All lit up

Song of the day: “International Love” by Pitbull and Chris Brown. Irrelevant, really. But what the heck.

So…there’s been some serious excitement over here for the past couple of days. It’s not Sally’s cabin, despite the fact that it arrived this afternoon and we did get started on it. Nope. It’s by far more serious than that. And no, I’m not talking about Sitabah. I haven’t taken her back to the vet yet, despite the fact that I’m pretty sure now that there might be a problem. At first I thought that maybe her cough was only during the night, but since I’m paying attention, I now know that she coughs every time she exerts herself. Darn it.
It’s not the arrival of our visitor, who is going to stay over for the next two week. But that’s not it either. Nope. There’s a fire raging over here in these parts and at home we had front row seats.

I kid you not. While cousin Ed and I were at the Thursday market in Marbella, big brother phoned to let me know there was a fire starting in the wilds across our valley, and that it was moving fast. Worst part was, it was two hours before sundown, meaning that if the firefighters didn’t manage to get it under control in time it would have ten solid hours to rage through a country side that hasn’t been this dry in more than fifteen years.

Here’s a shot of what I was able to see from the beach some odd 25 miles away from the scene.



Gawd, it looked impressive…not to mention frightening. Basically we spent the evening checking up on the progress, keeping an eye on things, in case we had to pack up and hurry home to start evacuating dogs. Luckily the wind was away (slightly to the side) from our property, but you never do know how that works, do you, it can shift, just like that.

Considering the market was a slow day, and considering several of the folks working there lived in the rapidly threatened area and were leaving to check if their homes were in danger, we too started packing up around 11 PM. 50 minutes later we were on our way home, not taking the beach road seeing as big brother informed us that it was highly likely that they would close that down at some point, so we went the opposite direction, being treated with some awesome views, I totally didn’t get around to photographing, because it was late, I was stressed, and well… we wanted to get home.

It was past one in the morning when we did, and it was to finding the rest of the family standing around, watching the action going on. There were flashing lights all through the valley, and I tried to take a pic, here:



but am disappointed with the result. It looked way more impressive.

Didn’t get to bed until three thirty in the morning. Seriously, I saw some really big bushfires going on the mountain facing ours. A really expensive area which is usually hidden within trees and bushes, went whoosh with such speed and ferocity, and I could see it light big brother’s face up despite the fire being miles away. Scary.

It was still going strong this morning.
Two shots during the course of the day:





Further away (thankfully) but the firefighters started attacking the fire by air again, so that helped a lot. Bad news was that most of the roads to Marbella was closed off, meaning that we couldn’t make it to the appointment at the hospital…worst of it was, the option was there that the hospital might needed to be evacuated, too, so we really hoped that Sally wasn’t stressing too much. We couldn’t ask, because we couldn’t reach her for hours on end. She wasn’t stressed at all, the nurses at the reception didn’t even know anything about the fire, and Sally said she had thought it was just a small fire near Ojen. A big relief that, in particular since she was feeling bad after the biopsy that had been far more painful than the last one.

So, keeping an eye on the smoke that swelled and diminished constantly…and had planes and choppers swarming around like bees around a hive, Sally’s new cabin arrived. We unloaded that, and in the hours that followed cousin Ed and I painted about a quarter of the wood, while grandpa and big brother worked on putting the beams of the floor down (I took some pics and will post them in sequence when it’s done) on the foundation big brother already made.

Before sundown, we took a quick tour of the damaged area…here are some shots:





Above: To the left is our mountain, all that stopped the fire from going into the valley, was the road. *shivers








Worst part is, we can still see red light behind the mountains, meaning it is still going. I gotta say I'm properly impressed with the firefighters once again, they saved lives and properties like the best!!!

Other than all the excitement, life went on as usual. There was cooking to do, plants to water, tenant to take care off (she was a little worried, but stated it would give her a good incentive to walk again)and garbage to take out...good opportunity to do that while we went out, in particular since the roads were filled with disaster tourists.

And that’s it for today. The dogs didn’t mind the tension all that much. They ate like pigs regardless. Hah.



Gawd, I’m tired…and tomorrow will be another long day.

Hospital toils

Song of the day: “Rapper’s delight” by the Sugar Hill Gang. Strange song to have in my head, in particular since the rhythm makes me want to start doing “the robot” at the oddest moments. I tell ya this, it is downright weird when you’re at the hospital, and being weird there, is definitely not a smart thing. *sigh*

But okay, let’s get you up to date. Yesterday was a mess of a day. Nothing went at all as planned. First off, tenant insisted that she wanted to go to market, so after some discussion, I decided that I might as well take her and take the opportunity to look around for stuff that is in bad repair that I can fix up…as well as a bathing suit for tenant and Sally alike.

So we went, I dropped tenant off at mom’s stand and went over the market twice. Had load of fun chatting with the stand owners, haggling (bought two beautiful Chinese boxes that were in horrible repair, but only cost me five bucks. Yay) and hauling it all (I sinned and bought three books despite my no-book-buying-budget, hah) back to the stand where tenant was having fun chatting with mom. Packet up tenant and purchases and went on home.

Once there, it turned out I’d missed more than nine calls (seriously, it’s not smart that I kept it in my purse where I can’t hear it) from cousin Ed who’d found Sally in a bad state. I knew she fell the other day, and cut her hand (she wouldn’t let me look at it) but this wasn’t good. First we took her to the emergency room in town, where they referred us to the big city hospital because the cut (I was startled when I saw it. Was a cut halfway into the base of her finger) was too deep, and she’d waited too long to have it sutured. (Six hour limit. I could have told her that, but I figured she knew. Stupid of me, I know.) So we went to Marbella Hospital. Big place. Lotsa people, and thus lotsa waiting. Still, relatively speaking she got treated fast, despite us spending more than six hours there.

First off there was the talk with the triage doctor who listed her symptoms. Then we waited for our turn at the doctor’s. After the doctor, who listed her problems again and checked her motor functions, we waited again. This time a blood test. Then we waited again…and went back because something went wrong with the first blood and they needed another. Then we waited for her to have an MRI. Then We waited for an X-Ray of her chest, after which we had to wait to speak to the doctor again.

Said doctor called us into the office and informed us very gravely that Sally was suffering from severe lesions in the brain, meaning that she had to be hospitalized for observation. She took it remarkably well, showing some relief about the fact that at least now she knew what was wrong, and why “something” wasn’t right in her head. *sigh*
Gawd, I wish we’d insisted on taking her to hospital a week ago, or more. But she can be incredibly stubborn that way.

Cousin Ed helped her get dressed into a hospital gown, and while she was transferred to the observation hall, we were told to wait for a phone call in the waiting room for family and friends. That took a solid hour and a half, and then, when the call finally came and only (one person allowed) I was let through to see her. Once I arrived in the observation hall with loads of people suffering in uncomfortable beds, it turned out Sally wasn’t there because they’d wheeled her elsewhere again to treat her hand.
So again, another forty to fifty minute wait, at which time I went back to the observation room to see if she was done. She wasn’t there yet, and while the nurse working there went to see for me, she was wheeled inside. She was actually startled to see me, asking vaguely if I was back already. She had no idea of the time and was startled to hear that we were “still” there. Where else would we be, I wonder. You don’t leave a friend to her own resources at a time like that, do you? Jeez. Same goes for the fact that she didn’t want us to visit every day (because it would be too much trouble for a mess like her, double jeez). When I asked her if she wouldn’t come to visit if I were in hospital and she promptly answered that of course she would. That was of course the end of the discussion. Hah.

Had a “chat” with the nurse, or young doctor, on duty, and between his bad English and my bad English he managed to explain the basics of her chart, and give me the phone number of the main desk, the number of the room she would be transferred to in the morning (including the floor) and basically be nice about the fact that he had no idea what the real problem was. There are, at the moment treating it as a general constitution problem. But anyway, when I asked to talk to her doctor, he said the doctor was out, and that if I wanted to talk to a professional I would have to wait some more. *sigh*

I ended up promising Sally we’d be back the next day, so we could tackle the doctor together. Cousin Ed did call this morning to check how she was doing, and despite some confusion during the night she had a relatively good night, and was almost cheerful when she told us they are looking for the problem and doing all sorts of tests.

It was almost one in the morning when we finally left for home, and nearing two when we arrived. I was not doing well by then. I was cramping all over the place and my heels were killing me. I know, don’t laugh, but silly me didn’t eat, walked and stood a lot. First because of the market (I breakfasted and lunched on four small apples) and then because of all the hospital stuff, with half a French bread with cream cheese. Not the smartest move for someone with my deficiency problems. Luckily, big brother made spaghetti, meaning I didn’t go to bed hungry. *sigh* I tell ya this, I was wired tight as a drum.

Not a good night either. Woke up twice with my calf cramping so bad I had to get up and do stretches for several minutes. In the end I had to lie down flat on my stomach for the stupid feet dangling off the bed. Managed to fall asleep then. *sigh*

What followed, was me going through the slow, very slow motions of early morning chores (got up an hour later than usual, because I didn’t get to bed until 3 in the morning) such as laundry and feeding the dogs. Then it was getting online looking to see if we could find anything on what little I managed to understand from the explanations at the hospital. All sorts of nasty possibilities popped up, so I decided to leave it until the doctor actually explains it to us. *sigh*

As for the dogs...seriously, mine were completely bonkers last night, considering I had been gone for more than twelve hours. It was not a pretty sight when Knight II tried to jump me, Chaos ignored me, and Labhana and Gada gazed at me as if I had done them some great injustice. Poor darlings...worse, I forgot to give Knight II his second bowl of food in the evening. *gasp* I should be flogged.

Well, that’s it for today, I’m hoping to do at least a page for the book, and if not that…well…there will be other days, I guess.

Some near disasters

Song of the day: “Wide awake” by…hold your breath, Katy Perry. Seriously, what’s it with my head having earworms of singers I don’t even like all that much. Luckily the song is not a bad one.

Well, I have to keep this short because if all goes well I have to go up to load up the car with Cousin Ed so we can leave for the market in Malaga. If we can manage to get there (the Land Rover is giving us fits) it is going to be an interesting evening, because the temps are, at this very moment 100 +. Yep. Every bit of movement causes a burst of sweat to break out, so slow movements are key for the day……

Okay, change in plans. Didn’t manage to write yesterday’s blog. By the time I started writing, big brother and mom came home from a quick trip into town that turned out to be longer than expected, because basically they couldn’t get the car up the mountain. Shaite. And that while cousin Ed and I still had to load up for the market. Grrr.

So anyway, I called the mechanic, and he told me that the injector must have gotten worse, and that we’ll just have to do the repair sooner than planned, darn it. Still, I had a job to do, so we loaded up the car regardless and set out toward Marbella, through the back road, because I didn’t want to risk the beach road with all its traffic. We made it, just barely, going as fast as possible at what was mostly a downward slope. Gained enough speed at those to get up the two inclines that we encountered (thank gawd I know that road well) and then, in the sweltering heat of at least 100 degrees, we drove down toward Marbella where the temps dropped a solid eight degrees. It was wonderful, it was bliss, and gradually the breeze dried the mm thick sheen of sweat on my skin. Yay!

We arrived only fifteen minutes late, and started setting up (sweating all over again) as planned. Had to do some serious footwork with the car in order to get it up to the car-park afterward, but managed. Everything was set up about an hour later, and the patrons started to arrive.

The photographer was there again, and he did ask to take a picture again (don’t worry, I’m pretty sure he does that with practically anyone, hah) but I still wasn’t comfortable enough. There was this moment where I was leaning against this old fashioned lantern, and suddenly I saw him at a distance lining up a photograph. Silly but my first instinct was to push away from the lantern and move out of the shot. He later assured me he wouldn’t take a picture unless I agreed with it, so I’m going to stop worrying. Heck there actually might be a day that I won’t tense up when the guy comes walking past. Hah.

I did settle on a nice “market outfit” yesterday. I had on a warm brown peasant skirt with white cotton lace at the bottom, topped by a sleeveless white top, warm brown floppy hat, and dangly earrings. I mean seriously, I don’t get all that much opportunities to dress remotely nice, so I am definitely using these days to have some “outfit” fun. Heck, my white sneakers underneath (definitely need my insoles when I’m on my feet for that amount of time) didn’t even detract from the image. The only downside was that I was wearing a turquoise bikini top under the white, which shone through. I thought it clashed with the brown, but what the heck, it’s a beach joint. Hah.

Had a few chats, recognized a few face from last week. Not the nice Hungarian women, guess they didn’t find it worth it. Neither was the unemployed Spanish woman, which was a pity. On the other hand, there was this nice Spanish lady who made jewelry, across from us, and beside her two young women with piles of wonderful second hand clothes. Hah. As a plus, unlike the last time, we got two big spotlights set specifically on our merchandise, so it looked splendid. No spectacular sales, but we made expenses at least. Yay.

As to the experiment I’ve been working on the past week (did some tie dye clothes) there was quite a bit of interest, and I even sold one shirt. It was the best one too, it had a circle in the center that went all the way through, back to front, and gawd, if it had been my size, I’d have kept it myself. Hah.

Now, the way back…it was fascinating. Since I have gotten a bit used to the present problem of the Land Rover, I thought it better I drive back as well. Managed to get up the incline (Funny Beach is off the highway with a hair pin road) with little trouble, but I did need to shift to low gear at the end, because my poor baby just refused to get up there. Annoyed some of the other sellers, but what the heck. Then, at the ramp of the highway, it turned out that it was the busiest moment of the day, with traffic zooming past at top speed. Oh my gawd, waited a solid three minutes before there was a gap big enough that I dared risking to get on, and when I did, I barely managed to gather enough speed to get on. There were two cars, coming up behind me fast, and they honked furiously while storming past. Jeez. Friggin’ scary!

Drove home having serious dialogue with the car, keeping her going at a steady clip, the rev just a bit over the top to keep her pulling, and just keeping our fingers crossed that there would be no traffic jams. There weren’t and after about five miles the highway cleared of traffic, giving us a clear road all the way to the mountain. That’s when the fun started. Managed about one third of the way in two, then had to shift back to one, and came to a standstill at the steepest part, right under the village. Gawd. I had to put the car into low gear, and even then I could only shift to two to keep her moving. Which was even scarier than the highway, because a car came up behind us, going a solid fifty and braking less than a yard behind our butt. Jeez! Made it up the mountain going 4 mph at most, and when we did, I pulled over for a deep breath and to put it back into normal gear. Rather than go over the village, we went through (no steep inclines there) and made it home (slowly) but without incident.

Big brother was waiting for us with food, and after a few minutes on the internet to unwind, it was time for bed at the three in the morning. It was an adventure, I’ll say that much.

As for the day and stuff before the market incidents…
The day before yesterday really was a quiet day, with writing, a trip to town to drop of the Opel so the radiator could be flushed (luckily the Opel is now done, meaning that we can drop the Land Rover off without lacking transportation) and then down to the basin terrace to write. Not a lot of pages (four and a half at most) but a good scene nonetheless. The characters finally got chatty, which was good since it’s two old girlfriends who know each other well. And boy were they chatty, they were still talking yesterday when, after ironing some clothes, I finally got to a couple of hours of writing (managed another three pages then).

No cooking in the past couple of days, which is stupid. With my deficiencies I really should skip on hot meals with lotsa veggies, but seriously, who’s got the time? I sure don’t.

There were the normal chores. The laundry, preparing and feeding dog food. Harvesting, watering, and of course weeding. Hah. There were dogs to pet (aka looking for ticks), dogs to soothe (Fortuyn and Groovy got into a fight, leaving the first with a nice cut in his neck) and more looking for ticks. If all goes as planned, we’re doing a tick bath again today, because it’s just getting to be ridiculous again. The other day I got eight of those big suckers between Arthur’s toes, for crying out loud. And Adma. We took like thirty small ticks OUT of her ears.

Well, I better get to it know, still lots to do before the day is through. Luckily it is not nearly as warm today as it was yesterday. In fact, right now it is actually quite pleasant. I will be needing to head into town later on (dropping off the Land Rover and all) but other than that, I’m not planning much of anything today, other than writing, that is. Gotta go.

Something new

Song of the day: “Somebody I used to know” by Gotye featuring Kimba. Awesome song, and it has been in my head off and on for a solid two days now. Not a bad song to have. Hah.

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!