An update in pix.

Song of the day: "Men in this town" by Shakira. I know, I know. Running behind again, but today pictures will have to do the trick. Considering it took me almost an hour to load them, I'm of a mind to leave them on the "last post" page for at least a week. Aaaargh.

But anyway. It's been incredibly busy the last couple of days. I've been painting a lot, so I'm paint splattered like the reverted Dalmatian. Jeez. Also putting glass up on the greenhouse, fixing the car bumper, cutting glass, planting seedlings up in the old horse paddock. All sorts of cabbages and onions. Helping tenant down to the basin so she'd have company. Cleaning Bommel's ears again and all those little things that make the days just too short. *sigh*

Here are some pics, as I've been promising for months.


Oh yeah. So, I'm totally not in the mood to arrange them all, so you'll just have to figure what they approximate sequence is. This would be that big harvest I mentioned some time during the summer, hah.


This is...well, just a picture that I thought was pretty. It's of the basin greenhouse, former pool rooms terrace, by the way. In case you were wondering. Hah.


The pool this summer. Didn't the bougainvillea look absolute gorgeous?


KNIGHT II
I was checking the pics and burst out laughing seeing this one. Seriously, he does this all the time. If there is a chair, he will sit in it. *sigh*


See, Knight II and Dax. They're attached to the hip at times and also complete opposites.


This is the greenhouse prior to the glass, soon I'll add them with glass, I promise.


Oh yeah, this was during the fire. Choppers flying overhead all day. Going back and forth.


Oh, gawd, almost forgot. My future hardwood floor. The color doesn't come out right in the pic, but it's mahogany, I think and exactly right for my sitting room. I can hardly wait!


This was when my floor had broken and we had to take it all apart to fix the beams underneath. The dogs loved that, by the way. Getting in front of our feet is a favorite pass time of theirs.


The fire...or at least the smoke from it. I was standing in the garden...picture somewhere below here.


My cabin right after grandpa painted it. Doesn't it look cute. I still can't get over the fact that I live in a cabin these days. Seriously, as a little girl, I would have killed for it.


Right. Basin wall right after making it water proof and smooth. I'm starting to get good at it. Hah.


This was when we were doing the bottom of the basin. The sun was sweltering and those fabrics over it really did the trick.


The balustrade we made to make walking just a wee bit safer for tenant. Works like a a charm by the way. She uses it as support on her way to the greenhouse terrace.


Part of the waterworks that we put in. Work like a charm, considering the basin is halfway full already...and that while we still haven't painted it still.


This would be the warty pumpkin I mentioned several times. Tasty and sorta big, as you can see from the big tomato on top.


This would be the garden pic I mentioned in the smoke picture. We were going for the tropical yard image, as you can see. Hah.


This is the storage for the dog food that we put together. It is all painted now, but seeing as I don't have a pic for that yet, this will have to do.

Gotta go. This took way too much time. Hah.

At the park.

Song of the day: “You oughta know” by Alanis Morrisette. Gawd, it’s been a while since I had that one. Good song, though. Very angry girl music, eh.

Once again I am seated at that little park in Málaga while the car is at the shop. Strange. Now it is even colder, even though the sun is out this time…albeit that it is not reaching me yet, darn it. I should have brought a darn coat, because apparently a sweater is not enough.

Well, let’s get to it, shall we. Might as well get this over with, rather than prevaricate about the whole thing.
Day before yesterday was a work day, of course. Meaning that I got to deliver papers once more to the gold coast. There were some ups and downs, but seeing as I opted to wear sneakers, rather than my boots with insoles, it wasn’t as excruciating as the last time.

As it turns out, the soles work just fine for the Plantars faciitis, but don’t so me much good for the calcification on my heels. If it weren’t so stupid of me not to realize, I would sue the company that made those shoes and thus wrecked my foot (albeit temporarily, seeing as I fully intent to overcome this particular problem in the near future). *sigh* What the soles also do is exacerbate the latter, making my frigging foot feel like it is shredded to pieces and fifty pounds too heavy by the end of the day.

Ah well, so it wasn’t entirely shredded, nor was it fifties pounds (only thirty) on Monday, and thus vastly doable for as far as I was concerned.
The paper owner dude…I really should think of something to call him. Hmmm. Paperman? Paperguy? Let’s just call him John Doe, shall we. That way I can rant about him if I ever feel so inclined, without fearing that I’ll decimate him a way that could get me into trouble. Hah.

So, John Doe, finally remembered to take along the sales contracts, that, in the minute chance that I somehow, at some point feel inclined to try to sell advertising space to some unlucky first-try person, (seriously, that contract looks mighty complicated) I’ll at least have something to show them…then of course, I still don’t have the actual pricing list…he just gave me a general idea of explaining the front page to me, which means, he pointed at different sizes and then summed up: that size is 10, that 20 that one 85 that one 35 and a whole page is 150. Excellent! Now, if I had a photographic memory, I would just be able to call that up whenever I need it, and voila. Hah.

But, even though I sound a mite sarcastic, I am trying to look at the entire thing in a positive way. Seriously, my goal in life is not to bring around papers of course. The main goal is, naturally, as I am sure you are well aware, writing! Now, I am not picky, the top ten of the New York Times best seller list will be just fine. I don’t need nr. 1, 2 is good too *chortle*. But in the mean time, there are dogs to feed (let’s face it 80 something of ‘m need lots of food) people to feed, me to feed and bills to pay. So…I am keeping my temporary options open and try to see where it’ll get me.

I mean really, what is life without a challenge? If I cannot decide to enjoy myself while I gradually make my way towards the thing I want to achieve, then what is the point of being here at all. Sure, I could find bringing papers around every week as annoying, or tedious…heck, if I let myself do that, every job will be a bother at some point…or I could say: this is what needs to be done, and by Gawd, I will enjoy myself eve n if it kills me. Because really, what do I have to gain by letting myself be miserable. I could let it be ruled by fate (e.i. get screwed over in most cases) and pretend that I have no say whatsoever in how I feel, or I decide to get as much from the experience as I can. Because, let’s face it, life is supposed to be an adventure, isn’t it? Well, I chose it to be anyway.

Oooohkay, enough positivism talk, that is after all a personal thing and everyone has their own view (as they should) on such thing. Personally, I kind of like this one because I dislike feeling bad, but what the hey. To each his/her own. Hah.

Right, so the route went well, got everything right, didn’t have car trouble, and got home at a decent time. Didn’t have to get out early either to do the village since it was a national holiday and everything was closed. Got to do the last papers today instead, at the crack of dawn before we headed for the city to our garage appointment.

Today I am with our friend Dani by the way (she says “Hi!”) since Big Brother had to go in the opposite direction with Daewoo instead, to pick up our other friend in Marbella. Meaning thaty I will be seated here another two hours or so, because he has to bring said friend home and then head this way to pick us up.

*sigh*

Yesterday, seeing as we didn’t need to go out was spent with a variety of chores. We did a bit more on the greenhouse, adding small pieces of glass to the top, support beams to the eaves, and painting some more slats.

Also, since big brother really didn’t need any help with the glass, I spent some time pulling weeds from the pots and containers, and earlier trimming trees while he and grandpa fixed the outside light fixtures of tenant’s caregiver’s apartment.

The dogs were ecstatic with our being home on Tuesday morning for a change, trotting along cheerfully and lying down around (and on top of) our feet as if there was no tomorrow. Of course there is no tomorrow for the dogs, but what the heck. They loved it.

Mom is feeling poorly at the moment. A touch of flu, apparently, but the immune system will have to take care of it, seeing as that will be the case no matter what.

Big brother and I have both been working on putting together pieces of bamboo wood, because we intent to make a new books for between the front seats of the Land Rover, made entirely of beautiful bamboo wood, and it is coming along nicely. I will take pictures, but when the time comes to post them, I don’t know. Hah.

Editing has been going steady, so let's skip that part, shall we?

Well, that is about it for now, I guess. I had my two cups of coffee writing this, went to the bathroom once, and now I’m going to have to kill time doing some reading, or something.

Let’s see if, by the next time I write my blog we’ll have the car back, eh?

That car again...blast!

Song of the day: “So long Marianne” by Leonard Cohen. I know. That’s a depressing artist to have in your head, but there you have it. For as far as songs go, it is not all that bad.

So I had planned to do my blog in pictures today, but now I cannot find my blue tooth connection so that’s out. Stupid little gadget. Why do they make the things so tiny anyway?

Yesterday, after a most atrocious rainstorm that actually filled the basin halfway in less than an hour, it was an absolutely gorgeous day. We spent it putting up more glass in the greenhouse and can now officially say that half of the roof is up and that it looks gorgeous. I know. Pictures. I’ll get to them, I swear…if my phone doesn’t get eaten, or something. *Sigh*

Today is a working day for me, by the way, so I am endeavoring to keep it short. Bear with me.
Let’s see if the distributor remembered to take everything he was supposed to this time, or if I am spared the extra work another week or so. Haha. You’ll hear soon enough, really…well, maybe not. It is going to be a harrowing week.

First off, tonight there is the route. Followed by maybe the second one, but the village anyway (keeping my fingers crossed for sunshine) even though it will be a national holiday. I’m going to have to talk about that with the distributor by the way. Hmmm. After that there will undoubtedly lots to do when we get home, and with a little luck we’ll get some writing or editing done. Then, Wednesday we’ll have to get up early to drive to Malaga, because there is something wrong with the Land Rover again. Aaargh. (I’ll get back to that.) Then, ASAP we have to leave to Marbella (60 km between) to pick up our friend, which we won’t manage in time at all, but we’ll try. By then I hope all the necessities have been taken care of for this week and we’ll be able to continue with the greenhouse, or something.

Okay, the car. For the past week the oil light has been burning off and on. On the most part when there are big vibrations. On the most part we suspect that it is a broken switch/valve, or a short, but it sure isn’t safe to leave such a thing to chance. The leak in the cooling system is also concerning, considering the darn 1.5 L tank emptied in just three days, darn it. Ah well, no sense thinking about that now. We’ll see how it goes Wednesday.

Edits went well for the past couple of days. Went well past the halfway through mark so soon I’ll be able to resume writing, what with the three extra scenes we thought of during the edits. So far we only found three inconsistencies in the plot, which have already been resolved, thank you very much.

There were harvests, nice lunches of fresh veggies, and dinner as well, and on the overall busywork that I just won’t bore you with right now.
The temperatures are rapidly dropping. Now the evenings are ‘round 15 Celsius (59 F), which I find downright chilling. As of yesterday, I have my winter blanket on again, which is rather wonderful. The dogs love it to, snuggling up to us happy as you please.

I did some more kick boxing, which was wonderful as usual. I am feeling much better since picking it up again after a year without. I think that the mentality of the sport does me well, because depression is less of a problem when I diligently hit that ball. Hah.

Well, that will be all for now. So much to do, so little time. Guess I’ll be back ‘round Wednesday at the latest.