Columbus Day

Christopher Columbus Day today.... although all the shops are open, at least down on the coast, the big malls, la cañada and miramar and ikea! and tomorrow everything is closed up tight, including the estanco i will be working in this week... ye ha! another day off for me! fantastic, sorry for my opposition friend who is at another estanco who is open, at least until 2pm i guess, and then hopefully she can go home, although two weeks ago she had to go to another shop for the afternoon!? and her company is Spanish who, as i believe are supposed to honour holy days, and otherwise double pay or a day off in lieu! or is it loo (in Cornwall? used to be a long way to go when i lived in England, to have a day trip there, from here would be down right silly!!!).

OK notes... am getting so tired now cant remember anything, could have fallen asleep driving home Friday evening, and it hadn't been an especially crazy day, just normal but so tired.

OK, something i missed last week to tell you that i was reminded about on Monday by a van i saw behind me, it was a people carrier type van and 'mom' had a small child on her lap, wrong side of her seat belt, all the way from de la torre to and through churriana!?! see a lot of it here, but i still don't understand the mentality of it, one wrong move and baby is through the windshield... and what it reminded me of was Friday evening going home i was at a set of lights on a big main road in torremolinos and a big pulled up beside me to scoot across the lights at the first opportunity, there was dad in front, mom behind and between her and his back was a small baby squished in... again, up here we see it alot, and here the traffic doesn't get to move as quick as down there on the big dual carriage ways, then... aghast... i saw a small hand holding on to the front of the bike... from the foot well between 'dads' legs... un believable, a small child down there also!?! crazy!

this week was pretty normal... usual people ignoring me, or looking straight through me, it has certainly made me think next time some poor promotions girl is trying to talk to me to at least hello and see what she is offering me, before my normal "no thank you" that i usually mutter! i don't ever blank them, manners don't cost anything. and a smile is free too! there were a lot of people with children this week, is it holidays in the UK again already? i am not supposed to approach people with children under 16, so i wait to be asked for info...

there was a man in shop who sounded just like my uncle chuck, and i asked him where he was from, he said Denver Colorado... i said oh! you sound just like my uncle but he was from New York City!? then he said, oh but i was born and brought up in the Bronx... so that made sense!

also a woman came in who was going to a convention in benalmadena on criminality! sounded great, the type of books i have been reading for the past 18 weeks have all been on the subject... strange how i have gone from the Stephen king type of book to the Patricia Cornwall etc stuff, i couldn't tell you who most of the books have even been written by which is bad i know, they are just all crime fiction! this lady told me to try Jeffery Deaver, so i am, cant wait to see what he is like!

it was windy on Friday down on the coast, and this is an understatement! we had rain and lots of it the day before, i was worried which way to get home, but it had stopped an hour before and the roads were almost dry by the time i left, then yesterday, Saturday i got blown down town, but coming home i almost got blown over! i was weighted down with far too many carrier bags to cope with, but i am glad i had them, as i crossed over by banco de andalucia at the top of the high street i nearly lost my footing, someone said we were having 70 mph gusts, i quite believe it! the town and surrounding mountains were covered in a heavy cloud or mist all day and the sun hardly got through, but i hung up two lots of hand washed clothes and a machine load, each was dried before the next got pegged up, and didn't even need ironing? even better! today is about the same...

this morning we had the singing in the street just before dawn, i actually thought it was usually later in the month... its so somber and beautiful... our small street full of people in the dark with only candles and singing so hauntingly....

we went for a walk down into town and back again, Pippa didn't know what hit her, she went out three times yesterday and then again today! the first walk yesterday it was still dark, to check the rental car, as ours had been broken into, again... messed up the bits of nothing in the glove box, and took an apple! they used a metal bar or wrench or something to jemmy it open and dented possibly the last of the undented section of our car! had have a car stolen in England, a long long time ago, but i have never had so much vandalism before, or heard so many stories from friends etc of so much robbery, thieving, mugging and car crime in my whole life, they say its the foreigners? who us? i am sorry i don't so... and when you report it, no report is taken, why because we are foreigners too! has this been what its like back in the UK for foreigners?

well 3 weeks to go, cant believe it, do you think i can make it now? may be in will be possible after all...

and as usual Paulo Coelho has come up with the answer with today's quote.. i just turn the page and copy here the next one, no picking out the ones i think relevant, it happens sometimes all by itself...

Love gives us the strength
to perform impossible tasks.
By the River Piedra
I sat down at wept

TTFN
Marian