BYOB

Because this winter in Málaga has been cold and rainy, once or twice a week my daughter Jessica and I curl up together and watch a movie or stream a television series.

I provide pillows and hot chocolate but, as Jessica points out, it´s otherwise strictly BYOB: Bring Your Own Blanket.

Most Spanish homes on the Costa del Sol are built to stay cool in the summer, not warm in the winter, so we have sweaters and jackets and blankets drifting across all the flat surfaces in every room of our apartment.

The Cola Cao (hot chocolate mix) displays are prominent in every supermercado, and every variety store has stacks of space heaters on sale near the front of the shop.

But here in Spain the true warmth comes from your vecinos, your neighbors, who try to work out the right English words to say to greet you, while you are working out the right Spanish words to say to greet them; and the smiles of the families in the calle, hurrying from one place to the next but never too busy to stop for a chat, standing and shivering under an umbrella; and the camerero, the waiter, who brings you a warm tapa with your glass of wine because you look a little cold.