what a mess now our street! planks for reaching doorways... no garage access... well for the few who have them on our street...

we do have water, as the trail of water pipes shows, but, and the big but is that you don't get very much of it! at times, most of the time that is it only comes out in little more than a trickle, i suppose as we're so far down the street anyone using it first takes priority and therefore i feel very sorry for the people nearer the end of the line who must get hardly any at all! there is sometimes so little

water pressure that its not enough to fire up the hot water boiler, which can be fun! and its taking longer than normal for the washing machine to do its job!

the photo at the top was taken yesterday morning early as the street was being pummeled with holes, prior to being dug up and now to left... dug up is all there is!

these next two i took only a few minutes ago, the men have gone

now, maybe for the weekend, generally they are working all day, with only two short breaks, no long afternoons for them, they really are on a mission! you see the sign on the house there in they're down stairs window... hard hats here please it reads! yesterday when i came home me and a neighbor had to squeeze through next to one of the mini tractors knowing he couldn't hear us... bit worrying but nothing else for it... and not a hard hat for us!

Pippa looking worriedly next here... i do wonder what goes on in a dog mind! those red and white tapes look like a sign of an accident! yes one waiting to happen...

another thing now, we also have to take our rubbish down to another street, the poor man cannot get up here now with his cart, so we have to take it every night to a designated area! this will make us appreciate how wonderful the service is here where we only have to open our front doors and leave it there, six nights out of seven and in the morning it will have miraculously disappeared!

Mom's 4th chemo on Thursday went well again also, she had the results of her CAT Scan which showed the tumor has reduced significantly and even the lymph nodes have been halted in they're progress, fantastic news. cant believe how well she is feeling, did i tell you something they found a few weeks ago? that the cancer did not show up in any of the blood samples she had taken... how weird is that, if it hadn't been for some symptoms and then the MRI scan, she would never have known what was going inside.

There is a theory which states that if ever for any reason anyone discovers what exactly the Universe is for and why it is here it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even
more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another that states that this has already happened.
Douglas Adams

TTFN
Marian

More views of our street... this will go on for some time, if i have to see it! so do you all!!!

i went to go out this morning and just here on the left there was a truck backed down the street there on the right, so close to the wall it was impassable! so i turned to go the other way and was faced with two of the mini tractors and a mound of earth which i had to climb over...


i was going to the animal rescue shop just near Plaza Alta, where i worked today helping out a friend who would have been in there on her own... was a quiet day, and cold inside, although coming out i found how warm it is today!

this photo on the left now is way out of date, and i only took it last night, will get out there again tonight for up dated photos!



i know a photo of a man hole cover is probably not one of my best... but this will soon be gone, and its a piece of history telling us the last time the road was re laid, or perhaps the first time !!!

and as you can see the date is on it! half a century ago... 1959! how old!?!

did i tell you what i read on my trip to the UK? or rather the format of it? my Nintendo DS lite books! if i am repeating my self apologies folks... i am just glad my clothing has my name in it... Zara is my name isn't it! sorry... any way i digress as usual, so my DS lite machine... i have a card that doesn't have a game on it, it has 100 classic books, and using wifi connection you can down load others, for free! not bad eh, and it was quite cheap too...

they are of the more classic variety i know, and remembering what some of the words mean is educating in its self! but no bad thing... you know where they used 'f' for 's' and other such ye old English!

but its a great thing, like the Sony reader actually, although you cant download modern books... yet on the DS, but you can pick the font size etc, and just one click turns the page, which you can easily tap with your thumb nail and not have to use the little stylus pen. on the flight back i just changed from one book to another so easily! i could see people looking and wondering what the heck!

we had a quote done for some work on the house, the quote fantastic! they had my full name and address etc, and once home i read this bit as i had been too busy reading the price at the bottom of the paper... and i must admit i was horrified! as i say they had my name, but instead they had typed Marian Extranjera (foreign)!!!

ok ok, yes we are foreign... but believe you me if we had a cheaper quote else where or well any quote from else where, else where is where we would have been buying the work!

and yes i did mention it to them when we went back! in a nice polite way of course, seeing as i am a foreigner!

The old believe everything; the middle aged suspect everything; the young know everything.
Oscar Wilde

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Marian

ok, i am back home now from my short trip to England, i left Malaga mid day Saturday and arrived back home here about 11am yesterday! although didn't get back in Alhaurín el Grande till 1.45pm after the bus trips to get me here! phew, never mind got to see some more changes going on at Malaga Bus Station, not sure how long they have been going on for, as i don't think i have been there in about a year or more maybe... new marble floors outside, looking like an ice rink! and non slip tiling where you dis embark from the buses...

mom was a little surprised to see me, she sort of thought i would turn up, although not being with Tony at her place helped, i was waiting in the restaurant! we went to a nice place, a French restaurant in Berkhamsted... Brasserie Gerard...

very very nice, good cocktails too 'hic'... and the deserts! could have eaten a bit of each one for sure!

Sunday tony and Kate went running! and Tony did good!

considering it was his first time! he had a big blister on his foot, but no other ill effects, bit achy Monday morning... at 5am when he was taking me back to Luton airport!

the photos here... the top two are up opposite the garden centre on the Alhaurín Fuengirola road, the one on the left here is much further down where they have stripped the land back and are going to build on it, most people know the bins where people dump furniture etc etc illegally... that's where this is.

and left here is Pippa last week, when she was getting in there in the cave to play hunting dog!

in my short trip to St Albans, we went to Watford on the Sunday morning, lots of shoppers doing their best to try to get the economy up and running again, a few sale bits left too, but lots of spring summer gear in. we also went to Tesco, Tony grabbed a bag of doughnuts to feed my craving, got home and they were custard and not jam! oh heck... so, craving still there, or rather here! although i did come home with one Cadburys cream egg... not yet eaten, going to save for... a special occasion!

lots more to tell... manaña amigos...

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking up at the stars!
Oscar Wilde

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Marian

Today it begins back in my home country! i truly believe change will come... i had goose bumps yesterday watching the whole thing on tv. and it wasn't just the cold in the house!

standing there on Capitol Hill which was built in part by slaves who could never have believed a black President would one day stand... whose own grandfather couldn't go in certain places or transport. amazing, fantastic.

Obama's speech was written by a 27 yr old in a Starbucks cafe! a man who has a certain link some how and can put Obama's thoughts into words perfectly.

all morning some in the crowd had been singing anti-Bush songs and on his arrival they booed loudly and so they turned up the music so it couldn't be heard so clearly!

and back here in our casa looks like the rat problem has not gone! Pippa would not leave the cave alone this morning and was climbing in as far as she could get with all the boxes in her way, so i got in there and pulled everything out onto the floor area, the boxes are on a section in the cave that's raised up where someone a long long time ago had dug out the rock and where if you remember from an excavation a couple of years ago we came across an ancient cool box! or cooker area couldn't really work out which! although there was lots of charcoal there were also lots of bones that were just clean and obviously not cooked! we covered up the deep hole that had been carved out of rock and left it safe.

well area cleared and then swept! Pippa could get in and up onto a natural shelf area and get up close and personal with some of the holes, she was going crazy! and would not leave it, so i climbed up and got into that corner... oh and boy i wish i hadn't i completely freaked out, so much so Pippa bolted with me screaming to get outta here now Pippa!!!!

she must have in her climb up dislodged some stuff, and now on the floor by my feet was the rat! from two years ago! mummified! ugh! OMG!!! it looked like it had been run over by a truck, four little legs out flat and the tail.... i am screwing up my toes thinking of it, horrendous sight!

i got on the phone to Franco, i think he thought... oh i don't know what he thought i was just so as i say freaked out by it! so he has to get that thing out of the cave tonight when he gets home.

and its going to be chicken wire everywhere and cement everywhere or we are bricking it up! just kidding, but really! and this explains those flys we had a year back, the infestation remember? millions of flys and now i know where they came from!

i had to go back in and get the washing out of the machine, and Pippa had one minute in there before i got her out again! and that's it till the rats gone, i am not going back in that hole!

and talking of holes... or pipes at least, the bunch of them in the street waiting to be put in holes! the night before last a ninó from down our street was out savaging for fire wood i guess and took away some of the wooden blocks stopping them from avalanching down! but last night he tried again and some of them rolled off, later it happened again!?! so they were all out flat this morning stretching across the street, lots of 20 foot orange pipes looking like a maze for rats!!!

One only needs two tools in life: WD-40 to make things go, and duct tape to make them stop!
G Weilacher

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Marian

Ok back to the bank this morning... still cannot access account! arh! can you hear me screaming? and back in to see the manager this time... they are going to open up a new account instead and we are starting all over again...

i know we shouldn't make comparisons, but also i am, at last after being in Alhaurín 4 years going to move my bank account from another town, in the UK you can go into any branch of your bank in any town and do anything you need to do. here you cannot and its too far to keep going hither and thither to do stuff. the account cannot actually be 'moved', you have to open a new account, another one! and then move the funds and close the old account.

and more news of our most recent cave dweller! we think it must be a rat as someone has had a go at some washing that hadn't quite made its way into the washing machine, and also i went in with a good torch and came across quite a big hole that went back a long long way and looked quite recently dug out!

we have left a little something in the tunnel and foamed it up, i think we need a lot of foam all the holes there are, in fact we're thinking of maybe cementing up all the crevices and re painting, there are quite often little bits falling so hopefully this will hold things together more also. and we could spot any other 'visitors' easier i guess, thing is i hate the idea of hurting the thing, but more the fact that the animal could come running into the house if the back door is open! and if it is a rat we don't want that! and we know 'it' reached the back door where it left its little muddy foot prints and chewed on the string curtain!

What we do for ourselves dies with us.
What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal.
Albert Pine

TTFN
Marian

look at the state of our street! what a mess eh!

i am wondering if they are planning on fixing the street by Semana Santa that they are only going to put in the gas pipes and not do the paving that they have up on the next street, i just cannot see how they can do all that in such a short time...

as you can see in our small street, we have the smallest earth moving equipment possible! miniature diggers in a miniature street!

and again blurry, took it too early this morning for steady hands!

and i don't drink a drop, well hardly! its horrible being so shaky all the time people get completely the wrong idea, i remember once bringing a coffee to a customer in the show room and they commented on how much had i had to drink the night before! we should never judge someone on some things without first knowing the reasons!


although looking at these things in our small orchard(!) up on the terrace do you think they would help me at all! or would it be kill or cure!?!

this morning i fun in the bank, again, as usual! oh amigo please come back to work here in Alhaurín! where are you my friend?

we had a bank account open... and a year with no money in it it was put on hold, i was told only two or three weeks ago that when some money went in, it would automatically be accessible again. money went in a week ago... i tried card and Internet but to no avail... today i went in and told them about the situation and they gave me a new pin! tried again immediately, didn't work! was then told that the card was invalid and a new account needed to be set up, more forms etc etc! so i reminded them that i was told that as soon as credit was in the account everything would automatically be re-activated again!?! if the account was no good anymore how could money have been entered?

so... then they said ok will re-activate the account and the card etc should work. but which pin? who knows, she said try the old and the new and if neither work come back in.

and it was so hot in bank, and so was i!

I look to the future, because that's where I'm going to spend the rest of my life.
George Burns


TTFN
Marian

Franco just phoned to ask "how is the weather up there?"... i looked out and said well sunshine and blue sky! he said it was sweating down on the coast... up on the roof it is warm, even hot in the sun, but still in the house Siberia! Pippa and i sat up top for a while with our eyes closed and soaked up some heat... on the web cam on my link there, i just checked out Torremolinos and it is just over 20º...

they were having trouble hanging the warning sign for hard hat wear on the old dodgy wall, gave up and have attached it to a neighboring houses rejas!?! hope they don't mind! soon no one will access to they're garages any more either so parking will be a first come first parked process again!

and apparently... the street will be finished for Semana Santa! about the second week of April!

by the way above dish on the stove... vegetable lasagna in progress.... was very nice me gusta mucho!

TTFN
Marian

well this is us now... relying on the overhead water pipes! i opened up our expansion tank on the roof earlier when we were switched off and forgot about it... as you can so easily do! until i was upstairs and heard this awful noise... it was a small swimming pool forming up on the terrace from the tank which was full and over flowing, no stopcock up there so it didn't know it was full! humph! Pippa went wading out looking so cute! up to her ankles and delicately holding on foot up in the air when not moving!



we have a connection on our balcon too! that off shoot supplies water to the other side of the street!

this morning they are digging up all over the street, neighbors water was poring out everywhere! Pippa been going crazy, taken her outside again to meet the men working there, she is better when she know who it is, and not left wondering what the heck is going on out there, so they all said hola to her and pet her and she
is better now....

this sign here showing road closed for changes meant nothing to a man yesterday he just pulled up next to it, looked at the digging work before it and moved the fence, drove through it, put it back then drove forward till he found the reason the sign was there... holes in road!!! and had to reverse and back out of the street, what did he think the sign meant? just drive on regardless?

is this last photo blurry or is it just me? think it is just me... using

camera badly! neighbor tried to get in just now, came through the road closed sign down other end of street got to her garage and there is a huge pile of rocks in front! so had to reverse out again!

and i guess this is just the beginning isn't it, how long will it take to renew the road? a year? took over 18 months to do the adjacent road, i am sure lots of photos to follow on this operation!



TTFN
Marian

Couriouser and curiouser...

i am so tired i may well fall asleep whilst writing, although trying to keep fingers on correct keys may do the trick, just chatted to tony on g.mail and had to correct more than i sent!

just not sleeping much, and for some reason finding it hard to sleep or nap even during day, so exhaustion setting in.

anyway... the above heading? Pippa has been in and out of our cave now for some time looking for 'something', we can never hear anything, no obvious signs of anything living in there, lizards are ok, but don't want any other critters!

well yesterday i, sorry Pippa, we, went to go through to put washing in and on the door step into the lobby was, well something horrible, may have just been 'mud' if you get the gist, and several of the strings that hang there, fly screen thingy, had been cut off 5 or 6 inches up from the bottom! Pippa didn't like the look of the mess and backed away from the area till i had cleaned up, then did a quick tour of the downstairs toilet and cave in a mad hunting frenzy... to no avail!?!

how weird!

nothing today, and i have the cave door open i want whatever it is to show its face again, Franco says we can put down poison, but i don't want to kill a lizard or cat, and if its a rat humane rather what we did before.

not sure what came over me earlier today, i know i am cooking lasagna later, but baked an apple tart thing just now too!

the street is noisy also, they have been digging up small areas for what looks like no reason at all in places that they are just making up! although if i think about it it looks like its in front of some of the houses that have yet to be reformed and maybe do not have the outside water meter pipework needed for they're pipes to connect to! so as they didn't put road closed signs at either end of the street people have been coming and going in some distress!

thats it for me.... ;-)

TTFN
Marian

how cold is it here today!?! yesterday morning on the terrace in the shade... 4º and Franco had a little ice on the windscreen! not normal for in town for sure!

as cold out as in too, not moved much today just wearing several layers of clothes and finding it to hard to move!

mom had her third chemo on Thursday and she called when she got home to tell me it was great! what a gal eh! more concerned with her troublesome child (me) who had had a bad migraine the day before! her and her pal that goes with her, courtesy of Tony, have a small pick nick while they wait, salmon sandwiches cakes and fizzy drinks etc!

we have a huge problem with damp just now, the windows up stairs all are running with water by morning, lots of small panes of glass surrounded by that white aluminium which is wetter than the glass, it puddles on the floor on the back door (up stairs that is!). someone said it was the gas fire we have burning down stairs in the evenings, tried not using that but its just the same, so i guess its us breathing!!! thank goodness for our heated bed because in the night when there is no heating on you can sense the cold green fingers of mold and mild dew making they're way towards you... (ok too much stephen king!)

would seriously consider having a small wood burning stove put in, it would have to be small, but the real problem is where to put it in our small dolls house! the stove could go in a spot in the dining room end of down stairs, but the pipe work cannot go out from down stairs due to some heavy rsj's and the front balcon, so the pipework cant go straight up from there, the bathroom is above! ok, take the pipework from stove round an ornate pillar thats in the way up into our bedroom, no room there on that wall and from there impossilbe to go out the front on the house... up directly on the roof terrace? maybe, we have a chimney up on the roof so maybe there is an opening from our bedroom thats a posibility, but after reading all that above... phew i dont know! our house would look like stanstead airport!!




The best counselor is experience,
but it usually arrives late!
Thoughts of Cervantes


TTFN
Marian

great view here from our terrace on the morning on Saturday the 3rd of January, i think, memory going missing big time! anyway... could hardly see the house below or the town hall behind!

we went down to Mijas i wanted to light a candle in the small chapel there, the drive was pretty scary, round that mountain road, although the cloud cleared from time to time, and in Mijas it was ok, but the view down to the coast was non existent, would have put a photo here, but all was white, so pretty pointless!

it also started to rain when we were having a coffee in our usual bar, the two coffee's came to 3.40€! used to be 1.20 each! crazy price now.... and he knows we're locals, so no excuse of robbing the tourists there!

new years eve we snuggled up with a good movie which finished at five to midnight when we went up on the roof terrace and saw all the fireworks.... from here in Alhaurín, also Villafranco, Cartama,

Coín and Pizzara too i think! five towns of celebrations which was pretty to see, i downed my 12 grapes in quick time while on the phone to tony back in blighty who called on our stroke of midnight.

which apparently was one second later, due to 'them' getting to 11.59.9 and holding back for one second for re alignment! down at the church in Fuengirola the clock struck 12 twice... i wonder if that was anything to do with it?

after we left Mijas we continued down to Miramar Parque, where it was busy, was beginning to think everyone here was in hiding, or denial, or something! but everything was busy, people buying like crazy!

went into Iceland and into they're new extended area, the restaurant wasn't open yet, but lots more of store, couldn't work out where the shop was they took over, its round the corner and up the street a way, but the shops meet up at the back and that's how they have managed to make use of the extra space now.

working backwards it must have been Friday the 2nd we went to check out prices of new windows in the Bauhaus store in the commercial centre near the airport, great store, bit haphazard, hazard being the warning there, things all over the floor to trip over or bump into!

also there on this site are a huge range of other stores, a houseware shop, food, clothes, electrics etc etc, including a small mall which has among other things a massive El Corte Inglés discount store! all the stores were well into sales, the mango shop was almost giving stuff away the lines for the changing rooms and check out counter were enormous!

i met another Angelino today! in a store round the corner... only here 3 months y habló español perfectamente! humph!

TTFN
Marian