A very small part of the Alhaurín el Grande Nativity display held every year in the  Casa de Cultura, went into the Mijas one last year too, very nice, but I am going to go out on a limb here and say, "ours is the best one!"

This morning the alarm had gone off, but I went straight back into a strange dream, usual for me, strange non the less.... then the door bell rang!!!! OMG trying to get out of bed, dressing gown off the door, wondering what the time it was, still dark outside??? Who is it? who is it???

Ah, a crate of wine on my door step! Delivery man thank goodness required no signature, trying to hold dog back and dressing gown closed was enough for me!!!

It was 7:15am!!  No chance of the householder being out I guess then at that time?? I had no 'safe' place to leave it, so they must have made me top priority! Of course!!

Wine? By the case? Not normally the sort of thing, but I won it! Well almost, for a huge discount gift, answered a questionnaire and won the 60% off, so really seems rude not to take advantage!

Phew six bottles of wine in the house, not seen that for a long long time, and strange, even at this time of day, now its there..... Mmmmmm!!!

So I was up! Early, showered and dressed after a run in the garden, for Pip, then back out there, did a quick clean up sweep, cleaned the refrigerator, had my breakfast, lovely wholemeal nutty bread and marmalade, both acquired yesterday, .45p for the marmalade!!!  Bought tea bags too, and Franco said how funny it was that in Spain we would be over the moon to get 50 tea bags for about 2€, could have been more, the euros I mean, not the tea bags, now, its a whole box for less than .30p!!! Tin of peas for .09p, curry sauce only .27p, basic, but a great base to add all the extra spices to, to make it your own flavour, although it is okay on its own...

Back to today!!! After breakfast I sterilised some jars, oven roasted my peppers, chillies, onions, squished them down in my mini processor thingy, in the pan with the vinegar and sugar, added my blend of spices and garlic.... brought back to boil, washed up, turned it off, put into the jars and there are my three jars of chilli jam, well chilli relish I guess really!

All washed up now, house clean and tidy, face done, and ready for work!
Thought I would just do a quick Blog of course before I got to it!

Jon Oliva 
If I go away
What would still remain of me?
The ghost within your eyes?
The whisper in your sighs?
You see... Believe
And I'm always there.

TTFN
Marian

I sometimes open this page up and write random notes for my next Blog.... this one "manoeuvred the truth" has been sad here for a couple of days!! I wonder what truth was being manoeuvred!!!

Today, bin collection day, and once emptied, were left to blow about on the street, I had go out and chase the tin/glass recyling box and the waste food box, bad saying waste food isn't it, if we only made food to eat, but these are bones, and tea bags. [That should be in the garden now, I suppose, actually!]

I have getting together things for my trip at the weekend!  Off on a long train journey, for very good value for money!  Thanks to booking early, trip into London, then a hop, skip and jump to next station, and a journey back out of London to Aylesbury!!  Meeting up with a load of friends for dinner in the evening, and a Christening on Sunday... then back to Welsh Wales on Monday!  Trying to keep my bag light, just seems full of snacks now, mostly of the chocolate coated variety!  Kindle is fully loaded, can't wait, except for the 6:10am journey start from the train station!!!!

Must get on with work now, just wanted to finish, and have posted the beautiful little chapel in Mijas Pueblo... Onwards and upwards eh!

Oh, before I go, do you remember, I used to always finish my musings with a short poem didn't I!

 Khalil Gibran And ever has it been known that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.

TTFN
Marian

Couple of random photos today folks.... above Woody!  Well who else!  Garden centre near Cátama..

And here above, El Dorado, all those years looking for it, and it was in sight from my very own roof terrace, not THE city of gold, the British TV series set of course! 

Doing some work the other day, I came across a great name of a street in London... Mafeking Road, imagine telling a taxi driver the name of your street for a pick up!!!  I did have to explain to a friend in SA, "I maybe should explain before one of my sons does! Breaking it down, Ma[my] feking [expletive] Road!!!! lol, what a great address eh!"

A friend in Alhaurín added "Mafeking was a infamous siege the longest in the Boer war and Baden Powell was one of the 'heroes' of the hour if there can be one in such a bloody war."

This morning after not going out since Wednesday, Pip and I went out for a great walk, the sun was shining, the frost on the trees and grass was beautiful... I 'came' down with a migraine Thursday, it was brewing from Wednesday, my back was hurting bad, well Thursday I didn't stay up for longer than the time it took to have half a cup of tea and some breakfast, that, shall we say, made a quick return trip!!!

It was just like the old days, real bad, sickness etc, and the pain, checked my BP during a time when I thought it was getting better and it was 169/98, 120/80 is the norm, and when I got up Friday morning it was worse!  182/101!!!  I did ask the doctor if I could take the amazing migraine meds, but I can't, I know they're not compatible with my heart meds, but surely NOT having this dangerously high BP for two days!

TTFN 

Marian

 

Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882)

    Sudden Light

          I HAVE been here before,
              But when or how I cannot tell:
          I know the grass beyond the door,
              The sweet keen smell,
    The sighing sound, the lights around the shore. 

          You have been mine before,—
              How long ago I may not know:
          But just when at that swallow's soar
              Your neck turned so,
    Some veil did fall,—I knew it all of yore. 

          Has this been thus before?
              And shall not thus time's eddying flight
          Still with our lives our love restore
              In death's despite,
    And day and night yield one delight once more? 

TTFN

Marian

 

Lamp post along the River Thames near the London Eye.... Why? Just because I saw it!

What a day to day!  Friend was coming to get me at 11am, she was held up by an unexpected errand, then traffic, and seeing as she was late, I was there to take in a package, two of the paperback books I've just completed, and they look, if I do say so myself, blooming marvellous!!!

Then she arrived, and as I left the house... so did Pippa! I dropped everything, jacket bag, keys, sun glasses, on the ground by the open front door and I followed her as I would have a child, without thinking and in panic straight out into the street, luckily there was no boy racer [or girl!], flying down the road or both Pip and I would have been flying also!  She ran around my friends car then onto the path on the other side of the street, where I captured her!  Blooming heck!!!  I couldn't believe it, I knew if she got the chance she would bolt from the house, she did it in Spain, only here, the cars move faster, the roads are wider... and her microchip  still says our Spanish address! Doh! Our fault... only been nine months, only.... seems like years in a way too...

Anyway, Pippa back in the house and we were off, my mate wanted to buy a few things for her new home, some electrical, all a bit costly... after visiting furniture and electrical outlets we had a quick stop in a wonderful branch of a popular fast food outlet where they serve mostly chicken, from a place in south America!!!  Then back to the shops! And then back to Neath, she had mentioned she had a few bits of gold, some broken stuff, from when she was unpacking some last bits and pieces.... I suggested we take it to the shop in town, we did, we were both.... well, speachless... The money she got was enough to pay for every single thing she bought today! And it was no small amount!  Friend also thinks she may have more!

We had such a laugh today, we were like a couple of giddy giggling girls the whole afternoon!  I think people thought we were drunk... just one of those days, where neither of us could get words out straight, remember words, remember what the heck we were doing or where we were going! Drive or park straight! Oh the latter two items on the list? well, that was her.... !!!

Came home to a dark house and Pippa, sitting crossly waiting for me!  Wait till her father gets home to hear about her road running antics!  She will lose her benefits!

One of my favourite movies is on just now Polar Express, was thinking about it the other day, and yesterday it was on the TV, and again today!  Amazing, some things you ask for come to you, just like that.... others... not so easy, why is this?  Believing... all we have to do is believe... I'm thinking of putting up the Christmas Tree too, I normally put it up on December 1st, last year I had a tree for Baz who stayed for Christmas, the year before we got a new tree, I couldn't face the one that mom the boys and I had bought, years previously, and I still used.... The tree is Spain I chucked out before leaving, with everything, bar a couple of white doves and my 'special' things... My trouble is I get this great happy expectatious [made up word?], Christmas spirit feeling, then something happens on the day and I feel nothing but a great wallowing sadness, no outside influences can help or make it worse, its all inside of me, just so overwhelmingly sad and lost...

TTFN amigos
Marian

Don't ask why these photos today.... above Windsor castle! Taken from the little restaurant on the opposite side of the road, and I mean little, but lovely none the less!

I'm guessing seeing as its in the folder with the one below it must be around March time 2009...

I know I have put this wonderful photo I took of the reading man in the crypt of Winchester Cathedral before, but... There we are!

In between work today I ventured into the jungle, actually its so bad now, the garden!  Thanks to a friend I took her advise and three massive shrubs are now looking very malnourished, as in bare and needy of leaves!  The problem I am guessing is these huge plants hadn't been pruned for some years, so all the insides are dead... But today, I planted bulbs, every time I have planted bulbs I haven't been in the same house to them bloom!  Bit like every time my mom bought me stickers with my name and address on, I always moved, and was left with hundreds of address labels for a house I no longer lived in!

A couple of weeks ago, I also started a bit of a clear out of 'things'! I suppose I should say things I haven't used in years, but being a collector of all things, working, broken, old or just plain attached to! Its an almost impossible task, because everything I have has a memory, although I was once told to get rid of things that had 'memories', and I responded by saying the memories are in me, not in the item I was desperately holding on to at the time!  I lost the item, it had to go!  Luckily a friend of mine took it in and gave it a good home, and every time I get to be in her house, I run upstairs and reach out for my old, very well loved, Victorian chest of drawers!

Maybe you can tell already by my strange chat with you today, I am being a bit melancholy, again, or should I say as usual?  Its just that I've been lucky enough to have had lots of really long phone calls over the past few days, two of them lasting nearly a hour each!  And each time as I hung up, I wondered if my mom had called and couldn't get through...

TTFN
Marian