phew its so humid today already, only 830am, and its awful! my skin feels damp! luvverly eh! we had rain yesterday(??), quite a bit of it too! it was still hot, so when it stopped it was like walking through the jungle! this morning started out bright but the sky looks threatening now, dark grey and sooooo humid! when Pip and i were out earlier our walk down through the *dry* river bed, wasn't so dry, the journey down from the forest was wet enough with lots of tall grass and bamboo plants, but then the river bed grass seemed longer today or maybe just where it had been moved about by the rain, i don't know, but when we got back home Pip looked like she has been out in a rain storm! i was wet to the knees but she was wet to the tips of her ears, and as you know that way high!!!!

yesterday afternoon i saw a man on a terrace over the way open up his lap top and start talking... i had two thoughts...

pause... its pouring now, just got the clothes line in, have clothes to hang in a few minutes???

ok back to those two thoughts... man on terrace talking to his lap top! ah ha, i thought wifi! so we turned on ours and there was a signal, and we both seemed to be on line, but couldn't open up any pages, so not sure really! so many people use wifi without security, oh by the way didn't to be doing anything bad, just wanted to read my emails!! and do a little surfing as usual! if we knew the guys next door were online and wifi we would be giving them half costs to use it!

oh and by the way the second thought i had from above was that the man was just a crazy guy talking to himself!!!!

so its raining, looking like i wont be going on line today then amigos, i have a bad head ache again anyway, so probably not a good idea to drag myself up there, sit on a hard plastic chair for an hour or more then try to get back here!

on the other hand we now have no milk! mercadona is closer though so if it stops i could always try to get there for la leche!

now whats been occurring since Thursday? Friday i didn't go to far from home apart from the three walks with Pippa! Saturday Franco and i went up to the house, checked everything was ok there, humid in there too! and more jungle like than the week before! actually i don't thing it looked any worse, i just want to get in there and get it all cleaned up, road should be opening up soon, fingers crossed!??? we went from there to Ikea, had to get a few things for someone, so Franco thought as he knows how much i love the place we could go together on Saturday, and i do! so we did! we got there about 10am, and it was packed! the restaurant opens first about half hour before i think, and the store was filling up already! i had a piece of dime cake, you know like the dime chocolate? mmmmm nice with coffee, Franco had a toasty! then we travelled the upper part of the store, with all the rooms and furniture before going downstairs to where all the bits and bobs are! i could fill a truck with all those bits! but we just got what was on Francos list and then had to run the gaunlet of daudlers at the warehouse pick up points... so we did a run though there, we really did run! and straight to a check out, had to wait of course, there are always phone calls to make as bar codes don't work, weirdly Franco knew the price of the tea clothes the cashier didn't know, and that the price 1.99, was for 4 items! which the customer was pleased to know! then we were out of there... with a catalogue, which i have read a few times already, and if the rain keeps up i will read again today!

above, the merry go round on the Paseo Maritimo in Fuengirola, exactly same as the one in Milton Keynes at Christmas, there on the right, just about to go out of sight is the Cinderella carriage than is the same as the one Mom and i went on the Christmas before last.

from there we went dropped off the things, had coffee with friends and came home via a trip to Mercadona, we had a lunch of mussels, cooked in garlic, Italian white wine and a bit of parsley! and very nice it was too! just a shame we forget to get a stick of bread, never mind! at the check out they were just closing a couple of tills, well it was lunch time, who needs four tills open at that time of day!!!

really raining now, can you hear it! no guttering here, so its straight down, hope its not raining up in Alhaurín....

i wonder if my friend got home last week with these flight cancellations again? i haven't heard, remember i said the last time this volcano erupted it lasted for a year back in the early 1800's, they're saying it could last a year this time too now!

i keep forgetting i say one of my favorite birds the other week! it was in the garden of a house near the McDonald's just here the Hoopo bird! i used to see them when i was working on the golf courses down here... they are amazing, will search out a photo for you and put that up once i am on line... its may why is it raining, again.....?

wondering also who bought Moms table and painting, in the catalogue it said picture of a mother with her two children! it wasn't just a mother! it was Mary with baby Jesus and John the baptist as a child! it was painted in the early 1700's, 300 years old in the school of ---------, i hope who every bought them will love them and look after them well..... i wish i wasn't the type of person who got attached to *things*, its stupid really, they are just things after all, so far this year i haven't really lived with my things have i? first 2 and half months in England with only a case of my things, and now since were back home in Spain, we're staying at Maria's, and i only have a case of my things still dont i?

i was talking to a friend of mine the other, who also just lost her Mom, a couple of weeks before me in fact, and i said i feel like i have lost my anchor, my compass is just spinning with no north... she feels just the same, two lost little girls all over again....

raining so hard to tv is breaking up now....and its gone! hey ho!

i don't even have a book downloaded at the moment arh!!!!!

oh you wouldn't believe it... at home, a letter from Telefonica, a bill, and they are charging us 23€ for re connecting our phone, when it was there fault for not taking the money from the correct account, again! what incredible stupidity, i am going to get the local guy here from Telefonica to phone his office for me, he speaks about 8 languages, and i shall explain the whole idiotic story to him and get him to tell them that i want the 23€ paid back and if not we're cancelling Telefonica permanently! the whole thing, no phone nada! its just gone beyond a joke now, such incompetence for such a big company, we were laughing yesterday watching the Grandprix, Moviestar, telefonicas mobile network! rubbish, poor reception and expensive! great advert guys!!!!

ok i am going now, hang the washing out, in, and read my Ikea catalogue, again!

Tuesday now! it rained mostly on and off all day yesterday, and a huge percentage of the night!

while passing a rental car on the street yesterday i was thinking there is another con! well i don't know about other places, or even here i suppose how it really works but if you take out a car, its checked on hand over and any knocks and nics written down, so you take the car, you have a knock/accident whatever, you will lose your deposit, 200€ or more! but the next customer comes along, the damage is again noted on hand over... and here we go again! the rental cars in Spain are about the same as most of the cars here, obviously the newer the better, and i think most never get much past the two year mark before they are replaced, but is the work ever done? your deposit ever used actually for work done on the car? yes if its something like a mirror, or once in our case a door lock, the car was broken into within half hour of us collecting it! but we didn't lose all the money, the guy in Alhaurín told us how much the lock cost and labour costs and that's what we paid, but if your holidaying here...? i think if you lose your deposit you should be sent a copy of the bill for repairs, at least you would know your money has actually been used and not just taken!

this morning on the beach above...

there were tractors on the beach every time it stopped raining! i thought they must be doing more of a clean up job... but when we went out last evening to walk Pip we walked right up on the path and they are clearing, digging and removing all the tiling next door! the urbanisation next door that is... last few weeks they have been replacing the small little blue tiles in the big pool, which had been empty since we got here along with all the other pools next door, so now, they have fixed the pool... no water though, and now they are using big machinery to break up and remove all the tiles surrounding the pool?? er hello! vibration and all that? would like to take bets on how quickly the pool will start to crumble now! no common sense or planning? is it the same people who are doing the roads around Alhaurín? no just kidding i know its not!


anyway... i have gone off on a tangent as usual! so they are using the drive from here to get on the beach then 2 or 3 tractors up and down and down and back! making a huge pathway down onto the beach from where they're wall used to be! down onto the beach, so that was a slippy walk last night! no one can walk on the beach between here and Cabopino, or of course do any sun bathing from outside here! Franco has an idea that we will come back here later and find the whole complex gone! they did build twice the amount that was on the plans, are higher and nearer the beach than the law states, mind you looking at the state of them it looks like they will be falling down all by themselves!!!

above and below shows the damage or wear and tear from just over 5 years... above apartment is actually crumbling away!



Also, and to be quite honest have ruined Maria's view of Cabopino and the wonderful sun sets that come from that direction!

hope i can get up to the wifi bar today, going stir crazy when it rains, but if i can get up there and down load a book i will be fine! Franco isn't starting till noon so will get a lift down to El Zoco...

yeah! i am here, i am wifi, i am! now need to get the photos up loaded on here, must remember the bird too! The Hoopoe Bird!


TTFN
Marian