first to these photos i took this week... i arrived down onto the paseo on bajondillo and came across this bizarre sight... the portacabin was being lifted onto the truck for removal, the shot above and the guy on the left using the winch to position it....


this photo taken through my bit dirty windscreen, but i didnt want you to miss what i was seeing...

and finally... yes this 'short' bed truck driving off with half the portacabin just hanging off the end! no longer attached to the winch, which i think would have at least helped stabalize it, the wiring and drainage just hanging there at the end.... unbelievable eh!

as to the rest of the week, my 16th done and dusted now... and this week has been raining off and on, it started an hour into my monday siesta after having paid 4€ to the guy running it, we all ran! spent the rest of my break in my car, and knew i couldnt be doing this again, so the rest of the week i only had an hour break, just like back in the UK, and it was much better, leaving work at 630 and getting home about 715ish, takes a bit longer at this time as the town here is still so busy.

tuesday morning was terrible for water, as it had rained all the night before and although it had let off in the morning, the whole of the paseo was flooded, there is no drainage here at all, the amount of money torremolinos is spending of taking away a third of the parking spaces would have been better spent on a system for taking away the excess water me thinks! the water was a foot deep in places and once your in it you just have to keep going, so we were all sending it over each others cars as we drove through it all! i was worried the car wouldnt start when i got back in it, but our good old jaloppy started just fine! and from wednesday morning i started using the new short cut i learnt last week now mornings and evenings!

think i have upset someone or something.... last sunday at la trocha market we were talking to people who had stopped to pet pippa and something fell, franco gave it to the bloke thinking it was theyres... turned out to be my bracelet! only a junk jewelry thing but i had had it for a long time! then later my necklace broke! tuesday morning i put the jewelry i normally wear everyday on a shelf, when i went back no more than five minutes later, an earing was gone? searched high and low... its gone! wednesday evening pippa was running around with francos glasses! so had to go to specsavers in fuengirola yesterday to get the lenses reframed... oh and today our car had been broken into... again, last night in the car park behind the town hall here in alhaurín el grande... just in case you want to know where to park to get your car to get robbed!

friday morning at work there was a strange boom noise and the windows of the shop seemed to move! it was like when they were doing some work out in the sea a few back and they used TNT and we all felt it at calahonda... there was a lot of speculation down in torremolinos about it being another bomb, after the few we have had so far over the summer down there, but then a man came in saying they had used a large amount of TNT up the mountian to blow through for the new tunnel they are building between de la torre and the coast, but it turns out now... to have been a sonic boom!?! so who knows!

after finding the car opened in the car park this morning we only went to get a couple of gas cans and came home disheartened... in the pooring rain!

tomorrow i have a day off!! yipee... its san miguel! no not the feast of drinking beer day, although i suppose it wouldnt be a bad idea right now! only, as those of you who know me better would know half a glass is enough for me! but seriously tomorrow is the fiesta of san miguel, or in english michaelmas day, all the details there on the left! but this to me means i can at last pay the car tax! we never received the original factura, bill, but did receive the letter telling us we hadnt paid it? and as the office near bar sardina is only open from 9am to 1.30pm we have been unable to pay it! although you cant actually pay it in the office, of course, you have to to there and they give you another(?) copy of the original bill and you take that to a bank of their choice! also have to pay the water bill and go into another bank! thank goodness i have a day off to relax eh!

When we put off the harvest, the fruit rots,
but when we put off our problems
they keep on growing.
The Fifth Mountian

TTFN
Marian

this week went so fast... 15 down six to go....

we had rain this week, one morning quite a bit and a guy in the store said why so much fuss about a drop of rain and the umbrella being borrowed.. you should be in England don't you remember what rain is? well apart from he only saw a drop here, he wouldn't like to be here when it really lets go and with no guttering and little street drainage, i think once the cars started floating about and he was getting wet from both ends he may reconsider... any way as usual i have gone off the conversation... the rain had since dried and umbrella being returned i asked him to look at the cars in the street and see how dirty they all were, he said yes he could see this, and i said that's what the umbrella is all about, the first few rain falls are filthy here so more to keep clean than the worry of getting a little damp!

then there was this really rude man he wouldn't talk to the girls and kept on talking to me and i had to relay the conversation... in English... to them... and then he came back the next day and we had to do it all over again!

Monday was an especially bad day, in the morning i dropped my mobile phone down the loo! oops! no alarm to wake me on the beach, no signal, no anything! and i also had forgotten my purse, so no money if i had needed some in an emergency like a phone call or something! the hamaka man on the beach said i could pay Tuesday, although he didn't want Mondays money when it came to it, and the kiosk man who i hadn't bought my tube of sweets from on Monday said i could still have had them and paid later... an angel in my midst...

also on Monday a couple i had seen in the other shop the week before and this one in the morning came back in, the man, led me down the end of the display asking me questions and i saw out of the corner of my eye the wife come in through the barriers with some thing in her arms, a rug or towel, not sure... then he left and she had gone... i write down the amount and types of 'our' cigarettes that are bought and noticed straight away five were gone and looked to the people in the lines to see who had them and to offer a gift, well none had them, i went out and the couple had rushed off down the street, well it looks like i had been used as a distraction and the shop was robbed... but too late with them gone... although i would remember them, they're baby girl had the most enormous big grown up gold earrings on..

i also nearly lost the car key in the sand another day, lifting my towel the key went flying and i could only just see it! that would have been great wouldn't it!

the day it rained i took my siesta with the manager of the store, she took me to her mom's place in Malaga for lunch, first course meat with potatoes, second fish with vegetables and for desert prickly pears, grapes and fresh figs... wonderful, we got to put our feet up in front of the tv for half hour afterwards before going back to work! her mom was lovely and invited me to visit anytime her daughter came for lunch... very sweet.

and that day also one of the other girls thought i might get home sooner if i took another road... so... she drove all the way to Churriana with me following, well a guy was in between us, but i could still see her even in the dark... and then she drove back to Torremolinos! its a good route, would have been better in july and august with all the people driving so slowly and randomly along the paseo, i came home that way last night too, it took 8 minutes from the shop near the paseo to the Churriana round about! not bad eh!

first thing this morning i went to check out the office where we have to pay the car tax, we didn't get a normal bill type thing to pay, don't know whose mail box that went to but not ours, although they found it ok with this one which is more money! the office opens at 9am and closes at 1.30pm Monday to Friday only, so not sure how we will pay this as neither of us are any where near Alhaurín at these times, the same for the car insurance that needs paying!?! help? i replaced my mobile phone with another in the vodafone shop using my points, so now i have a new phone which is all confusing for a while! and wanted to get some cash out from our bank but the machine was broken, again, this happens a lot and then we have to pay 2 or 3€ for a transaction in another bank, there are no other machines in the town that do not charge, one bank was over 4€, daylight robbery eh! and i am not sure how you would get any money back if you complained!

then Franco and i went to Ikea and then to the huge Carrefour in Malaga, massive isn't the word! also we spent far to much which is normal in a new shop with so many new things, there are lots of shops around the supermarket and places to eat, we paid 4€50c for two coffee's and a big piece of apple pie! not bad, some places would charge 4€ for the cake alone!... the site was a bit confusing getting to it, the normal road exit was shut so we just followed our noises and the same to get out again...

ok... all blogged out folks...

Courage. By beginning the journey with that word
and continuing with faith in God,
you will arrive wherever you need to arrive.
Manual of the Warrior of Light

TTFN
Marian

what a wonderful picture above, i have borrowed it from a site i receive emails from from time to time, have been trying to link to the whole page as i would like to share it with you all. will have to come back to it when i have given it some thought! its not a photo, so cant up load, its not a web page... its a document and its not letting me load it...

but for now this week... well today i got up early, just in case i were to get a head ache for laying in! by 9am i had cleared and washed the whole of the terrace, at last it looks good, washing washed and out on line, dry probably by now, better get the next batch out!

Franco came and went with a 'new' set of sofa's for the living room, bit big and not sure how to place to start, but i think i have it sorted now and only injury was a squashed wrist trying to lift an arm chair where it didn't really want to go!

I'm back and i bet you didn't even miss me huh! had to do a car change over thing and now we're both home, Franco liked the furniture positioning and Pippa has her own perch to look out of the window which she like to do at any time the window is open, or where she sits and whines if it isn't!

and now... where's my notes for the week? Monday i was ill again at work, by ill i just mean the pain gets too much and i feel almost unable to stand, and because the pain is so bad it hurts my head and stomach and everywhere, i left a bit earlier, but then i had come back in early so still did four hours, but then the traffic in town, here, is so bad that bit earlier that i was home much the same time! at least i shared the store with another promoter again, this time Gallaghers who do Benson and Hedges, Silk Cut etc, we were in the store the whole of August as she worked for the store to help them out. so Monday was interesting... watch this space!!!

the store is shutting half hour earlier now this week, although they didn't tell me this!?! so now my afternoon hours are from 4.30 to 8.30pm in the afternoons, and i get home about 9.20pm, bit earlier, but takes longer for the drive! and talking of 'the drive' sorry, but there was this guy so close to my bumper and had his lights up so i was blinded, had to turn my rear view mirror and move my door mirror, but impossible to get to the passenger one, so the glare was awful, he would not back off despite me tapping the breaks, using my window washer profusely! i was quite scared and when we got to Alhaurín and the round about there where we were going to have to stop i was worried in case he jumped out of his car, but maybe he was worried to as he tore off down a side street! he didn't know i was female and if i had been a bloke i would have jumped out and given him a piece of my mind...

we went down to maria's last Sunday to do a check on her place and we came the back way through from the La Cala road near the Noria golf club and comes out in Rivera, great short cut if you don't want to go down to the N340... anyway, we then came the back way into Calahonda from Rivera which comes out at the toll road roundabout and left down into Calahonda, do you really need to know all this? you know sometimes when i am talking to customers in the Estancos i realise i have been just talking and talking, and what have i been saying? then the same people come back to talk to me again!?! sorry... so i had a real shock when we were taking that road down towards to coast... all the land on the left which separated Rivera from Calahonda is stripped and ready for building work to happen! then before the new Super Sol etc is a new Church! that's all built and being used as far as i could see...

oh the rain! we had some early Tuesday morning, but not much then Wednesday early on lots of us were awoken by a fantastic thunder and lightening storm, lots and lots of rain! but it was all clear by the time i got to Torremolinos and i didn't need my para agua after all!

the anniversary of 9/11 has come and gone again, i have something i want to link to on this if i can later, but this time reminded me of where i was, on the island of Crete with Sarah, and seeing the horror unfolding on the Greek News program, of trying to get hold of mom, and then the following day being unable to get home due to the flying embargo, and then we we did, there was mom, she hadn't been to bed, or slept much her eyes little tiny slits, her home town devastated... my cousins helping clear the ground and everything... mom said in three years time on the tenth anniversary she wants her and i to go back again to ground zero, we went three years ago, but on the 3rd the new building and remembrance area should be finished.

i wanted to have some time and had set my alarm, luckily before i was back into work, first i got the time completely wrong thinking in west coast time, then i sorted myself out and thought right its six hours behind, which is correct but then... dopey here set if for one more hour ahead because we are so used to having to add on an hour for the tv! i woke up at 3pm though, in my dream a door bell rang!

and finally once again... yesterday did another silly thing, apart from getting my words all mixed up and being extra forgetfull, usually these things come before a migraine... but i had sent a mate a text message and forgot to lock my mobile and sent the same message ten more times, none to her, eight to ACE fm, they must have been pleased with me! and two to someone in england! so that was nearly all my credit gone! all i could think though was thank goodness the text was ok.... if you know what i mean... ;-)

sunday 14th
when i was driving to work friday morning an ambulance came past me, and at a new round about just before churriana the ambulance was parked up by a big blue police van and another three police cars joined them, the car which was on the road coming down from the campo had a blanket over the windscreen, which at the time i thought bad news, and today, there is a wreath there now on the fence...

When there is no turning back,
then we should concern oursolves only
with the best way of going forward.
The Alchemist

TTFN
Marian



ps.. chrissy... when you coming over?

photo above was taken Thursday evening, this shot is courtesy of the new site InMálagatoday.com which includes Coín, Alhora and Alhaurín de la Torre web sites, as well as our own Alhaurín el Grande, of course! the link is also to the right there in the links section...

i myself was coming up from Torremolinos and as i drove up the Churriana road could see this huge cloud coming from the other side of the mountain to the left... after making my way around the town and then heading out towards de la Torre it was much more obvious of the cause, the awful blood red of the sky and a thread of cloud moving slowly over the sliver of moon, in the dark the glow was horrendous... and i had it in my sights all the way to Alhaurín....

and the man driving in front of me must have seen it too, impossible to miss it, and yet he still through out a lite cigarette from his car window... un believable but i guess if your number is a local one and the digits are 6613 you will know who you are... and know you could have been responsible for starting another fire on this side of the Sierra de Mijas!



thought also i missed out something last time i wrote, my mind was otherwise occupied of course, but the car we had borrowed and took back on the Sunday morning was borrowed on the Monday or Tuesday, cant remember which now, but that first night Franco parked it up behind the town hall here where we all park our cars... in the morning two windows had been smashed and the interior trashed... thank goodness we had taken out the kiddies seats or they would have been gone... so we had to get news windows, and then have them tinted and then get the car back as we didn't want to risk it happening again, which i am sure it would have!

the windows we had to wait a couple of days for, no auto glass comes out to you here in the hour to change your window on the spot... and the tinters... we took it to the place at La Trocha, down in the car park there, Franco took it Saturday morning at nine and they said to bring it back at 5pm, which we did, they said ok great now come back at 9pm to collect it! but it still was'nt ready till nearly ten pm... been great if your were stuck there! hardly anything to keep you occupied for an hour never mind all day!


the photo in the middle i took during the week of a big big boat out there in the Med carrying cargo... and the one above i took from the car one morning in c/playamar of a block of apartments....

now the week gone, number 13, 8 to go.... what else has happened? apart from the Thursday fire there must have been another big one on Wednesday due to the amount of helicopters and planes picking up water during the afternoon, and again on the Thursday morning, or maybe that was the sierra de Mijas started already i don't know.

a couple came in two morning running to buy some cigs, and twice the machine wouldn't except their credit card, till they came in Thursday and it turned out that they're card had been cloned down in Torremolinos during the week, two big restaurant bills had gone on it and the bank had stopped it, how on earth did they know it wasn't them?

also we had Tourists Day during the week, which means free Paella down on the beach for all, i remember it two years ago... i did think about having some, but then with the possibility of it having a stock cube in i declined...

and apart from the man amongst many who i see throwing out those lite cigarettes a guy parked his car opposite the Estanco and went to a bar for an hour, leaving his dog in the car, poor little thing in this heat...

... and the lady who parked so close to a car her daughter banged it hard when she got out and when the mom went to rear door on that side opened it hard also, so hard she actually had to start the car and move it to release it from the one she had hit!!!

12 year old down our street is now driving his own scooter, despite it being illegal to drive one here now till you are 16...

people in the Estanco... as usual thank goodness again for those that are nice, talking and chatting and asking questions, not just about the tobacco but España in general... because as me and the other promotors say it makes up for those that either totally blank us or look and turn their backs to us... then there are those who ask for discount when they buy two cartons(?) and those who buy 32 and ask for nothing....

one lovely couple who talked for ages are from Hayling Island, Hampshire, this is their hotel... and i am sure they would make everyone very welcome, i will be putting the link in my links section too, let me know if you go there please...

ok now lots to do around the house, been to town this morning, saw and chatted with lots of friends and got caught up on stuff like Bar Rosa being closed... two different rumors so withholding till i know the facts... but the cross roundabout is not the same with our favorite bar closed and empty....

before i go though... i must say on Monday, i went to work and got on with normal things and the girls in that shop and my supervisor were so good, listening to me talking about my step mom, and just letting me get stuff out of my system...

The great blessing of life is the existence
of tomorrows - and having dreams to realize.
from an Interview

TTFN
Marian