Worked all weekend, to cover a colleague but still was a good weekend.. 

Beautiful weather beautiful evenings.. 

Extraordinary sunsets as always ..

Worked two last days and tomorrow, and tomorrow evening Robbie Williams concert in Fuengirola! Second time I've seen Robbie, first time in the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.. twenty two years ago..

Sarah and I stayed in a hotel in Newport,  and we had fish and chips for dinner! 

I've got my dress and boots ready! Was going with comfort! But what the hell eh! Probably won't see him again! I mean, I think if I stick in 22 year pattern! I might be on a world tour or something then! 

I'm going through a long cycle of weird dreams I know that! Was so weird that when I woke up this morning wasn't sure that was dream and what was now, awake .. So presuming now this hasn't been one long day of dreaming, although we did have an especially difficult day at work, technology let us down, customers seemed to be.. well, on a different planet today! 

And not only did my tendonitis get worse after I mentioned I thought it better but definitely got a kidney stone causing issue last couple of days.. 

Neighbors are out on holiday and enjoying moving furniture about at all times of day and night I say in a high pitched well enunciated voice out loud as I write this piece! 

Now laughing like a crazy woman at myself! 

M.

In order to move others deeply we must deliberately allow ourselves to be carried away beyond the bounds of our normal sensibility.

Joseph Conrad - 1857-1924 - Author

Time flies.. as always, Saturday took friends to a tattoo place I use in Fuengirola, Art Monkey, two tattoos later, they're both very pleased with their new ink!  And we headed to the paseo and had a cool drink, went to a bar I've never been to before, it looks recently updated, and maybe I have, a long long time ago..

Time has a habit of running away without us if we don't keep an eye on it! 

We had a bite of lunch at Luis Bar, where I have been going since '89, and also very changed, not sure in a good way though..  then we went to the Sky Bar.. definitely never been there.. it's in the hotel that faces the statue of the woman whose back is to the med.. near Luis Bar..  I say in, the bar is on the rooftop, like at the TWA hotel at JFK.. similar but not the same.. 

Was wonderful up there, sat on sofas, and under a shade, good friends and conversation, the warm sun and a little breeze.. very very nice..

Above and below La Cala de Mijas on Sunday..

Sunday I drove down to La Cala, sat on the beach, then along onto a sunbed, had a bite of lunch.. sea breeze was wonderful, but then I could see dark battleship gray clouds approaching from homeward direction and decided to head home, saw my neighbor and had a coffee with him, before it started to rain, which it did so we had another coffee!! 

Today a coffee up this end of town, before a walk down to town, and, more coffee! 

I've had a bad day on Facebook, shared way too many soppy poems and saved even more in my 'to keep' list..

Sometimes we have days like that, they weigh heavy for whatever reason.

M.

I am a very lucky person in so many ways; I don't thank everyone enough... Thank you to the people in my life who make me smile, who lighten my life and heart...

Cod, from the Crispy Cod

I've just run up onto the terrace, the light in the house is red, Sahara red red! I've taken some photos, next blog now!!!

Photograph taken yesterday morning walking into town... sunlight and shade...

The purple church.. bit misty? AKA rubbish photograph!

A photograph of Alhaurín Golf in the distance...

Today I went down to the coast to spend some time with friends, the third and final time in the last week, they are back to the UK and I am of course back to work soon!

Been good spending time with them, out and about and just chatting and catching up on whats been going on... Today we went to the Crispy Cod in Fuengirola, we usually do, but I didn't think we would this time, the town being so busy, but we got a space nearby for the car, no problem, even seemed a bit quiet down on the coast.... The food great as always.

Okay, posting this and then getting the next batch on!! Amazing skies!!

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...

Shared Road...

I was going to say, hey its me Blogging late... but just realised its only 8:35pm, well at the moment, as I begin my post... its very nearly dark... I paused to WhatsApp... and now its 8:40pm and dark!!

Photographs today courtesy of my phone in Miramar on Monday!  The one above, there used to be two flights of steep stairs, with the big screen in the middle... and a lift over near where I was standing to take this, a small elevator, very small, now closed... and it was only when I came down the above escalator I realised it was new!! LOL Even though I went up the other one!

Up on the terrace above all the shops, where we used to go for Franco to have a smoke... and me to take a photograph or two!

Even some sand!! Whoop Whoop!

The sea... from the Med to the Atlantic, soon to the Pacific! Back home home home... she says clicking her heels neatly together!

I went there shopping to get a few things for my trip to work on Saturday and then my holibobs afterwards!  I got everything I needed, the shop I wanted opened at 10am and by 10:30am I was at Calahonda where I was meeting our friend, our neighbour from there, for a coffee!

Worlds smallest merry-go-round near the top of the escalator!

I've had a difficult week, more tears this week than last... Crying for all things lost... Life shouldn't be about loss, it should be about the many wonderful and beautiful that we find throughout life, people, places, inanimate objects even... even if we don't have them anymore, or go there, or they get broken... Why is loss so hard, its all we do is lose one thing after another; how wonderful to be hard-hearted to just feel nothing... That just isn't me, I wonder if I'll harden up to life one day, not be so sensitive to pain and hurt, I don't think I can cope with this forever.

A quote to end on today.... purloined from Twitter, of course!

One day, you'll be just a memory for some people.  Do your best to be a good one.

I am like one of those pennies thrown in the air "Heads!" "Tails!"

Spinning around and around, over and over, all the time headed for the inevitable ground to hit on!

... and while I'm spinning? What shall I do? Where shall I go? How do I move forward, because I know I can't stay in this... in this mind set...

I had photographs of Franco on my solitaire game I play before going to sleep, the game puts me to sleep it's so boring I guess! I had Franco as the back drop and on the cards... I know it wasn't healthy... Barry suggested I change the photos to more positive ones... So I have. I'm not thinking any less of Franco just not the last image I see as I close my eyes...

I'm Blogging from Fuengirola just now, sat having coffee in Las Rampas... I am almost opposite where mom and I lived for six months too...

Worse weather since 1989 Malaga Spain

Photographs of devastation from this morning on our journey down to the coast...  The main river we drive down from the mountain beside was full, at its worse it must have been close to the road in some places because by the golf courses at Las Lagunas dead wood and rubble has piled up near the barriers on the river side... large old trees brought down who knows how many miles...

At the garden centre and other businesses down near Aldi everyone was out hosing down the drives and parking and forecourts... Washing the streets helping the councilmen clean up...

One of the gold courses had lost its stone wall, its fences and the course was flooded out...

We didn't intend to go down today, but friends needed us to give them a hand and we did, all sorted soon we hope!

We also went for lunch at the now very famous La Cala BP restaurant, yes BP as in petrol station!  And very good it is too, they do rush about a bit though and you feel, well from where we were sitting that as they rushed past we rushed to eat... next time sitting at a table rather than a bar would be more beneficial!!

Very large plastic container in the cave is catching drips we have from a leak in there, its only the second time we have had water come in there, so that's not too bad really is it?  And water coming in the kitchen too from around the door frame, which is odd, never had that before, but also never had this much water coming into the little back patio either, hope it stops raining soon, the paintwork is bubbling a little and I don't want it getting damp...

When we got home from our trip water in the planters out on the front balcon was drowning the poor plants there and on the terrace, it had been raining for six days by then, and was about two inches deep or just overflowing in some of the pots! So I stuck a screwdriver down into the still tightly packed earth and the water drained in and then out the bottom of the planters... That is why our whole area here is flooding!!  So dry, so hard packed earth that none of this water can actually penetrate and soak in, its just surfing the top soil and causing floods!  So, yes, we need to get out there and stick sharp things into the ground to let the water in!! LOL, yes okay, crazy talk!

TTFN
Marian