Gangster Granny, Sant Antoni, and Winter Life in Sóller

Vicki: Happy New Year to Soller Shirley, who is here in the studio looking like Gangster Granny.

Vicki: I’m loving the look.

Soller: Thank you.

Vicki: Let me describe them, they’re slightly cropped above the ankle and they’ve got embroidery down the side. Flowers?

Soller: Flower jeans, yes.

Vicki: I love your look. How are you?

Soller: Good, all good.

Vicki: How was Christmas?

Soller: We’ve had a lovely Christmas in Sóller. Family-wise it was lovely because all the girls were home.

Vicki: Was it a full house?

Soller: Full house. We did various things and it was nice. Then on New Year I joined the old Sóller crowd and we danced around by the Monument restaurant. Other people were doing quite a number on the castanets. It was fabulous. Proper serendipity, there was music, mostly South American music, lots of local people.

Vicki: For Christmas I stayed in because it was raining a lot. And then the bit between Christmas and New Year, I really like that, where you don’t really know what day it is any longer. I love that bit where nobody calls you and you can just mooch about in your pyjamas.

I got quite a few things done in that time, organising a few things, and just generally relaxing and resting. We had Ollie’s mum and dad here and my mum here for a bit of Christmas, and then they all disappeared off afterwards.

New Year’s Eve I was working. I was shooting event pictures at Merchants in Palma. And I was sent off to another place too, because another photographer had let a restaurant down.

It was quite fun. But I got to go home early. When you’re taking pictures of events, you don’t want to take pictures of drunk people. It doesn’t look pretty, especially at a high-quality establishment. They want pictures of elegant people having a nice time.

So I’m very happy I don’t have to stay past about ten o’clock. I went off and celebrated with my friends in Port d’Andratx, and we watched fireworks over La Mola.

And on New Year’s Day and Christmas Day there always seems to be swimming, so I just watched the swimming.

Soller: I was part of our New Year’s swimming celebrations, because I provide the Christmas cake.

Vicki: Same. I had pockets full of cake to hand out to the sufferers.

Soller: My family were all swimming along with our friends in Port de Sóller, at Repic Beach. We’ve been doing this for years, it’s been a tradition. And then more and more people join it. So all of a sudden you think, hang on, this used to be a small thing, and now it’s become the thing to do.

Vicki: What time of day do you do it?

Soller: This year it was probably about 11.30, but there are a lot of nine o’clock and ten o’clock swimmers. As far as my daughter is concerned, it’s too cold.

Vicki: I agree. It’s too cold generally. End of story.

Soller: I don’t swim very often in the summer either. It’s the getting wet. But also, as I’ve got older, my biggest struggle is getting out of the sand. You’re pulling yourself up against the sand and pushing yourself back. So I’m occasionally accompanied by granddaughters who hold me up on both sides.

Vicki: It’s hard to get old.

Soller: You can’t just float in.

Vicki: No. You get beached.

Soller: The beached whale is more like it. That is exactly the look I’m trying to avoid.

Vicki: We have a swimming spot we go to in the summer down the road in Sant Elm. It has nothing to do with the beach, we go off the rocks. It’s so much easier to get in and out from a rock. The sand is hard, especially walking out of the sea, there are obstacles, pebbles, rocks. I’ve broken toenails over the years. I’m a much bigger fan of simple, just get in the water. It means you’re more likely to do it. Less drama.

Soller: I walk every day if I can, by some sea or other. I think I was a mermaid in a different life, so I always need my sea fix.

At the moment, because of the weather and the high waves, the sand around the beach changes completely. All of a sudden you’ve got this great wall of sand you don’t normally have in summer. It’s very interesting to watch.

Vicki: I find that fascinating too. It bends my brain a bit. How does it all sort itself out?

Soller: It is fascinating. Nature is fascinating.

Vicki: You said you need to be by the sea every day. Is that why you live in Sóller?

Soller: Yes, I do. I wouldn’t like to say I woke up in London one day and thought, “I really must be by the sea.” But once we moved there, or got the flat on the beach when we first went there, it just calls me back.

I love the whole of Port de Sóller, but you’ll always find me going back to the Repic side because that’s where I started from. The apartment we had when we were second homeowners was there. The kids grew up there, it was our holiday place, and we had relationships with other people in our block. We still have friendships with some of them.

But the whole area, there’s something about it, the past drags me back there. Although often at the moment, I’m the only person walking there.

Vicki: So it’s comforting, a safe place?

Soller: It is safe. It is definitely my safe place. There’s something about the sea, the structure, and the people I know down there.

A lot of people would not agree with me because Repic half the year has a lot of shade. If you’re looking for sun, it’s the other side of the bay, towards where the boats come in. It’s not my side.

But for me, if I’m walking on damp ground and it’s humid, it makes no difference. It’s just where I want to be.

Vicki: What time of day do you go? Do you have a routine?

Soller: It depends on the season. Sometimes if I go up to town to do things and I’ve taken the car, then rather than go home I’ll go down to the beach.

But more often, my routine is to do what I’m doing in the morning, and then about four o’clock I’m heading to the beach for a walk or a coffee, or I might meet somebody and end up having a glass of wine. Not necessarily at four o’clock, that’s a tad early, but you’ll find me down there a lot.

My grandchildren went to primary school in Port de Sóller, there’s only one primary school there. I was part of the volunteers who went in to talk English to the kids. I used to sing and talk to them in English, as did others.

So I know lots of people by association. I wouldn’t say I’m best friends with these children, but they know who I am and they always have a chat. It’s nice.

Vicki: I have a similar feeling in Port d’Andratx. If we go to our local bakery café, I recognise the people who work there, I recognise faces all the time, and I love that feeling of belonging.

Soller: I think that’s it. People recognise you, they don’t know you, but they’ll smile. Or they might have a chat, depends.

Vicki: That’s really validating to me.

Soller: Yeah, and the longer you’ve been here, the more you want that.

Vicki: Especially in the last couple of years with the whole “tourists go home” vibe, I don’t want to give out the feeling I’m a tourist here, even though I don’t look Spanish. I want to know I’m included and part of the community.

Soller: Exactly. The best way is living what we’re doing now, living a winter in Mallorca. If you’re walking around Sóller right now, you won’t have the volume of people, and everyone you see, you sort of know who they are. You may not know them personally, but you know where they fit into the structure.

Vicki: One of the things I love about the winter in Mallorca is the fiestas. My favourite fiesta is coming up this weekend, Sant Antoni. Do you celebrate in Sóller?

Soller: We’ve already started. I’ll give you the details.

Last Saturday, the cooperativa between Sóller and Biniaraix have an annual event which is absolutely stunning.

Vicki: The cooperativa, what is it? For the listener.

Soller: The shop and the olive press. You go in and you take your bottle and you fill your wine.

Vicki: My dad used to love those places. Five litres of wine for nothing.

Soller: Exactly. It’s not far off that now.

If you’re going from Sóller to Fornalutx, you pass it. But it doesn’t look like a shop, there’s no big sign or neon light. There’s just the big old olive press. But you go in past the press and the buildings, and in the middle there’s a shop and a big courtyard.

For Sant Antoni they go mad. You have a big bonfire in the middle of the courtyard, barbecues going, and then you have three big cultural elements, bagpipes, dancing and singing, and the demonis, the mad people who come out with fire.

So you’ve got demonis, fire, music. And once all that’s done, then in comes live music and you’re dancing until two in the morning.

Some people turn up, take one look at the huge fire, and think it’s dangerous. But it’s not. They’re controlled. They’ve been doing it for years.

So that happened last Saturday, but really, wherever you go in the next ten days you’ll find a celebration of some kind.

On Friday night, this coming Friday, we have the official Sóller celebration in front of the town hall. Bonfire. Barbecue pits. The town hall provides bread and bits, but you bring your own meat, so it’s a communal bring-your-own-meat barbecue.

Then you’ll have the demonis, and they’ll be chasing the fire around.

It’s a great night, and it starts at seven o’clock.

Vicki: I used to get very frightened of the demonis. I did a backstage article one year with demonis from Andratx, and once I met them without their masks on it was much less terrifying. Some demonis have chainsaws in Andratx, and it’s not a real chainsaw, it’s just the noise, it’s terrifying, but it’s not dangerous.

Soller: I can’t believe half of this would happen in the UK now. Bonfires would have barricades everywhere. Things still go on, but not with the same freedom.

Every year people come in and say, “Health and safety, health and safety.” Every year.

Health and safety has changed here too though, we have limitations on how many people can come to some events. Wristbands, for example. So it’s not all the same as it was, but we don’t seem to be quite so scared as in the UK.

Vicki: It feels more benign, more fun, kinder here.

Soller: Saturday, La Huerta, which is halfway between town and port, has its own Sant Antoni celebrations in the local builder’s yard. Bonfire, barbecue, and the butcher provides all the barbecue stuff.

Then on Sunday we have the blessing of the animals. At four o’clock in the afternoon in the centre of Sóller, people bring their animals out to be blessed. They parade around the town hall and the church, the priest is there with holy water, and you get a certificate.

Vicki: In Andratx it’s in the morning at about 10.30 or 11. They start at Son Mas, where the market is, and they walk around the town. The priest blesses them there. There are loads of horses, a bit of showing off, and there’s always a big herd of goats.

A goat always gets lost and ends up somewhere random.

And usually if you donate, you get a red neckerchief, and it’s important, you should wear red.

Soller: You should wear red. I’ll remind my friends in Sóller.

After that it’s down to the races, the horse races.

Vicki: Where? In Palma?

Soller: In Sóller. What horse races?

Vicki: Okay.

Soller: If you’re in the square by the church and you walk down towards the main car park past the Gran Hotel, that car park becomes a race course.

They get all the cars out, sand it, and the whole area is sanded for the races. The horses are beautiful, we’ve got lots of horses in the Sóller Valley. They’re turned out beautifully, the riders look gorgeous, and they race around the track hitting the ribbons above.

Vicki: In traditional gear. Spanish horses are so delicious.

Soller: It’s like a gymkhana. You get lovely horses, horse and carts, funny little horses too. The whole thing is lovely and completely surreal. Why on earth would you have horse racing in the middle of Sóller?

In my early days the races were up and down the main street, not in that car park.

Vicki: We’ve had races up and down the main street in Andratx. You stand there thinking health and safety, but on behalf of the horses.

Soller: Exactly.

Vicki: Like Menorca in June, Sant Joan, where they ride horses in and out of bars and houses, and the idea is you touch the underside of the horse’s tummy for luck.

Soller: And you can imagine what English health and safety would say about that.

Vicki: Bring it on. How much fun is that?

Soller: That’s not the end of it. A lot of political parties in Sóller will have a Sant Antoni party. Bonfires, barbecues, the whole thing. Music from somewhere or other.

And then individual families use this time to host parties, because in the summer they can’t, they’re busy or the big houses are rented out. So this time of year, just before the season starts, it’s like an explosion of people celebrating.

Vicki: It’s lovely. We’ve had a rest, Christmas has happened, everyone’s had a chance to mooch about in their pyjamas, and now it’s time for a party again. I didn’t take my Christmas tree down yet because I like the lights. In my head, I don’t need to take it down until after Sant Antoni.

Soller: But then don’t you go on to Sant Sebastià?

Vicki: We don’t celebrate Sant Sebastià in Andratx, it’s Palma. I’ve been, but I like the bit where I can go to the party and go home again. Going to Palma to one of the big fiestas feels stressful unless I’m on a mission, like shooting something.

Soller: Parking is impossible, buses are crammed. But younger locals love it because they can go in on the 11 pm bus, party until six, then get the 7 am bus home. The bus from Sóller is about 40 minutes.

Vicki: From Andratx it’s more like two hours, because it’s not direct.

Soller: We’re blessed with the buses we’ve got, and it’s still free, if you’re a resident and you’ve got your card.

Soller: If you live in Mallorca and you earn 2,000 euros a month, and your expenses are 3,000, how do you live with the shortfall?

This isn’t unique to Mallorca. Every beautiful place has the same problem. Governments subsidise what they can, free or reduced travel, free school meals, rent subsidies.

We’re in year three of free travel. Will it ever be charged again? Probably, but it’s a subsidy that has huge benefit.

Unless there’s a financial re-boot in Europe where if I earn 2,000 I can actually live on it, we’re going to live in a subsidised world forever.

I’ve seen people pay with vouchers in restaurants and supermarkets. People are worried about money.

Think about kids, breakfast clubs, free school lunch, and then the 12 weeks when kids are off school. How do you feed them? Food banks and soup kitchens. It’s scary.

Vicki: It’s not new. In the seventies there were kids on free school meals too. It’s just about doing it with more awareness now.

Soller: Another big issue is multi-occupation. Workers sharing rooms because they can’t afford rent. Things you’d think were confined to the past, but here we are.

Vicki: I have to tell you a story. Before Christmas I was in full get-ready-for-Christmas mode. I cleaned out the house and made it really nice because Ollie’s mum and dad were coming, my mum was coming, lots of people in our little house.

I booked a cleaner from the company downstairs. We chatted, she was 32, from Colombia. She had kids, her eldest was 14. We got a lot done in four hours.

I gave her a lift back to the depot afterwards and said, “You must have lots to do before Christmas.” And she said, “No, the children aren’t here. They’re in Colombia.”

It absolutely gutted me. I was preparing for my family to come for Christmas, and she was in another country earning and sending money home, away from her children at Christmas.

I dropped her off and I just burst into tears. It really humbled me. I felt like, “You’re so ungrateful, Vicki. Stop complaining and be grateful they’re coming.”

Soller: There’s a huge amount that goes on in Mallorca. And we can be blasé, because we read the paper and we see stories of a middle-class life.

But where are the voices of the South American community? Or people from Nigeria or Ghana? There are communities here that don’t mix, because they’re holding onto their roots and their own community, and they’re entitled to live their lives too.

They’re paying tax, they’re living here, and depending on their status they’re entitled to vote. Where do we hear their voices?

You’ve heard the voice of that Colombian lady, here for economic reasons. What’s changed in the last 50 years? Just a different group doing the same thing.

Vicki: It really humbled me, it was a moment.

Soller: We all have moments like that. You pull yourself up short. You care about fairness and being a voice for someone who doesn’t feel they can raise their voice.

Vicki: Mallorca has so many different levels, the holiday version, the resident version, the international resident version, and the financial immigrant version. There are so many aspects.

Soller: I listened to a programme about desi pubs. Do you know what a desi pub is?

Vicki: I feel like I should, but explain it.

Soller: It emerged in the West Midlands, around Birmingham. People from India, particularly Punjab, came to work in factories. They weren’t welcome in the traditional pubs, so they built their own communities.

Then as English pubs declined, Indian families bought pubs and turned them into desi pubs, Indian pubs that act as community centres. English people now flock to them for the food, company and welcome.

So in a Mallorca context, are Mallorcans flocking to Palmanova to the English restaurants?

Vicki: I have seen Spanish people in Tom Brown’s, over the years.

Soller: Exactly, but it’s taken a long time.

Vicki: I just helped open something a bit like that last week in Palma. It’s called Bhukkad Boca, which means “hungry mouth” in Punjabi and Spanish.

It’s a married couple, Annie from South Africa and Baldeep from Punjab. They have a little girl. They took over a Spanish bar in Son Armadams, on the road up towards Bellver Castle.

They took on the lease in November, renovated it, and opened last week. She’s a private chef, he’s worked in kitchens. He immigrated originally, worked in Germany, then came to Spain. She worked on boats and ended up in Mallorca, they met here.

They’re doing things like baingan on sourdough, a spicy aubergine spread, brunch-style food, handmade samosas, chai, mango lassi, and good coffee.

They want it to be a neighbourhood bar. Local operation. Kid-friendly, family-friendly, and they want locals to come back in for coffee and tostadas too.

Inside they want to hang family wedding pictures. Their outfits were spectacular.

Soller: Very interesting combination.

Soller: At the beginning of the year, new ideas turn up and people open new places. In Sóller, lots of people try to expand what they’ve done elsewhere and open a branch. It doesn’t always work. Sóller is special.

Vicki: Chains or corporate places turning up feels wrong. Also, how many pearl shops do you need?

Soller: Exactly. And then there are other mysteries, like how the Chinese shops stock so much. It’s odd.

Vicki: Congratulations to Kate, by the way.

Soller: She’s done a lot for the community and it’s important to recognise people like that.

Vicki: What’s coming up for you?

Soller: Sant Antoni in January, then Carnival in February.

Vicki: Carnival always seems to be a wet one.

Soller: And it all comes quickly. If you want quiet, enjoy the next few days, because after that, you’ve had it.

Vicki: That’s what I love about Mallorca, there’s always something coming up, and it doesn’t cost anything to be part of it. It’s community.

Vicki: Thank you very much for coming.

Soller: It was a pleasure. I’ll see you in a few weeks. Don’t get anything singed at the weekend.

Vicki: I’d much prefer to sit slightly back, maybe in a comfortable place.

Soller: I’ll be dancing with the devils at the weekend. It’s cathartic and fun. And it is dry January for some of us, so it’s going to be a very sober event for me.

Vicki: Absolutely. I’m okay with dry January from Monday to Friday. The weekends I find a challenge.

Soller: That’s why I decided I was going to do the whole month.

Vicki: Thank you very much for coming. Cheers.

Soller: Cheers, my dears. Ooh, I can get my bus. Go, go, go. Go, Batman.

Vicki: No!

Vicki: If you enjoyed this conversation, you can listen to more episodes of the Mallorca Mallorca Podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Each week we sit down with inspiring people from across the island to talk about life, work, and what it really means to live in Mallorca.