Speaker 2:So we'll get to that, uh, but yeah, she, so this lady and her family that have the stable. I think it's fantasy far. We'll actually put it in the notes of the episode if anyone in the area because she actually shared with us that there are a lot of people that you know come in with their kids on holiday and stuff and have one of these unicorn parties. She does private parties and then she does like the event where a couple of times a month she you know the ponies and the white horses in full unicorn gear. This is like rainbow manes, they have like a horn. I had this whole conversation with her about it because after you had this beautiful idea for my birthday gift experience, I actually went back with my father father who had not ridden a horse in like more than 30 years or something and we did the same trail ride. It's a beautiful trail, it's beautiful.
Speaker 1:Did you do it at sunset? Yes, we did the sunset trail, it's so I mean she times it perfectly where you go out on the horse and they have obviously a guide with you, somebody to stay with you, and you go through the sort of the trail, the mountains, and you end up at the top right when the sun is setting and you're on the horse and it's breezy up there.
Speaker 2:It was really beautiful. The peñon de fach in calpe yes, so that's so. If any of you want to check out what that looks like, the views and everything, go check out our socials, particularly our tiktok. We've got a couple of posts about the specific trail ride. It's absolutely gorgeous, so that.
Speaker 1:So that was one of your favorite moments, and also in when I was in toronto I worked out with um mike van wick who anybody who's in the I'm laughing because he would not normally work out with somebody like me. What do you mean? He, you know, with people who are competing in shows and stuff. So my brother works out with him. He's known as Big Mike and he's very well known in the fitness world. So I did Drake's trainer or something. He used to work as his security, oh, ok, like back in the day, but he does his own thing now. So he's quite well known and, um, so, anyway, my, I did a session right after my brother's session and it was, yeah, he was really good, it was fun because he's like a really tall, sort of intimidating looking guy.
Speaker 2:I've seen the picture. The guy looks like no mountain from game of thrones or something.
Speaker 1:He's absolutely huge, no but he's super sweet, like really nice, not intimidating, doesn't make you feel like you're an idiot when you're doing you know, the the exercises. He doesn't yell at you or anything. And uh, he was very helpful with just giving me tips and advice for my injury recovery etc. So that was one of the highlights, and I did a little lunch for my son's birthday. Yeah, that was my summer.
Speaker 2:Oh nice. So I've got three favorite moments. I have to say the first one. Well, in a weird way, I thought the white party was fun, let's put it this way. I mean, it may be not the favorite moment, but it's certainly memorable. But I do think. Up there was the experience with the trail ride. It was so special and, like nalini said, you know, I do think um connecting with horses has actually been something, you know, that's been a a big part of um this summer. Uh, because they, they are. There's something about hanging out with animals like that, where you just forget about everything.
Speaker 1:You know, you just you just disconnect.
Speaker 2:So the trail rides are amazing. So that moment and kind of staying in the horse theme, you know, we have been taking lessons. The other day, which is still extremely hot right now, going in the horse riding lesson, from trotting to galloping and actually feeling the speed on the horse. I think that's one of my favorite moments of the whole summer. And then the other one has been being able to spend time with my husband and my daughter on the beach.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:So I am a total beach person. I've always loved the beach and my husband's like always kind of. You know, he's Canadian as well, so he's always like resisted the ideas, like well, he'll go to the beach. And then it's like, okay, now we've been to the beach, let's go. It's like 30 minutes. I'm like, no, that's not how it works here.
Speaker 2:You don't understand you haveina, who you know is autistic this summer for the first time she actually was okay with staying on the beach instead of just wanting to run off. So at one point we got her a sunbed and she was, like you know, chilling in the sunbed, like you know, a beach princess. I was like this is I actually got to enjoy some time on the beach with the family, which was super nice and I absolutely loved it. So I think that was definitely another favorite moment of the summer.
Speaker 2:I always kind of complain. I can hear myself the last few summers of like, oh, you know, the summer's over and I've only made it to the beach once, or whatever. I think my husband at one point I was like Okay, I've only made it to the beach once, or whatever. I think, uh, my husband at one point I was like okay, why are we going to the beach so many times? Because he was really into it and I think we went like seven times in two weeks. So, yeah, really, really happy about that. It's been, uh, it's been a special summer and it's not over. No, you know, we're gonna speak in the summer is still going here yeah, and that's the other thing about summer.
Speaker 2:In Spain, it's like the school holiday is extremely long because the schools don't have half term, no, so they take almost three months for summer, to the point where you know most parents. There is the sadness of, oh, we're no longer on vacation, but the happiness of, like, I'm getting rid of my kids finally, because it's like you know, this is a long time to have your kids at home.
Speaker 1:I guess you would not have seen this commercial, but it's a Staples commercial, which is, you know Staples is. Yeah, I do know what Staples is. Okay, so they, at this time of the year, the commercial, the rest of North America. But it's, uh, you know the Christmas song. It's the most wonderful time of the year and like parents running around the staples throwing you know, pens and erasers and the kids are just like and the parents are like so happy it is.
Speaker 2:It is a lot to you know, entertain them and all that. So but, yeah, so that so, but I will say I said summer's not over. We are our next episode going to talk about the tomatina.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Which is a little sneak peek, you know it always happens the last Wednesday Of August, of August, which is, you know, interesting, so we'll talk about that in the next episode. And we're also going to Pride yes, Mature Pride in is it actually called Mature Pride To Pride in Benidorm next Saturday, which is the 6th of September. So qualify still as summer. So summer's not over, but this was a little bit of our summer roundup that we wanted to share with you. So in season four just so you know what's coming we're going to be speaking about the tomatina, we're going to be covering pride, we are going to go a deep dive into Alicante and the gastronomic recognition that they have received lately, as well as being called out as somewhere great to retire. So lots of interesting stuff coming this season. Don't forget to subscribe, hit, follow. It really helps us and it continues to allow us to grow this podcast so that we can continue to connect with you before we go anywhere. Phrase of the day. Sentence of the day okay, sentence of the day, and this is non-alcoholic.
Speaker 2:Usually, by this point I've had a few sips, so okay, I'm ready so, since we're in the theme of the summer and heat, I decided to pick this sentence. So the sentence is hace un sol de justicia sun is, hace un sol de justicia.
Speaker 1:Uh sun is.
Speaker 2:Hace un sol de justicia.
Speaker 1:Uh, like justice of the sun.
Speaker 2:Yes, that is the literal translation. What do you think it means? Hace un sol de justicia. You can't, you can't escape it. It's like really, really hot. So I wanted to give a little bit of background of where that sentence comes from. It's quite funny, really hot. So I wanted to give a little bit of background of where that sentence comes from. It's quite funny Well, funny now. But in the medieval times they used to in the part of Spain that's like super hot in the middle of the summer they used to take people who were like in prison or whatever and to like punish them. They would make them work in the sun in the hottest part of the day. So it's like, uh, the justice of the sun. Like you know, you're like using the sun to like it's actually very clever punish people. It is punishment. So until actually like researching where that came from for the episode, I didn't realize like there is a meaning to it. It's kind of crazy.
Speaker 1:Good episode. Thank you everyone. The Made in Spain podcast is an Everything's Rosie production with executive producers and hosts Nalini Sharma and Laura Senior, with special thanks to production assistant Ayrton Nath.