Mijas Pueblo

This morning walking Pippa, in a break in the torrential rain... I pass as every day a tree now in bloom; over the past week more and more little pink buds have turned into flowers... This tree was full of bloom and returning leaves last March and April when Franco died...

This morning as I stopped beneath and looked up into its bare branches and small flowers I thought how life returns eternal... and that even if life cannot always be seen life force never leaves... I've always said this, always will say this because I will always feel this, that our energy lives on; with us when our bodies live, but our energy our souls, live on eternally afterwards... In what we have done, in where we have been, people we have loved and known, in the difference we have made in others lives even...

Mijas Pueblo

Yesterday was the eighth anniversary of my mom passing... Eight years.  Time continues on its merry way doesn't it, it doesn't care, it doesn't take away anything either, it doesn't take away the loss or the missing or the sadness.  It changes it, we have to change because we can't live with that degree of loss and continue to live.

Some days its like we can time-warp back, to that one moment where time stood still... because that one moment lasted forever, a big empty blackness of eternity for us, unable to see the eternity that had opened up for our lost loved one... I am again reminded of a sermon at a funeral of a dear friend, when the minister said... "Imagine our loved one on a boat, sailing away from us, from our coastline, headed out to the horizon, towards a setting sun (that bit I think I have added to my memory of it!) Well that vessel carrying them away from us is also carrying them towards a new horizon, where we lose sight of them, others get to see them again." And adding my extra shillings worth! I feel, that they travel to a new day, they travel with the light, not away from from it.... Away from us but towards others... past and future maybe even.

On the way to Coín yesterday about 10am

I should check when I last wrote... Okay, that seems like ages ago! February 24th... Yesterday I went to La Trocha with a neighbour, showed him where to park etc, walked around the quite empty underground parking lot, so much rain, so few people! We had a nice break in the weather yesterday...

We had coffee there, saw a few friends, everyone was outside in the outdoor bar, nice to be out and dry for a change!

From there we went to Mijas Pueblo, as he had missed the village a few times when they have been out previously.  He loved it, so now knows how to get there, where to park and where to take people!  Another coffee and boquerones fritos!

We have rain rain rain! I can't even remember when it started now! The skylight has been leaking since day one! The contractor is coming out to fix that! My U-bend has been leaking, but fixed now. Also the direction the wind has been blowing the rain, it has been coming in under the cap on the chimney, so a constant stream of rain water has been coming down the chimney to the wood burner! Unluckily its been making its way out of a small hole in the pipe near the connector into the burner itself! And into a bucket!! There is one more place the rain water has found its route through! The cave of course, as it would by nature with this amount of rain, it must have only happened about 3 or 4 times in all these years... Or maybe I don't remember... but its coming in through the cracks in the cave, making its way down as water does, gets into the cave, onto the tile then down onto the little patio and out through the drainage system!

And still it rains! But the worse thing has been the wind, gusts of up to 95 kph... about 60 mph, something like that... the roofing is trying to lift off, or at least it sounds like it! It is just giving into the wind, or the pressure of it I guess... It sounds like something dragging!

Still, the Pipster and I have been warm enough, had the burner going when we needed it, its much milder now, despite the rain and winds...

The worse thing is being marooned in the house! The worse day the electric started going off and on, and then just staying off!

I've had rain soaked clothes drying every day... Pippas towel constantly out! She only stopped one day, and went about 18 hours without 'going'!!! It was just to fierce outside!!

Swansea - Steps to the beach from The Grape & Olive

Dentist confusion, after two attempts into the dentist, I actually get in on the day I am supposed to go for my appointment! So three trips, one appointment and to be honest my third and final entrance into the dentist was the worse, I almost decided to go back out again!

But, I didn't and of course, I survived!  I came home wobbly, and tired, and my face hurt... I went to bed too early and then had an extra time in bed... all giving me back ache, neck ache and a headache! It also looked like I should have expected CSI on the scene any minute, or at the very least a warning tape around the bed!  This because of the amount of blood on my pillow when I looked back down!

My jaw hurts still, and I have a mouthful of stitches looking like they are holding a bunch of my upper front teeth in place... maybe they are!  Well, I guess they are if they fell out, the stitches I mean!

It feels like I have something caught in my teeth and my tongue keeps on investigating the threads then remembering and leaving well alone!

Yesterday I drank a couple of Franco's bottles of high calorie drinks with lots of added milk to each one, for breakfast I put my porridge, fruit and milk into the juicer and once completely thinned out I popped into the microwave to warm, then added cold milk to cool!

The doctor told me cold only for a few days to drink or eat... No heavy lifting or carrying! Also to eat a yogurt or two a day, probably to combat the damn antibiotics I have to take for another seven days!  I did have a yogurt yesterday afternoon, the only thing I ate yesterday after the dentist... a bit off putting seeing the bloodied spoon after each mouthful! LOL... Great eh!!

I have had two yogurts for lunch! and a repeat of my breakfast again just now, with a handful of almonds... you know... to make it a little more substantial!!

Tomorrow I am going with friends down to the coast and the best fish and chip shop there!  I am going to eat the fish carefully... and share the chips!!

And to close, on my teeth that is, I think I still have another two visits to complete this treatment, and it wasn't as bad as I imagined, of course... I was scared, the doctor put me at ease, after the numbing injections I could feel pressure occasionally, pain? the tiniest and for only a moment, once or twice... and although my fear of the dentist has not gone.. and I will not be turning up two days early again, I can say I am not as scared as I was.

I went to La Trocha this morning with a friend, had a good wander about, I managed to find a couple of things to buy and I managed to walk away!

Today is a lovely day, cooler to start, nice to walk the Pipster, just walked her again, about 4pm... Its been a lovely weather day... Last day of August...

... Which leads me to twenty years ago and today we lost Princess Diana, I cannot believe it was 20 years ago, the memory like yesterday... waking up to a normal Sunday morning... then hearing the news... thinking it wasn't what we were all hearing... Going out for lunch with family... who somehow had completely missed the news that morning...

Monday mom Tony and I got the train to London, bought flowers and took them to Kensington Palace to lay in honour of Diana...

Also then my step-dad died twenty years ago... he had only passed away a couple of weeks before.

Well, I am going to make myself a coffee.... cold!



I nearly got to send this without... I nearly didn't say... but you know me, if the thought is in my head it needs to come out...

The other day I was dusting, and as I dusted one of the many photograpsh I have of Franco here on the wall... I was up close to reach up to him... and I told him... Yours isn't a face I thought I would only ever be dusting...

Above shot one I have been meaning to take for ages, but don't always remember to take my phone when we go on our first walk of the day... Me 'n Pip! If we come past here at a different time its too late!  The sun isn't where I want it to be, and the time has been lost again!

For some reason looking at this is making my head go weird!! LOL, like its an optical illusion or something!!  

                            

Last week when Franco and I were walking around Fuengirola we came across this new place!!  La Galeria Gastromercado! There is was suddenly, a doorway where there wasn't one, and we walked through, like a wondrous Alice and white rabbit, we wandered through the narrow doors and there was this huge area of dining and tables and food food food!!

Another day whilst driving down the long awaited lakes road... only going as far as La Trocha, thankfully, as a giant skip type truck thingy, was losing bits and pieces from its roof and this huge piece of plastic sheeting flew off and onto our windscreen, it caught on a wiper blade and I quickly pulled through what I could before it ripped it off completely!!  If we had been a scooter we could have easily been killed, crazy!  Surely a net would have been a good idea!

And Mijas Pueblo has been greatly improved by all this work at the lower plaza!  It has take awhile I know, but it is... stunning!  Clean, no car fumes as people vie for spaces in a narrow one-way semi-circular run through.  No horses peeing and pooping while you pop a yummy morsel of food into your mouth a sip from a cup of steaming hot fresh café con leche!

The band stand moved, the dangerous steps gone, more room for tables, more space... period!  And a lift to get you to the top if your not able to make it up the stairs!!

Well done Mijas! Its fab!!

Now!  Franco and I have been to the hospital several times, Franco knew he had an appointment, but no-one else seemed to, until we found a porter! LOL... Still, never mind, turned out okay and Franco had the procedure he was expecting to have on the day he thought he was having it... and everyone was great, he went in on time, and if there hadn't been an emergency he would have been out on time too!  But somethings cannot be planned and that's okay...  We now await the results in early November.

We have been out and about of course, all the normal stuff.... Gibraltor, Ikea, Fuengirla, Malaga, La Trocha, as well as above!

The weather has been beautiful, still hot, but cooling down week by week now, only in the high 20's now... So its just perfect!  You can actually sit in the sun without catching fire now!  A cooler breeze coming through the house in the nights... the sun is already missing from the living room sadly, but it means its cooler and will be back next May...

We have made some home improvements!  New bathroom sink, thank you IKEA!  I built the unit and Franco plumbed it in!  New bathroom cabinet, I built it, Franco hung it!  I rearranged the towels and we have sight of the bidet again now, its use from towel bowl can return to foot spa!

Day bed for down-stairs in wonderful!  I actually am looking forward to hot nights next summer where the only cool in the house is down-stairs, and I will in that bed! LOL... The old snap and lay flat sofa-bed we have before was still okay, but uncomfortable as a sofa, and as a bed a small 4' and hard as nails!  It was eleven years old and being kept under cover was in good condition, we had spoken with a lady from a local animal shelter who sells items for the charity, she took our number, said they needed another sofa-bed, didn't think she was being sarcastic LOL... anyway, they never phoned and IKEA take your unwanted goods away... Although, as it turns out, only if you actually remember to ask beforehand!  So they didn't want it either, and as space was at a premium while the day bed was being built the sofa-bed made its piece with the world half in and half out of the kitchen while Franco dismantled it!  It now resides in many pieces, some of which are on the terrace making the pallet sofas more comfortable...

I have caught up with lots while I have been home, and suddenly only just over a week before going back to work I feel there is still so much I have yet to do!!

Its not that I haven't thought of what I have to do, I do, a lot, and thinking isn't getting things done... Which is why I am here writing to you!

TTFN
Marian

Pompidou Malaga

Went with friend to Malaga a couple of days ago to see the Russian Museum in Malaga... Went to the Pompidou instead... next time the Russian Museum then!

The Pompidou is well worth the visit, and I will go there again and again, as I do the Picasso Museum in Malaga...

A great mix of art and more, painting that leap off the wall, literally!  Pieces of art work you would never think of!  A great exhibition...

         
        These pieces above - Ghosts...

I was mesmerised by these! I walked around them from all angles, they really looked like people inside, and every not and then looking deeper into the dark cowls, you could almost glimpse a face, or eyes peering back at you!

It was a very hot day, we dropped the car off at nearby Plaza Mayor and got the train into the city, we went too far! Which was why we missed the Russian Museum... LOL, never mind... as I said next time forsure! Had a lovely lunch in the big plaza... I had sea food paella, 'black & white' ice cream desert, which was vanilla ice cream in a shot of cold black coffee with think cream! Mmmmm very Mmmmmm!

What else have we been doing? On the driving range! I am hoping Franco keeps going there when I am at work, its good to get out and about every day, and just being up there, an hour of fresh air, and getting those balls hit out, good exercise and we are really enjoying it!  Who would ever of thought that even the word golf would be in our now every day vocabulary!  Certainly not us!  Adverts for gold popping up all over our phones now, and lap tops!! Very strange!! We only have a couple of clubs each, all we need for now, and me actually getting to play a real course is probably so far away its an impossible thought! I have had to get a glove, blistered left hand not great!  Still keep wondering who is saying these things!!

 

Today I went to the market in La Trocha, it was very quiet, I think lots of people would have down the beach or just generally out and about on a beautiful day like today... So it meant easy wandering about the stalls, easy viewing, easy sitting up stairs and having a quiet coffee without the hordes!  Followed by another quiet easy stroll about each and every isle again, still able to see what was what!

One stall holder was a surprise and came away with a possibility of selling friends artwork either in a shop or in a gallery!  Either way, great! But we will see!

I have been working on another book for above friend... more on that on my publishing blog page... next thing to do from here then!

I bought a dress the other day that turned out not to be a dress, but some strange long shirt with splits running up the sides!  So I got a skirt from a charity shop, snipped it up and put in panels where the splits in the shirt are/were, and now voila!  I have the dress I thought I had bought with added extras!! Ta dah!

We had to buy Pippa a new harness too, the other week... Her old one was about ten years old!  Worn and frayed... so now she has a lovely bright new one, the color suits her color beautifully!

TTFN amigos!
Marian

Mijas today! Wall to wall blue skies... cool in the breeze and there was one helluva wind up there!  We started off at the Market at La Trocha in Coín... had coffee with friends and a good look around each and every aisle... Then around the artisan food hall and back in the car... Quite a breeze in there, I was glad of having my coat on!

Such a nice day we decided on carrying onto Mijas pueblo and lunch at our favourite opposite a little church near the museum... the road is up there at the moment, the road is up all over Mijas just now!  But works have to be done before summer... so no complaints from us!

We shared a plate of fried whitebait and nice fresh bread, and I had a glass of wine, the only one since I have been home, after coming back with a cold which might quite possibly have been the flu, followed by a jaw thing doing on, probably related the the virus I had had... still coughing now, but so much better!  This is the first time I fancied a glass of vino!  Mind you, I then fancied a cigarette... Franco said no! lol I don't smoke, but really just wanted one!

 Coming to the end of this month back home, feels like two months not one, so been a great visit home... and I am looking forward to getting back to work next Tuesday, working with a lovely lady, in a lovely location, which makes a huge difference with wanting to be at work and not!

We've met up with friends, we've travelled to Ronda, and all over the place, its been lovely...

I am packed, I am taking the minimum amount with me this time, I had taken a few extras as it was Christmas with me last trip back to work... This case is holding, four tops, one pair of trousers, one on... no travel bags with my shower/cosmetics etc etc... a plastic bag will suffice!  One pair outside shoes on, a pair of house shoes, [fewest undies!], pj's... that is it!  Well and lap top, kindle, phones with chargers and camera of course!!

I do not intend to carry a heavy case on and off planes... [well, you know what I mean!], on and off trains at least!

In the house, we have improved, by painting, moving, and clearing...  flowers blooming and all good!  We have one of worlds smallest bedrooms, because I brought the living room up into what was the big bedroom... we had a tiny cupboard on one side of the bed and an old bedside cabinet on the other, we got four Ikea Billy bookcases, of the small narrow variety, doubled them up, and they now reside by the bed sides!  sideways on, second shelves are for bedside stuff, and the other five shelves for storage... having the white side face on they actually make the tiny room seem bigger???

Plans afoot for next trip home, so the time will fly, I start on Wednesday 10th and finish on 10th March...

TTFN
Marian

Oh dear, what happened to last last Blog post of mine?? Thats the problem blogging using my phone, or Kindle was it?  Must use my lap top next time, I can use my phones internet to do so!

Well, I left my work placement and went to see Barry and his family, spent a wonderful five days and five nights with them all, my gorgeous wonderful granddaughter... She cried when I left the flat to go buy some bits!  she watched my every move around the room, and each morning, came crawling... or walking, pushing the door open to me, with her beautiful smile... 23 steps was the record when I was there!  Probably already surpassed!

Had a good visit with them all, went into the city a couple of times, Baz took us all out for dinner on the last evening, and on the Friday I caught the bus to East Midlands airport... Its what I would call, old school, recently updated, and really nice, small, relaxing, easy to negotiate... after Stansted with about a million people on my last return flight home, this was wonderful!

On my last couple of days with Baz I started to get a cold, probably picked up on one of three train journeys it took me to get to Nottingham!  And not sure how it stayed in its early stages, because the day after I got home it hit me like a hammer, couldn't move, my head felt like it was full of cement, my body just wouldn't coordinate at all, although I carried on carrying on, as I always do, I felt like crapola with a capital C.  I've been home over a week and still feel bad, but better, trying not to cough, but at night is when its hardest not to...

We have been out and about as I say, after Franco's Spanish course on Thursday we got in the car and went for a good drive about, we took a route to Cartama Estacion, checked out the train times... We're going to Ronda tomorrow!  Then we drove through a couple of small towns we didn't know existed until the other month when the bus brought us through them!  We kept driving, more because there was nowhere to stop to park... very busy, it was lunch time... So we came back around and onto the main road again and headed up to Casarabonela, we hadn't been there since my birthday back in 2010, had a coffee and came home...

We've visited the La Trocha twice, today we weren't going to, but then changed our minds, its been such lovely weather, warmer than normal, even for here... Franco and went to the flea market in Fuengirola yesterday and were very over dressed in our coats and boots, the tourists were in shorts and t-shirts, some in Torremolinos... were topless later on in the day!  The men I hasten to add!  And it wasn't a pretty picture, so none included!

We have been to the garden and bought earth for plants that have been living in too little of the stuff and now showing signs of it!  I bought bird food yesterday, left it out for the birds and it was still there today, I have moved it about, and not a bit has been taken, plenty of birds!  I seriously don't think they know its for them!  No birds tables, here... no bird feeders! The bird food seems to be the sort you put in bird cages... So not sure how to go about getting them to know it is for them!!  Its only the birds by the bars that know to pick up what humans drop!

We have been to town a load of times, even one evening!  We were going to go to a British bar right at the end of town, they had a band on, then we thought, maybe it wouldn't be a good thing to go there for the first time not knowing anyone... so we decided on a bar in the middle of town, another British bar, but... we decided on a Dutch bar instead!  We are so not used to British bars, but we want to expand our friends and contacts here... Maybe next weekend...

The view this morning, I had taken Pipster out for a walk, and came home, I was sat on the terrace drinking a cup of tea, watching the sun come up, so far it was only on Las Delicias...

And when we were out for a walk yesterday afternoon, Pip was very intrigued by the cat on a lead, the cat was huge, I kept trying to take sneaky pics when we having a coffee in the bar, but had to wait until we were over the road, and then just blatantly take a photo!

I caught this reflective view of life in Casarabonela before our coffees arrived!

This week, we have Ronda tomorrow, and some friends are due out who live down on the coast at Calahonda, and another friend who will staying down at Torremulle... We will enjoy his singing if he puts on a show down there!

TTFN
Marian

A plethora of photo all-sorts!  Last week I was on a course back with a previous employer and could not resist this photo opportunity above at a services stop on our way back home... It looks so 1960's... wish the traffic in front wasn't there... but still a great shot of a great looking building!

The course was up on the Orihuela coast... Near Torrevieja, the area where we stayed was sort of strange... a straight road, bridges over... N340 probably?? Nope, that stops at Vera!  Strange, always thought it went all the way up the coastline, maybe in did...  Anyway, we were in an apartment block between two restaurants, and all along on this one side were restaurants and beach type shops, residential properties on other side of dual carriageway... but it sort of seemed like we were nowhere... We three walked along the coastal path on one evening, very pretty walk...

                          

                   







Anyways, course went really well, great group, I was sharing with a girl, will I always call women girls?  Would just seem strange saying, 'shared my room with two women'... ? oh well... dos chicas? lol... Two great women!!!  A Spanish girl(ha!) from the Nerja area, which was where I picked up my ride from, and another great woman, English, who lives in the Valencia region... We became the three musketeers!  And although my Spanish didn't really improve, my arm waving did, and both myself and English gal started to both write and speak in broken English!

The apartment was okay, bit noisy at night, sounded like someone skateboarding in the room above mine, and loud men and music in the beautiful gardens late at night!  But, we did okay, the days flew by, lots of learning, I know I have already done the course, but I learnt more... there was more to learn this time... and before we knew it we were all saying our goodbyes and back in cars heading off in many and various directions!  I got a ride back with three girls who all live in Alhaurín area!

Franco and I went to a new burger bar down in the Miramar mall in Fuengirola... the little black disc with the number 59 we took back to our table while our food was cooked... and when it was ready for collection it lit up!! Great!!  Although I kind of expected it to hover or something else!

We were a little early for the new James Bond movie, Spectre on Tuesday evening, so spent some time at the top of La Trocha centre watching the sun set... and very beautiful it was too!  The movie was great, the film in English and not one empty seat... about 300 Brits!!!  Was a bit unnerving, not normally in the company of so many foreigners here!! lol!!

Loved the movie, two guys in the audience were wearing evening dress.... white dickey bows included!
It was only €5.00, although we didn't partake of food and drinks everything was less than half the price it is in the UK, so very good prices... and the seats for plush!  Tonnes of leg room, no awkward moments for people coming past to sit down!

We have a misty morning one day this week... and Sierra Gorda looks like a sea animal out there on the horizon...

We're heading fast towards the shortest day of the year but here the evenings are still light, up to about 6:30pm... When I take Pip out its about 7:15am and just getting light... I'll be having a shock next week back in England with the short days!

Yes back to England on a Monday afternoon flight, two weeks placement in Essex area... I am looking forward to getting back to work, its been well over two months now! Unbelievable where the time has flown to...

We're going to the market in the morning at La Trocha, and I am really hoping the dog that was there yesterday has gone by now, there was a poor little skinny thing laying down, people from the dog rescue were trying to lure her to food and water, but she wouldn't have anything to do with them, running away each time anyone came too close... while we had coffees, I watched her.... she watched every passer by, looking maybe for a familiar face... my heart broke, I suppose I imagine Pippa there... lost lonely waiting and hoping, Franco went to see if he could get close, but no luck... so sad...

Very grave news from France last night and this morning... The world has gone mad, we are one planet, one blood, one human race... When we came into existence we were one amoeba type thing, how has it come to this... I know, religion? Religion in the name of war; war in the name of religion.

TTFN
Marian