A few shots today of the trip to Bobastro Franco Pippa and I made a couple of years ago...

This place is soooo spooky! And now you have to go with a guide, first the place was impossible to find and now guided tours for the many!!

This place is very very old ...

And to quote Andalucia Travel Guide....

Bobastro was a Moorish city built in the late 9th and early 10th century by a Christian convert named Umar-bin-Hafsun who left his rather splendid home in Mijas to lead a revolt against the caliphal government of Córdoba. After his conversion from Islam to Christianity in AD 899 he built a church at Bobastro, the ruins of which can still be seen. For almost forty years (AD 879-AD 918) he ruled a rebel kingdom of some 8000 people from in his city on Las Mesas de Villaverde among the Tintilla, Castillón and Encantada hills. The views are stunning; the position inviolable.

After Umar-bin-Hafsun died his sons continued to rule for another ten years until they were, finally, defeated and captured by the Moorish leader, Abd-er-Rahman III. Rahman was neither magnanimous nor merciful in his victory and had the mouldering corpse of Ibn-bin-Hafsun exhumed and crucified alongside his sons in front of the mosque in Córdoba. Today no one lives in the remote and desolate ruins of Bobastro and there is little left, except an impressive Moorish arch and a few stones, of the once teeming city.

End quote....

Pip above looking for Franco who gone into the bar for coffees... anyone would think she would never see him again by the look of worry on her face.... bless her, my baby!

In back ground, if I remember correctly I may have mentioned this before, but look, there is the BBQ, and to the left the chicken coup! Only a short hop from home to hob!!!

This morning I checked my BP, a bit too high, 146/96, remembering, [well how could I forget], the nurse last week at my well women check said, if the lower figure goes over 90 you must go to the medical centre!

So down town I went to the farmacia to get them to check it too, well my reading could be wrong, but theirs was even higher, /99, so after a té and to and fro'ing, I forced myself to go to the clinic, I walked into the emergency bit, it was packed... and I just didn't know what to do, so left!

I popped into the Cudeca store and asked them, what to do? How do I sign in to the emergency room? I know this is silly, but, well there you have it!

So, after some information, I went back and lined up, and she entered my information and told me to take a seat, the same people were still in there, so I hadn't actually lost any time by leaving... The doctor called my name, well I say Doctor, I think she may have been a medic, rather than doctor. I have to go to the farmacia every day, and get the reading written down on the same card as today, and after I left her, I joined the line up [again], and made an appointment for a week today to see a doctor at the medical centre.... How we will talk to each other is any bodys guess, I must write things down, in both languages, take a dictionary with me, and cross my fingers... Or who knows what I shall come out with! Still I bit the bullet and did it! The medic was a bit cross I had known I had high BP since November last year.... ;-(

When I went back to book una cíta, a lady I know was in the line, so we chatted about the queing system there... or lack of it, what you do is, go and chat to someone in the line, then just stay there, it gets you in well up front of everyone else, or, you can just walk in and say that's where you would have been had to popped in earlier! Well that's what appeared to happen while we were there... It was like, only two people in front, but suddenly 5! And we were laughing at ourselves, I mean, honestly, what were either of us in such a hurry for anyway? Where did we have to go!

I returned to Cudeca to let them know how I got on, as they wanted me to... I start back there next Tuesday! Still have my sexy [not] tabbard, will be good to go back actually, good to have something to do and people to meet and talk to, and doing good for others of course! maybe I should have written that primarily!

I have missed so many peoples birthdays this year... As I speak I am remembering I have another coming up soon! I used to have them written up somewhere I can see them, but I moved it, planning to write everything somewhere else, and haven't yet!

Heck an 84 yr old Val Doonican on tv! Amazing! And even more amazing, sorry Val, but Avon just called she is bringing my order to me tomorrow at 5pm!

Hasta pronto amigos... Trying to learn a bit more Spanish too, Barry sent me a link to livemocha.com A language learning course, some of which is free, and very good! I better get practising, every day before the doctors, although once there I am sure everything will go out of my head as usual!

I helped a neighbour home with her shopping today, we had a conversation of sorts, but even the way she said house [casa] was different from the way I was taught it, she said it very heavily accented on the *s*, so heavy it sounded like caza! And just now when I translated it on the site I always use *caza* translates as *it hunts* !!!

What hope eh, what hope...

oh I said goodbye already!

TTFN
Marian