SOUVENIR SPREE

Sombreros from Spain, ashtrays from Greece, clogs from Holland.  We all have a few holiday souvenirs that seemed a good idea at the time!!  And no doubt there are many nice things to buy while abroad. Something happens to us on holiday, we rush around spending our hard earned cash on useless items to bring home to our friends and families.  It's a lovely thought, we are having a wonderful time and we like them to share our joy in this little way. But it needn't be with plastic key rings and wooden plaques of bullfighters and castanets.  A little search around the stalls and shops could unearth souvenirs that are unique as well as practical and have their origins in the folk art of the country. Here's what you do.  Pick it up, examine it, and if it has writing on it......put it back.  Instead take a trip into the local hardware stores in Greece, Spain, Tenerife..... everywhere you go in fact.  There you'll find exquisite glassware, pottery, table to oven ware, the price will be right, in fact the only thing missing will be the little words "souvenir from you know where".  Look for coloured stemmed glasses and candlestick holders and compare the prices. A good buy is the brown jug used for serving house wine in restaurants.  They chill the jug and then add the wine.  Paella platters are useful for all sorts of things when you get them home and will bring back memories of those happy days every time you use them. Remember a hand-turned salad bowl will get more use than a wooden wall plate with a bullfighter on it, and wine glasses will last longer than the bottle of hooch which doesn't somehow quite taste the same. Always acceptable are edible presents.  A small pot of herbs, mustard, honey, and olives.  These come in plastic containers as well.  A popular bring home purchase in Tenerife is the hot mojo sauce served with sea salt potatoes and seafood.... delicious.  The red sauce, mojo rojo, contains cumin and chilli, while the green one, mojo verde, is flavoured with parsley or coriander. Lace and Linen is always a good buy but often expensive.  However tablecloths are ridiculously cheap and come with 8 or 12 napkins.  Even in the hot sunshine, Christmas cloths sell well.  Beautifully embroidered with bells and Santa Clauses they'd make a very good present for people with small children, if your mind can stretch that far ahead.  And if you have the cash to spare, you won't get a better bargain. Leather goods are usually inexpensive too, especially in Greece.  Forget about stringy sandals and money belts, you got those the last time.  Look at casual bags, that'll look better worn by time.  Natural sponges make beautiful and practical presents.  They're not cheap but lets face it, some of them are like works of art. Jewelery in gold and silver is always good value, and a popular holiday buy is amber or Baltic gold as it is often called.  You can find it in white, blue which is the most expensive or black which is the rarest.  The cognac coloured stone is formed from the fossilised resin of coniferous trees and can be up to 50 million years old. You can also get some stones with insects preserved inside, flies, ants, spiders, mosquitoes and on rare occasions flowers.  You have to watch out for fakes which are made by splitting a piece of amber, inserting the fly and sealing it so that the split is hard to detect.  If you are offered one on the cheap the chances are it's a fake.  You can check if it is genuine by using a magnifying glass.  It should be dark underneath and the insect should be seen from both sides.