Friday July 27th, a blood moon... not seen from my terrace, I am thinking it was stuck behind the ayuntamiento as usual! The moon always gets stuck behind there when I want to see it for some special occasion! 

                                     

This morning at 6:30am... the full moon, just.... clear as crystal... beautiful morning, cool breeze... Its definitely cooler this year early on... or we're all losing our memories..? Yes always a possibility!

I decided yesterday I would hit the beach today! I know I am not a beach babe, this could be the one hit of the year! Although I might well go again next Saturday! What the hell eh! It was okay, I pulled up a sunbed about 9am and didn't leave until 14:30!!!! Incredible!!

I read the book that had been in the bag since last summer when I think I went to La Cala beach twice, nothing had been touched in the bag, so was my towel, sun cream and the book! Nice!! Yes the towel is in the wash now!!

 So I finished the book too, its a book I must have owned since the last century!! Even back to the eighties! Its been in boxes and maybe a shed or two! Looks like mice have taken a bite and there has definitely been a wood worm having a go!!

I did leave the beach about 10:30 to go get coffee and a bocadillo... I went for a stroll up the plaza near the entrance to the port... the two roads coming from the direction of the bus station have gone!!! Gone???? There is just one road now... and a very wide pathway on the far side... So now even more parking has been taken away! And really another part of the old Fuengirola has been taken away...

I went into my old place to get my takeout, and the owner wasn't in there, the girls all chatted to me, in far too much English for my liking! Lol... and eventually I enquired about Luiz... he has been running the place for at least 16 years... I feared even he had gone, but no, thankfully...

One piece at a time, brick by brick, memory by memory things get changed, subtle, or sudden... Change, I guess when its us making the changes its okay, for us... but not for others and hardly ever for me.

Last Saturday evening down at La Cala with a neighbor, we arrived early, about 7pm I think, already very little parking left, the feria setting up in the fair ground so everyone parking in Aldi and up and down every possible street and on every round-about and pathway!!

You know how it is here!

In the big plaza near the beach a big stage was set and from early evening various bands and dancers performed... The atmosphere was great, always friendly and all the families out parading and talking and eating... Was a great evening...

A friend was having dinner in a restaurant up near the feria ground and was totally unaware of the festivities going on along the beach!

On the way back up to Alhaurín we stopped in the BP garage for a beer... The place was heaving! I think we sat at the last empty table... Crazy how a petrol station can be so full of people enjoying the warm evening, eating such good food and getting their fill of alcohol!!

Thursday my meet up with our neighbor from when we lived down at Calahonda... I arrived early, of course! I walked down under the N340 the wide road which used to be so small and was limited to one way at a time! I walked around the raised pathway there; there used to be a track that ran down the [when dry] river bed to the beach.. but now its a usable walk-through, very permanent, which I guess makes it better for the people in the nearby complex, as people used to use their place to walk through to reach the sea!

I walked along the pathway that travels along by the side of the main road, they've cemented alongside the old path, so its wider now, and less gritty!

Passing by the big tall apartment complexes and turned left... I paused on the tile above... where the phone box used to be, from where I used to call my mom.. The booth has been gone eight years already yet still looks so unused compared to the rest of the pathway...

And then headed around towards the beach and the boardwalk... This view is still stunning... as is this one...

I did turn right to get a good luck at the apartment but a man was sitting on the balcony!! And well, I thought I better not take his photograph!! 

So turning around I continued along until the beach bar and came up back to the main road from there... 

The Almond Tree has opened again, did I know that? Have I already mentioned it before? Who knows! I came and went to Calahonda via the back roads, always seems like I'm in some strange new country driving the back way... empty land, few cars... so quiet and peaceful...

Early morning post today, I hear you, makes a pleasant change! Lol to even blog!

So, okay when did I last post amigos? Oh yes, the 18th and I was feeling pretty low..  It has been a strange week since I've been back home, I'm either sky high or down in a mire... The Pipsters not been good, and I feel just so far away from... from my life.

Just when I feel steady, the tatonic plates beneath my feet start to move; do I keep making wrong turns, wrong decisions? I need to throw out my anchor and hope it catches on solid ground.

I am so full of stupid sayings and quotes! Do you remember I used to write bits of copied, sorry, purloined poetry each Blog... Happy days.

So, okay, yesterday I went to the coast with a friend, bought a few bits, but it was more about giving time and sharing a good morning, having a laugh, I cried too, in the car going down, lol... But back to laughter and we had a good morning!

Today I'm meeting up with an ex Mercedes Benz colleague and his wife, down near Marbs!! Lol... Love calling Marbella Marbs now, don't know why, it's so anti what I would have done in the past maybe?

We always have a good catch up, I'm really looking forward to seeing them.

And tomorrow a double coffee date, first down at Calahonda with an old neighbor, then up to Coín with a friend who helped out when we needed her too...

I have funny photographs from a street I walk the Pipster, passed this telegraph pole for 13 years! Never noticed it until last week!!

The wooden post itself is just strapped to a small section of concrete!!

Yet supporting a whole network of cables! You've got to love it!

The amount of hours I must have spent on station platforms and this was the first time I have seen cars drive by!! And an enormous line of cars there were too!  Everyone stopped to stare!!

Good journey to Nottingham from Cheltenham Spa... Non stop and a quick enough two hour trip.

A couple of photographs from Broadway which we visited the day before I left the placement; a beautiful town in the Cotswolds, absolutely picture perfect, and quintessential England! I kept expecting a film crew to turn up recording a murder mystery or something!  The man in the restaurant knew the area I live in, and told me to visit a local restaurant down near the coast because he knows a singer there!!! Its a small world isn't it!

After my placement I had a few days with my oldest son and his family, my younger son came up to spend some nice time with me; it was a good few days... Then it was back to the airport and back to Spain! My car wasn't ready for pick-up, something to do with the fact I had told them I was collecting it a month later than the date I actually came to pick it up!!!

My birthday yesterday was lovely, went out for lunch, great restaurant I hadn't been in before, but at one of my favourite places! I think the day was so good, that later on I came down with a bang... having trouble picking myself back up today.

Random photographs... A bee above filling up a hole in the bench with tiny leaves! I watched him fly back time and time again with these tiny leaves he had chewed from a nearby plant, he pushed them inside here!!

A few more pics from the pretty seaside town along the Devon coast...

And a tree in the garden! The knot appearing to have a face peering back at me!! But only this day, at no other day did it appear so!

Do you see it? Above the two bows on the right... Where upper bow meets trunk...

And while away at work went on a working visit to the south Devon coast, a small town I'd never been to before...

Very pretty, the weather outstandingly good, well, the whole time I have been here in England actually!

It's been in the high 20's low 30's every single day! Amazing! But then it's bringing land fires, everything is so dry now.

There is a cliff edge here, it's falling into the sea every day I think, because the cliff is made of red rock/earth, and the sea was red every day! By different measures...

It was a good journey down and back, great getting out on the open road and driving...

One bad thing was I witnessed a massacre!! Well, a solo killing!! Being dramatic here I know, but it was a visual thing I shall never forget! Out in the back patio area I heard a commotion, a seagull was slaughtering a baby pigeon! At the stage I saw it a wing had been practically chewed off but the poor thing was still fighting for its life!! It was awful, it was the worse thing...

And the seagulls were attacking people with ice-creams on the promenade, dive-bombing the ices!! People were waving them away, and then eating the ice-cream, I'm thinking, they wouldn't if they knew where these seagulls had had their beaks!!!

Saw another dead baby pigeon back here yesterday... Funny, was only saying the other day, "never see baby pigeons!"

Travelling Road

Of course at work, can't give exact locations, but flower photographs aplenty!

I know also I should be apologising again at my tardiness of writing, but I've been tired, long days, and well just not felt like writing... Maybe I'll improve! Lol!

I am in an exceedingly beautiful location, between Cheltenham and somewhere... In the Cotswolds...

Surrounded by amazing gardens and learning more about plants than I expected too!

I've made cherry preserve, and gooseberry jam!

At a nearby steam train station last weekend I saw two groups of five red arrows do a low fly by!

Last night a little muntjac deer in the garden... The evening before a friendly, can they be otherwise? Hedgehog passed by!

There are redkites being chased by swallows protecting their nests...

(A thousand million flies and spiders!) Not bothered!

The 2018 World Cup Football on TV, some good, some more like a wrestling match!!

My wonderful stay with my family starting to feel so long ago already...