April 1st
well here i am off line blogging again... no wifi here! heck all those air waves full of un delivered text messages and wireless technology you would think i could hack into it somehow... well anyway... i shall continue until the heat of this lap top gets too much for my legs!

we are down here at the beach... relaxing and sun bathing on the terrace, feels bit like a holiday except for the cleaning and tidying up, and of course Franco being away during the day! but Pippa is getting well in with all the walking everyday! she gets the early and late runs with Franco, and two longer walks with me, the first about 9am when we go to either the El Zoco side of Calahonda, or the super sol end! having a coffee at a bar and then completing the circle! i am catching up with some old friends from when we used to live down here, Pippa is loving running on the beach and running out into the sea! i let her off lead and in she runs, coming back all wet having a good shake then getting full of sand! sniffing about in the flotsam and jetsam of the beach, those spiky things, urchins is it?, sea cucumber looking things! lots of sea weed and general rubbish, there is little sand here now, they haven't made their usual delivery of golden sand that they normally do each year that appears from somewhere! although they have brought some other material, Franco thought it might be river sand, but it looks like its shell based, and tiny tiny little pebbles, its nicer to walk on though, and some of the walk we do towards royal beach is over really huge rocks that are now exposed and hard to walk on without slipping over.

yesterday i walked into a small wood, it used to be fenced off and without thinking we went in, nice underfoot and a big green canopy overhead of wonderful pines... then i realized as Pippa was sniffing about the forest floor there were cob webs down there... and in all the trees! OMG i had taken Pippa into the lions den... well den of the processionary caterpillar! we were out fast...

it is nice walking pip about down here, so many other people walking their dogs all the time too, people say hello and coo and make kissy noises to her, sometimes stopping to pet her, and no one crosses the street to avoid us, well Pippa i think it is, not me! no one backing off when Pippa looks at them - or putting their arms up in the air!! well you have seen her! i mean she is scary!!! arh my poor little baby!

i am calling mom every day from a call box, and she calls me on my mobile! those euro direct cards are great though, in the house or a telefonica call box.

mom got her results on Monday, the tumor is now the size of a cherry, and 5 of the 6 lymph nodes are now clear. they have decided to leave her be for a couple of months, and then have another CT scan to see how 'things' are. she said they talked about radiation treatment, but that it would be very invasive and she could have it, or not just now. so we will see what happens now in two months time, bit of a limbo situation... but she is feeling great and, as usual out and about most days, down town, or Hemel or Aylesbury! she is eating so many things to help, grape nuts, aloe vera, fruit juices and green tea, lots of good stuff all anti toxins and health giving.

i brought some aloe vera back with me, and have been taking it twice a day since, mom started hers two days ago and says she feels better already! she said it could be her imagination! i need to improve mine then i think, as i don't feel any benefits yet! not sure if i expected to but i am opened minded on trying things that i think, hope, will help my Fibromyalgia improve. i sort of think i tried it before, but not sure.... obviously my memory needs help too! i'm having a table spoon full in the morning first thing, before anything else and about 10 or 15 minutes before anything else. and then before i go to bed i have another tablespoonful! it says you can have 15ml one to three times a day, but i don't have any measure thats so small! will have to find something, maybe i am not having enough!

ok hasta la vista amigos....

TTFN
Marian

April 3rd
the apartment block near where we are just now has lots of 'for sales' and 'to rent' signs, everyday people come and look round, they stand on the balcony's and look out... at us! the balcons all face this little urbanization, which is pretty and settled, only two story's high, a mix of apartments and houses, you wouldn't even know which was which if you didn't know! the pool is big and the gardens well matured, but over there...

the block is four high, the wooden (why?) railings already look they are rotting, the paintwork looks worn already and in need of repainting...chunks of plaster and brickwork has broken off! when we saw the original plans it was for about 40 or 50 apartments and the legal distance from the beach... the finished block is about double the amount and of course all the ones nearer the beach are illegal! not sure how 'they' have got around this... i wonder if i should go out now and tell these prospective buyers?? just kidding??

Pippa has her eye on one of the many gatitos that live here, or at least like to come visit! she wants to get down there and play with them... what makes it worse is i think one likes to come up here, through the rejas, up the stairs onto the roof terrace and sun bath... she goes crazy when she gets out the front door sniffing where the cats been!

i got hooked on the game on here yesterday, solitaire! i had never played it before 'shock horror aghast', i know, but i never had, and then i couldn't stop! i have it up here now ready to play!

in The News paper yesterday on the front page it says all money from the EU with reference to the road structures going on here in Spain will stop, as of now, because of illegal land grab etc... what will happen then with the Fuengirola road? they cant leave it like it is!

ok folks... on line now and live! when i went back to the solitaire i completed it! wow! not sure how many tries i had but i did it, now i have to do it again!

we came home this evening... to find our house has moved! well the number, our old number is two doors down, and we have the number from two doors up! there was also a very pretty little pot plant on the window sill... although it was gone when we came home after popping to town briefly, so who put it there? and then who and why took it away again!

its not just these few houses, all the houses in the street beginning at the beginning have changed numbers... god help the postman! what will happen to our utility bills? where will they go, should we change them officially? leave well alone? will the postman know which have been changed or just go by names? too many questions and not enough answers!

answers needed on the toll road also! last week cost 2.35€ and now its 3.80€! great, like we can all afford this increase in these times. i know they raise it for Semana Santa to 'catch the tourists' but we live here and have to pay it all the same!

not sure whats happening on the Fuengirola road there were no workers there late on this afternoon... i really hope they dont just leave it like it is now! we'll all be back to donkeys to get anywhere! our teeth rattle and bones crunch, so not sure how our old car manages to keep together over it all - the knocking and clanking noises it makes! one day it will be like an old black and white movie where the car stops, the doors open and fall off, the bonnet pings up in the air... the wheels pop out, and the airs gusts out of the engine in a puff of smoke!

TTFN
Marian