Very quiet down in town this morning... most of the business's are closed, feria day today.. Lots going on! Day and night!

A one man feria machine came up the street past the bar about 8:30! All music, all balloons and all party party party!  We could all hear his approach well ahead of him appearing before us! Everyone was stunned! Lol... I couldn't get a front shot of him... and later headed home he was driving up the middle of the street so fast I missed him face on again!

All the bars are out already for the main day events... being stocked with glasses and plates... barrels of beer and pumps... everything from the Plaza Baja back up the street!

Later on this street will be heaving with people, fun and laughter and music and everyone dressed up to the nines! 

Tonight I am into town for tapas! I better dress feria styling!

As I write, I am also watching a great movie... Trainwreck its called, bit of a chickflick maybe? But good nonetheless... and just seen the area of the park where I scattered my mom...

I am so looking forward to seeing and spending time with my family in LA in July... but also makes me miss New York all the more..

TTFN
Marian

Back in Alhaurín now... and above the feria is in town! Just the street shade to keep us cool... It started last night.  First the rocket fire, then I could hear the procession making its way down into town from the lower road near here... The giants and bands and all the fun of the fair! Sounded good, its usually the only part of the fair I go to... seeing the procession near the Cruz roundabout making their way down to the fair ground.  Sat eating normally... me that is!  Once 'they' get into the fair ground the street lights are lit and the fun begins! Half price for kids on the first night!

Banks and stores opening later today, and people seem very tired!!

For today though, I walked into town about 8am and had coffees with the 'boys', then went into my old work place and had a catch up with friends there, I strolled back home and came in, I had to find something that needs posting tomorrow and I needed the bags for the car...

which I then drove to Coín... I went first to La Trocha garage, the car needed a clean, in a big way, so for two euro it got the full works! Rinse first, then soap, then rinse again and finally shine wash!  All done by yours truly! It gets slippery underfoot, and the power hose sort of throws me back when I press the start on each procedure! But apart from probably looking hilarious, its good fun!  I drove out and into the La Trocha parking.

I had a wonder around Carrefour and the other shops up there.  Then I was off to Aldi for provisions!

When I got back home there was a neighbors car in the way, so I waited patiently, its always okay when its neighbors... they went and another came up behind me, who waited while I parked outside and got everything out... Because they live opposite and they got out when I drove off!

Now on here, charged up my VR, had lunch.. swept the terrace and going to ride a roller-coaster or three! Fight some dragons and help Laura Croft find some hidden treasure...


Quote: my Nayyirah Waheed (my new favourite poet)

Some people
when they hear
your story
contract,
Others
upon hearing
your story
expand,
and
this is how
you
know

TTFN
Marian

If music be...

Asked the other day about positive things I enjoy.. happy feel good stuff..

Walking through a forest with spring flowers, standing or sitting where the waves slide in and out across the sand and shells...you know that lovely sound?

Most definitely being with my grandchildren.. Cassie has brought me more joy and love than I would or could have ever imagined...

Being in my favourite places.. mountain tops; and quiet corners of Mijas... New York, where I scattered my mom; and just everywhere there.

All shared here in Blog posts over the years..

Another big thing is music.. I could put on a piece and instantly be where and when with it... Always brought good happy feelings.. Now I put on my music when I'm walking, still, but whatever playlist I play (shuffle is the worse), it's like walking through a kaleidoscope of colors and emotions. I can go from striding along to the beat to crying.. from track to track..

TTFN
Marian

I better blog before I forget stuff!

Last week I started work in a nearby supermarket. Wednesday it was.. had about five hours training, there were only six of us, and the training lady, who was my interviewer.

Was a good day, we broke for a free lunch in the canteen; good food and coffee down in an hour and back to training.

Had another short break later of fifteen minutes. Time went very quickly.

The next wasn't really a free day, had to get to the employment office early, to hand in the contract paperwork... So getting the bus in early I disembarked at the last stop and walked down to the office.. unfortunately I followed my nose! Lol.. which as always led me in the correct direction...

But... I walked into the industrial estate and kept on walking...no pathways! Until I was as near as I could get but a rope and tackle distance away! I asked a group of guys if I could get there without going all the way back as my Google maps told me I should! I was shown a way through, behind the units, and up four flights of metal stairs... Over a metal bridge! And ta da! There was the office immediately to my left! Job done!

I went in and was seen immediately!

I then walked all the way back! Omg! One long walk! I walked back into la Línea and arrived in the town centre at 09:40 ... I needed to buy a yellow top for work on Friday, to support mental health awareness Day in the branch.. so I stopped at a bar and had coffee and cake! I deserved it after such a long haul walk!

Which I then had to, unfortunately repeat the next day!

Friday I had to go back to the employment office to collect the paperwork I had taken in the previous day, heard of long tiresome lines in both there and the tax office I was there before it opened at 08:30!

Waited with one of the others from training and two other random people. We went in on time, all of us served at the same time.. lots of counters... Then straight to the tax office, no-one waiting, pulled a ticket and went straight in!

Now the reason I repeated the long haul walk was I had forgotten both my phones!!! So being so early, had to be in work for noon.. I walked back to the apartment.. got there at 09:40! Picked up the phones and turned back around again! Got to work about 11:00 and sat and chatted with some of the other trainees.

Had a good second day.. we had work modules to do and some time on the shop floor before more training.

No free lunch today! But all good.

So that was Friday... And I worked Saturday! I had another module to complete then the next six hours on the shop floor! Was a hard day, I haven't had any checkout training yet, so was mostly put-backs and loading up baskets and returning to the entrance. Put-backs!! People! Do not put things down in random places!! Or decide against your purchases at the tills!!! Por favor!! Porqué???

I left the supermarket last night about 9:35pm I think, getting a bit dark out, no buses after nine so walked through to the frontier, eerie walking over the runway in the dark.. but lots of groups of people going past me, do wasn't alone out there! Lol

Through passport control and back into La Línea!

Off today, need it too! I have muscle and backache and exhausted! Lol

Back in tomorrow for my start training on the checkout!

TTFN
Marian

Errors and omissions blah blah.. typing on my phone!

At last!

Taken this view a hundred times, never tire of it.. taken from Rivera del Sol.. looking out over the Med..

I was buying meds... But what a view...

Lucky to have lived so close to the sea here.. and make such wonderful friends. Always love being down here.. not as much as home in Alhaurín of course, but this is where my love of our beautiful country really begun...

Thirty years ago February, I first came to Calahonda, six months after first stepping onto these shores... Up at Torrevieja, on the Costa Blanca.

I wonder at times of my Italian grandparents, sailing over stormy waters, risking so much to travel from Italian shores to the US of A... It would take about ten days now, but over a hundred years ago could have been four to six weeks.

Leaving families and friends behind, to a new land, never seen.. No idea of what lay ahead except the prospect of a better life for them and their forthcoming children.

Now here I am, back on the Mediterranean!

A cousin on mom's father's side.. she lived in Gibraltar too, for a while. (I wonder if there are accessible census lists anywhere?) Her descendants have been pulled to this country also.. further up the coast but here nonetheless.

Taken from outside a store in Gibraltar... the cloud rising up above from the Mediterranean on the other side, meeting the air from the Atlantic on this other side.

Actually I was here before a job interview...

And.. I got the job!!!  Celebrations all round! 'At last.'

Three months here, three months of worry and wondering what I can do... Had two other interviews, one I turned down, one I was turned down.

It's good to have this now, financially and mentally.

Summer is slow to pick up down here, only one and a half hours from Alhaurín, but very different weather; coming through the last tunnel on the toll road, you leave one weather system and enter another! Winds, always winds.. or very nearly! Nice on a hot day, but bloomy chilly when it's been a gray day.

You know, I tried my most positive to be 'most positive' about this latest position for work.

Monday I imagined the phonecall, I put my start date in my calendar, next Monday actually, with a countdown set also on my phone.

I also added the ladies name into my contacts so I would know it is her when she called...

Must try harder at this thinking positive thing; I always was a positive person, never negative; a true believer in getting what we talk and think about. Aware therefore of negative thoughts and feelings, and words.

The universe is listening.

We had the MotoGp in nearby Jerez at the weekend, dozens of beautiful bikes passing through, always are a few on the very best of days.. especially noticeable when summer is just beginning..

Someone I know was there, and then I thought I saw him walking over the runway yesterday! But we all do that don't we.. we see people who we have been thinking of, or expecting or hoping to see.  I still see my mom at a distance, and stupidly disappointed when it's not her, even though I know it never could have been.

TTFN
Marian

Notes from my Kindle... I've searched just for a moment to see if I have written this already, apologies if I am repeating myself!

January 14th
Oh my god, we are only just manoeuvring out of the bay and already after ten minutes next to the man who sat down in the middle seat I fear I will kill him!! It is purely Ryanair policies preventing me from doing so as I know air travel with them will be prohibited if I did so!!!!

The man is with a woman who doesn't understand him and visa versa!

Now they have dimmed the lights.for take off and I am risking him reading everything as I type this out with my thumbs on my kind!e screen!
Lol

(Originally I left a big space here on the document so he could'nt!)

He is talking down to her and talking to her like she is a child!! I spent several hours with Spanish friends yesterday, we teach each other Spanish/English, it's fun and we all learn.  At no point do we talk so condescendingly!

And now, as the lights come back on the man in the aisle seat over the way from me, seems to be practicing in the worlds 'how many times can I sniff' competition!! He will be the second man I slaughter on this flight!! He is both double sniffing on an in and outward sniff!! With the occasional full blown inwards sniff to really try to dislodge his nasal crapola!

Oh dear!! I just giggled out loud!! Thinking if something happens in this flight and my words here are miraculously read!! What would people say!! Lol And would this constitute a threat if I post this little tirade of temper!!??

Oh and I decided I would slaughter the second man because I thought I might as well get the electric chair for two as for one!!
Lol

End of note!

Now to today, April 18th!
I arrived at parking very early, I had left the house early due to heavy rains overnight, and I know the roads can be slippery afterwards...

They were, back wheels spun a bit here and there, due to my heavy right foot and rear wheel drive car!

At parking, although full to bursting and I had to park awkwardly they held the transport for me until I was checked in... Security was also heaving, but suddenly I was navigated to an empty conveyor belt, three boxes and through, no pausing, I picked up my boxes and got everything sorted on a side table, that's what they're for! Not the conveyor out of the machine!!

Then I was through duty free, I filled my empty water bottle from a drinking fountain... Did just write fountain originally, but didn't want you all imagining me dunking my bottle in a random fountain! Lol.. and stayed momentarily in the regular area until my phone suggested B area, I got through passport control and went to recline at my leisure on one of the recliners! I did so, and read and messaged my time away.

Yes, once above the thunder the beautiful blue, as always..

Can't believe the second runway has been open now for three years!

Then things went pear shaped!
Delayed for boarding delayed for flying.. But I'm the air now.. We flew into the gray skies, exactly where the lightening was coming down from, so that was exciting lol..

I missed a good photograph, a honey bee was on my window before take off, but he'd forgotten his passport, rabies vaccination and boarding pass! So had to disembark forthwith!

It's just 12:06 now, just taken off ten minutes ago... We're up to 37,000 feet above the clouds and hopefully above the storm!

England here I come...

Holy catnip! Flight still in progress... Hit a bumpy bit in the clouds. And the wings did a massive left then right dip!!

And we the passengers all paused for just a moment!

Very acrobatic! Maybe save it for an air show though please.

I am also a bit concerned about my ears..

About half an hour from landing back into Malaga last month, due to my cold which by then was into its fourth week.. I had the most excruciating pain and couldn't hear at all.. Totally deaf, with pain I'd never had in my ears before...

The cold is gone, still coughing sometimes, just randomly, but I have something else going on with my ears and jaw.. And I can feel my ears beginning to protest again now.

The jaw thing, I seemed to lock it, or it twisted somehow at my son's in February, it's taken weeks for me to be able to eat properly again, although yawning is still not possible.

Time for gum! For the air pressure!

Update from pilot despite leaving 50 minutes late we're landing only five minutes late!

Turned into ten minutes, and passport control was heavy going. I got a bus easy enough but was the scenic tour route; still I made it here safe and sound.

All is good.
TTFN
Marian

~~~~

I think sometimes I am held together with fine threads... One small bit caught or picked at and I am undone again... and again

Okay, so trying to find my voice...

I have not been too busy, looking for work is mentally debilitating, it gets you down; it gets me down.

I enjoy working, I bring a lot of me to whatever I do, and when I'm not doing anything, feel a bit lost.

And also, being in a new place, a very different place, is both exciting, and strange'ish.. We come to Alhaurín as often as we can and it is very good having two places to call home.

I am learning my way around La Linéa now, on foot mostly though, so really need to just get in the car and drive around, can't really get lost, the sea is on three sides really... the town is really nice, a mix of old and new, so many shops! But then there is nearly 65,000 inhabitants, and that's just the listed ones!

Alhaurín is not quite 25,000, so a big difference.

Great views from the terrace and I take lots of photographs from up there when I think to go up there... or of course to hang the washing...

This is the same photograph, more or less... I just cut and changed to black and white for effect... The reason being the very strange angelic form there above the Rock.... and even a very tiny one below and to the left of it... very very strange... it kept its shape until it left...

... stepping off the top here!

Today I am in Alhaurín... flying tomorrow to Nottingham to spend Easter with the family... missing my babes hugely...

I have been in my VR far to long and have a very sore face! So now, at last posting here and will get my dinner on the go in a few minutes...

I have made some notes to post here, but seem to have lost them...

I seem to have lost a bit of my mojo! That's what it is... I know its here somewhere... Not in the VR though! I need  relax maybe, sounds silly for someone not even working, but not working isn't exactly relaxing! LOL... Maybe its good there is no WiFi in the apartment, I'd be lost in the world of VR all day!

I go out every day, we are either here, or get out and about in a new area for me... Which is great, I walk into Gib other days, and yesterday the amount of tourists was a big change from only a few days ago! You can tell the locals walking in, we walk like soldiers against the storm! Heads down, long strides, purposeful...

Okay amigos, thank you for hanging on for me... I am doing okay, I am doing good... I shall be back!

TTFN
Marian

Bolonia Beach... windsurfers paradise! We dropped in here for a coffee... stunning beaches...

Castillo de Castellar, shame the day was wet and cloudy! We drove through and up above some of the clouds but those above still had plenty of rain inside they let go on our heads!

Coming back down we stopped off in a venta and had wonderful tapas and the sun shone... as arranged by the weather people, right on time!

Not sure where this shadow pic was taken... I think on the walk back to the apartment from the frontier...

And above the Commonwealth Park in Gibraltar... I have sat and paused here plenty of times already...

"to the things we missed; and things we didn't"

Yes yes yes! It has been far too long, I am sorry, I seem to have lost my writing words...

February since last post and I have been doing a lot of nothing, and a lot of new places and faces...

Places... probably seen on my Facebook or Instagram accounts...

Let me find some photographs...

Yes looking up through a random palm tree...

A view from the plane going to Stansted, UK... back in March...

Ely Cathedral near where we stayed in March... Beautiful Cathedral, I had never been to Ely before...

March 14th below.. Three photographs taken in Mijas, always difficult to get something unique... after thirty years of Mijas visits... I think I did good here...

And below... three photographs taken near the end of March, from the Rock of Gibraltar...

The runway here, ironically a friend was taking off at the time we were up there! So we watched the plane take off from Gibs short runway!!

And here is La Linéa de La Concepción... And there... to the left of middle, and half way up... to the left of the church! Is the apartment!

Lots of photographs on here, let me post and post some more...

TTFor a minute
Marian