Another hard day at work! Not quite so busy today, either in the store or in town actually! And when there are fewer people it just means we can get more stock out, and more tiding and cleaning done, so still lots to do...

I met up with the crew first of course, at the boardroom, for early morning networking! Lots of people away over the next couple of months, holidays to UK for, and before Christmas, our numbers will dwindle...


Tomorrow is the inauguration of our new store in town... our new Cudeca store that is. First we have a meeting, then drinks and bites to eat.... After the Mayor has done his stuff! So that's good, bit more advertising for the shop... wonder in Andalucia TV will be there again? I must make sure to wear something different from the two other times in less than 2 months they have caught me on camera!!!

Everyday many many emails are passing between my new cousin and myself, and Emma, the wonderful girl who has brought us together, who is still working, and finding some fantastic things out still...

The other night I was caught up in the search... Working backwards, sort of, I went straight to the graveyards! Luckily there are some people who must have wandered about the many cemeteries of the United Kingdom, writing down all the names and dates etc, on the tomb stones... Then listed them all here on the net!

While I searching I came across a... well an interesting inscription to a Mr Thomas Collier to died back in 1765, Blacksmith of his parish... in Rodborough, Gloucestershire at St Mary Magdalene's Churchyard... it reads...

Thomas COLLIER of this parish,
Blacksmith, 23 Nov 1765, 52
My sledge & hammer is declined
My bellows to have lost its wind
My fire extinct, my forge decayed
And in the dust my vice is layd
My coal is burnt, my irons gone
My nails are drove, my work is done
Elizabeth, w/o Thomas COLLIER,
10 Feb 1785
Benjamin, s, 16 Aug 1790, 41

Interesting isn't it, morbid? No.... I remember thinking when I went over to England next, I would take a trip to Crouch End, as I thought my Gt Grandparents were burined there... and now I know they're not!

I also used to wish when I was a kid, that I was miss smith, from 'simple address' with a normal Mom and Dad and siblings, all the family nearby who had always lived in the same place for all of time..... now I marvel at fact that life is so strange and so exciting, if a little confusing at times! And none of my family, on either my Dads, or my Mom's side ever stayed put.... Thousands of miles our family has travelled, must be why I feel so tired!

Ok to the present again, before I go off on yet another tangent.... Our car broke down again yesterday! Franco went up to the get the car and came back after ten minutes, it had been a non starter for the last few days.... At La Trocha market on Sunday, it started ok in the car park, but not outside the Brit food shop on our way home! And this had happened a few times... But yesterday, hopeless, Franco took up the battery charger, not because it was a battery problem, but he was wearing it down with all the trying to start it!

Franco phoned down to say it still wasn't starting, and I went up... came back home, and then went back up again! We called out the grua [breakdown], and after about 40 minutes I came back to the house to get a flask of coffee!!!! It was cold up there! The Mayor came out and down the back stairs of the town hall... shared a coffee with us! Just kidding! He may have thought we had moved in, or were spies! watching his every move!

So the grua phoned, he couldn't find the ayuntamiento[town hall], I walked up to the side of the Vera Cruz church, he called again and eventually found us! He was in a BMW estate car! He jumped out of his car, round to back pulled out his jump leads... and Franco and I both said, "no not the battery"... He then did this test and that test, then said he would have to called the grua pick up truck as he couldn't fix it on site, but then turned to and said did I have a mirror.... I didn't but offered him my mobile, in camera mode and said put that under and just take a photo of the bit you want... He looked confused, I don't know why, would have worked for me!

So down he got under the car on what looked like a yoga mat! and then after only a few seconds jumped up and our car started! A wire was loose from under the solenoid! all those bumpy roads down to the caost, you know since they shut the Fuengirola road we have had had more fall off our car than you would believe! Exhaust pipe, nuts and bolts ie holding the front panel on! Two tires, well they didn't fall off but were ruined all the same!

And apparently, so says the local news the road will open in the next two weeks or so.... I bet while I am away! What'its law isn't it! Its all tarmac, only white lining and a few more bits, and most important, barriers!

Well I am tired, have some washing to check on, when I got home I washed some woollies for my holiday... I did them as usual on the terrace, although, this I am whispering... Our washing machine worked on Sunday.... we talked to man at the market, just for any inside information on what the problem could be with it... He was a sexist... saying that Franco would be who would be fixing it! huh! It would be more likely to me me! He apologised!

Anyway, its probably dry now, the washing, so adió amígos...

TTFN
Marian