Jesús, our new neighbour, is an incredibly friendly young man. He’s a wonderful communicator and chats to everybody, unlike me who, and I blame my quasi-Calvinistic West Scotland upbringing for this, tends to treat everyone with dour suspicion until I decide they can be trusted (after maybe 10-15 years of knowing them).
Jesús is a frequent visitor to our house (2-3 times a day), probably because we rarely ‘pop in’ to see him. As he puts it – “I could be dead in my little house and you would never know as you never visit…and it’s only 20 yards away, so I have to come to you.”
He was joking, but he had a point. Being British we’re not comfortable with just popping in on people on the grounds that we might be being bothersome. The first time Andy suggested I should ask Jesús if he wanted to come round for a drink, it took me 30 minutes of humming and hawing before I eventually forced myself to go and ask him.
His house looked in darkness.
“I’m not sure Jesús (pronounced Heysoos) is actually in his hoose (okay, I realise that with a Scottish accent that just sounds silly),” I protested as Andy shoved me out the front door.
He was in and he accepted the invitation and during the evening we got to know each other a lot better.
Nowadays he wanders up to the house to tell us his latest plans and ideas on life; these can change with each visit. He reminds me of a butterfly in the wind on a seemingly random course, changing direction with the breeze.
The other day he talked about becoming a troglodyte in the Anaga Mountains and living off the land. This was after he’d started to create a small vegetable patch and felt he had a talent for this sort of thing. A couple of hours later, he was talking about moving to Miami to make some dosh. The phrase spectrum and opposite ends of comes to mind.
Earlier in the week he decided to give up eating meat and just eat raw vegetables and fruit (you get the picture here; one extreme to the other). He tried being a vegetarian previously and lasted a grand total of 16 hours. This time he’d gone 5 days without meat.
This morning Jesús appeared at the door drinking a concoction of ginger, lemon grass, water and a few other ‘healthy’ ingredients.
“Are you going to the supermarket on Friday?” he asked.
“Yup, you want to come?” Andy answered.
“Yes, I need to buy some meat.”
“I thought you’d given up,” I spun round in my chair to face him.
“I know, I know,” he looked and sounded apologetic. “But, I was feeling like I had no energy and,” he smiled. “Sorraya (the receptionist at the small golf course next door) brought me a chicken curry last night and I couldn’t resist.”
The fact that he was at our door early morning was evidence of another change of heart since yesterday when Jesús had decided that he was going to sleep all day and stay awake during the night because he felt there was ‘a different energy’ to be experienced in the wee small hours.
So now we look forward on a daily basis to hearing Jesús’ new lifestyle plan. It’s fun having a ‘butterfly in the wind’ as your neighbour.
Living beneath the volcano 