hola amigos...

ok... been making notes, seems the best idea as the more tired i am the more i forget, or the worse my memory gets!?

although this first lot of notes is hard to read, when i was driving into work the other morning i realised the notes were in the back pocket of my jeans, which were then drying on the line... with the faded paper having also taken a wash, but here we go with what i can read....

first thing i noticed immediately this week was the trucks are back in town.... and country and roads every where.... the journey takes about another 10 minutes now with them on the roads taking up space and time! strangely i hadn't noticed their absence the previous week...

a customer who came in the store commented on a girls rudeness to her and said she wouldn't be back in here to me! then later the girl told me how rude the customer had been to her and what had she said to me about it! the tobacconist was also saying how he thinks the people from the UK are unfriendly! no hello's or good mornings... not many thank you's and bye bye's on the way out! and i must admit a lot of the people coming in were none too forthcoming with their usual friendliness... but i think a lot of it is to do with the language barrier... and i said may be its just, rather than start a conversation you cant finish, its best not to start one at all! although i think most of people i know all say hello to all the people here, i know i do as i walk down the street, i don't know them nor them me, but i say hola! and get one in return, this morning i had an 'hola princesa' which i thought was lovely from a neighbor i hadn't seen all week! but then this is inland, and i don't say hello to everyone i meet down on the coast! they'd lock me up!

and a 'foreigner' not naming and shaming here.... told me something about the cigarettes, he told me and pointed at them, i said i didn't understand, and so to make me do so.... he shouted exactly the same thing again at me really loudly! yes that helped!

still not seen anyone i know yet, from either blighty or alhaurín el grande - but people came in Thursday to say bye bye and thanks which is nice. people are so happy to hear an 'English' voice to help, although i don't know the area really, for banks or ATM's etc. and yesterday a couple who i first met last week in the other estanco who knew i was in this one from earlier in the week, came in to see me and say bye bye.... then there are the people to whom i am invisible.... i was telling the guy in the shop about the time when i was working on the golf course - about a man who 'didn't see me' and didn't buy a ticket for diabetes research.... and when he got a hole in one with his shot, he didn't get to go to Las Vegas and didn't get a chance to win a million dollars!!!

well the week went quick - well mostly, could sleep for longer on the beach but for the road works when i am at this estanco on bajondillo, and if the guys who came to collect the money would only not wait till i had just dropped off to sleep!!

also yesterday at this estanco lots of really drunk blokes coming in later on in the day, obviously i don't start back till 5pm but they're well gone by six when some come in, standing there at the counter legs moving all wobbly and trying to hold themselves together and concentrate! yes great eh!

think my Spanish is improving a lot now, i can understand and join in with lots of the conversations this week, although there was one i just listened into and laughed at the end... more because i think i had misheard most of it, the three were apparently talking about a pirate who was in bed, sick, with cheese flavoured chewing gum.... well who wouldn't be sick....

The search for happiness
is more important than the need for pain.
Eleven Minutes

TTFN
Marian