Meatballs, mud, markets and muffins

Oh, its really been ages since i wrote a blog hasn't it. Well,since the last on we have had chistmas (work, jamon, feinting) , new year (killer fireworks and late night kebabas) and valentines day (dressed up candle lit dinner and the worst lemon tart ever).

Last week I went back to England (tea with nanny, cheep sandles from primark, yummy roast dinner, watching voyager with Will, long 'walk' with Jon, snow! squidging in the mud in wellies, fish rissotto (my clothes still smell!), massive que at the cinema, lime in the coconut, larkrise to candleford, and back, moofan, pride of the river,Over indulged at carluccios, coffee before pudding! oxford market, hanging rabbits, more real ale, best cookies ever, short skirt-cold bum. meatballs and custard, saying bye at the airport.

Lets admit it, by the time i have written up a blog for everyday of my holiday no one will even care that i had one, or we will be onto the next on and you know how often we go on holiday!). SO im going to cut it down and just stick in the interesting pits and some photies.

Sunday

The shower broke this morning, luckily after i had already had mine! I held the shower hose onto the tap so michael could at least wash the soap out of his hair.

We went out for tostados con mermalada but ended up on the beach. I pursuaded michael to get his tootsies out and walk in the sea. We walked on and on and on, prorably most of the 8 k's of the beach.

On our way back we came across a manga convention. It was full of kids dressed as manga characters and there were big tents where you could do origami, or play card games and buy fanasy t shirts. Complete geek fest!

Finally made it back to the center and walked down a little alley to find a little flemenco festival!

Mon

Managed to fit an old semi broken hose to the shower and went out for toastados by the market. They have special churros stands where you buy them wrapped in newspaper like fish and chips, then go to a cafe and order and hot chocolate to dip them in.

The market was full of fruit and veg stalls. We bought clementines that were green on the outside but delicious on the inside. Also saw a girl get her leg stuck in a hole in the grating.She got it out though.

Went of in serch of food, and after the mandatory trek found a german bar and had some lovely tapas and a cana.

Mooched around some more and found a bar with a big picture of barney form the simpsons and a speech bubble saying 'pon me mas' (give me more beer). Had a few canas then headed of in search of food. Found a tapas bar/restaurante with lots of big legs of serano ham hanging up. We had 6 pinitos de pollo ('ito' signifies little, whcih they wern't) and some chips and headed off.

Tue

Set of in the car as its a holiday and most things are closed. Food lots of shopping centers around Jerez so had a look and ate kebab (very spanish!)

Drove around Jerez to get the general idea but couldn't be bothered to get out (still ill). Like most places it is nicein the center but a bit scanky on the outskirts.

I was woken from my siesta by a little boy outside the window shouting 'mama, quiero ver la prosecion' (mum, i want to see the procesion). So i said 'michael, i want to see the prosesion'.

Had coffee while figuering out where the noise was coming from and followed the crowds to the the cathedral. The streets are so narrow there was no chance of seeing anything and spanish religous prosesions take hours to move, so we stood on the steps of the cathedral and managed to see the top of one of the floats.

Wed

Went back to the cathedral and climbed the tower. The views were pretty impressive. As cadiz is sort of stuck out on its own you can see to the sea in all directions.

We came down and had a look at the fish in the market which made me feel a bit sick. Pottered about for a bit then went in search of lunch. We were trying to find a street we had seen before full of fish restaurants but these roads have a habbit of disapering when you want to find them again. Anyways we were walking around when we both suddenely stopped and sniffed. a delicious smell was waffting from a small tapas bar we wouldn't have otherwise seen. First we ordered potatoes with chorizo, and bacalao (salf cod) salad. They were so yum we ordered carne mecha too which is roast pork in a thick meaty gravey. It was delicious and with 4 drinks only came to 15€

We walked around the shops for a bit and i came away with my wallet a bit lighter by the time we sat down for churros and chocolate. The waiter short changed me 1€ too!

Thur

Tried to find the fried fish street again but still could't so went back to the german bar. I made Michael walk through the city gardens by sea. They were quite small but very pretty and well kept.

Despite it being windy in the morning it was hotting up. Nothing for it but the beach! We even swam in the sea! It was F*****g freezing, but we soon got used to it. It was a really nice beach with a really shallow shore an no stones.

Found a bar alled the wookstock bar and had a few pre dinner drinks. It was a cool bar playing oldschool music like pink floyd and had loads of international beers.

We walked in the drizzle to a little pizza place i had spotted earlier. It was good Pizza! We went back to he bar for a post dinner drink and headed off after we heard the last orders bell (in Spain?!)

Fri

I had totally caught michaels cold by now but we set of in the rain to the subteranean archeological building where the owner of our apartment works. She had invited us to look around and it was pretty interesting seein gthe cannons and things that they had taken from the sea and the processed the different materials had to go through now they were out in the air.

We stopped for lunch at the good smelling tapas bar and on the way back walked past that bloddy fried fish street, it was right by the apartment! (never got any fried fish!)

Weirdly there were loads of dragonflies everywhere today, like swarms of them.

We decided to head for home a day early as the weather was getting bad, and we were not getting much better. We had seen and enjoyed as much of cadiz as we were going to that week and headed home to recover!

Holiday blog 1: Colds and cockerels

Blog time! I wrote a little diary while we were on holiday so i could remember all the good things to tell you, but it turned out a bit longer than planned so i maight have to do it in installments, which isnt so bad coz then i can put more pictures in, and maybe even a video clip if i can get it to work.

We have all got the lurgy here, even over our holiday, but michael is out in the kitchen cooking me up a casarol to make us feel better.

Here goes with the holiday:

Saturday

Left pretty late coz i had booked an emergency hair cut in the morning, then took a slightly longer route by tarifa but got here fine. Some idiot had forgotten to print of a map or the adress of our apartmet, so i had to run to an internet cafe to print them off so we could find our way through the maze of narrow streets to our house.

The woman was waiting and showed us in, showed us the clean laundry on the line and the towels still in the washing machine. Oviously we change the bed ourselves. On carefull and sniffing i suspected that very little had been cleaned, and whoever took the photos for the website must have been a dab hand at photoshop. I finally found the toaster in the cupboard but there is still no kettle. Nevermind, its small and cosy and fine for what we want.

We popped out for a quick look around and to park the car. Its very pretty in the old town, right by the sea. We walked by some gardens and stopped in a square for a cana some tapas of albondigas (meatballs) which were delicious! We also saw a woman feint in the cafe.

As we walked back we saw new parts of the city, and parts we seemed to have past a few times already, so round and round we went till we finally found home.

Decided to stay in for the evening as michael had caught my sore throaty ague thing with extra bunged up nose and aching.

I must have woken up 20 times in the night, there was a baby crying,a kid with a recorder, doors banging, people chatting outside the window, scooters starting and someone dragging a bloddy dustbin up and down the cobbled street. Finally got some sleep but was rudely awoken by a cockerel?!

At Last, a blog!

Its been a while, sorry, but here are some pictures of the beer festival we went to the last 2 weekends.

Everything has started to get busy here again. Summer hours are over and normal opening hours have resumed. That means working late for me.
Although there was another bank holiday last week and of course everything will shut down on feria week in october...

The beer festival was fun. The first time we went they ran out of good beer so we had to drink this weird german wheat beer. It was disgusting. The evenings entertainment was a load of drag queens singing and dancing. The sencond night we were there they got pushed off stage by the brazillian dancers and the brass band. Everyone loved them and were all dancing on the tables, including me, fuelled by the litre glasses of beer michael kept buying us.

I managed to get michaels mum up to do the YMCA but then i was on my own, jigging away all night.

Over the 2 weekends i managed to smuggle out a 1/2 litre and a litre beer glass with the munich october fest picture on the side. They are sitting proudly with my random collectiong of plastic wine glasses and barbie plates. Michael seems to have spent most weekends lately worse for wear (ok and me to) and hasn't got round to using them yet.

Last night i went out with a friend for some tapas and a few drinks. So today i just about managed to do the shopping and get a coffee and now im just chillin, watching memoirs of a geisha and trying to catch up on some emails! Not too different to last weekend, i spent the whole of sunday on the sofa reading.

Well, mum and dad are over on wednessday to sort me out, and i have a new course starting soon, so no rest for the wicked!

One virgen and lots of fireworks

Our visitors finaly got here at about 11 on sunday night, it took us ages to get to the airport because of queues and John had got trapped out of the airport when he went for a ciggerette, so we missed top gear and ended up eating very late.

I was working most of the week exept friday but michael had thursday off too, so we went down to fuengirola because i wanted to see the festival of virgen del carmen, the saint of fishermen. Apparently they parade a statue of her around for hours, then take her down to the see and have loads of fireworks.

I only just managed to catch the fireworks but they were spectacular! I was right at the front of the beach near the water with a totally unobstructed view of the peir where fireworks were being set off down the whole length. The sky was totally filled and the were so loud i could feel it right through my body. Its a shame the pictures don't do it justice.

Everyone (exept me as i had work) was hungover on thursday so we just went out and played mini golf in the evening, but friday we went out to Malaga, had a look around and spent a fair amount of time eating and drinking. They have put big sun shades up in the mainstreet. There was also some excavaition going on, and a big ampitheatre being uncovered.

Their holiday wes finished of with a big steak at an argentinian restaurant in fuengirola. We have spent the rest of the weekend tidying up, resting and being hot!

ergh...

That was the sound i made when i woke up this morning and remembered how much beer i had drunk last night! If thats the sound i made god knows what sort of sound michael made, he slept on the sofa all night!

Acctually we had a good day yesterday, we went to a bbq in the afternoon and then went to a reggae night on the beach in la cala. There were loads of people there, all smoking reggae related substances and chillin to some Bob Marley. Anyways the only choice of beer size was small or a litre, so you an guess which we ended up with. It was fun.

Friday night we played mini golf, i was really bad, but i got in some much needed spanish practice.

Today we have spent ages sorting the house out (with hangovers) ready for friends to come over. We had tv intervals just to make it more bearable, and ate junk food. What else are sundays for?!

As promised here are some birthday kew pictures. I would have put some reggae night pictures on but the battery in michaels camera ran out before i could take one!

Last night i was mostly...

Being sick. It seems me and scallops arn't friends. Never mind, ill stick to prawnies.

So today im feeling rather delicate, and as its soo hot ive done pretty much nothing, a bit of reading, watching telly, sleeping on the sofa. Its so hot i couldn't even be bothered to go to the pool, yet again this year im going to be the whitest english person living here.

Yesterday was michaels birthday, i think he had a good time, he liked his presents and we went out for tapas in the evening (hence the scallops). I stupidly left everything to the last minuit and spend most of yesterday rushing around getting a card and wrapping paper and making a big chocolate cake. I didn't quite get time to put the chocolate topping on the cake and couldn't quite face doing it this morning . Michael said he didn't mind, we could just save the '30' candle for my birthday!

Last week was ok, my spanish teacher has set me up with her sister for language exchange conversation which should help, and Bill had a moan about me to Paul, apparently imunhelpfull and we only ever refer him patients that don't pay, haha.

The plants on my small balcony are doing well, my runner beans are growing really fast and the sunflowers are getting there too. Ive also got some lettuce ready to eat.

Unfortionatly on the big balcony the catterpillars are getting to eat more than we are!

Its not quite Kew gardens yet but im getting there! I'll put some birthday kew pictures on some other time.

Cerveza y paella and some swiss roll.

Last week was not particularly good, so i made a swiss roll. I was my first one and i made it for Paul because he did some dental work for me, and this is what it looked like.

Saterday we mucked about and went out for a few drinks in the evening with Ben and Goga. I wore heals because i have decided that its about time i learnt to walk in them ! It was ok but my feet were cold all night!

Today we had to get up earlyish, which was pretty hard because of fridays late night, to go to a Vespa meetiing in Mijas. We rode up there and stood around for a bit and had a beer.

We rode through mijas and out into the mountains for a bit, then stopped for beer and Spanish omelet.

We rode back almost into Mijas again and stopped for some sangria.

We rode through Mijas and back out the other side where we stopped for beer and bread with chorizo.

Then we rode back into Mijas and all stood around some more and drank beer and ate free paella. (to be fair we didn't drink that much beer!)

Then we played who can go the slowest and who can go in and out of cones without putting their feet down.

Michael won his round of the cone game.

Then we came home. It was good.

At home we just watched load so of episodes of the simpsons and ate sweeties.

That was our weekend.

Last weekend we bought a dinner table. We have eaten dinner on it everynight. Michael even talks to me while we have dinner(despite telling me not to expect any extra converstaion just because we have a table), and we drink wine and eat like civilised people. Its great.

So far we only have 2 chairs but we are hoping for another 2 in the future.


This week has been pretty much the same as most weeks, a few aerobics classes, a few spanish lessons...
On monday i started teaching a little spansih girl english. I was alot harder than i thought, unsupprisingly she didn't really want to learn english so we just chatted in spanish and she got all her teddies out and we tok photos of them with her plastic camera. I have found a dvd of Mr Men stories so im going to take them round for her to watch tomorow. I'll enjoy them too!

I have found out about a hygienist course starting in September, it is 40 hours long and will enable me to work as a higienist anywhere in Spain. The only catch is its all in Spanish! So from now on i guess i will be studying harder at my spanish!

Although after friday maybe i would be better going for a dentist course. We had a lady come in with about three quarters of a front tooth lef and as there was bo doctor around, i did my best to sort her out . ( i had asked permission from both the patient and my boss first!) She was very pleased and asked why i wasn't training to be a dentist.
Its always nice to get a compliment!

This weekend has been one of those lasy ones. Yesterday we did the shopping and then Holly came round and we went buy the pool for a bit in an attemp to get a tan (a bit difficult for Holly as she has her arm in a cast). We made some fruity chocolaty peanuty biscuits,

and mucked about on the internet.
Today we did some tidying, Michael fixed the hoover and we went to the video shop. Since then we have pretty much laid about on the sofa.
Sometimes you just have to have a lazy weekend right?

Sol y Salchichas

This weekend has been good, yesterday we went to a bbq for michaels boss' babys first birthday. There were quite alot of Spansih people there so we got some spansh practice.

In the eveing we went to the Feria de los Pueblos.

We ate pork from chile, samosas from India, beer from Japan,Smoked fish from finland and more beer from poland. I say beer but it was more like treacle, and it got me drunk and gave me a hangover, though what better way to cure that than go back down this afternoon and eat sausages from finland and a huge coctail from the canaries made of water melon, rum and banana liquer?!

The music in India was so loud you couldn' t hear it, and the Japanese dancer looked more like a cheerleader, but there was more than enough peruvian pan pipers to keep us entertained.

It was fun.

Then i came back and sun bathed for a bit an did 10 lengths in the pool. Yep, the first one was freezing.

No work tomorow.

Enjoy your bank holiday!

At last, we have the internet at home again. Though it wasnt easy, i had to ring the help line about 5 times before we could get it to work. A test on my Spanish, although perhaps the fact that it took 5 attempts is saying something.

Mum and dad were out last week, the weather was really good and we did lots of looking at things. The botanical gardens in Malaga, the Zoo, velez-malaga and a very long drive in the mountains in which we saw a circus school?!

We ate so much spanish food i could hardly move.

This weekend is the feria de los pueblos, we are going tonight i think, depending on if michael ever gets home from work!

I was back in england a few weekends ago, it was good spending time with everyone. We did lots of cooking, Me and mum made fresh pasta from the eggs 'the girls' had laid that morning, and me and Jon made bread, special bread that doesnt need to be cooked in a tin!

Ill try to take some good pictures tonight

Toodle pip

Nerja and frijiliana

I promised i'd change the scene, hope there new piccies will do.

Ill tell you all the exiting details of my life anothertime.

Toodle pip for now.

Pan con tomate seca

I had a pretty good weekend.

Michael took me out for food and to the cinema on friday, we saw American Gangster. It was really good, the cinema was practically empty and we got these crazy big armchair seets at the back. Unfortionatly they put Spanish subtitles up, most of which i can understand these days. Its diffictult trying to listen to a film in English and read it in spanish. I kept thinking, ooh look, theres the imperative! I just slid down my chair till i couldn't see the subtitles.

Saterday we just mucked about, went for a breakfast of tostados con marmelada and cafe. did a bit of tidying and watched Master and comander. Oh and michael got his hair cut.

I was supposed to be going to the gym lostd but instread on sunday i made sundried tomato bread. Its very tasty and im very proud of how well it turned out, i am putting a picture of it up for you . As you can see me and michael have already eaten half of it!

Los Reyes part 2

Happy New year!

Christmas was fun! It was good seeing everyone back in england and especially good eating mum's chistmas dinner (on new years day).

Apart from a few days the weather here has been really warm and sunny. I even sat out on the balcony and read my gardening book in the sun. Might even start planting a few seeds if its stays like this.

Sunday was Spanish christmas (Epifany), so on saturday they have the 3 kings parade. We popped along to have a look as it was one of the festivals we hadn't seen. After waiting around for about half an hour we decided to walk up to the parade rather than wait for it to come to us. Everyone stands on the side of the road, many with boxes and bags waiting for the floats, all dresseed up as scenes of the 3 kings and other things, to arrive. They all have loads of kids sitting on them who then throw (with some force!) handfulls of sweets at the crowds. If not knocked out but a little sweety bullet everyone, mainly the adults scrabble all over the floor fighting for the sweets. If you have a box you just hold it up and wait for them to land!
its was acctually really fun! We ended up with 2 good pocket fulls of sweets which Michael is making his way through.

I hope you all had good christmasses!

Conjugating Verbs

Hello everyone.
Well work is slowing down for christmas, in fact everything is slowing down for christmas. We had 2 bank holidays last week, one on saterday and everything was closed (i mean everthing). Spain just can't keep up with the rest of you guys. So my christmas shopping has been put back another week, also due to michael making me stay out till 4 to try to watch the fight last saterday so sunday was a write off (exept for going to the pub to watch the fight we didnt quite catch on saterday) and tuesdays shopping trip being canceled for the bloody football!
So as you can see im well prepared for christmas!

Anyways the weather here has been really nice and sunny and warm, but im still going to have to get a new coat for when i come over to brave your extreame english weather (acctually it will start getting real cold here in january).

Im meeting Maria Jose for one of the last conversation sessions before chrimbo, then i can forget about past participles and conjugating verbs (in fact im not sure ive even got that far!) and get some englishness back in me.

Ole!

We don't need no stinkin' badges!

After my 2 very quiet weeks, i have been really hectic! Mum, Dad and Will came out at the begining of the month, we were so busy seeing things,we went to frigiliana on the first day, near nerja and the bacon de europe (balcone de Europe) . Its a very pretty village a little way up in the mountains. We also had a quick stroll around he's-a-nazi (iznate) and ate lunch in a chiringuito (beach restaurant) where dad got upset because no one would share a sea food paella with him.

On friday we set off to Almeria. It was a very scenic drive up to almunecar, then it was just polly tunnels all the way! Thousands of them. We found the desert, found a good hotel to stay in (all in spanish!) then went to get some a warm menu del dia, of which the choices were pork sauce with chips, pork in sauce with chips, or pork in sauce with chips. Luckily for me there were only 3 pork in sauce with chips left so i had rabit in sauce with chips instead.

There are 3 western towns to visit in Almeria which are all old film sets, the really not very touristy one (western leone) the a little bit more touristy one (texas hollywood) and the mega touristy one (mini - hollywood). We started with western leone. It was really quiet when we got there , and after declining the offer to dress up as a cowboy and have a wanted picture taken we were left to admire the views whilst standing in a deserted westen town with the sun going down and the soundtrack to the good the bad and the ulgy adding atmospherically to the scene.

We had a wander around and went for a drink in the saloon. Dad bought a very drunk man dressed up in western gear a beer and they did a little play for us in which they forgot the lines and the ques (after cries of Donde esta la sherif? they just shot the barman instead) and someone died very dramatically onto Dad. An enjoyable but slightly bizarre experience.

We spent the evening huddled on the double bed of the hotel because it was absolutely freezing, and because it was the only room with a Tv, and ate a packet of biscuits for dinner.

Saterday we did Texas Hollywood, similar but bigger and with can can dancers, and a longer and funnier play (all in spanish though of course) We all pondered on which buildings were used in

which westerns and Dad has promised to sent all the Dvd's out to me in the post!

William wouldnt let us go to mini hollywood because he said it was to tacky.

Michael took us to a tapas bar in Marbella on sunday, we had chorizo, old cheese, spicey potatoes and octopus, Everyone tried the octopus but im not sure it will be ordered again. Oh and of course lots of coffee.

We went out for a meal on monday night and then everyone went on tuesday morning. It felt like a short visit but a busy one at least. We had fun.

So, after all that gallivanting around i had a really busy week at work too, lots of patients and Junaly is off ill for who knows how long. This week will be quieter (you can tell because of the length of this blog) because Paul is in England, but i had conversation and coffee with maria jose yesterday, ive got Tai chi tonight and im going to gogas on friday to help her out with some cake making.

Its nearly christmas everyone!

Tai Chi Soup

After 2 very dull weeks i decided to do more this week. After work on monday i met up with Maria Jose and we had coffee and chatted, mainly in spanish but i made her read aloud from good housekeeping magasine so she could get a little english practice. I asked her to come to the lottery shop with me so i could get a ticket (i was scared). So iv'e got my fingers crossed for tonight! I bought michael a cake on the way home but he had gone out to play pool by the time was back so i watched a film from the video shop (curse of the golden flower). It was good, chinese with some fighting and killing and lots of deciept. The story was acctually alot like Hamlet.

On tuesday i went for my first Tai Chi lesson, it was like doing very very slow karate. I have paid for a month of lessons in november so hopefully i will learn some more spanish and make some spanish friends. Its in the council run sports center which is pretty nice, its really big and has a pool, gym, tennis and football courts and rooms for martial arts and stuff. The best this is that its really cheep!

We started havin ghte new cupboards put in the surgery yesterday so its a mess, they are supposed to finish today but they are now saying they will do it on monday, spanish time!

I think i will be spending this weekend sorting out the house for mum and dad and will, wills room to be is currently a very messy store room. Ahh well there is always the bath!

I was making some soup the other day and an idea for a new recipe poped onto my head. Im gonig to try it out and send it to the covent garden soup company and make loads of money, life sorted!