Pic update

Song of the day: “Grenade” by Bruno Mars. Embarrassingly I am still a sucker for romantic songs. Hah.

So another weekend over and done with, right? Lots has happened, and just because of that I’m going to do a bit of a picture blog to boot.
I got several folks to pose for me, and since a couple of them have their own sites, I figure I do some networking and help them out by posting their links right here for y’all to see.

First Lynn, who organizes the market. So pretty, but terribly shy. Like me she prefers to be behind the camera, rather than in front of it. First she only wanted to be on it with cousin Ed, but then I explained that I really wanted a portrait, at which points she got all self conscious. So we laughed some, talked a bit, and then, in a moment of relaxation I shot this one.

It shows off her splendid smile, eh? If I ever get her to pose properly, I’m going to do her more justice, though.

Then there is this lady, who I’d really would have liked to make a portrait off, but when I explained what I wanted, she was adamant that I couldn’t do a facial shot, only of her with her products, and her cause.
So hereby…

And the link to her cause. http://mujeresenlasveredas.blogspot.com.es/ Apparently it is some sort of effort by (mostly) women who head on up in the mountains to open up old paths for hikers, and re-educate them about the flora and fauna of the area, and letting folks find pleasure in walking the paths that folks walked for necessity in the past. Sounds like fun, and if I actually had time for such things, I’d probably join up occasionally. Hah.

Then there is Monty Monteros who sings Spanish flamencos, some pop and basically entertains the folks at Funny beach, always ready with this big grin. Here’s a pic.

He didn’t mind posing at all. Makes all too clear why his chosen profession is performing, right? Being able to pose without a prob is an excellent talent then. Hah.
And his link is. http://www.montymontero.com so if you’re in need of an entertainer at a party, or some such in the Marbella area, he’s the one you have to contact.

Alright, enough advertising. I picked several of the portraits of the market for the Photoblog, but some will do splendid over here. So here we go.

The stand:

One of our fellow stand holders, who was kind enough to pose for me. Maria Carmen

So kind always, and talking a mile a minute, whether I understand her or not. Hah. I took a rather great pic of her mum, who’s in her nineties, nearly completely blind, but proud as a fiddle that she’s allowed to go along to the market. She really enjoys it, and gotall aflutter when I asked her to pose. She’ll be going up on the photoblog, so you’ll see soon.

Also this cutie, the kid of a young couple who were nice enough to let me take a pic or two. She was smiling soooooo sweetly.

Market wise the day was a bust. The only thing that saved our earnings was an order for three yoga mats at the end of the day, which need to be delivered two weeks from yesterday…which is fine. We’ll be there anyway. If I understood it right, the guy wanted them for the loft playroom he has for his grandchildren, which they are perfect for, naturally. Hah.

Did get some writing done, and some reading. Had planned on a dip, but didn’t go for it since it turned out that the weather was turning. Twice during the course of the day, a strange fog came rolling in from the sea. A Stephen King moment waiting to happen, I tell ya. Hah. Had some nice chats, and the day passed fast as you please. Was friggin’ starving at the end, an oftentimes occurrence these past few days…which reminds me that I should still mention Saturday.

I slept terribly. I mean it. I was out like a light, woke up at five and then was unable to fall back to sleep. Grrrr. Added to that, when I came up it turned out that grandpa was sick and wasn’t able to do any of the preparations he usually does. Like bake pancakes. Meaning no breakfast, and what’s worse, I had not time to make anything for lunch either. Meaning I was starving twice in a row. *sigh* (Poor Sammie)

I also had shots of the other the market but it’s getting late so I’m not going to put them up. Let’s just say I took some really nice shots, a few of which were these. LOL
The rest I’m keeping for the photo blog. *winks*

Our neighbors.

Very well…had low sales there, which is partly due to the fact that the weather was just too nice for people to bother with the market when the sea was only a few hundred yards away. *sigh* Didn’t mean that I didn’t have some nice chats with folks, or that mom and little brother turned up with the money purse I forgot in the mess of the morning.

Afterward we did have to do a pick up, and then, once home, there was the potato veggie salad to put together…which wasn’t half as nice as big brother’s mac & cheese that was waiting for us when we got home after seven in the afternoon yesterday. Hah.

A bit of good news for today was that tenant finally agreed to let me help her onto the toilet. Yep. The first time in months, which is one step on the way back to recovery, at least. Went really well, meaning that I can actually help her more if she keeps it up, freeing some of caregiver’s time now that Sally needs so much help…Sally being terribly confused still, mixing up locations from the past, events, not to mention things that haven’t actually happened at all, just in her head. It is rather disturbing. If she gets any worse, we’re going to have to make sure that the gates are locked, or else she might head out thinking she needs to be somewhere. A scary thought, what with the busy road up there.

Today was a busy one, once more. You know, right, the chores, the dogs (had to take Sitabah back to the vet, and Tadaika too, who had a swollen toe, which we feared was broken). Knight II’s ear is on the mend, but he’s making a pest of himself by constantly trying to get rid of his cone collar, the sneaky eejit. He was bleeding somewhat fierce yesterday. Definite plusses of the day would be that I managed to wrap my teeth around a small piece of meat (good Sammie) and practiced my Spanish.

Well, this is it for me today. Time to start getting ready for bed.

One after another

Song of the day: “Dream a little dream” by the Beautiful South. Along with some other oldies, like Crazy by Patsy Cline and Ain’t that a kick in the head, by Westlife. What can I say, I was in that type of mood, I guess.

So yeah, I’ve been somewhat busy these past two days…well there were three, of course, but since Saturday was a wonderfully quiet one at home, that was only interrupted by loading the big wagon (after cleaning it) and loading the small one for the Sunday market at Funny Beach Marbella.

There were of course the boring events, such as laundry, feeding the dogs, cutting the dog food, but I won’t bore you with that. Nothing new, right? So yesterday morning I was lying in bed, wondering what the heck that annoying sound was, ringing in my ear for more than half an hour. Turns out it was my alarm. *snort* So I was late and had to rush through the morning rituals in order to make it on time. I did, thank you very much. Who the heck needs a full breakfast anyway, hah.

At one point I thought, what the heck? A quarter to eight? We still have forty minutes before we need to leave. Turns out my watch was stuck, which is why grandpa took it to the clock shop in the village. Luckily, it turns out that it was only the battery. Guy said that according to his notes on the inside of the back plate the battery lasted almost exactly two years. Good watch, eh?

The weather looked abysmal during our ride toward Marbella. Clouds everywhere, cold temps, but luckily, by the time we reached the beach and started setting up the temps were more than bearable. Setup took a while, though. Not that it mattered, since customers didn’t start trickling in until noon. Not a lot going on during the course of the day. If there were more than seventy people, I’d be surprised, but I had some nice social contacts that made it more than bearable.

Chatted with a Dutch Interior designer who was there selling the majority of her garage contents. She wasn’t a big fan of markets, which I can totally get since you have to make a conscious decision to like being a vendor at the market. You can’t make it about the money because that is not something you can control, nor can you make it depend on the buyers and their respective moods. Nope. Ya gotta try to make it about something that you can actually control. For me it’s the setup and the contacts. Makes all the difference.

But where was I, oh yes, the Dutch lady. We chatted something, exchanged some superficial history tales and compared notes of living in Spain as a foreigner. Her complaint was that friendships were so transient…which I could understand after hearing that she moved here on her own. I went with my whole family after all.

The Argentina girl was there again, and we went through the hellos, the how are you selling and why is the sun not coming out, darn it. Hah. Then there was the English fella with the Paul McCartney mouth who loved the dog beds, but didn’t have dogs, and was there to see if he was going to be a vendor next week. He’s moving back to England and needs to get rid of excess baggage.

Had half a dozen people come over, looking around desperately for Knight II, and expressing their disappointment that he was no longer there. It was actually kind of fun to see them come to our stand, smiling a greeting while peering behind our tables. Hah.

Since Knight wasn’t there, I did get the chance to take an hour and a half to write. Managed 3-4 pages, so that was a success. Oh yeah, that Dutch interior designer. I gave her my number in case she needs to have any work done for a reasonable price. She is located in a nearby town after all. We’ll see.

Oh, I bought this tiny little computer (7” screen) for €25. It’s only a couple of years old, barely used, and if we manage to figure out a way to put Kindle on it, I’ll be using it as an E-book reader. It’s not a bad little, machine, by the way. The battery lasted more than three hours, the basics, for as far as I know work, and…well, we’ll see how that goes too, I guess.

Sold two dog beds, yay, with the promise of a couple of more. Also a handful of baby clothes, which still get a lot of attention, thankfully. Actually made a bit of a profit, so it wasn’t for nothing. Hah.

Didn’t arrive home until twilight, which forced me to rush a little through a toilet break, and stuffing food in my mouth prior to leaving again with big brother, so we could go pick up a donation. (How big a pain is it that this almost always happens on a Sunday.) Didn’t get home until after nine, at which time I barely managed another half page.

Was in bed right after midnight, meaning that I was once again listening to an annoying buzzing sound that I couldn’t identify this morning.
There was loads of loading to do this morning, and though we did our best to think of everything, we ended up forgetting to take working gloves and (this is embarrassing) the wheelbarrows. Aaaarrrgh! Seriously. How stupid is that. There was not a single thing we could do without those. Luckily Liane had a broken one standing by her shed, and we managed to fix it up (nicely, if I do say so myself) so we could make use of it during the course of the day.

Phew. Big relief that…in particular since we had to dig out a couple thousand pounds of dirt, then haul sand and concrete (I mixed while big brother worked on the masonry for the border of the terrace we’re putting in). Underway, we stopped at the local construction company where we bought ten cement bags of 65 pounds. It was the oldfashioned Portland, the one I’ve been missing like mad. The kind that makes concrete look dark and oily. *sigh* We can’t get them around these parts anymore…which is why we’re planning on loading up on a big amount of those bags the next time we drive past with an empty trailer.

Around four in the afternoon it became obvious that we weren’t going to make it with the sand (darned stuff is either too much, or to little) so I went down the mountain with the trailer, and acquired a wagon-full of the stuff. That did meaning lots of unloading, but since we won’t be able to get in more than about 2400 kilos before Thursday, the extra was well worth the hassle.

It was nippy out there, in particular since the sun didn’t show, and a wind kept picking up right until the end of the day when the rain started. (Some odd thirty minutes after we finished clean-up.) Knight II didn’t like the cold at all, so he spent a lot of the afternoon inside the car. Unless of course, if there was something to eat. His nose was literally against mine while I was having lunch…until I shoved him back that is. Hah.

Finished the pouring well after sunset, so it was a good thing that we didn’t forget to take the light big brother put together for this very purpose. The basis of the floor is in, so Thursday we can put in the last layer with the tiles. Let’s hope we can manage it in one day.

Bad news is that while we were working, Cousin Ed phoned that Sally had a light fever. The doctors had warned for this, so Ed packed up Sally and took her to hospital, where they are, even now waiting for a battery of test results. I don’t expect to see them back before one, or two in the morning…which is when I hope to be in bed, already. *sigh*

Well, that’s it for me. Once we got home I had to help tenant get ready for bed time because caregiver was otherwise occupied, then ate some fries, and wrote this blog, which means, for me that this is the end of a freaky long day. I’m pooped.

Job related mess.

Song of the day: “The Banana boat song” by Harry Belafonte, last night (yes, it was a working day for me) and this morning, “Hit the road Jack” by James Brown.

Okay, let’s just get straight to the issue of the day, because, let’s face it, as doozies go, my first official “thing” as a sales rep, it went wonderfully wrong. I mean it, if I was even remotely inclined to take this thing absolutely personal, I would quit right this instant and give up on Sales repping. Hah.

Let me explain what happened, because I am really not making a lot of sense, am I?
So, this week I lined up three potential clients, and when I finally got the list of prices, I naturally proceeded to send them out to those who had requested them. Oh dear, I bet you’re seeing this one coming…if not, well, no matter, I’m going to tell it anyway, hah.
The prices were the wrong ones, of course. Yes, wonderful first experience into the Sales bit, isn’t it? But the way I figure, having to set this right, and going back to those stores that have the wrong prices, will be good practice. I mean really, if the first possible client get either won or lost by this debacle, not much more disastrous can happen in the future, can it?

I have decided against taking it personally. This was human error after all, and stuff is bound to go wrong at some point anyway. Might as well have it on the first run. It’ll teach me getting a thick skin, won’t it. It was, in hindsight, funny to see John Doe flinch a bit when he saw the list. It’s bad of me, I know, but seriously, I know didly squat about advertising prices, so if they send me a list that is almost half the real price, I won’t question it. My only thought about the matter was that the pricing wasn’t as bad as I feared. Hah.

But anyway, I went over to the possibly lost client this morning to bring him the bad news. He wasn’t actually there, but his assistant was and she fully understood what had happened. Let’s hope she can explain it to him proper, because what I understood yesterday, he’s a mite particular, and doesn’t like to be foiled. Ah well, we’ll see how it goes, I guess. I for one am most curious to see where all this leads, in particular since I have an appointment with a rather large club along the coast. Yes, I am focussing on the positive, rather than the negative, such as needing to go past the stores that have the wrong lists, aaaargh.

I am totally throwing this recount out of sync, which is bad because that means I’ll blank even more. Okay, let me start over.

Saturday evening, the day that came after the last blog, yeah. Well, there was yard stuff, of course, seeing as we’re turning earth for winter veggies. Wonderful occupation, by the way, turning earth. It lubricates the joints and muscles and when I set out for my exercises in the evening (kick boxing, yay!) it went splendidly. Did a solid forty minutes of pounding the bag, and felt great afterwards. I did find out that I could not take my doctor’s advise and work out with the insoles, ‘cause I had to throw the shoes off after the fourth kick, because it was killing me. Once I was on my bare feet again the problem was solved…

Sorry, I had to pet Tadaika for a bit, the darling was curling in front of me like a pretzel and needed a good rubbing, hah. Where was I…

Oh yeah, work out. Wonderful. Slept like a baby, and woke up like an old woman. Seriously, I was sore all over, but it was okay. I kind of like that after a work out, since that means I used those muscles well. Hah.

Sunday was spent doing more in the yard, turning more earth, taking out young eucalypti that sprung forth from the ground this summer: I put eight of them in pots, as well as three mimosas.
Stuff we sowed was winter spinach, carrots and onions. I am definitely in the mood to head out again, so let’s hurry this up.

Prior to the route yesterday I headed out into the village to speak with the potential client (this was before I knew about the wrong pricing, mind you), and had an hour-long conversation with him. Though particular and a little, hmmm, I don’t know, boisterous? he was nice enough to basically give me a nice basis of drop points further land inward. Considering that would be my next route at some time in the future, having a basis to work from would be wonderful.

Let’s see if the guy will agree to the correction John Doe offered for the mistake made. If not, well, I guess I’ll have to start over and find another client. I could wallow in it for a bit, maybe even regret it, but then, that is not going to help me or, John Doe, so I’m letting it go and will double check in the future. Hah.

The route itself went well. Got it all done within the usual time limit, dropping everything off, talking with the Punjabi restaurant. He tentatively asked me about the stand, and whether I had one for him, and we laughed together while I went back to the car. Seriously, I always feared that some of the characters I create for my book are unrealistic in their behavior, but can rest assured that this is not the case. Even Paddy, and old jolly musician in one of my books, does not compare with reality.

Oh, John Doe did remember to bring the stands for the two big stores, by the way…did I mention the hassle with the big store that suddenly changed its mind about taking the papers and then me spending the past three weeks trying to get it all back in the store. Managed it last week, so we put a stand in there yesterday. It looked rather nice right there in the entrance of the store, if I do say so.
The other one ended up in the big supermarket, so I will see next week if I made the right choice with that one. Considering foreigners mostly frequent it, I would think that it will do well, but you just never know.

There were the chats, the smiles…oh, lots of cute guys this week, for some peculiar reason, by the way…I don’t know whether I first noticed it this week, or if the cute ones decided to come out of the woodworks, but I can assure you my eyes feasted this week. Hah. I saw a Sawyer (Lost) look alike…well, from his early Lost days anyway. Hah.
Along with smiles there was the talk, the networking and leaving my card at several more locations throughout the route. You do realize that soon I’ll be known as the paper girl who dabbles in sales, don’t you. Hah.

What else? Well, I was daring and told John Doe that if ever looks for a columnist or some such, I would gladly try it out. To which he promptly answered that if I have something interesting I am free to send it to the editorial department. Who knows, I just might…just as soon as this idea in my head takes shape. Hehehe.

The dogs were petulant for a change, not liking our absence at all, but also slowly starting to resign in the matter, poor darlings. Mosha and Chaos insisted on lying on top of me during the night.

Well, the last of the route was done this morning (together with the correction) and it was noon when we finally got home. There was a slight detour on the way home, by the way, seeing as grandpa has been hearing a rather ferocious growling during his walks these past few weeks. So big brother and I went to check it out and ascertained that on the spot in question, some sort of animal has been rutting around. There might be wild boar looking for roots and such over there, so we’re gonna wait until it rains and see if we can find tracks, or something.

Time for me to wrap this up. I am going to do m some gardening, yay.