Mijas pueblo

this morning after doing dropping off the car we had been borrowing we came up to Mijas....



i wanted to go to the little Ermita Virgin de la Peña to light a candle for my step mom, Carol, who died yesterday after a long battle with cancer, i had hoped against hope of seeing her next year for sure, of being in LA for my birthday and as usual, we can never ever depend on anything being as we wish when we wish it... and now.... i just feel i didn't call enough, write enough, or try harder to go and see her... i sent a letter, which came back due to an address error at the start of this promotion, couldn't see one and just tore it up planning on calling her, i sent a post card about a month ago, but not sure if it arrived, i have been taken up with this job and its hours, and the weekends with trying to get up enough resources to just keep going for me that i let slip my calls and thought when this job is over, everything will get back to normal, doesn't work like that does it. and i suppose we think lazy thoughts that people will always be there no matter what.

my brother called just after midnight this morning, i knew it was a 'bad' call, just knew, and once again those 6000 miles are too great.

in the 12 weeks of this job two girls in the two shops have lost family, my supervisor her uncle, my son his friend and a friend here in alhuarín her brother, (she was traveling to uk to see him and he died that morning), now carol... 6 too many in such a short time.

The Good Fight is the one that we fight
in the name of our dreams.
The Pilgrimage

TTFN
Marian

here is the view from my hamaca during my break at Bajondillo.... and there do you see the pirate? he does look real from here dosent he!


this is the big screen down on the beach at Torremolinos where they have been having the two movies a week throughout july and august... bad viewpoint i guess as of course the hamaca's and parasols are not infront of the screen as this looks!!!!


and i am sorry this is blurrrrred! pippa likes to get up onto the window sill in the evenings if the window is open to allow in a hopefully cooler breeze, but the persiana (the blind) is down! trouble was trying to get the shot in before she was down again!

ok... this week, my 12the week, nine to go.... i can see a pin prick of light now at the end of the tunnel.... yeah! and i was so worried about getting a migraine today i had a head ache last night, it started in the shop during the afternoon, i took a tablet and was gone by morning, thank goodness.

this week i had to share the store with two other promotors, never a great thing, as the poor customers coming in are faced with two women standing either side of the store like security guards, monday we were both in our black uniforms... still i managed to practice some spanish with her, tuesday i was just annoyed there was another, we are not supposed to have two on the same day, monday was puros, cigars, so different, but tuesday was marlboro! although i am getting quite a collection of promotional gifts, small back packs, large back packs, t-shirts and scalves, cool bag, fans and plastic ice cubes with a bright blue light!?! no alcohol, but then it would just sit with the other bottles gathering dust!

at least 'the others' dont seem to have clocked onto the things i look for before a possible approach, as in the newspaper, is it english? wedding ring placement? and just facial things, its sometimes very easy just to know someone is from the UK just by facial shape etc.

i still sometimes just seem to be promoting España and not just the tobacco, people come in complaining of nothing to do or anything to see and i suggest Mijas pueblo and Ronda, all those wonderful cities in Andalucia... although i think Cabopino beach is a definate no no... the beach with the hamaca's and bar area is fine, even the nudist beach is ok for those who like the freedom (!) but behind right at the back of the dunes is now getting right out of hand... (?!) i know i have mentioned it before but people are doing all sorts there, and taking photos of small children on the beach etc etc... friends were down there during the week went into the sea for a dip and came out finding their bag gone, car keys house keys everything else, they have had to change the house locks as well as renewing cards and things, car key re coded, the police have moved into the area down there big time over the last few months but these perverts are still there, doing stuff they shouldnt, someone needs to tell the people on the beach theyre children are more than likely on the internet now!

and the signs over the carreterra telling everyone about the four points on the license and high fine seem to be just a joke too, those we saw last sunday throwing out lit cigerettes and this week i cant count the number of people i have seen doing the same thing... as its dark now during most of my journey around the mountain roads from de la Torre to Alhaurín el Grande, the little bright light of those butts really show up! and so will the fires they start if they blow onto the dry grass by the side of the road! am i repeating my self? sorry.... age or tiredness rather eh!!!

the police that are up and down the paseo maritimo in their white uniforms and getting about on those two wheel things do the job for free, they are volantary, but i suppose they get perks, a couple of girls were having their photos taken with four of them the other day, and i am sure they get lots asking...

its funny how my body is coping with these longs days of standing my legs went through a phase of feeling all squidgy and tingling when i got home, that lasted for a few weeks, but mainly has passed now, i seem to have trouble actually sitting now for too long, i have always had to move about a lot, but now its either standing of being completly flat out!!!! LOL

the ants we seem to have had invading the house have either moved next door or just got the hint period! those little guys that come out on their own looking for food then going back to say yeah or neah.. i manage to block their return journey with candle wax in every nook and cranny they come through! the morning i came down to find a whole army on the small table in the living room freaked me out, it was a bit dark and i could see something there and put my hand down onto it... immedately my hand was covered in these little critters, nipping me... they did! and then i got the big light on... ugh, there was theyre trail one line coming in and another back bit of biscuit on the shoulder along the table down the leg along the floor, behind a another object and behind the dining furniture! little devils!

the Gallaghers promoter has been working in the Estanco this month so we actually got to meet after the last two months of only knowing each week i swapped places with her! we got on really well and managed to have a good old chin wag on thursday during our afternoon break, so no sleep but lots of giggles... and now back to ships in the night thing, both going down to the coast every morning and home each evening but never the twain shall meet.... well until november anyway!

The path to wisdom
is not being afraid to make mistakes
Brida

TTFN
Marian

Sumer time....

and after last weeks bombing this awful avoidable plane crash in Madrid on Wednesday, avoidable as they tried to take off, but couldn't then 'the man' told them to try again... will he be done for manslaughter? or what... Spain got a telling off for showing live and still shots of the poor soul's who lost their lives in situe... in England we are always saved the true awfullness of things we really do not need to see.

there was to be three days of grieving, but not sure in what respect it took place, loud music being played down the street was cut short by another neighbor telling them off... but everything else went on just the same...

there has been a bit of a cool breeze down on the beach during my siesta, i think it may have dropped to mid 30's whilst the breeze blew... i started and finished the book that had been borrowed and then loaned to me... a paragraph on the back reads "shocking and controversial, The Lone Brit on 13 is an adrenalin-powered read that will offend, amuse and ultimately entertain with its unflinching honesty and brutal realism", so i will leave it to you to judge written byChristopher Chance, ISBN 978-1-84018-957-5, a true crime publication... i could'nt put it down.

still lots of children here dying from the heat being left in cars by their parents, did i tell you about the baby put in the boot of a car and they went shopping, and a couple in Tenerife left a boy in a high security car all night and couldn't get out... and he did try!!!

i arrived back to the Estanco and a man from a well known car hire company in Malaga, one you pass on your way into the area on the right HH... he pulled into the space which anyone could see was too small for his big car, once in he couldn't get out, surprise surprise, so he reversed out, got out, and pushed it into the space... yeah funny funny... the people either side could now not gain access to their vehicles! one would be a passenger but the other a driver and if like me with any joint problems would be unable to climb over the gear shift and hang brake... couldn't believe this bloke, i really really wanted to push it back out into the middle of the street!!!!

oh and yesterday i had ANother migraine... went to be fine Friday night, woke up in pain big time... and didn't get up until this morning, coming thick and fast now, every two weeks or so...
terrific! must be doing something wrong... like an hour and half driving every day and 8 hours on my feet maybe? what do you think?

ten weeks to go... back to Bajondillo tomorrow...

Certain things are so important
that they need to be discovered alone.
Unpublished

TTFN
Marian

More Bombs....

More Bombs on our costa del sol.... see sky news attachment...

one of the girls in this weeks Estanco went to the beach with her boyfriend, they parked, easily... walked to a good spot, no one about?? what is happening?? they didn't know about the bomb or evacuation that had recently taken place on that very beach....

TTFN
Marian

cant believe how fast the weeks are going now... tenth gone now and siesta time Wednesday i will be celebrating half way through this ordeal.... because at times, different times every day this is still how it is... Monday this week was very bad, had a migraine coming on and was just in extreme pain all over, so many pain killers i was in a trance most of the time... not sure if i was even really there or not! lunch time i had my rest, but wasn't rested, got home went to bed, Tuesday i awoke still with a head ache, the migraine tablet i had taken hadn't done a thing... so off to work Tuesday feeling as bad as the day before, and that night i had to take another of the migraine tablets, this one worked as on Wednesday although i felt a bit weird the head ache was at least gone!


this above is the street on the right where i am this week, a poor women who came into the shop in Bajondillo last week is staying just here on the right, and had walked in completely the wrong direction in 40º of heat, just for a cigarette....!!!

now i also have my temporally lost blog notes... that was a bit worrying last week ;-) well, they could have been mis read...

ok, parking meters in Alhaurín el Grande, i wont tell you just then how many times i had to type meters before i got the right one... anyway, its 30c for half hour, 60c for an hour, 90c for hr half and finally 1€20 for two hours, maximum stay. so not too bad i don't think! better than the 60€ parking fines the town has.

people still parking on the new yellow zig zag areas, and as for throwing cigarettes... seen a few from car windows both morning and evening, and from the town hall directly behind our house from the car park onto the houses below....!

talking of parking it really is a nightmare now, Friday was a holiday here in Spain Feast of the Assumption, and so i knew anyone who was still at work, mostly wouldn't be, so i wasn't really surprised to see not one single parking between the two Estanco's on Friday as i drove along, wondering wearily what i was going to do, i passed the Estanco and there on the left was a space... i was in it in seconds and would very likely had a fist fight with anyone who tried to get in it before me.... (well OK probably not), just cried!

i parked, got out with my book and coffee and sat on the wall nearby and relaxed, was great! when i came back to my car though, there was a scooter about half inch from my rear bumper and no space to pull out from the car in front so i got a passing strong looking guy to move it for me and to help me with not smacking into the car in front, i was hardly out as a couple pulled up to jump into my space! in all it took about 20 minutes to get off the beach road with all the people trying to get in! crazy people!!! oh and also the car was quite cool as i had left the passenger window completely open all morning....

there have been some things to talk about in the shop from this week... from the girl who was wearing a very loosely crocheted bikini top... to a big problem we had on Thursday a couple of women didn't want to take any notice of being told not to come into the shop with they're wet and sandy feet because the girl who was asking them politely and in Spanish.... was English!

i think it was Wednesday night the temperature dropped enough to be noticeable.. and with it has come back the screeching of tires round the corners again, this seems to happen twice a year, with this sublte change... this is only at night though! the days are still just as hot and its been terrible in the shop with air con only over the counter, this week i will have the full force of it on me again... back to the prune finger tips and blue nails... i know never happy, but then never a happy medium!

ok amigos... will leave you with Paulo Coelho as usual...

Sometimes the Warrior feels as if he
were living two lives at once.
'There is a bridge that links what I do
with what I would like to do,' he thinks.
Slowly, his dreams take over his everyday life,
and then he realises that he is
ready for the thing he always wanted.
Then all that is needed is a little daring,
and his two lives become one.
Manual of The Warrior of Light

TTFN
Marian

above and below our peach tree and fig tree, look how many peaches, last year they were huge and soft and juicy, these seem to have now reached as big as they are going to get, but i think its because there as so many all so close together there...

and the figs are no where near ready yet... my very favorite fruit.....

and above and below a couple of the garden ornaments Franco has made.....


well i am lost today, i left my notes with my work stuff in the Estanco.... oh heck all that scribble and nonsensical stuff, hope no one reads it....

there was a concert right at the end of the beach road at the Malaga end on Friday evening when i was leaving work, a huge stage set up and orange railings for people to walk between instead of on the road... you know where i am going with this eh? police everywhere cars all over the place and complete disorder!

i was letting go of some road rage at a friends house yesterday afternoon and they lent me book to read.... not sure of the connection yet will let you know when i have finished reading 'The Lone Brit on 13' A prisoner's hell in Spain's toughest jail, (alhaurín de la torre)...

i cant help it... i am a Subaru Impreza driver in another motor... surrounded by people who were not taught how to use indicators, road positioning or clutch control, among other important road and safety issues.... ok ok i am sorry, i will give it a break for a few more weeks again, i am getting on my own nerves with all this road talk! instead i should mention now on my way home the sun has already passed down over the mountain range beyond alhuarín el grande and its an eerie light with the fragrant smells of the eucalyptus and thyme breezing in through the open car windows, beautiful....

and the parking in town, the blue parking bays are on both sides of the road leading up to the cross round about, lots of meters Franco says its cheap parking, but next week i will check it out and post the prices....

back to Bajondillo Estanco tomorrow, wonder how the parking is down there now, up at Playmar this week i had to do lots of extra driving some morning to find a space, especially the first three mornings when the nintendo wii stand was on the beach, they had to same shows on here in spain as everywhere in england, huge tents with lots of wii machines and people trying out the moves... but the trucks took up lots of spaces....

i have been using my ds lite this week at work... well while i am just standing there and no one is about i might as well do my spanish word coach, i am up to seventh grade now!?!

Franco took Pippa down to the vets during the week for a nail clipping, free of charge, and outside he gave her a wash in the pet wash there... just like a car wash, euro in the machine and then water soap and a hair dryer! she loved it!

one of the customers is off to china on Sunday, she is dutch and going to be wearing one of our Lambert and Butler orange sun hats to the games! there will be a huge group of dutch all wearing orange hats so keep a look out!!!!

few more people down on the coast this week at last! although of course mainly Spanish as this is their holiday month, on the news one morning this week a guy was saying benidorm is quiet this summer, well lots of people here this year instead of there... so its not that they're not in Spain, just trying out a new location!

nine weeks of the promo done, eleven to go, i think now i will be able to make it, not sure how though when i am standing there its a different matter, moving from one painful leg to another and back again, struggling with this mushy feeling i have in my legs from the knees down, and taking lots of pain killers... Franco found another new 'thing' to help people with Fibromyalgia, but i will have to wait till this job is done with to try it out, and only then will i let you know if it works! you know i will have to try it, as i have every other 'thing' in what will be 20 years next may that i have had this in my life, or it has had me in its!

What is the real 'I'?
It is what you are,
not what others make of you.
Veronika decides to die

TTFN
Marian

Torremolinos....

phew hot hot hot... seems we always forget how hot it gets every summer here, our short memories...

well the road that has been ready and waiting that takes you from Ikea to the old N340 and the coast road is at last open as off mid week.... three lanes one way and two the other, the three makes your driving decision so easy with the three choices to take you to one of the three exists... and yet still people go in the right hand lane to go left.... i am sorry, i have been good to my word and kept quiet from my road rage experiences for a couple of weeks and i cant tell you how hard that has been!! every morning this week i have followed two leaner cars going towards Malaga, picking them up along side de La Torre and leaving them at the Churriana round about, they both have break lights out and although their indicating at appropriate places... shock horror, at the round abouts they are in those right hand lanes to turn left!?! why the other people look confused and beep at them gets me, when so many of them do it too! and those speed bumps, wearing down nicely now by those of us who actually go over them... people tend to follow my driving line now as i shake my head at those in front swerving all over the place so that their empty side of the car gets no bump and the driver still does???

the beaches are still quiet... a few more people but not as many as should be by now, all the guys comes in from the hamaca rentals and are complaining about their low earnings this summer so far... was funny the other week when i laying comfortable on my hamaca i could hear a conversation taking place between two girls and the beach guy, they had taken residence of two beds and the parasols above and he came along and asked for the 4€ each and they said "who says we have to pay? where does it say it costs 8€ for these two beds?" i mean what did they think that some poor bloke gets up early and has about 100 beds out and mattress's on... sits there all day, not allowed to even start packing up while clients are still there, not allowed to leave till the last has gone... seven days a week! they said no were not going to pay and would leave, but continued to sit there bug eyed looking like they were the only people who had to pay in all the world... when he came back and said well pay or go! one paid and one laid on the floor...? in a right little strop she was, when he returned again they said could they have the money back they were going? so the poor guy said oh just use the two beds for today, but never again.... they were gone ten minutes later....

...and at last people seem to be leaving their dogs at home in the hottest part of the day, it was sad having to see people drag their pool animals back out onto hot pavements they wouldn't be able to walk on bare foot! one ladys beagle dog died last week, of a mosquito bite...

this week was great for familiar faces at last, a couple from 'the other' estanco i am at came in and said hola... a guy from the bar there too came in, he lives near this estanco, then a couple of Alhaurínos who come down to the paseo to walk were surprised to see me standing there, having wondered what had happened to me at Cristina'a... then one of the card suppliers who also knew me from above came in and we had a chat....

parking in Alhaurín... all change with parking in blue areas, i think all the way from the taxi rank to the ferriteria, i am not sure not having walked there this week only driving past, will up date when i can... did i mention the new bus stop in town? well not new now i guess been there maybe four weeks but its good to have one up by the round about so you don't have to walk all the way down to the feria ground to catch the bus to Malaga...

yesterday, Saturday i had a migraine, why does this happen? its like during the week the stress or adrenaline keeps me going then when i can relax, no hurrying bam head ache, it started Friday evening and i didn't have any of my imigrane type tablets, franco went to town and got me some in the morning and i was up later, but still felt weird! today bit better no head ache at least.. we went down to Miramar at Las Lagunas, Fuengirola and Iceland..... and home...


heres a link to click please for Fibromyalgia...

Choosing one path means abandoning others -
if you try to follow every possible path
you will end up following none...
Brida

TTFN
Marian