Well, you never going to believe this, but the past two days were incredibly busy, and I, for one, am more than happy that they’re over and I can TRY to get back into the normal routine, because, let’s face it, the writing has suffered somewhat under it all. If I did more than three pages in the past four days or five days, it’s a lot. *sigh* So frustrating.
So yeah, there was the pool building bit. For a moment I will have to linger on the negatives (hate that, but they are part of the roller coaster called life, and to leave that out would be unrealistic, this is after all the life of an “eccentric author”, right?) and say that, beside the not-being-able-to-write bit, the past few days have brought the foot problem and the shoulder problem back to the forefront. Yes, I know, whiny, right? But seriously, there were times I was standing on “glass” again, darn it. Added to that, on day two I did something wrong with my hip on the way home, (damn those loose joints of mine) meaning that I could barely stand by the time I got home. I actually woke up from the discomfort (my doctor would say, pain, but I’m sticking with discomfort, thank you very much), popped an ibuprofen and tried to get back to sleep, hoping it would be over when I woke. It wasn’t, so I was afraid I was going to have to cancel on the day’s work, but then I stretched, something popped in my hip and all was well (except for a bit of soreness) in my world again. Hah. Okay, over and done with the negative…the lack of writing being the main anyway, let’s move on to yesterday.
First some pictures of the progress.
The diggin':
The first bit of putting it all up:
Putting in the liner just before the rain started:
Was just about done with the morning chores and was at the verge of feeding the dogs when my phone warned me that I’d had several missed calls from Lian. So I called back, and she informed me that she was so sorry, but she’d forgotten to turn off the tap during the night, bringing the water level in the pool up to the second hole, and if there was any chance for us to cut the skinner holes into it while the water was in. We couldn’t so she had to start emptying it with the hoses and buckets while big brother and I quickly fed the dogs.
Happens all the time. There’s nothing quite as easy as leaving a tap on. Hah. It’s a pity about the water, but the trees will be ecstatic with it, and the pool…well, so it’ll take a couple of days more to fill it. No biggie.
When we got there, the pool’s excess was drained of about one quarter, so I started hauling some odd twelve buckets of water to the rose garden while big brother figured out how we could use a big hose to drain it faster. Once we had two in, it took about forty minutes to get it down to the required level, at which point big brother made the necessary precision cuts and placed the skimmer with me serving as the “hold that” girl. Hah.
The end result for ya!
Oh, and Puppies! Rugrat and Furball. Can you imagine Knight II being afraid of those? Fatsy was too shy for the pic. Hah.
But I was smarter. Got Fatsy anyway.
Less than two hours after arrival, we were back on our way home, (Knight II snoozing in the back) where I wasted no time to greet the ecstatic dogs, take my computer and head on down to the basin terrace for some writing.
Only managed a page and half before my time was up, and I had to head on back upstairs. You see, I promised cousin Ed to go with her to this new market over in Marbella, and yesterday was the day. So she had already loaded up, meaning that all I had to do was get dressed and head on up to the car to drive to the place.
It was an experience, I tell ya. Jeez. Strange place, but kinda fun in its own way. It took us about an hour to set up…really a nice girl who arranged it all, and we got a better spot than we could have imagined. Here are some shots of Tika Art, fully displayed. Looking good, right?
Our spot, right at the entrance.
I love the lush textures of it all, and how there seemed to be too much to be contained by the tables.
The quilts and bags.
And more.
We actually made good sales, and though for me it is not a matter of earning money so much as the meeting of strange, fun folk.
Like the professional photographer, who was going through the crowds taking pictures of the entire event for the facebook page. He asked if he could take pictures of us and our stand (very polite and all) because it looked so nice to see all our colorful stuff and us, chatting behind it. *snort* The pictures were fine, I told him, as long as he took them in secret without me knowing it. Hah. We talked a little about his work, and when he explained that normally he was a fashion photographer, he added that he would love to take my picture, because of the hat, my tan and the pink top I was wearing of my white pants. Perfect coloring, he said, at which point I told him, “Oh please no” because, let’s face it, I would be self-conscious beyond imagining, and end up pulling some sort of freaky face. Hah. But anyway, he was a strange artsy fella, who, when I asked where he came from, (he had a French or Italian accent, I think) said that that didn’t matter, all mysterious like. Good for him.
What else, well, there were the nice Hungarian ladies across from us, who were there selling their crafts (paintings and decorated boxes) and were, from what I could understand of our chats (one only spoke a little Spanish and the other not even that) they were trying to get by going past markets on the overall, but were having a tough time of it in this bad economy. I felt a bit bad for them, but what can you do. I can hardly use my own low funds to boost theirs a little, right?
I was talking (hand and foot work, naturally, since this was the one who didn’t speak Spanish) with one of them about quilting, that she did it too, with family, and that it was very hard work, and all that, and then, by some sort of miracle recognized a word or two and asked her “do you speak German?” (in German) at which her face lit up and she eagerly nodded her head while I said, “so do I”. Which facilitated our communication considerably. She explained that she learned some of the language in school, I explained that I learned most of it from TV, and we chatted some more until it was time to go our separate ways again.
Then there was the Spanish lady across from us, who was very nice, and was trying to supplement her meager social security by working markets because it was just impossible to get a job. Stories aplenty, and the time went by fast.
There were kids, one adorable little girl who just had to have the Dalmatian puppy doll we used to demonstrate the dog carriers, who literally started bouncing up and down while she stroked and petted the fake puppy with apparent glee.
Night shot. Very cozy. Live music, patrons eating and drinking and having fun. Definitely a place to be as a tourist.
Not a lot of sales, but more than enough to make the day well worth the effort. We got started at five thirty and started loading back up at a quarter to twelve (midnight). At one thirty we were back home, ready to pass out for the day. Hah.
The late night didn’t improve my disposition much this morning, but all things considered I wasn’t in too bad a state after only six and a half hours of sleep. Had to bring the Land Rover to the shop (made an appointment on Wednesday for Friday) and left the car in the good hands of our usual mechanic.
He would take the car for a spin, and then give me a ring…which he did about two hours after I got home and simply couldn’t focus on writing much at all. Nothing too disastrous, but we do have to bring the car in on Monday, after we return from the MOT. *phew*
Last one, just because Fortuyn looked so cute:
Well, that’s it for me, and you’re pretty much back up to date. Now, I’m hoping for an early night, but since it is already close to one in the morning, it doesn’t look like there’ll be much chance of that…darn it!
