yes the soldiers... they do a route from one church to another, we have three main churches here in alhaurin el grande, in the old section at the top of the high street first is the white church (yes i know they are all painted white), but this first one in plaza baja is called apart from its saints name, the white church, then you walk along a bit further and reach the purple church, san sebastian, its cross is purple... then after about ten minutes you reach 'our' church, the santa vera cruz, the green church, the cross is green therefore...

from there its down the main street, back to where they started from!

on lots of occasions the soldiers and other bandsmen travel the whole town, up hill and down dale, from end to end, north south east and west!

we have several bands in town, the army band the police band, and three maybe more also, and they march along one after the other, picking up water bottles along the way and dropping them everywhere... window sills or door steps... along the way!

when the soldiers march they stop and throw theyre guns around and into the air and to eachother! they have axes or shovels or other implements on their back too...


spain is still an army country, we have the traffic police, the town police and the army police, theyre the ones we see most often at round abouts stopping all the cars to peer in to see if people have anything dodgy going on! i guess drugs, guns illigal immigrants and what not!

all the police there, unlike the england, carry guns, the army guys have these huge weapons very much in clear view and are very intimidating.

tony... arrived here wednesday, i went over to malaga by bus to meet him at the car rental section at the airport, he says next time he can find his way to alhaurin now, but i dont mind meeting him, infact i like to, its part of him being here afterall, and the same goes for barry and other family and friends too!

we have been able to get around quite a lot in the afternoons as franco has been leaving work early, so we have been to... la trocha in coin, the miramar complex in fuengirola, last night down to calahonda, our old area down on the coast, we met up with franco's sister maria and her two friends who are out here for a couple of weeks. we went to the palmtrees restaurant that we have been going to for so long, i suppose since 1989! and still don antonio is there, and he has never changed, infact he was born here in alhaurin el grande!

we had a very nice evening, got home about 1230... and i had to be up for work, ugh!!

today, when we close franco and tony are meeting me here and we are off to gibraltor...

hasta pronto...

Joy is not in things, it is in us

TTFN
Marian