Last day of July... my favoirite month!

well i think i have my head back now, well i think its mine!


and here are two very different views... the second is africa, taken from about an hour from here, south and near tarifa on the way down to cadiz... i think its about 7 miles from the tip of spain over, and from our coast line its about 12 miles, something like that, from our old apartment down on the coast, on a clear and cool morning we could see africas atlas mountain range... a powerful view, and always a reminder how close we are too such a huge continent, one i still havent ever crossed over to see! una dia, una dia...

and of course the first photo speaks for itself, taken one of the times i was stood there atop the empire state building, what a fabulous view... what a feeling! oh i wish i could just pop over there now...

work was quiet buy busy unloading lots of things coming in, probably mentioned this month and august everything clothes wise is just a euro, thats just 1€, and would you belive some people say can they have it for less! i suppose they forget we are a charity and infact everything that comes in is for the hospice we support down on the coast for cancer sufferers and their family, we're not just some second hand clothes store to help the people in town buy cheap clothing! ok, yes i'm better now, can you tell!

but hands hurt so enough for now...

Friends are those wonderful unselfish people who give their time, their strength and their hearts to others...

TTFN
Marian

Favorite places

short but sweet today, had bad migrane, started saturday afternoon and went to bed early, didnt get until this morning, sunday, so feeling very weird and wobbly and sight not good, already correcting more typos than writing so....

above first a favorite place i have been to, tabarca, off the coast by santa paulo, in alicante province, such a beautiful little island, you go by a small boat, last crossing back is quite early in the evening so if you dont get it... your stuck, half the island is just grass! the other a few restaurants and bars, some houses, and an abandoned church, so sad, mind you i havent been there for 5 years now, so maybe its been cared for by now, i hope so, nothing so sad as a lifeless church... its closed off with barbed wire! there is only a couple of streets and NO cars! there are cliffs around the end where there are houses, but to the grass end you can just walk out into the sea... beautiful, aparently it was over taken by pirates, some years ago! and back then they would raid the mainland for food and women! the later they would chuck over the cliffs when they were finished with, and, aparently you can still hear their crys of help from the cliff edge.... i can imagine a few days there would be so calming, reading and just chilling out, but a whole week? no i would go crazy!

the second photo is in scotland, eileen donan castle, lock duich, i would really love to go there, it just looks so peacefull..... i think they may have used this castle filming that movie with catherine zeta jones and sean connery called entrapment, it looks the same.

gotta go... too blurrry...

TTFN
Marian

el chorro

two more from the lakes and el chorro, the top one is a fantastic shot tony took of the dam, we were in the forest beneath but at the top of a small mountain in that forest! the water realease thingy looks like a ski or toboggan run, an amazing structure.

and this one above is the nearly dry river bed, it is supposed to power a power station! not much there was there, and this was in early may this year!

this is morning i just popped into town to send a birthday card... sometimes we have big vans parked up out side the medical clinic in town, blood donar etc, with mornings is strange, it said a movil and precoz... so we have mobile obviously and precoz in the dictionary means precocious! how strange!

last night we had a small, i think only one regiment of ants in the kitchen, i had put down pippas dinner and she wanted to watch us finish ours first, so when i went back into the kitchen with the plates there they were... millions of the little things, forming two lines one into her bowl and one back out, they were coming in from behind the door frame at the back door, but they were not behind the door in lobby, so from inside the wall somewhere i guess, then marching along behind the bin, some were investigating that too, both inside and out! ugh! then the others were along the wall and down to her bowl... all over it and in it! and then back again! horrible horrible horrible! so within minutes, they were dead, everything was clean, and pippas dinner gone! so i think now its eat it or lose it in this house for her during the summer! my poor baby!

Some people touch our lives only briefly...
while others leave a lasting impression and are never forgotten...

TTFN
Marian

The Lakes

hoorah! both these photos are ones tony took while he was here back in may this year, taken in the el chorro area, beautiful lakes and wonderful mountains...

TTFN
Marian

Market Day

have been trying to up load a couple of photos, but not working at the moment, was going through my pics later night and thought i would put up a some of my favorites, now this is difficult as i love all my photos! i have so many regular photographs, you know the old fashioned sort, on paper kepts in paper wallets! not on a disc or computer! bit like talking about my old record collection on vinyl... and now with mp3 players, this next generation wont even know what cd's are soon!

back to the photos though, i have so many... and when franco and i started dating i kept saying i want you to see this photo or that photo, till he said when we retire he will look at them all then! yes i have so many, i actually want to put them all together in boxes or something, so they will be kept better and easier for me to look through, well one day i get round to it, i remember moms album... an old suitcase, she had just chucked them all in there! there they still are! talking of mom, she had a funny turn at the bus stop yesterday, came over all light headed, i think its the weather theyre having in enland, a bit hotter than usual, and mom is very susceptible to the heat, she was fine by the time bus got to her stop 5 minutes later, thank goodness, and then in a shop today a lady, who i met yesterday while looking at furniture and took my name as i had left a deposit, walked up to me and said hello muriel! instead of marian, now that is strange as muriel is my moms name! and she dosent know her! spooky stuff!

i went to meet my friend down at the market, but was too hot to walk round so we just went up to bar rosa and had a cool drink and awaited her family to catch us up there! and there we sat for about two hours watching the world go by, its a great place to do so too, its right in the middle of town, round about with four way junction to watch the world pass, on scooters cars trucks, and of course those on foot! lots of holiday makers here now, all shiney and bright pink from too much sun too quick!

no photos still not working, will come back and add later if its working!

have been in comunication with a company who does promotion work for their clients, as i thought i would like to try that, would be great fun at malaga airport promoting 'things', and i have been added to their list, and given hours i will work etc, and filled out all the forms, its like i have got a job without having an interview! how weird is this! well i suppose time will tell if i actually get sent a time and place to go... or not, very strange.

Friendship has a special meaning when you have someone with whom to share tears and laughter, fears and dreams, and silence when the time for words is past...

TTFN
Marian

Soap Box

today is one of my soap box days i'm afraid! yesterday i went to our bank to put in a cheque! errr no! not possible here she said, well in spanish of course! por que i exclaimed! not your account office she said... arh i said. its just crazy here, they take cash but not cheques, can you imagine if that was the same in england! the country would come to a stand still, the same with the car registration, which i know i have mentioned at least a hundred times here before, in england when you get a new car the registration document is sent off to the only place that deals with it, DVLA in swansea, wales, they take the old details off and yours on, and in a week or maybe two, its back in your hands, the old owner, if there was one has sent his bit off to, so he is no longer eligible for fines etc, it costs nothing more than a price of a stamp, and its done, well not here... here the old owner has to take the new owner to change all the details over, either direct to the nearest 'traffic' office, here its malaga, 25k away from us! or to an office where they do it for you but charge about 200€ for it! you have to send your NIE number, passport or residencia details, proof of where you live either the escritora/deeds, or your rental agreement! and it takes a long long time, maybe a month or two even! you can drive in your new car, with a special document incase la guardia stop you.

then for your yearly tax, in england just pop down to your nearest post office and pay, thats it, no more, but here, you can only pay the tax in the tax area on the address of the registration, so if you move, or buy the car and its not been paid, actually not possible, as you would not be able to change the registration without it having been done... but we did! so it does happen, so you have to go to that towns tax office, we only had to go down to fuengirola, but what if the car had come from madrid!!!

this has all come from what has wound me up today as i decided to try again to get my empradromiento certificado, this is just to register in the town where you live, i did go there back in november last year, having moved here in the june! but the man wanted my original NIE certificate, (at my lawyers office), an NIE is like a national number everyone has to have to live here really, to buy a car, a house, register at a doctors, anything, its always asked for, i had at that point bought two places here and two cars, never even had the original, never mind been asked for it, the man spoke only in spanish, fair enough as we do live in spain, but i had to struggle, and then when i got up to go, he spoke in fluent english! huh! what a whats it eh!!

then today, i only spoke to the lady at the desk and although she moaned and exhaled heavy during the whole proceedure, she did it, and didnt even look at the originals i had with me!

i have to pick it up next friday... i think!

i want to shake up the whole system, computers are these fantastic things, no need to mke people go hither and thither, just connect to a branch and away you go! its done in england and everyother country west of here at least! i can go on here and move money around from accounts to visas and back again, well i could if i had it to do so! but you know what i mean, if we can do it from home, you would think they could do it here!

well shall i get down now, off my box?

i just have to keep reminding myself that its not been that long here, the technology is still catching up in spain, fast, but for us, not fast enough, you can see why lots of people just dont bother with some of it, its just so frustrating!

and of course, maybe its harder for those of us that dont speak spanish fluently, or and more likely as we're foreigners, imagrants, mom and i were imagrants in england but did we look like it? only to some, i used to get asked if i was italian or spanish, but here... i dont know, is it the way we walk and move, we do stand out like sore thumbs, i can spot an english person at 100 paces! it was only in sardinia that i looked just like all the other women, the same big hair! LOL

thing is in england in all my jobs, most of which were customer facing types, i never treated anyone any different, color or creed, if i was helping someone who didnt speak english i never got cross or frowned at them and refused to serve them or ignore them...

ok... off the box maz... now!

The wonderful things about friends is that
they can grow separately
and yet not grow apart...

TTFN
Marian

Alhaurín golf

took a few times to get this downloaded, definately a problem on here last couple of days... but, so this above is what is now alhaurin golf! this was when all the works began, must have been back in 1998 i think, full of houses now and golf courses! over on the hill in front is a sort of local folly, will get a better picture for you, its an old water tower thats been built around and now looks like a strange castle, around that side of the road they are trying to get permission for another 5, yes five golf courses and 100's of houses and apartments! cant believe it.

work was quiet again today up until the last hour when it went crazy, think everyone in town came in, goodness knows why we dont have air conditioning there! anyway, had a good day and only with two of us in today.

we went to the market at la trocha yesterday morning, i had taken pippa out earlier so we left her at home, and after the market we went down to miramar in fuengirola on the coast, and to the supermarket there eroski its called, we did nearly a weeks shopping, trouble is when you get used to a supermarket then visit another you can never get everything you want, or maybe its finding it thats the problem! it took me ages to get used to mercadona, infact i used to get moody everytime we went in there! so much so that franco now says i'm having a mercadona if i get moody about anything at all!

today would have been my dads birthday, feels like i only said that last month, but that was my step dads birthday, this would have been my real daddys'.

Love is like quicksilver in the hand,
leave the fingers open, and it stays.
Clutch it, and it darts away.

TTFN
Marian

Coffee in Alhaurín el Grande

here is a short vid from us this evening... and i'm sorry my mom was moaning about the heat back in england today, well its 44C on the roof 111.2F and its ten to seven in the evening, too hot to walk in the sun and air feels like its straight out of the oven!

Love is not measured by how many times you touch eachother,
but by how many times you reach eachother...

TTFN
Marian

White horses...

this is me... well on my very first birthday, what a little california girl i look with my bright blond hair! strangely that went when mom took me to england to live two years later, i guess it would have turned dark anyway... or was it the lack of sunshine! and would you believe... yeah maybe you would, but i still have this dress, mom saved it and i have been carrying it around with me now for the past twenty years or so! i would say its the oldest item of clothing i have but its not, i have two tops of my moms from before that, and you know they still look new! how weird is that!

bunch of things i forgot to mention during my ketchup the other day!

sunday i fell down the stairs! the ones that go up to the roof terrace, i knew it would happen, pippa always is round my feet either running down beside me or trying to nip my toes or shoes or pants, and i went down four steps, landed with my elbows and tushy and backs of legs all in one go, luckily sharing the load i suppose! my hands were full so i couldnt put my hands down to catch me, although maybe i would have hurt them if i had, the bruises have been coming out all week on my legs and arms!

i heard a noise the other night and our spot light came on outside so someone must have got too near to our fense behind the house... so it works! franco and pippa went out to patrol! there were people in the car park and they got in their cars and left! it will be a year this sunday that we had the intruder, now every house in the street has those window alarms, thanks to our misfortune...

and we use a phone card here, it really makes a difference, telefonica is expensive as is spantel, they are supposed to charge per second, but are still billing per minute, so its very expensive, we got a card that gave us 800 minutes to phone anywhere... europe, the states... really good, we were using a number that still charged for connection so it was 6€ for the card and about 10€ from telefonica, which was fantastic compared with the 40 to 60€ bills a month from spantel, this card though we are using totally on the freephone number and seeing how long it lasts, dont really phone many people its for phoning my family in the states, and of course my mom daily.

well, my friend also uses this card and her phone bill came and it was double! over 80€ instead of 40! so she went to her phone supplier, conecta4, an aerial system for the campo or people who cannot get telefonica, and theyre line supplier had charged for the free phone calls! one of which was a 13 mintues call costing over 22€! so that has to be sorted out a 900 number here means its free, so she shouldnt be paying a penny, or should i say a centimos!

now your probably wondering where these white horses are in my title? just saw this morning a clarks shoes advert on tv, and they were playing a song i hadnt heard in years and years, when i was a child a tv program had this as its title song, its so beautiful.... here it is....


white horses

on white horses let me ride away
to my world of dreams so far away
let me run
to the sun

to a world my heart can understand
its warm and gentle wonder land
far away
stars away

where the clouds are made of candyfloss
as the day's born
when the stars are gone
we'll race to meet the dawn

so when i can only see the grey
of a sad and very lonely day
that's when i
softly sigh

on white horses snowy white horses
let me ride away...

TTFN
Marian

Coinsedense

was just talking about a coinsedenses... what do you think of this?

a few years ago, when i was working in my favorite job of receptionist at a mercedes-benz dealership in aylesbury... i arrived into work, early as usual and was doing all my normal first things, opening up the show room, filling coffee machine tiding up etc and a man came in to see someone, who wouldnt be arriving into work for another hour! so i got him a coffee and went back to my desk, he came over and we started talking, about how he shouldnt have been in our place at all and had had to drive for a long time to cover someone elses customer, us, we talked about this and that, as you do, not even sure now how we got onto coinsedenses and spooky type things, i mentioned a few that had happened to me over the years since i was a child... another time here... he mentioned his wife was the same, then i said something else and he said his wife too! and that she had fibromyalgia! i nearly fell off my chair! i knew lots of people had it, just never met anyone, i know this was her husband but close enough! he said his wifes psychic things started when theyre son died, he had had a good job, happy in all parts of his life, young, and he got stopped one morning going into work and failed an alcohol test, he lost his job, his life, literaly his life, he got into drugs and later was at rehab, but went AWOL got on a train and in his mixed up mind he climbed out of a window while the train travelled at high speed... the rest you can imagine... now his mom and dad didnt know he was missing and she started having strange thoughts about him and things he was saying to her... then they found out what had happened.

in the week leading up to his funeral his mom received messages from him, in the form of poetry, she at first tried to ignore it thinking it was her mind playing horrid tricks, or that even she had lost it! one late night she couldnt take anymore and her husband called out a doctor, they had to wait a long time, theyre local doctor was not available and they awaited a locom, who arrived eventially, and at the door commented it had taken him over an hour and had to drive nearly 30 miles to get there! very strange... her husband explained what had happened to theyre son and now how his wife was reacting and that he thought she had lost her mind, the doctor said why? why dont you belive she hears these things from your son? believe her have faith... he didnt even see the wife and just left, he said she dose not need drugs or therapy, but to write down what she hears/feels.

so she did every day until the funeral and at the funeral she handed out the poems to the people that her son had told her to! things she didnt know about, words only spoken by him to these friends of his, and every single one of them were amazed she knew these things, that theyre son david had been the only one who could have written these poems...

question... why did that doctor end up coming to them from afar?
question... why did this man come to our dealership instead of where he should have gone

things are so strange arent they, fibromyalgia is said, in part, to be connected to extra electrical energy going on in the brain, which is why we never have restorative sleep, and only dream dream dream all night, awakening as tired as when we laid down our tired and heavy heads the night before... does this energy have something to do with receiving other things? or am i going complety off track as usual! or am i on my way to the looney bin.... hang on is that the men in white coats a knocking at my door!

Ketchup

lots to do today... catch up!

saturday, sunday, monday, and tuesday! well saturday, just up to town during the day to meet with friends, after franco came home in the evening we went down to el corte tienda down on the coast, we did go down for a new juicer, but came home with a new phone for me, my old one was broken, no really, it kept switching off all the time, and franco got a new steamer!

sunday to the market at la trocha, half empty, always like that in summer, people have more things to do than wander round a market, whereas in the winter its good to have some place to go, and this one is out of the cold and rain which is good, thats if its still there this winter coming of course! it was the grand prix in the afternoon and i think we just pottered about the house...

monday.... my birthday.... yeha! and i worked... how bizarre, never actually gone out of my way not to work on my birthday ever before, although i had quite often in the past, back in england, planned holidays around my birthday so i wasnt at work that week anyway! but this year not only was i not on hols, but the only day i do work was my birthday! still it was a very good day, bit better than last week, so i wasnt so achy afterwards, its standing that dose me in, and after we all went to the bar for a drink, well i had coffee! and i got home about 330 i think! the rest of day was just usual really... but a good day with cards through the post and lots of texts and emails... missed my boys, heard from them but would have been better to have been with them, which again made me wish all those years back of being away on hols i had stayed at home to share with them instead, well whats gone is gone and its only me who feels this loss.

tuesday! yesterday my friends grand daughter went back home, so i did the airport run with them, left home at 830am and got home at 230! long day, four buses and lots of standing around! but i wouldnt have missed it, she is such a lovely little girl a real credit to her family, she didnt really want to go either and was sad...

now todays quote is from a movie, one of my favorites, although not on my list, i forgot to add it when i did my profile thingy, but 'the english patient' is so special, its not everyones cup of tea! on reading a friends profile i saw it there and wanted to write this from it...

how long is a day in the dark, or a week - when we die, we die! we die rich with lovers and tribes, tastes we have swallowed, bodies we have entered and swam up like rivers, fears we have hidden in, like this wretched cave.....

TTFN
Marian

Pippa!

pippa thinking she is getting dinner at our table! those big ears! she is an andalucia podenca breed, i think maybe something else mixed in there too! and she is small for the breed too, and they are normally used for gun dogs, when the hunter goes out with a new dog and fires the gun, if the dog bolts or crys out they just leave out there all alone to fend for themselves... thats why there are so many stray podenco roaming the sierras here, her mom was found giving birth on someones land and they then tried to home the 5 pups, the dog homes here are awful. in malaga it was the custom until only this year to put the dogs down once a week in a gas chamber, a horrific drawn out death, a hundred or so dogs at a time.

Love is something that begins when nothing is looked for in return...

TTFN
Marian

Star Burst

today i feel really positive and motivated, i have been a bit down on myself recently what with my aches and pains, although i hope this coming mondays work wont put me back there again, i suppose i really will have to think twice about continuing there if i then spend the next 24hrs trying to get any ooomph back!

i have been thinking of phoning up a telesales job, but unsure about what theyre selling or buying, specially here on the costa del sol, so today i started looking around the newspapers online, and some job companys and i applied for one job and enquired about another, and have put my cv up for show, so we shall see, maybe having a 'proper' job again is really what i need, i suppose the less i have been doing, the less i feel like doing, which cant be very good for me, although my age is now a bit of a down factor, i may feel younger than i am, well in my self, young at heart and all that, but that date when you write it down... OMG it looks sooooooo bad! still lets see eh! i must admit i feel better just having done something towards getting a job.

this morning while pippa and i were out i was also thinking of getter a scooter again, again as in thinking about it! and told pippa she would have to have her own seat and wear a leather biggles hat and goggles! can you imagine! i will have to get tony to make up a photo for me, he's clever like that!

on tv just now a lady walked over hot coals to get her motivated and her diet and life back on track, i remember my stephanie doing that not so long ago, i am so proud of her, amazing to have done such a thing, and i told her if you can do that, you can do anything girl!

Love is not gazing at each other,
but looking outward together in the same direction.

antoine de saint-exupery

TTFN
Marian

Rain in Spain

i cannot believe it! rain? here in july? whats going on, malaga had a huge thunder storm yesterday morning and some rain down in fuengirola, only a drop or two here literally as i was hanging up the washing, no more than that, and now today half hour past, thunder lots of it rolling in over the mountains... and some rain, still not much just a few drops or as franco would say its picking! i still laugh to myself the first time he came home saying it was picking outside! picking i said! who is picking what? no its picking he said? turns out picking is the same as spotting or few drops of rain, mind you spotting sounds silly now... who is spotting what!

market day today and i met up with friend and her lovely grand daughter, we wandered down and back, i was a lucky girl and got an early birthday present, a beautiful long kaftan, its only a house dress if you know what i mean! would be downright outragous to wear in public, the fabric is so fine and cool and its the most beautiful olive green color, to match my green eyes... lol...

a neighbor just came home and can see pippa on the front balcon and her and her little boy were calling pippas name to her and her tail was wagging so hard i could hear hit hitting the window and the bed at either shake of it... she loves to spend time up there now i have taken away her chair from the window, she can be as nosy as she wants to see who is about theyre business on our street!

yesterday was my honeys birthday! franco had a good day and we just did what we always do in the evening, down with the shutters and up with the draw bridge!

Love is the greatest refreshment in life...

pablo picasso

TTFN
Marian

July 12th We're the Americans

my mom reminded me of a meal we had in sevilla a few years back now, we were with a day tour up from the coast... lunch time at a table with a family of three, mom dad daughter, a couple, a lady on her own and us two... conversation was passing around well and during the second course the 'dad' said to the couple are you americans? and they almost leaped from their chairs saying no we are canadians! see here are our maple leaf pins! there was a bit of normal chit chat for a while, some a little detremental to us americans but i let 20 mintues go by then casually said, actually our accents can be a little misleading, but we are the americans at this table!

naughty i know, but i couldnt resist, everyone but the canadians thought it really funny! i'm cheeky!

that day was in a february and it was a freezing 10 degrees, couldnt wait to get back down to the coast away from the cold and drizzle we had had all day, it was a better 19 down there!

feeling much better today, more my usual self, leaving home at 930 and getting back around 3pm 5 to 6 hours on my feet is really doing me in these days, takes another 24 hrs to get over it!

pippa met a new friend today on our walk a little boy dog from down the street, but he is moving soon down to el faro down on the coast! pippa was also freaked out by a hub cap this morning!

Love is a friendship caught on fire...

TTFN
Marian

Italia

see how tired i am! memory failed again! first thing i meant to say today was well done italia! what a game eh! shame about the head butt! thought zidane was going out of football a hero, but instead he looked like a common thug! not sure what racist comment was said to him, but these guys have to raise above all that, at least when the world is watching... and even when its not!

Ciao

Hair Extensions

just heard the most terrible thing on tv, the hair from hair extensions, most of it comes from india, and most of that is temple hair, as in the hair is given by women in the temples for prayers, they think it is in the temples, they dont know its being sold to be weaved into rich womens hair over here! some are paid a pittance for thier hair and have it completely shaved off, men women and children, some are just given sweets or lucky charms for it!

i must admit i had never even thought where it came from! when i was waiting for a friend in the hairdressers a month or so ago, i watched hair extensions being put in and thought how beautiful it looked and all the girls in that store all have extensions.

after its been cut its taken to be processed... ie, alot of it has lice or fleas, and people work 15 hour days for hardly any money there also, and suffer from severe resporatory problems due to working with fine hair.

well i think i would think twice now about this!

work was hard going yesterday for all of us, was quite quiet, which makes the day go slower, infact the slowest day i have had there, maybe because the heat was putting people off, exhausting, and exhausted is how i feel today still! franco says i should stop going in, but although its hard going its good to be out with people in that work environment, i know under normal circumstances i cant stand up for more than half hour without needing to sit down, and it must be adrenalin that keeps me going at work, its really doing me in, just holding my coffee cup is hurting this morning, and keeping my head up is a struggle, its not made better by the fact that i dont feel i can go to my doctor, he says, i think i have said before... he says my fibromyalgia does not exist! he also thinks RSI and ME dont either! i have recently contacted the fibromyalgia assoc, back in england and think maybe i will give them a call today. its sad i know, but even after 17 years of having this, or does it have me? i still keep hoping there will be a miricle drug or plant or anything really that would help me! i have tried so many over the years.

ok, sorry folks having a bit of a feel sorry for myself moment!

probably just going as far as the chinese at the top of the street today for a new washing line! yesterday it broke completly and all the clean clothes being half damp still landed on the floor! the line had been braking all over, must be the heat! so its up there today only, pippa had her walk already of course, we were out at 730am this morning, while its still cool enough, dont want to burn her little paws on hot pavements later in the day either!

i need my paulo coelho quotes again... so am starting from the begining of the diary once more...

The glory of the world is transitory,
and we should not measure our lives by it,
but by the choice we make
to follow our personal legend,
believe in our utopias and fight for our dreams.

TTFN
Marian

Saturday

came across these two photos this morning, first glance its just the shops at el zoco, well the shops that were of course... a burnt out shell now since the other week, but what i was aiming at are the war ships! the first was taken without zoom and you can see two ships out there on the med, and on the zoom above two more, they were so close to the beach as you can see, and i counted 17 of them! this would have been about two ago now i think.

last night we went out for dinner to a local chinese, yes a restuarant that is, not a bazaar! my mates sister is, has... gone to england this morning, then she is traveling around a bit more till she returns to canada where she now lives. she has been here in alhaurín for nearly 2 months, cant believe how quickly her time here has gone.

awaiting the mercadona man now, and only taken pippa out this morning for a walk, have tooth ache, well not my tooth as such, i think i tore my gum a piece of fresh bread i ate yesterday lunch time and the gum is swollen, and so is my face now! glands i guess coming up to protect, i have taken a couple of fantastic pills, one last night and one an hour ago, they take the pain away quite a bit, but have made me very groggy! cant take these for my joints though i dont think!

the points system is in full swing here now in spain, taking on mobile 3 points, no seat belt 3, lit cigarette from window 4, taking over a crossing while someone halfway acrosse 4 and parking on a street corner 2 points, you get a year in jail for drunk driving or high speeding! the day they came into force some people got 16 points in one day! and we can only have 12 like back in england! they are starting in the main cities, but it wont be long before it spreads to everywhere, for us driving here from the uk, this makes sence, the driving here is some of the worst i have seen! so everyone beware!

so many streets now here in the process of being dug up! there are hard hat areas everywhere! lots of people take no notice... just like in their cars, and they lift up the no access tape and walk around the holes and huge machines digging up the streets!

Love is that which can be divided endlessly and still not diminish.

TTFN
Marian

Return of the Ants

did i mention those huge ants that pippa and i were having to negotiate every morning had just disappeared! i dont think i did, it was about a week ago.... well they are back and now no longer earthbound they have taken to the skys! only more at head level! blooming awful things flying all over the place and very clumsy, never saw flying ants like these before, i did wonder where they had gone, i nievley thought they had gone to ground in this heat... not the opposite!

41C/105.8F this afternoon at 430, its starting to hot up now...

today just a walk into town and back, got caught on film in the high street, although as i'm sure it will be on spanish telly i wont get to see it!

goodness only knows how franco can bear to work in this heat, we moan and run to the shade, seaking out the shady side of the streets and air conditioned shops hanging around the freezer sections, then there are the holiday makers sitting on the beach then put up their parasols for shade, but there is no relief for people working in it! he is the color of mahogony, then says ¨do i have a tan yet?¨ ¨am i brown?¨

Friendship doubles your joys, and divides your sorrows...

TTFN
Marian

Gibraltor... well nearly!

hello, phew its hot, nearly 730pm and just home, its saying 39C/102.2 in the shade up on our roof! really should have an image here, i took some pics but not sure if they came out and am too exhausted to find out this evening!

bed late last night after that fantastic match, talk about last minute, or second! gooooooooooo italia! now tonight to find out who they play.

up early this morning, picked up friend from other side of town, such a small town, and to walk is about 20 minutes or so, but to drive now with all these roads either closed or changed direction! took nearly as long by car! got to dona lola for collection and the big coach came, a double decker and we were up top, near the front, good views, we were so high up! about an hour and half later we were lining up to go through passport control still in the coach, and friend joked saying she had forgotten her passport, yeah funny girl! then found that she had her husbands passport, well whatever day of the week she cannot pass for him! or him for her! so she had to get off at the boarder! i went in, got what we needed, although something for her i couldnt as it turned out, and i was back at the border about 1215, an hour after going in, she saw me, well couldnt miss me in the long green and purple dress i had on today, and we went for a cold drink, its a long way to walk back over the run way, on my approach to it the barriers were down and a plane was coming in, then when i was half way over the run way the siren started up again and the barriers came back down, we were all wondering what the heck to do, go on, turn back, lay down!!! then they stopped and the barriers came back up? how bizarre!

we went for a walk towards the town of la línea... the line, in english, i said how nice a market would be right now, somewhere to look round till the coach came back about 330, and there one was! as if by magic! i guess its always there on a wednesday, but we didnt know, so we walked around the market, got a few bits and pieces, i got a nice pair of summer shoes for 8€ and a new pair of big spongy flip flops for the house for 3€! we went into a bar on the way back to the border and arrived there about 230, early i know, but we didnt want to miss the coach!

well the law from going from gib to spain is, as its not in the EU either one carton of cigarettes, or 50 cigars, or a 250grm of backy and one litre of alcohol, well we watched a group gang whatever walk back and forth with cartons of cigarettes! there were ten in the gang minium, and they went through in pairs one time, alone another, a mother with pram went through either with her mom and or sister, they changed hair styles, and clothes! in that hour they must have come and gone a minimum of four times each! so a minimum of 40 cartons of fags! now i thought you could only have that one carton each day, not keep coming and going all day! they were all giving it to a man who didnt go though, we called him limpy, as he was (limping)! after a while they were watching us watching them! maybe they thought we undercover agents, well we were begining to feel like it!

then our fun was over as the coach came and drove us home, well as far as calahonda, where we had a drink and awaited francos arrival to carry us home!

what a day, none of it planned, totally strange, another one for the memory pot! and.... dont forget your passport, or should i say your own passport!

cómo va esta vida... how this life goes

TTFN
Marian

Happy Fourth of July

what am i thinking! happy 4th of july everyone! lots of amercian clubs are having parties here this evening, i havent ever gone along to one... maybe i should!

and.... buona fortuna! viva italia!

ciao

code 3! must be code 4 here then!

code 3 alert in england! wondered what my mom was on about last night, now i have seen it on tv this morning! well i have just put the guage out in the sun on the roof and will go back up when i have finished this, its reading 33C/91.4F in the shade at the moment, of course we havent reached the hottest part of our day yet, usually about 3pm, but it was already 26 at 830 this morning, dont know why i am trying to justify it really? they were also talking about heat exhaustion, i think the symptoms were those i suffered last july and august, our first summer inland, no sea breezes here, hope i dont have it as bad this year, hopefully i will get used to it, cant be doing with that virtigo feeling, room spinning, heart racing, all that stuff only drinking water after all!

also on telly this morning... a bit about blogs, why people do it, saying about how like a diary etc, and a play is on in london all about us bloggers! a new blogger every second somewhere in the world begins his journey on the WWW... tony who started his, back in the last century dosent seem to do anything on it now! he wanted me to put tonys awsome site in my link section, well its getting to be like watching paint dry! come on tony!!! pleeeeeeze!

work was good yesterday, hot and tiring though too, had to remove every single price tag from every single garment for the sale we started yesterday, everything a euro! anyway a hard but good day, followed by our now habit of visiting the bar over the road on leaving! un coca cola para mi!

and home, how the house goes from an oven in the summer to a freezer in the winter! if only i could save some of this heat! and our small and narrow street over the last couple of days! its one way, and everyone is going up and down like crazy people! the road at the end of our street is up! like almost half the streets here in alhaurín this week! but people think they can dodge the road works by skipping up ours the wrong way! and then well blow me down if they dont get to the other end of our street thinking they can go left... pero no! darecha solomente! and then its back and right only again and again bringing them back past the end of our street again! taking them full circle! they could turn off into the jungle above our house, its negotiable, but for someone already lost! well they could end up in the sierra de mijas! and who wants to end up there this side of a full moon!!!

ok... brb... its 38C now thats 100.4F, will see what its like at 5pm this evening and up date! humph!

ok... its 720pm and its still 38C but now thats in the shade! it was raining this afternoon where tony works just outside of london when i spoke with him, bring it on!

The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love,
and be loved in return...

TTFN
Marian

Portugal Win

franco says....

Some days your the statue, some days your the pigeon...

Dodo Diary

yes i suppose i do write like one would in a diary here dont i! mabye a little more than... lunch with P or appt with M, but sort of diary like, but one i wish to share with all my family and friends who read my daily chit chat... that includes of course friends not yet met... cos if anyone is (a) strange(r) then that must be me!

dont know how world wide the Dodo diary is, but thats what i used to write in when i was a teenager, its a big ringbound diary, with lots of querky type things in, and i noticed last december back in england they still are for sale, i also remember a long long time ago now one day completly distroying the whole lot! nothing really awful in them but for one reason or another i had to let them go... the reason i did obviously didnt realise my memories were not just written down! cant remember when i started writing in diarys, i have one still from 1970 when i was 10 going on 11, and i think the only thing in it is the day my dad died. oh so long ago but still a day i remember as if it were yesterday.

right ok, change subject me thinks to football! hey viva italia! at last a fantastic match, well played by both italy and the ukrane, 3-0, fantastica! and england are playing now... well we know who franco wants to win dont we?! well yes we do!

and to end today with a spanish proverb...

How beautiful it is to do nothing, and rest afterwards...

TTFN
Marian