Oh Happy Halloween

i am back from blighty... very tired, mom and i got up about 3am this morning, left the house just before 4am and by 5am were sat in the departures lounge of luton airport, seems i am too tired to type and making more typos than typing at the moment!


few photos here taken in hemel hempstead, on my way to friends house....

and yes, this is a milk float, didnt know they still had them over there... tony who was with me thought i was totally crazy for taking this photo!

we were waiting for steph at a mcdonalds near the m25...

tomorrow i will catch up with my trip and tell you everything i did...

for now its, good to be home, missed my honey, and pippa too of course, but as usual, hated leaving tonys and friends... it hurts so bad that 'leaving' feeling... and being so tired not helping, so hasta pronto mis amigos...


When you love, things make even more sense...
The Alchemist

TTFN
Marian

hey i'm back from blighty...

tuesday evening we went to a pub quiz in chiswell green, not too far from st albans, was a good evening, us and three others, friends of tonys... we scored 35, the winners were 45 and second 40, so we didnt do too bad i guess!

yesterday... went to berkhamsted to see moms new place, its great, much bigger than her last home, and the area is quiet, she has some garden, its absolutely great, she feels much more at home here than before...

we then went to aylesbury, coffee in costas, of course, had a chat with a customer from the mercedes dealership i used to work for, popped in to see lisa at work, and looked around lots of shops!

then i ran into the above dealership to see another mate, surprised her a bit, she thought i was arriving next week! then.... off to the retail park, mom had a short list of things she needed which we got most of, then to tesco for lunch!, few groceries... made lasagna for tony... dropped mom off at her place and then me back home to tonys.

today... drive to bedford, about 45 minutes more or less, wasnt sure exactly which way to go and google mapped it, used the close up hibred version, that way when i went there today it all looked familiar!!

mate and i had a good afternoon, i met her at another mercedes-benz dealership... and she drove us to pub for lunch and then to her new house the other side of bedford, a lovely new house, its only 18 months old and in a nice quiet spot.

then we came back into bedford and stopped in the town for coffee and bit of a walk about the shops before she took me back to my car and then i was off again, it took an hour and quarter to back with all the extra traffic at that time...

tony has gone out now for the evening... i have had dinner and now i am going to sit back and relax...

well i cant find a quote or a short poem i really like today, feel lost without my books back home to quote from, so again as yesterday it shall be...
adios amigos from me!

TTFN
Marian

St Albans

here i am in england... can you tell the difference!?!

i can especially as tonys keyboard keys are not in the same place as ours in spain!

flight was ok, on time leaving, although we thought it was going early, arrived on time, but it was like travelling in a doctors surgery, just about everyone had a streaming cold, and i mean streaming... why cant people blow instead of sniff... and sniffing every ten seconds... was driving me crazy, wanted to hit the family sitting behind me with a box of kleenex!!!

hire car is nice, a little black corsa, i look a real girl racer in it, ok... maybe not girl eh... and was kinda nice driving to st albans so late/early, 3 in the morning and some ground mist rising over the fields occasionally over the roads, not many cars, a fox who ran infront and then watched me from the other side of the road on a grassy bank as i pasted him by... then there he was the ever faithfull milkman on his delivery so early... was just like the old days LOL...

it was freezing when i arrived at luton airport, and i mean freezing, i was shivering and you could see my breath... fingers numb in seconds, i got pins and needles in them when i got to tonys and they started coming back to life!

this morning there was a beautiful white frosting all over everything! the sky in blue and the sun has shone all day, not a cloud in the sky... would be nice if it stayed that way.. oh just remembered i meant to buy an ice scraper for the car tomorrow morning!

ok off to relax now, spent morning walking around the city with janette, in and out of lots of shops, had my costa coffee... and then a second cup of coffee made with cinnamon in an moroccan restuarant we went into last time...

TTFN
Marian

here are a few photos from the feria at fuengirola last saturday, above is a cage like contraption, five seperate cages, people locked in from outside, and up it went....


this is it up at the top, it just went round and round one way, stopped and went round and round the other with the people hanging on inside for dear life!!


this the view looked down an aisle and up at the hanging decorations...

well... my honey is back from gales as of friday and barry is back to nottingham... really didnt think i would cry at the airport... and he went straight through after we lined up with him to check in, then he had hugged me and turned to walk away and my eyes were leaking.... oh heck!

and from then it would be only 36 hours before i will be back at malaga airport for my flight to luton, collecting my car around 3am, nice eh, short drive to st albans where i will have woken up tony to let me in!!!

yesterday we three went down to fuengirola, left home about 1030, stopped off in mijas for lunch on way home and was nearly five when we got home, pippa has been so naughty these last few days, she hates it when we're out and leave her at home, if only one of us is in and goes out she is fine!

thursday barry and i went to plaza major, an area full of restaurants really, there are a few shops, but if shopping is your thing this is not the place to go!

we had lunch in a mariachi restaurant, which was really good, had a little wander around and found the cinema there, they have regular movies and imax, absolutely fantastic, check out the site there...

we then went to the bajondillo area of torremolinos, i had to check out this web cam that is on my link there on the right... and yes there it was, although the chances of anyone actually having been there to see me would have been pretty far fetched!

so next time i am going there i will mention it!

i hope barry had a good time, we didnt really do much, just spent time together which is the important thing, i always feel i have to go here there and everywhere and keep everyone entertained, i know when mom is here we can do all the shopping stuff... and go see something in malaga which will be there for a short while...

rodin sculptures... amazing eh... mom will like to see these i know, i dont think barry would have especially impressed! i used to have 'the thinker' in a photo frame when i was a teenager... (ok, i know bizarre).

ok, too many links for one day, so, amigos, hasta luego, i will be in touch from england...

When we love,
it is not necessary to understand
what is happening outside,
because everything begins to happen inside us instead.
The Alchemist

TTFN
Marian

La Trocha Rastro

five minutes blog today folks... apart from the computer on a go slow with the many windows and activity going on on here with barry at the moment... lets see... world of warcraft... a few chat windows on msn.... team speak, thats something to do with the WWW above...

so today after work baz and i went to la trocha and the rastro, lots of stalls on the lower level as you enter the shopping centre on the car park level, then lots up stairs, not everyone turned out as promised with their stalls, a shame considering the amount of people who had turned up to buy buy buy, or at least check it out, all the restuarants were full to bursting, the shops all had people in, this is an amazing thing for la trocha, its always quiet... always!

saw lots of people from the shop, was really good...

then we went down to miramar parque, i was on a mission for a eufesa coffee pot...

ok thats me done and dusted for today...

adios amigos...
TTFN
Marian

Malaga airport

well things did not go as smoothly as intended yesterday! franco and i arrived at airport at about ten to twelve, parked in the new and very much improved P1, we parked there before, but it wasnt quite finished, well now, it seems more finished but you have to go against the arrows to get about which is a bit confusing, not for those who generally go against them i suppose... you must know who you are!!!

anyway, i digress as usual, we got to the line up for the cardiff flight back to gales, (wales), it was half hour before the desk was due to open but i think everyone who was getting on the flight was already there!

after franco had checked in we went to have a coffee, we always go to the restaurant down past the gallery we have here at malaga airport, we then took a tour of the all new terminal one section, this was the only part when i first started coming here twenty years ago, and it was a far far different thing from what is here now! apart from all the check ins, the bars, there is also a nice outside area, for that last minute sun for those poor souls leaving our beautiful country!

so we checked out where barry would be coming in, it said on the flight info on the net he would be landing at T1, as he has before coming from nottingham, and usually i had always walked out side and along the crowded walkways to the main door of arrivals.

then... back to T2 and saw franco through to the other side and he was gone...

then... i walked back to T1 and sat and waited, barry had landed and i had only to wait for him to walk through from baggage.... then i got his text saying he was bored of waiting and was going home!!! yes you guessed he landed at T2!

what will it be like when we have T3 opened too! no different from heathrow and gatwick i suppose eh!

earlier yesterday franco and i went to la trocha and barry wanted eats so we went there on our way back too!

when we got home pippa got a bit confused, i suppose being so low to the ground with us walking in with a case as we had left, she thought it was franco then realised her mistake and started barking! but not for long and now she is sitting outside his bedroom door wining for him to get up... she may have a long wait...

No one can hit their target with their eyes closed.
The devil and miss prym

TTFN
Marian

sorry this picture is so strange, we were walking up to the restaurant at the top of some very high steps... and i held the camera facing upwards so you could see what was above us as we walked these steps!


this is one of the many cave bars....



and this last one, for today, was taken after we had eaten at the restaurant under the toldo on the left there...

narrow street there for so many cars and the many motor bikes that came down it, so lots to watch and take in sat there, so many tourists too, just like us!

although i must check first, but i am sure i saw a local from here in alhaurín el grande, a guy we see every single day in the town, mooching around with the 'ol guys, but strangely i havent seen him all week! so maybe it was him and he is holiday'ing up there in setenil de las bodagas!

(barry is here tomorrow - yipeeeeee)

A warrior knows that the ends
do not justify the means.
Manual of the warrior of light

TTFN
Marian

More photos

i took so many photos of setenil, the one above is the main street! the one you have to come down to park... and the one thats used for the market, which was why when tony and i came on market day, there was no where to park! running through the town is the river there on the right, and there are bridges joining the two main streets together, bit like venice... but not!


this shot is the house from yesterday... how close is that up stairs window from the rock! no view of course, or even much light, i thought the mountain behind our house was close, at about 10 foot, but is soooooo much closer!


apparently.... you can ask to go into the house!! well thats what it said on one of the internet sites we read... and although franco was trying to peer into every single house, no one asked us in!

The search for happiness is purely personal
and not a model we can give to others.
The Pilgrimage

TTFN
Marian

Setenil de las Bodegas

what an amazing street... have you ever seen such a thing? that window in the house on the left opens right into the mountain!


there was a small amount of water running through this river bed... the water was running away from us, and i suppose because of where we live and where the sea is in relation to us, it seemed to be running up hill.... very strange!


ok now... a whole week gone... where to i ask??

well working backwards... today i worked till 2pm, then we ladies lunched! we tried a different restaurant today, a chinese all the way up the other end of town, the la peñita end, so long walk home for me! we had menu del dia which was 5.50€ i think, no more, which is very good. and lots of it too, a little too much for lunch, so thats it for me today food wise.

especially as i had a migrane yesterday.... lots of contributions to that i think, our car had broken down on saturday evening so i had to sort that out, went into work, then had to walk all the way back to the car which was abandoned on the outskirts of town, infact anyone coming into alhaurín on the fuengirola road would have passed our car over the weekend!

so i got to it, phoned the grua and he phoned me a couple of times as he couldnt find me! not helped by my lack of spanish especially over the phone where i can hardly speak english when my car breaks down, not sure why, always been the same, registration number and any details seem to excape me completely!

so, car on back of truck and towed.... lets see about 300 metres to the garage, yes believe me if i could have pushed it up the road a way and turned a right and a left i would have, but its all up hill!

anyway, car fixed not any great problem, apparently we shouldnt have steam cleaned the engine a few weeks back, a wire had come off, anyway its back on the road, pippa and i went to collect it this afternoon.

but, after the car business i came home and my head was pounding and all the other symptoms so off to bed, where i stayed till i got up this morning... great!

sunday we were out all day, friends wanted to see setenil, above, so they drove and we were in the back, i got a draft on my neck and lots of walking, but i got some really good photos, i will add to them tomorrow.

A threat need not provoke a response if it is not taken up. The Pilgrimage

TTFN
Marian

Doughnuts

what news do i have today? the market in la trocha is coming back end of the month, but first starting in a couple of weeks it will also be held on a wednesday actually in the mall up stairs! which is great, its to show the retail shop owners that the presence of the market traders do not effect the shops!

and if it turns out well, the wednesday market will continue along with the sunday one down stairs in the car park! muy excelente!

still no sellos in the post office, francobolli in italian...checked out the translation for that... wait till franco comes home - does he know his name is part of the word for stamp! but now in italy is there a short form for francobolli? is it bolli? now boli in spain is short for boligrafo - pen, as in biro pen!

ok now that your all very confused....

today it looks like it might rain, the forcast says showers for today and tomorrow so we shall see, its still quite warm though, high 20´s so with the cloud cover its humid again.

i came across a spanish learning course on another site yesterday and as i write i keep thinking in spanish, is this good i wonder or a sign of a migrane where my head gets all mixed up!

my mom keeps coming up with reasons for not having her trip out here at the end of the month, first her house move, now the high dental bill, but i wonder if she just does not want to travel, although i will be with her on her outward bound journey maybe she is worrying about going home alone, i am not keen on flying alone now, so maybe at nearly 80 i can understand her feelings.

well today i just seem to be rambling so time to relax now with another program on antiques and a nice milky coffee... what would go down really nice with it would be a tesco's jam doughnut! all that lovely strawbury jam inside and sticky sugar.... yummy, good thing i am not in england just now or i would be on my way down to the supermarket for a whole bag of them fresh and still warm from their bakery!

was that someones tummy i hear rumbling....?

Follow your own dreams
and take your own risks!
The Valkyries

TTFN
Marian

i came on here to write about my weekend, but first visited a friends blog, i came across this Baghdad Burning...I´ll meet you 'round the bend my friend, where hearts can heal and souls can mend if you read no more than thursday september 06, 2007, thats ok, but read it please...

and now my weekend seems a little 'nothing' really, how oblivious we are to the world around us, caught up in own small worlds except when we choose to look out side of ourselves.

for a moment.


The road to Santiago
is the road of ordinary people.
The Pilgrimage

TTFN
Marian