A few photograph taken the other week from up the coast a ways..

A very chic chiringuito above.. the price of a small beer was enough, then the overpriced menu also! Nope!

I am quite getting the hang now on the bike, although it's a fold up and so small wheels, probably would be better on a mountain bike.. but small steps me thinks!

At least I ride straight now, mostly.. only panicking occasionally! Lol

Great graffiti piece here, hidden artists abound...

TTFN
Marian

Just mucking about at a marina...

It's cooler down near the water than inland certainly at this time of the year.,

Another warning in Malaga area for hot weather..

So today down at the coast..

Bit of a sea must rolling in though today keeping it cooler..

Above and below a feria at a very small Pueblo... So small, the fair was watched by an equal amount of participants!

Very relaxed and everyone having fun... Was a great evening a couple of weeks ago.

Great tapas and a glass of wine for not much more than two euros.

TTFN
Marian

Windswept skies...

It has been beyond hot here these last few weeks.. Amber alert in Malaga area as we regularly go over the 44° mark...

On the terraces it's in the fifties... But 'they' who record these temperatures don't take those into account!

Another feria, another concert! This was actually after a small fair at the port and a band set up a mile away along on the beach, three girls... Was okay, the young kids seemed to know all their songs...

Lol that makes me feel old saying that!! Oh heck!!

And a table and wine.. because wine not!

So today I am down at Calahonda to meet with friends ...

Always brings both the happiest memories and some sad when I am here.

Seen our neighbor from next door albeit briefly.. seen the lady from the office in passing... Good to see the Almond Tree open...

Having coffee in the old place, still run by the same guys, his hair went from long to short and now from black to gray... Thirty years... A good long time...

Oh, the pool party! Was fine! Was good.. great music, a live musician, she had a very good voice, a bit Adele like.

An open bar, and good food...
A few dogs roaming around for attention and the pool! Of course!

Stayed a few hours, maybe over three I think...oh and there was a film crew there, for a channel 5 item!!

TTFN
Marian

And so! Back home to Spain!

First a small feria by the port... These small fairs are so much nicer than the huge ones.. more personal, and you get to see the same characters throughout.. lol.. could be taken either way that statement!

Still, great tapas, great music... Relaxing times...

This feria is the second I've been too in the same area.. and been to another since.. last week.. trying to catch up with myself, as always on here..

Before I go now though have a pool party to go to this afternoon. Both these words strike horror in me, I don't do pools.. well, okay I now have my own personal water wings, and goggles!! Lol... but the word pool is still not in my vocabulary! And party! Ugh! No!!! So adding these two words together sounds like a nightmare to me.. then I have to tell myself that when I think ahead like this 'things' are never as bad as I think they will be and I end up having a good time...

Although...

TTFN
Marian

Last days of birthday trip home..

Lunch from the 18th... Because I thought it might make you hungry!

Followed by the packet of French toast you can buy in the states.. thick sweet and so yummy!

Smothered with syrup of course!

Walking to the reservoir crossing with a discarded trainer! Looked a bit random!

They are presently refilling the reservoir could take some time!!

Had a bit of a Stephen King moment.. passed a lady and then passed her again.. which would have been impossible given the size of the reservoir, and time to take walking around it!!

Very odd! She looked at me and acknowledged me with a nod the first time, and then the second did the same!!

Freaked me out!! Lol

The last even we ate out.. felt good, but sad too..

The last morning my brother drove us upstate to my niece's ... We met at Molly Browns.. 

I had one pancake and five rashers of bacon, with syrup and coffee... Coffee's plural!

One pancake was more than sufficient!

Wow!

Then.. after visiting their home, it was back on the road, heading downstate.. collected my bag and off to LAX.

Good flight home, extremely tiring, ten and half hour flight to Gatwick, four hour stopover, luckily with international onwards travel I didn't need to collect my bag and skipped through directly to the departures again...

Managed not to fall asleep anywhere.. kept eating and drinking plenty of water, took my meds.. and boarded again for Malága and home.

When it came to collecting my bag was a bit confusing as no one had said my bag wouldn't come through the normal channels.. and when I stood almost alone and no more cases coming through.. I spoke to a couple next to me also waiting.. He asked and we went through to the international flight arrivals baggage section.. and lo and behold my case was there! Lol They too had arrived from LAX.

But I wish I'd known...

Thankfully I didn't need to drive home, and by the time we got home I'd been up about 30 hours!? Something like that, I woke up at 5am on Saturday morning and got to bed at about 23:30 Sunday evening.. nine hours time difference and two flights..

I had an amazing time with my family, didn't want it to end, but also so happy to come home...

My family east coast missed me not stopping over.. next time...

TTFN
Marian

July 18th

Well there had to be a first time for a pedicure! And it had to be in California! Look at those toes of mine! Lol.. I have never seen them look so good!

Yes I still chose bright red.. No change there since I was 13 years old! Always been red! Except one evening when Sarah and I went to Watford and I painted them green! Awful night! Still have a scar to prove it!

On my hand! From a lit cigarette end that stuck to it while we were dancing!

Given a thin pair of flipflops to leave with I t they had dried sufficiently!

Neat eh! Lol My last pair came free with Cosmopolitan mag have only just given up! They lasted about twenty years! Don't think these will do so well!

Also at the same time the chairs were massage chairs! Could have any number of different massages.. from shiatsu to ... Whatever! Can only remember that one type, but I started fiddling with it and was getting a massage I hadn't prepared for! So switched it off! Hurt my neck!

After Lori and I had finished in the happy feat place! We went for lunch somewhere we'd been earlier in the week, beautiful salad filled with fruit, the freshest bread and amazing chilled tea...

TTFN
Marian

My Birthday!

Bet you're wondering what happened to me! Sorry! Been otherwise occupied!

So! My birthday! Looks like the last post registered as July 17th, guess it was already here, but not for me.. Need to update the date!

On my birthday my sister-in-law and I collected her mom and we went to downtown Disney.

Just the shops and restaurants, lots of Disney around, and right next to you park.

We shopped and walked and ate lunch. I cheekily told the waiter it was my birthday, and he brought out a big dessert cake with three spoons after we'd finished our main course! Even had a lit candle in the middle of it!

I bought a couple of things, only! In a store, came to about $38+ and on leaving the car park the ticket read $49 to pay, the guy asked of we'd purchased anything, I gave him my receipt and he took that value off plus a little more, I think it came down to $7 to pay, not $49... Wow! Thank goodness I bought something! Lols

Beautiful pagoda... So beautiful, near the Disney hotel, large lawns.. of fake grass and no seats!

The Lego shop was outstanding.. from the outside with George and the dragon...

And the islands had Disney designs.. you had to walk around them until they made sense.. different parts of each character positioned just so... And therefore like a live animation...

Everything was pretty expensive.. of course.. but a great place to spend quality time in, and we did have quality time..

Such a lovely day with Lori and her mom...

Oh, and the second cake shown at the start?
At the Italian restaurant in the evening.. The Olive Garden Italian Restaurant.

The brought me out a mini Tiramisu, with candle, and sang to me!

Was a wonderful evening, my brother his wife, her family who have adopted me into theirs...

Thank you.. truly.

TTFN
Marian

Well, that's it!

When I turned 59 last July 17th I decided my 59th year would be a good one, or a memorable one at the very least.

And that it has!

Highs lows and all points in between!

Ending this evening, with a bang!

I have wanted to go to a firing range for years!

And more so since I became a zombie killer on Arizona Sunset!!

Panara Bread restaurant

So today after work my brother took me to one half an hours drive away, and wow! Wow wow wow!

We used a Glock 9mm, 150 bullets and two blue men posters to fire at!

I did okay, actually okay..

Sort of surprised myself.

It was great fun; the guy at the counter showed me exactly how to hold the gun, load the gun and to fire it.

Jackboys Dog Bakery

We took turns, and filled two blue men posters with holes!

At one point I started a small fire!! Lol I guess a bullet passed through with some paper attached, landed on the pile of used bullets and ignighted!

We all had to leave while it was extinguished, then back in!

Really great fun!

And now I'll take my leave of this my 59th year and move on with as much fire in soul, love in my heart and passion in my being as I am going out with...

So watch out! It's a full moon tonight and my birthday tomorrow.. another year begins!

TTFN
Marian

Above is the Morongo Casino, we three drove there this morning to meet up with a cousin from Palm Springs a little further up the highway..

These three are random photographs as we drove..

I lost twenty dollars in the machines.. but my sister-in-law gave me a twenty from her winnings and I changed that into fifty dollars! Lucky money! Thank you 💋

We ate in a restaurant there, gorgeous burger! Blue cheese bacon medium rare burger.. sweet potato fries!

Very nice!

My flight to LA from Gatwick left half an hour late, but we landed quarter of an hour early..

Quick through security and baggage collection, and then handed in the certificate after that and I was out! Maybe 45 minutes maximum. My brother and his wife there to meet me in the arrivals hall! Was brilliant!

On the flight we were three, then a girl got an upgrade and disappeared.. so I moved into the window seat and we could spread out!

Slept as much as I could, and after eating out on our way home, I managed to go to bed quite late, turned my day into a long one... Over 24hrs! But I slept well, and got up almost normal time.

Friday night was interesting! My sister in law gave me some chocolate.. not just any chocolate!! Was special chocolate!! It was a very small piece, about two inches long by pencil size in diameter...

It was pure.. and not just chocolate! All legal here of course! But oh my flipping god!

I should be more careful what I let people feed me! Even if it's 'just' chocolate!

THC! Google it!!

Don't judge!! Not allowed! It's a free country!!

TTFN
Marian

Sunrise's..

Well here I am!

Gatwick airport, flown in and landed here about 9am.. now experiencing a five hour departure lounge sit it!!

I've purchased and consumed a WH Smith three piece meal... Having eaten my porridge this morning at 3:30am.. I have eaten lunch early! Lol

No doubt I'll be eating sweets and a coffee before my 14:10 flight outta here headed for Los Angeles.

Sunrise's

Been traveling around beautiful Andalucia like a nomad.. and enjoying all I see..

Only back in time to pack and sleep before getting up at silly o'clock this morning!

I am hoping for sleep on the next flight, eleven hours.. in between eating and drinking that is!

I will put on my headphones, my eye mask and hope for the best...

The flight over was quite empty, although I was only in row seven, not sure how it looked behind me.. even though for some reason boarded at the back and made myself comfortable in row 20!! Lol! What a numpty!

All the flying I do and I sat randomly in the wrong seat!?!

Not doing that later! I hope! Who knows!

Anyways.. I moved to the aisle seat so the woman in the window seat, and I, had space between us, once I was actually in my seat!!

Sunset's

So LA here I come, home for my birthday... Last birthday was twenty years ago... Back in the 1970's.. just kidding, but doesn't seem so far back the 1970's...

And twenty years ago I could never have envisioned this me, sat here, now, after how my life has been since then.

I don't physically feel it, and definitely not mentally! Lol .. emotionally? Yes, maybe..

In my soul? Yes definitely.

But it is what it is...

TTFN
Marian

Taking some time out of life...
Eating, talking, laughing, snoozing, listening to music, reading, dip in the pool, few chores..

Press repeat...

I am resting.. just being, and being the most relaxed, rested and at peace that I have been in too long a time...

It's too hot to walk.. days going both slow and fast in equal measures..

I have found Nirvana..

TTFN
Marian

Back home in Spain..
Looking at new views in a new perspective.

And feeling peaceful and happy, and able to breathe and.. just be..

That's it, that's all.. that all is everything..

TTFN
Marian

There is a great deal we never learn from anyone, about life, about living.

Stuff we see every day, maybe we see it and ignore it, maybe it's best we each learn for ourselves?

Some is inconsequential, unnecessary, it might never effect us, or we choose to ignore it.

Maybe we stop listening to people when they're older. Big mistake.

I am thankful for the hours upon hours I have spent supporting older people especially, they have so much knowledge so much history..

But still there are things I've not listened to...

Just listen please, this is very important: Time goes quickly, it does. Even if your days seem long now, sometimes tedious, or boring...

Time is passing.

And these ten years between fifty and sixty, (god helpful me!) have been the fastest yet.

They have been the most harrowing of my life, days in which each felt like a lifetime.

But it has flown past.

Grab life, by its... Okay maybe by its hand!

And hold on tight.

I know now there are things I won't get to do ..

I'll probably, lol, probably won't get to find my dad's two other son's, my two other half siblings... Really the chance of finding a Japanese half-brother born in WW2 in Japan is and always had been an impossibility, especially without a name or date of birth.

The other brother born in Nevada... Almost as difficult it seems and I have his mom's name and her next husband's name!

I have to let this go.

We don't learn about so much, we live it, but we must learn from it.

Notice every day, wake up every day and see it, spend time in the day, not on the next. Plant yourself for a moment and breathe...

If we get to take anything with us in death, it has to be our life..

And in life we waste so much time.

TTFN
Marian

Summer Solstice 2019

Ducks in the Arboretum

So today is 2019's Summer Solstice.. it's been so light so early, it's been keeping me awake.. in Spain we don't have these early light mornings or late light evenings, yes it's still the longest daylight day, but not like here in the UK.

Today lots going on in Nottingham, where I have been since Monday..

Unrelated to the Solstice we went into town for lunch, went to Chiquitos, I had a burrito with benefits!

Then late afternoon we went into the Arboretum and watched a show, performance.. it was a mix of acrobatics, and a couple of puppets...

Hard to explain, and not sure the photographs will help...

It took three people to bring the puppet to life, it was clever, just I suppose very different...

Pond in Arboretum

From there we walked into town, and around, and back again to the Arboretum... I have sore feet now.. but was a good day.. a very good day.

Yesterday we went to Highfields Park, we caught the tram, it's across town and out the other side.

The weather report said sun and clouds.. it was, but overall really nice, thought at one point a storm was headed our way.. but it passed over..

I walked a rope bridge..

And negotiated a slide...

We had a picnic, typical British picnic it must have looked too, a family sat eating under a tree, with looming clouds and staying put, just for the hell of it!

As we were packing up three ducks approached to try their luck!

She was a bit antsy when the bread run out and then us too!!

TTFN
Marian