Happy Halloween

Halloween

please here imagine a photo of tony and friend in costume! cant up load photos today!

holiday news later, or tomorrow, firstly today..... Halloween! i dont know why but this day has always been very special to me! almost up there with christmas which is rather strange! although my aunt rita said my grandmother from naples was always in demand of the local people for potions and recipe's.... so my broomstick is ready... yes really, an old boss, as in long ago, for my 30th birthday with a very beautiful cake gave me a broomstick... just like the one witches use to fly by night... only he put on two stickers... first said, dont slam the door and the other.... oh and something else, will let you know!

and yes all my travels and i still have above mentioned broom stick, and here in spain the witch is a very lucky symbol, lots of weather vains have witches on, and lots of other things, regular bits and pieces, like cups and mugs, ornaments etc etc....

anyway, i digress as usual!

went down to the coast today to see my old neighbor, arrived about 10 and left her well after 3pm, we had coffee out and lunch in, beautiful day, checked on roof terrace when i got home and its still reading 32C lovely... 6pm still light! unlike london, dusk and calpe near my friends... strange same country but so much darker!

i went into the garden centre on my way home and got 8litres of earth and a big square pot for a plant i have to pot!

but, once home lots to do! we bought lots of sweets for the trick o treaters for this evening, so i had to bag 'em up, 40 little bags, and about 10 sweets in each, using my little kitchen things so as not to handle them, was fiddly but ok, and i was very good only ate one banana thing and a licorice bullet!

theyre all in a bag i made last year, black with white bones hanging from the front, we have a big pumpkin.... now dont all go crazy on me, but last night we got in from a local shop, its plastic! and has batteries and a flashing light! but it will last forever ok! thats going in the window downstairs, and to hang from the balcon a creapy skeleton... its robed and a bit scary! so that'll be dangling from above!

then i had my little shrine to make, also ditto last year, to welcome any passersby from the other side, friends and family and happy folk only... its a little flower bower, some food to feed them and water to quench... this is something some people here still do, lots, not just me... and aparently moms friend says they do this in thailand also!

in a small try are all the names of my loved and lost ones, on top of them are three little tea lights as we call them, those little whilte candles that burn for about 2 hours, last year one of the names got out of the dish and onto the tray... my dads.....

pippa has tried to eat the pasta so far, so i will have to watch her or it will be tipped up all over the place.

el zoco, still looks about the same, lots of scaffolding, so work done yet, the news agents and sports shop underneath have opened, and the little book shop is opening this thursday to sell off its stock, just for two months and then they are shutting.

oh and mercadona man is due anytime now... hope he isnt dressed up in scary costume! shall i give him some sweeties? maybe i'll open the door and say trick or treat?

ok broomstick says, please dont slam the doors and turbo boost! just went up there as pippa was being strangly quiet, she was laying down in the middle of the back bedroom floor looking guilty, but cant see any damage... yet!

Those who never take risks can only see other people's failures.

Happy Halloween.....

TTFN
Marian

Benitachell

hello from benitachell!

what a trip down... franco and i got the only bus we could that would get me on my coach to malaga bus station, it left alhaurin at 1115, got to malaga at about noon, we had a wander around had some lunch, i had albondigas, or should i say albondiga! is the the worlds most giant meatball, like a tennis ball, so only one, with a few fries...

we kept checking the departure time board, no sign of a bus to benidorm, asked at the desk a few times, and asked a man stood at a bus which was boarding, he said this was the stop and the bus for benidorm would leave at 330pm, he never said that this was actually the bus that he was standing in! so it left and i didnt... lol

i had to get on the 630 bus instead, and had to change the ticket with the self same fella who we had asked standing in the correct bus... how bizarre is this?

so... after seeing franco back on his return bus instead i was left at malaga, lots of tramps and beggers, all pretending to need money for a ticket, then some gypsies... lovely! anyway, on my bus and off first stop granada, got there about two hours to be told i, and only i, out of a bus full had to get off and wait an hour for the bus to benidorm, more tramps here and really dark, and so lonely anyway... it arrived at the wrong stop and i got on a bus to valencia! lots of stops... 10 instead of the six i should have had on the original quick coach... past cave houses, wonderful churches, fields town cities... on and on through the night! got into benidorm at 4am! tanya and andy had arrived only a moment before me, i ran to them... what a trip, and of course, one i have to repeat on saturday, but this time in the light! mucho mejor...

yesterday we went down to their local coastal town, and today here and there! we went into a bodega got a couple of big bottles of wine, 95c a litre... not bad eh! had some lunch, and then a trip to the mountain that their urbanization is built beneath, wonderful vista from there, the sea is on three sides, photos when i am home, if they came out.

and this morning clearer day and we can see ibiza from their house and i think mallorca!

ok folks...

TTFN
Marian

The Last Samurai

well folks i staying up to 10 was ok, bit tired but ok... the movie is fantastic, cant beleive i hadnt seen it yet, if its on ITV must have been out for some time eh! had the half hour break for the news, thanks for that! not! and it restarted at 1230am! hanging in there, really enjoying the movie... it started to rain, heavily about 10 past one, the signal kept breaking down and after a moment i switched on the video... what we do when we get no signal at all to help get it back, i know sounds silly but seems to work, all the coax (coaxial cable) anyway, so i digress, as usual, so the picture get better, then 1.15, only quarter hour to go and bam! power cut! oh woopie do!

fan dabie dozie... hip hip hooray! i dont know all the cheers and things you can think of!

so to bed... still awake at 2am, but of course only just in bed!

so the ending.... was it the love story one?... he goes back to the hill side village, the woman and her children waiting open armed for him and there he remains, the last samurai?

or the one that makes you remember the movie all the more.... he goes back to the hill side village, the white blossom fallen from the trees, the remaining villagers, those too old or young to fight the last fight.... slain where they stood, the woman and her children dead, still with the look of hope in their eyes.... camera to sunset, blossom like pink mist on the ground.... and cruise, the last samauri.... camera fade, the end, el fin, credits roll....?

well? no dont tell me, thank you, i will watch it again, one day....

i am watching the flight arrivals already.... my honey coming home!

by the way, power came on and off all night, so we dont have any signal yet!

Wagers and pacts are made with angels - or with devils!

TTFN
Marian

Miercoles

oh so tired today, couldnt sleep last night either, monday night had trouble sleeping after two days in bed doing not much else but the nightmare sleep that comes with one of my migraines, but usually ok after first night, guess its cos my honey is still away.... home manaña! yeha! cant wait!.... but last night heard the clock click over on the two! pippa was restless too! tablets not kicked in yet!

went to town this morning, few bits in mercadona and home again, and just bits around the house, i wanted to nap today specially by afternoon but have managed not to, just so i am really tired when i go to bed, movie on tv i want to watch with tom cruise, the last samurai, starts at 10pm so will be later finishing... please let me sleep, i have never been one for insomnia, i can sleep any time of day, probably any place! so when my head hits the pillow i'm off, so this is a habit i dont want to get into, i do stay in bed and just try to relax, i have heard its worse if you get up, because then 'aparently' the body will wake up and want to get up at that time the next night, but i suppose different things work for different people... different strokes for different folks!

we had rain today oh my goodness! well sunshine and showers, it didnt stay wet on the ground for longer than half hour each time, but everytime it rained the power went off! so i switched on the computer and un plugged it, the way its connected it comes on whenever the power comes on, and i dont think it does it much good without closing it down properly, feel like i have said this before... sorry!

i have checked the coach i am taking up to benidorm at the weekend, there are a few more people booked on it now, which is good, i didnt fancy the idea of me and a driver for over hours!!! but there is 10 now up, and 6 down, so far! i haved 3 books, two fiction one on spanish verbs! a magazine ok to read, and i think i`ll get a puzzle book or something like that too, i know there will be lots of scenery but if i spend all that time looking right, thats the only direction i will be looking for the rest of the week!

ok... oh the photo... taken when franco and i were down in jerez a couple of years ago now nearly i guess, and the factory of domecq, i guess a place where most of us have sampled their product, its ok you dont have to own up to liking sherry, but actually its quite nice in small doses... purely madicinal... is that what 'they' say?

The warrior of light perseveres in his desire,
but knows he must wait for the best moment...

TTFN
Marian

Martes

just heard about the subway crash in roma... i cant, i dont want to imagine how it must have been for those poor people in there underground, i am a bit claustrophobic and i suppose we have seen so many movies and documentories, the mind boggles about the tragedy.

the photo above.... is a graffiti'd van driving on the street in sardina, so much graffiti there, never seen so much anywhere, all over the trains the vans, walls... everywhere!

had a bad'ish migraine that started unexpectedly on sunday morning at 10! been up a couple of hourse, breakfast, walked pippa and bam! went to bed, got up late afternoon to put rubbish out and food for pippa, who didnt eat it, strange now, she wont eat if i havent! so i suppose now she knows who is the boss eh!

she was company though for me, she never left the bed, moved about lots but never left it, only thing every time i moved, which was alot she thought i was getting up and got all excited every time! i did get up monday morning to phone my friend to tell her i wouldnt be in work, and another phoned me to tell me she wouldnt be in! i made some oats for pippa and pretended to eat some so she would finish it, which she did, then back to bed, and i got up about 430-5 ish monday afternoon, my head still hurt but the pain in the rest of my body for laying down so long was too much to take and i was starting to have bits going numb on me, so too many squished nerves, and after a couple of hours i could use my right hand again... blooming head! i get this awful bit vein sticking right out on my left temple, its horrible and take a day or so to go down, it still hurts now.. never mind i'm ok now.

pippa and i went for a quick second walk just now and a little boy started running around pippa and making to hit her, she is so nervous i had to pick her up, i didnt want her to bite him out of fear, which a dog will do. then he was calling her names as we walked away, my poor little pip! she has started on the calming tablets this morning, so hopefully in a couple of weeks she will feel a little bit better in her self and not so always on edge, the vets gave me homeopathic tablets, bach flower remedies for dogs, though not humans! didnt know they had them for pets, but apparently they work quicker on animals!

enought writing for today... was all over with my spelling earlier, and quote today is one i came across this afternoon i wanted to share with y'all...

The mind is like the stomach, it is not how much you put into it that counts, but how much it digests. A J Nock

TTFN
Marian

More Sassari

this is a view onto the beach through some trees at alghero, the sea is a wonderful color here on this island, a bit like the waters around greece, greens and blues purples, and so crystal clear... beautiful, the sand is fine and the beaches wide....


i absolutly love the above photo! i think it looks a little strange too, but this is sassari! nearly all of sassari looks like this! un lived in from the outside, but in doors... wonderful, well some i guess maybe not eh! but the street from here looks totally abandoned dosent it... and look that cute little fiat 126! could do with that around these streets, infact this street above is wider than ours out here!

this is also sassari, and just out of sight down on the right is a grassy area in a small revine.

franco said last night it was raining in wales and cold! still good here i said! come home.... sorry sad i know, feel like a part of me is missing, was naughty last night, when i went to bed pippa got up on the bed and i put her back into her basket by the side, then after only half hour instead of early morning she crept up on the bed and lay down leaning against me... and i let her stay there....

today is Friday the 13th now thats means unlucky in the uk, and the States? but here in spain its Tuesday the 13th that is the unlucky day... so what does this tell us folks? it means... it cant mean anything! not if its different days all over the place! what do you think!

they had loads of people talking about other things they do, like saluting the maypie birds, i do that! walking under ladders, i dont do that... tried it once and my mom get ill the next day, so not risking that again, i know i know coincedence eh! touching wood... someone told me not to touch wood if it has legs... i said thats new, why not? and they said because then the luck will walk away! oh my goodness something else now!

we went out for a walk last night and was a bit creapy coming home into the empty house, since we had the break in last year i dont like it coming in like that, i went round the house with pippa checking behind doors and the shower curtain!! then we went up on the roof too... but all was well, then its so quiet here at night that you can hear the slightest noise, a bump or a scratch any little thing sounds twice as loud when its so silent...

got some chocolate from friends shop today, we have tried a different one each weekend, she is selling thorntons chocolate now and i am her taster! well thats my excuse for this new habit we have, this weekends is ginger in dark chocolate, the first was orange, last weekend nougat, so far the orange is favorite...

By changing the way you do routine things
you allow a new person to grow inside you...

i like this quote, and its amazing just walking on the other side of the street lets you see a whole new world you dont see every day.

TTFN
Marian

Sassari Hotel

one last try tonight to get a photo on here this evening... here is the photo of the hotel we stayed in in sassari, its the yellow one by the way!

TTFN
Marian

Me and Pippa

well franco is in gales now, or wales in english! we went to malaga airport bright and early this morning, lots of people there already, but we parked easy enough, the whole of the airport is under construction, its awful, there is going to be a new run way, lots more checking in desks, lots more car parking and a new access road, so its just one big building site just now and if you really dont want to drive to the airport... dont! easy coming out though...

pippa will start to wonder where her 'daddy' is in an hour or so, she waits up on the roof for him to whistle to her... ah our baby!

now... had some, well lots of photos done, franco wanted to take some with him and we had four rolls of film just waiting to be processed, now we only use the digital one these had been waiting a long time, infact going by the dates well over two and half years, so they dont look great for having been left just sitting, some of them look a little rosy in color, but then dont we always view the past with rose tinted glasses... well some of it anyway!

here are some photos we took in sardinia back in february 2005... the wonderful beaches, the sand still coming all the way to the road and beyond, the car driving through looking like he is in the desert!



and this is the hotel we stayed in alghero.... we did arrive during the day, but i cant remember it looking so so... so neady! in nead of total restoration or worse! the room was nice enough the shower room was massive and i rember the shower head was broken and the spray went everywhere but down, all the walls were wet the towels on the rail and the toilet paper! what a mess, and it was freezing there, february and cold, the days outside were ok, chilly but nice and bright all but the last day, but all the nights were so cold, we put nearly all our clothes on to go to sleep! and we left the heaters on all day, but you could only feel the benefit of them up close, the hotel rooms were so big, very high ceilings...

photos tomorrow or later, seem to be having trouble uploading, will add later..

now pippa wants a walk so we're off out now...

We are responsible for everything
that happens in this world,
we are warriors of light and, with the strength,
of our love and will, we can change
our destiny and that of others...

TTFN
Marian

Ladies who lunch!

had a good time today when we lunched... and became ladies who lunch! we are doing it all over again in december!

we met in the bar at 1pm and then an hour later all 21 of us walked along to savannah restaurant to have our lunch, three courses for 7€ cant be bad eh, i had a salmon mousse (?) starter, fish for main course and we all had pavlova for desert...

then home about 430pm! only beat franco home by an hour!

sunday we had a really lovely day, very unexpected... franco should have been working, but wasnt! so we went to the market as usual and took pippa, then we dropped her off home and went to mijas pueblo, we had coffee and looked around the shops, franco got a new jacket for going to wales this week, something warm! and he bought me a beautiful dress... i will get a photo of me in it... well sometime!

then we went on our way home, into the restuarant moreno, and had lunch there... i had chueletas cordero, lamb chops, and franco had conejo... rabbit! and nice deserts after... the restaurant is always very busy, its a huge place with dozens of tables outside as well as in, and very good food, always, the workers go there, so thats always a good indication of good food.

this morning took pippa for her usual long walk, then later her and i went down to the vets, i am going to give her some natural remedies for her hipertension, something to calm her down a little, not make her so fearful of every noise and bump, and hopefully she will also walk around with her tail held high and not tucked so far under she looks like its gone altogether! just try it and see, i cant face giving her something strong, my poor little baby!

crissie... if your reading this let me know how your husbands doing, did you make it out here? hope all is good.

Just before a dream is fulfilled,
the soul of the world decides to test everything
that was learned on the journey...

TTFN
Marian

Figs!

figs... my very favorite fuit, i love them, they are so.... just so good, the whole eating experience of eating figs!

about two months ago! the figs were full on a local tree that pippa and i passed each morning, and day by day were left un loved to just fall, in the orchard the tree stands and the path over the road, and every day pippa and i had to negociate round the squished fruit, messing yes and so smelly! i love the smell normally of course, but every day the smell of the poor wasted fruit on the ground got worse and worse, so rotten... then i was working and we had our shortened walk and it was only on saturdays we passed by, by then having to walk on the road itself to avoid the mess and posibility of slipping over, well me, that is!

now all thats left are the dried skins and no smell, but i cant get over the waste! not one was picked, i dont know who the land owner is/was, but such waste of such wonderful fruit...

thank goodness i got round to telling this, every morning i thought to mention it... then gone from my mind!

i am making use of the google 'things to do list' option so now, every time i open the home page there is my list!

today i walked into town, bought some calenders! some, i got 5 of our town, the first calender our town has had, it came out yesterday and i told friends about it during coffee, he went over to get one and there was only one left, i think they had 100 delievered!

i am making stuffed peppers tonight, mince and pasta, should be rice but franco's not a rice man, so i have used the really teeny tiny pasta stars, will be just as nice stuffed into those red peppers!

did i tell you one of my friends was in hospital when i was in england with cellulitus, think thats the spelling, horrible thing ... its a streptococcal bacteria of the skin, he was in for 10 days, i had never heard of it before.

and some fantastic news, moms high blood pressure she had had for years.... has gone! its normal, brilliant news, and i hope thats how it stays!

A responsible warrior is not someone
who takes the weight of the world on his shoulders,
but someone who has learned to deal with
the challenges of the moment.

TTFN
Marian

October

i have to say i think this is one of the best photos i have ever taken...if i do say so myself, of my friends sarah and darren, baby due in 3 months... in costa coffee shop, aylesbury... the look of pure bliss on their faces...

i cannot believe its october already! columbus day on the 12th... where has this year gone, i sent off my cousins 1st wedding anniversary card today off to new york, this time last year mom and i were in queens... with aunt rita.

this year back in alhaurín now and not an estanco in sight! well actually there is one just round the corner!

had another bad head ache on monday afternoon after work, must have done something my neck did not apreciate... not quite a migrane, but went to bed early and tuesday felt better by the evening and wasnt in bed, but felt awful, then yesterday went to town especially to pay car insurance and came home without having done so, very post migranal thing to do, and my memory has been the worse ever over the last few days! so bad i envy a gold fish now... you know... memory of a gold fish is 9 seconds and all that! well... i wish!

i am literally about to do something and forget what! even as i start a conversation the thought has gone! i know i hear ya... age and all that, hormones and all that! just tell me i start to reapeat myself alot, you know more than usual ok? .... i could be funny here but wont be! this is serious!

today i realised that this week i havent worked up a sweat, perspiration sorry.... walking pippa or even going into town... things are cooling down and just checked on the roof... its only 30C today up there and its 420pm... arh thats better, it can stay like this if it likes.... so freezing in here in the winter, getting undressed to go outside in the winter, how funny is that...

i am going to start at the begining of my paulo coelho alchemy diary from last year again, going through the quotes....

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