Snow

this photo above doesnt really show the snow on the mountain very clearly... its the white bit to the left of that black pole thing! and what those large white circles are i'm not sure, its not the moon and they werent there when i took the photo, they look like planets, very strange, maybe some alien thing going on! LOL


and here we have a friends dog and one just out taking the air on his own, and not too embarressed to do so in that bright yellow number, from fashion week at milano straight off the cat walk.... or would that be dog walk!

this was saturday... saturday night the problem wasnt the snow, it was the wind... howling everywhere and all night, you could hear the outdoor window blinds bashing and sqeaking, doors out on the street banging, rubbish flying, and a million un explained noises! when pippa and i were out sunday morning one of the houses we past by the window had blown open and into the house, but the worse was another whose double wooden doors had opened in the wind and just stood there open.... the owners i guess asleep unstairs unaware their home was open to all and sundry!

there was washing all over the streets, bits of blinds, and a lot of white plaster! an apartment block going up was losing a piece of metal, it was just hanging over the street waiting...

we went up to la trocha market as usual, not an awful lot of stall holders but lots of wind blown people just the same!

and so what next... the rain! last night it started and has just stopped a little now, there was rain down on the coast saturday but missed us then, but i have been working in cudeca a year now, i know its mondays only, but this is the first one its rained on! maybe a shower during a monday, but never much more than that, and never raining on my way in or home, so thats not bad is it! a year of mondays in alhaurín and never a rainy one! amazing!

you know there are two spanish words i always get mixed up with, married-casado, and tired-cansado, see how similar they are, but someone pointed out how with casado to be married includes casa-house, they said its the past tense and also means to be housed, but i checked and its another word altogether and casar, which i thought was a verb! means to be marrying, but whatever or wherever it comes from now i will not forget the difference, and i wont say i feel very married instead of tired, or if asked if i am married say i am tired!! and they say learning spanish es muy facil! ha!

today we were one short at work, but, a lady brought an extra with her, just for today, then we were six again, but at 1030 one left as her husband not well, at 1130, another left she wasnt well, then at 1220 two left together, one had a bad back who had brought the other, so there was just the two of us! i had to close early to bank, and inspite of the rain we had a very very good day for cudeca!

tomorrow is us ladies who lunch! thats been two months since our last one...

An enemy always represents a weakness.
This might be fear of physical pain,
but it could also be a premature sense of victory
or the desire to abandon the fight
because it is no longer worthwhile.

TTFN
Marian

Moon River

i have just finished watching one of my most favorite movies... Breakfast at Tiffanys... the movie is so ... oh i dont know, i have just cut out a load of my ramberlings here, i guess if you know me you will know why i love this movie, so lets just leave it at that!


just gone to YouTube and found the song too, so here is the link for this most lovely song... Moon River

this morning i went to an open house sale just up the road with a friend, everything in the house was for sale, including the furniture, and all the proceeds are going to Cudeca, who i work for on a monday, all to go to the hospice, which is amazing... i bought a brand new, un used cooker thing, its a 'superchef' for roasting/grilling/baking etc etc, there are a couple of tiers and so several things can be cooked at the same time, faster than normal and healthier, so will give that a try soon!

the house was very unique... on three levels, six bedrooms! but none hardly big enough to swing a mouse! all en suite... two kitchens, one of the ground floor one on the top floor, a heck of a load of stairs as you can imagine, and the strangest thing of all the two landings/passageways on the two upper floors were... kind of open to the elements! they had railings, and they looked down over the open area by the kitchen and ground floor bedroom! so to go from room to room would just be like stepping outside! and in the cold we are having now, that would be freezing! well it feels freezing at 11 degrees! there is snow on the mountains, the sierra de las nieves (mountains of snow) good name eh! i took a photo of the snow this morning, and another of my friends dog and another that came by the say 'hi' as we walked up to the house this morning, tomorrow i will get these on here.

then after taking my spoils home i went in to town, the cadbury's creme eggs are in the shops now, so brought one home to devour immedately, its my friends shop and she has a whole load of new sweets and cookies in, i got a neighbor some more of her favorite bons bons too! i will leave them on her door and she will think the sweet fairy has called again!

yesterday was fun! we decided to move the bed, enough of having the cold doors behind us and no bed head, so that meant emptying it! and i just couldnt get the water to come out of the hosepipe to start the flow off! it really wasnt funny, the amount of waterbed conditioner i swallowed till i did get it going yesterday, its amazing i wasnt blowing bubbles today!

and then after emptying about half out and moving the bed, of the thousand taps we have i couldnt find one that would fit with the hose head things we have! so i left it, nearly all day before trying again and remembering that the downstairs, outside tap unscrews and whats left does fit one of the hoses.... great yeah.... but then i had to do two things at the same time, turn on the water and put it in the mattress! yes impossible, so i tied the hose as best i could in the bath, with another hose, and the plug and pegs! ran down, turned on the water, ran back up! and there it was flying about all over the place like a crazy snake! i had to capture it and then restrain it again so i could go into the bedroom open up the filler cap.... which i did, and only a couple of times while filling did it escape again soaking anything and everything in sight.... what a mess, then, when it was full enough i had to twist it up and run into the bathroom, tie it up again run downstairs and turn off the water!

now that would have been a YouTube favorite me thinks.....

The gift belongs to whoever chooses to accept it,
it is enough to believe
and not to be afraid to make a few mistakes.

TTFN
Marian

Poem January 24th

the following poem, if one would call it a poem? i have had for years and then some. someone wrote it and sent it to me... its a bit strange, not sure if i have posted it before or not, seem to be having a bit of de ja vu now!

maybe someone even knows of its origins, or maybe the person wrote it himself, i am not sure...

The sad sad voice in this heart of stone sings a song of a love that once was known.
This song now changed from its merry key, has, in its way no dint of misery. For on its way to composition, joy was known and joy was hidden.

As joy was shown, this sad sad song, sung with love by this heart of stone, must release the tears of a joy once known.

If joy was hidden, it must now be shown, to reveal the treasure locked in a memory of a love once known.

For love once shown is love alone, enduring in this heart of stone, let not treasures, both known and hidden be shut in and unbidden.

The sad sad song of joy sings its way from a misery to a life with sweet sweet memory, for joys, both shown and hidden, are treasures between us given.

was going to post a couple of photos i took of what was left of the jamon we brought home in the trolley the other week if you remember, but it looked so awful... i just couldnt do it! its just the foot really sticking out of the pot so i will leave that to your imaginations!

so above and below are a couple of very nice shots taken the other week when mom and i went down to benalmadina marina instead, much more pleasant!


started another week.. cudeca yesterday and helping my friend out again this week in her store, just for now, but its good having something each day to aim at, havent heard from the job i applied to on friday, i know its only tuesday and i suppose they probably had thousands of applicants, but... hey please just an email to say something pleeeeeese!

got a new spanish dictionary today, a picture one, which is really good, just need to memorise the pictures and each word with it!

i have something for a neighbor of ours... i have carried it to and from town every day for over a week now, a couple of times i have thought their car outside their house and walked up a very steep hill to find its not theirs!!! the common cold is easier to catch than they are... i wonder if i should leave it on the front door one morning like i did with some lemon bon bons last month! hopefully they are reading this just now... so to them i would also like to say, the corn muffins i made were absolutly wonderful thank you... and see you soon!

Don´t try to be brave
when it is enough to be intelligent.

TTFN
Marian

Jobs

another view of ronda i took the other day!

but to today... i have just emailed yet another CV off to another company for public viewing! i wouldnt mind not getting some of these jobs if only the person i had emailed or phoned would at least acknowledge the email/phone message!

i think a big factor now must be i sound so old! i mean being born 'in the fifties' what does that sound like! well it was 1959 so only just eh!! 30 or even 20 years ago some women were old by this age, but not now, now we're still only in our prime.... hey you lot laughing or what! its not funny.... ok!?!

this morning i phoned a company who advertised in the sur as UK Government, to mention i had left a message a week ago and that i was told a man would phone me back, and hadnt! he said without asking my name by the way, that the posts had been filled and any people not called back would be in due course if more staff were needed! well i may not take any notice of his call next time!!

mercadona man came today, all back to normal now, just want the gaz man to call, i'm sure either the oven or hot water cans will be empty soon, or both at the same time more like...

was too hot down town today, wearing this long sleeved roll necked sweater dress! well over 20 again today and on the news last week its been said that due to the 'el niño effect' we will once again have the hottest summer ever on record! this isnt just spain by the way... the uk and i suppose the rest of europe... should be good fun, last summer was hot, but our first up here in land, with no sea breeze the summer of '05 was too hot, 50C on our roof july and august, so take a deep breath and get the ice on standby... in the paper today it mentions its been the warmest january for a long while and water reserves are low, already!

God always offers us a second change in life...

TTFN
Marian

Humming Bird Hawk Moth

now i meant to mention this beautiful little thing above, the hummingbird hawk moth, when i was up staying with tanya and andy i saw lots of them near one of their plants, we had one in the shop a month or so beforehand, and i mentioned it to friends when i was over in the uk in december, they said this was its name, and so lo and behold on the WWW i found lots of photos! its an amazing little thing and only about an inch long! from here to here!

oh blooming heck! lost loads of stuff just now by putting something in i shouldnt! some of those arrow thingys! it got all confused with the html system! couldnt work out why it wouldnt publish well now i know dont i, i have to repeat what i have just written and it never comes out the same second time around does it!

what did i say? i dont know now.... some about mom being back in england now... took her and a friend to the aiport, friend was on earlier flight so just left a little earlier for her which was no problem, she is back on saturday, and into work with us again on monday! we were two short and me untill 1130 too of course! but we also have two new 'girls' now, so we were still four this week.

on tuesday i started helping another friend out in ther shop, just for a few days, doing a bit of running around for her, bit of a gofer.... you know, go fer this and go fer that!! sorry.....

last week mom and i went down to benalmadina marina for a stroll, and strolled along to one of the estanco's i worked in back last year, and they remembered me! we had some lunch nearby and then strolled back to the marina!

and i cant remember what else i wrote so thats it for now!

At every moment of our lives,
we have one foot in a fairy tale
and the other in the abyss...

how true, me just now losing all my stuff!

TTFN
Marian

Ronda

just a couple of photos taken today up in Ronda... this is the restaurant we ate lunch in, La Brinda its called.... tucked away on a side street, and the tables where we ate were in what would have been the interior of the house in arab times when it was built, an interior garden, which would originally have been open to the elements but now is glassed over and with a toldo (canopy) against the sunshine.


we were in there between one and two, and the only other diner.... turned out to be.... american, a guy from boston!

TTFN
Marian

y jamon!

jamon jamon

there are a couple of pic's of franco carving his way through the jamon serano! especially for simon! franco's red face is due to the sun by the way, not the stress incurred by carving the jamon! they were on the phone when i took them, but now of course typically they wont load on here..... so give me time........

12th Night

thats is the tree is down, christmas is officially over, well will be by midnight when the presents come out for the children of spain, a guy came round a couple of weeks ago asking if we had children in the house, i said my sons were in england and he laughed!?! well now i know why the local council give out presents to each of the children in the town! crikey!! and they get delived this evening... somehow? so i guess england would be a kilometre too far.......

there is music playing from the plaza infront of the church right now, really get our shoes on and go look to see what happening out there...

did i tell you my mom has got me on some tablets from england for the over 50's! GREAT eh, not there yet folks infact some while to go, but she thought they may help my new aches and pains, and also bought some other things down at gib the other week, cod liver oil and glucosemine(?) two things i tried for my fibromyalgia that didnt work for that, but may help with with new 'thing'!!

well i did feel better, lots infact, so i thought i would come off the over 50's stuff thinking that may not be doing anything anyway and maybe coincedence but the pains come back, so am back on them and when i have finished the box of the other stuff i will see how i am, may be a combination of all of it, but i feel i am taking far too many things, non doctor prescribed, but still a worry, 4 or 5 in the morning and 3 in the evening! split them up so i didnt feel so bad taking them, i know i should see a doctor, but this one i have here.... seems pointless!

fixed up the freeview box that came with our new tv, so now we have some spanish telly to watch too which is good, our aerial needs moving back to where it was, or moving altogether so we can get a better signal, it was moved so we could get a signal from the sat dish!

Love gives us the strength to perform impossible tasks.

TTFN
Marian

January 2007

well here we are in 2007.... sounds a very good number to me, 7 being my lucky number, along with several other million people i know! and lucky we are already! firstly new years day as i made the bed i noticed franco had used the wall socket we plug our bed into (to heat the water!!!) for the de humidifier! so when he did that on the 31st the water started cooling, and then later we went to bed as it continued to cool! apparently you can die from hypothermia on a water bed thats not on! it takes the heat from your body into the water or something... not sure exactly, and its probably an urban legend or something or no doubt eh!?

and then secondly after dinner later in the day as i finished washing up i came across a staple in the sink! again??? where had it come from? nothing i had cooked had been in anything with staples in, even our papers dont have them... hadnt opened anything during the day in a package... so where did that come from eh!

today, we went to marbella just for a wander around and coffee, i washed the car in coín on the way down, franco always uses the hose thing and always looked very easy! hah! i put in the coin pulled the long 2 foot metal nozzle thing out of its halster and pulled the trigger and POW i went backwards with the force of the water! now that is something that should have been caught on film eh!

out of the car park we saw the cudeca store and went in on the way back out, i heard a familiar voice at the back of the shop, kate, from head office, (originally from sacramento, california!) so i went and said 'hi', she introduced me to the lady who founded cudeca, so that was a really nice surprise.

we also went into miramar back near fuengirola on the way home to collect some paperwork to do with the freeview box that came with the tv, and some food shopping.

yesterday we went into fuengirola town, we had a real good look around and coffee etc, we got a strap for pippa for the back seat, dogs in spain by law now have to be harnessed into the car, i wasnt sure what it could be like, and it turns out to be very simple... of course... just a strap that hooks into her collar and the other end has the same metal thingy that goes into the seat belt conecter down on the seat as if it were just a seat belt clicking in! not rocket science at all!

must remember to buy the 'ek niño' lotteria tomorrow, we won our money back 20€ on the christmas one, and you have to be in it to win it!

seen the new paulo coelho book out here, `the witch of portobello' but its not in english yet! might take me a while to translate into english from spanish, so i guess its either learn more spanish or wait!

and todays quote as usual follow through with what i have just said in a way... to learn more español!

When you want something, the whole universe conspires to help you realize your desire.

TTFN
Marian