The Spoon Theory...

I am bothering everyone with my aches and pain just now after the long haul promotion and now this damp weather, of course the worry about my mom and other stuff now all culminating in making my FM worse.

I have just come across a very good story, one which explains in a different way how us with FM and lots of other things like this live our lives day to day.

The Story is called The Spoon Theory... this links to the site and the story is then just a click away...

will it please stop raining? it wasn't too bad this morning around 10am i got into town ok, but the cloud came down and so up came the para aquas! Spanish is so easy isn't it! para sol (for sun) and of course para aqua (for water!) how can we possibly go wrong?!?

it rained all day Sunday... and the forecast shows rain for the next 3 or 4 days, G R E A T! although of course could be worse, it could be cold also!


some more views here of the road coming up into Alhaurín from Fuengirola, on the left here you can see where people have lost their land by about 20 or 30 foot to the new road.
apparently(?) this land may have been borrowed by them and it always belonged to the high ways people? not sure who spread this rumor....

but now coming and going up or down the road you can at the


moment see much more than we used to, the roadside bushes all gone including lots of trees and orchards!

these two pipes in situ here headed towards Finca La Mota,
will be carrying something, and i guess as they haven't been sunk very deep the ground level here will have to be raised somewhat.




in town the municipal library building that came to a stand still some time ago, looks like getting moving again in February 2009, not sure if they will keep everything where it is... remembering the photos i took from the Cudeca window showing one of the Library's floors coming right up to the windows, allowing no light or air to enter, ok in winter but in summer? will be awful! and the same for the people whose apartments above have the wall immediately in front of they're balcony's... can you imagine standing on your small terrace and having a brick wall 2 or 3 foot away from you,

especially having had full sun since you moved in! would be very depressing.

also in a paper i came across an article about Fords here in Spain, now is the time to buy with huge discounts at the moment on new cars 10 or 20% percent, cant remember which, so don't quote me!!!!

this last photo is the corner approaching the garden centre, will they get rid of this bend altogether do you think?

TTFN
Marian

Fibromyalgia/The Polkerdotgals

when i was finally told i had Fibromyalgia it was by a doctor who handed me a leaflet, with a pat on the head and a "read this"!!! this in 1995 after six years of tests and operations! i was lucky it was only six years!

this is a short video, well 14 minutes, please have a look. Its on the Fibromyalgia Association web site.

TTFN
Marian

today Boxing Day, Franco and I went down to Miramar centre, not many people there that's for sure... here we were up stairs sitting down for a bite to eat and no one else in sight, although there were more by the time we left...

after Miramar we went onto El Corte Inglés, again! I know twice in one week, so thats it for me for the next few months! not many people in there again either...


this shot comes to you from the top of Miramar, above the restaurants... what a beautiful day, yesterday was a bit cloudy over Alahurín, dont know about the coast.

we saw lots of - no sorry, we saw some holiday makers and they were wearing shorts and t-shirts... brrrrrr! and from this vantage point looking down to one of the hotels below people were in nik-binis! by the pool!! heck!



when i was taking the first photo i spied this little fellow hanging on in there well above the rest of the world of christmas going on beneath him! a balloon from Halloween! he must have had his fair share of gas to keep him up this long!




and then below one of the first lot of shots i took coming up the road from fuengirola of all the road workings going on... the road will be widened and less bends, making the distance .8k less, well mas or meno, we shall see... the other photos tomorrow, they came out quite well considering the speed Franco drives?!?

when we got home i went up on to the terrace to see how warm it was up there... still cooler in the house but 29.9 in the sun! fantastic, i sat out and read for half hour, but then the sun started to go down to low and although most of me was getting warm my legs started to get cold! so down i have come and now here i am... thinking of dinner again, seems like only yesterday.... we had lamb it was beautiful, only we forgot mint sauce! i know i know... and we also forgot to buy a christmas pud, so its no wonder christmas is missing from my life this year! and i know i had five months free of cooking this year with my honey doing all that while i was on that promo but yesterday when Franco saw me with the chicken, (for today by the way) he thought i was going to cook another roast dinner! two on one day... humph, i ask you!!!

Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dream.
Paulo Coehlo

TTFN
Marian

I have borrowed this link from a friend.... please watch and listen to this beautiful piece Assisi Nativity....

had more bad news this morning, my aunt Pat in Canada died yesterday... can we please just get to the end of this year now! my mom read out a letter yesterday evening that Pat had sent her, now feels like words from beyond...

still doesn't feel like Christmas to me, feel like there is a piece missing... think i will find out what time Franco is coming home today... early i hope!

Why do we have to listen to our hearts?" "Because, wherever your heart is, that is where you'll find your treasure.
Paulo Coelho

TTFN and a Very Merry Christmas to you all...
Marian

ok interesting! was going to put a photo on here, but the photo is on its side in my images and when i click to enlarge and turn, as normal, the photo is coming up from my picasa and in there its already done?! heck, well cant think about it now i don't have enough room in my head just now.

i had to make a list so i could remember what to write today, am really suffering with tiredness, keep waking up as per usual for the last 20 years! can it really be so long, yes in may of next year since i had an op which on the one hand saved my life and on the other seemed to either begin or just make worse my fibromyalgia... but now instead of just going straight back to sleep i am staying awake and this cant go on its hard to concentrate or even just be bothered to...

this morning at last i saw a couple i had been looking out for since my return home, they had called a couple of times when i was doing the promo, but i was of course not home! so hadn't seen them since may! we had a good long chat in the street and so moved into the nearest bar to continue! for coffee of course! i was well coffee'd out had had two already with friends at the cruz, seen my buddy in the animal rescue shop and had quick run though super sol! i had told Pippa i would only be a couple of hours but i think after my whole month away she doesn't believe a word i tell her!

yesterday Franco got an afternoon off and we went down to El Corte Inglés and guess what we found there? the game i was hunting in England last month! Professor Layton and the Curious Village.... cant wait now to get cracking into it! i have been trying to plough through Hotel Dusk for what must be a couple of year... bit sad that is isn't it! but, and the but is how do you know what your supposed to do, when your going along, for instance in one spot you find a pen, the inscription is poor, it turns out you have to go into the kitchen find a sack of flour that's torn open and put some flour on the pen to read it! how would you ever know to do that, or am i just up with the program, literally!

we also bought our neighbors little boy his gift, everything is wrapped so great here in Spain, they don't now, but i remember when they used to even wrap the stamps... although saying that the girls in one estanco did put them into little mini paper bags they had made earlier...

El Corte was empty considering the closeness to christmas, although the big present buying will be just before the Kings day, it was strangly quiet... as was Aldi, the new one coming up from Fuengirola on the Alhaurín road... you would have laughed... i grabbed a cart and then walked into through the 'out' door!!!! had to come out and come in the right door! really!

Waiting is painful.
Forgetting is painful.
But not knowing which to do is the worse kind of suffering..
Paulo Coelho

TTFN
Marian

here is up close and personal with Tony's tree! still haven't got our selves a tree yet, not sure if we will bother now, i don't seem to have any incentive to go looking now, the old one and all the baubles gone...

this week we sadly attended a friends passing... not sure what to call it really, we went to the what we all thought was the crematorium here in alhaurín, never realising it isn't a crematorium at all... a cemetery and the church only... the nearest one may be at alorá for alhaurín.

anyway, we gathered... and said our goodbyes, to me she was one of our 'ladies that lunch', and was such a shock to all of us, totally unexpected and un real. there was no priest, no vicar no one to do a ceremony... a good friend stood and we said the lords prayer, then we were left with our thoughts and prayers for her onwards journey...

i must admit i was shocked and didn't know that this is actually quite normal for 'us lot', if you don't prepare someone for the service, have someone lined up so to speak, or are a different religion, if its very sudden you may not have anyone to officially wave you off... please click on this link and say this for carol... thank you...


ok... here on the left is a woodpecker as seen in my friends garden when i was in England... i don't think i have ever seen one before, apart from TV etc, it was stuck there on that bird feeder for so long i thought its beak was caught!






and here... home again, look at the snow on the sierra de las nieves...

last evening Franco and i went to la trocha after doing our food shopping in Lidl in Coín and Franco bought a new warm winter jacket, was great, got it home and there was the secure magnet thing... should have rung some bells when we left the store, that worked then didn't it!


its a huge fine, well deserved of 750€ for spitting in the street in Cartama, good job too, i think there is a fine everywhere for doing so, but not sure how much its implemented!

yesterday i went into Cudeca in town, they were having theyre christmas fayre in the shop, lots of people in the store, Santa was there, of course! hope they did well, they need lots more money coming in to keep the fountation running...

Be brave. Take risks. Nothing can substitute experience
Paulo Coelho

TTFN
Marian

back home en España...

yes home... seems longer than a month away, and not blogged for a while... so apologies and whats been happening! well to the left there is a snow globe... one of my favorite things! i love them, and here in Milton Keynes is the largest one i have ever seen... and we went in it! yes inside it... i made my poor mother go in it with me! and she loved it, as did i! once inside we threw the snow about and it got caught up in the air that was flowing from beneath we threw plastic snow at each other and got thoroughly covered in it! they took our photo and then we had some more play time and came out to collect our photos... will scan and publish another day... was the best ever fun, i recommend it, for bringing back the child in us all, we felt reinvigorated and exhilarated, so much so we went on the Merry go round later!

this mushroom is in Milton Keynes also... part of the Christmas display outside of John Lewis store... mom and i didn't see much of the so called recession either, here and in Watford, Hemel Hempstead and Aylesbury and St Albans, the places i visited a dozen times each! well nearly, people were arms full of shopping bags and for now, happy smiling faces....











this i took from inside Cinderellas carriage, didn't think mom could quite make it up onto a horse! although yes i would have!









on the Sunday the 23rd last day i blogged, this was the snowfall we awoke to! not much really i suppose, and out of the four weeks and 3 days i was in England, i only had to use my umbrella 3 times, not too much rain, i was lucky.







and finally i beautiful sun set one evening... this would have been about 4pm... this is always the strange thing for us in Spain, we might not have the long days of summer you have in the UK, but our winter days are longer...






ok Mom, her CAT scan went ok, not much fun the huge amount of a liquid she had to down in the hour before, it was dye for the scan, but all went well, she was supposed to wait 20 minutes afterwards to make sure she felt fine, but after 10 minutes mom wanted outta there, so despite my concerns we left!

her 2nd chemo is tomorrow, Tony is picking her up and then her best buddy, so she has company for the time there, the chemo itself is a quick half hour, its the time waiting after the blood test and the making up of the chemicals that make it a long day, and not one to be spent on her own...

my last week there Mom was buzzing, i think it was that snow globe! there was no stopping her, and likewise this week she has been doing stuff that she knows she might not feel up to later in the week, and today resting for tomorrow.

my flights are booked for her last chemo session, if all goes to plan that is, so those blood platelets better keep to their bargain!

It was so great walking into town yesterday morning, I walked on the other side of the street than i usually do, observing the other side of the road... and the people! i was on my way to a friend at work in the animal rescue store up near axa insurance, its a new shop, i was prevented from continuing up that side of the street though by a water main that was causing a storm! well it looked like one, the water was coming up out of the path like a fire hydrant in New York City! aiming up and over calle Gerald Brenan which was like a rain shower over the cars and the people who hadn't moved right over on the path on the other side of the road! i crossed road and got in the stream the water went right over and into my shoes... nice!

a couple of shops have closed, and some moved... rumors of bar rose opening again are good to hear... nothing against those bars nearby of course, just that right there in such a prominent position in the town it doesn't look good!

heck... most important... i came home to a new kitchen! it was a case of 'whose kitchen am i in'!!! its wonderful, i have all these cupboard things... lots of room now, and a sink that holds more than one plate, and a real draining board on it too! we didn't have one before, just two round side by side sinks! rubbish! its taking us a while to get used to it, going to pull out a drawer that's not there anymore... and the sink moved too! Pippa is ok, she doesn't mind where her bowls are, just as long as whats in them is there! oh and Pippa... she went just crazy to see me again, took so much longer for her to calm down than the normal after my long days down in Torremolinos! my baby just didn't know why i was away for so long, and i wondered if she thought i would be home when we went out Sunday morning! Sunday morning i awoke with a bad head ache, took some tablets and carried on though, too much to do, the shops were open! i had left my special neck pillow at Tony's, i was over weight!?! so had to get a new one from Ikea, and this time i got one for sleeping flat, which i need to do, to prevent pain, and the other pillow was for sleeping on your side! not sure what the difference is in the pillows though so don't ask! i got better as the pills kicked in and we went from there to Miramar in Fuengirola, and the Miramar Parque nearby too, got food and had a general good old walkabout! was shattered when we got home... so took more tablets... LOL!!!

ok... where is my Paulo Coelho book for my quotes... i need some more! think i better check out Amazon and add to my wish list!

A blessing rejected becomes a curse...
The Alchemist

TTFN
Marian