September 16th - 22nd 2007
Written by Geoff Forster
Another lovely day.
Temperatures have dropped and are very pleasant. 80-85°F
We spent a few hours on the computers working.
Then we went to see the donkeys.
Back in time for the Belgian Grand Prix from Spa.
Hamilton came a pedestrian 4th unable to challenge the Ferraris or Alonso.
His lead is two points. He needs Alonso to have a mechanical failure in one of the next three races. After Alonso dropping McClaren in the clart with an e-mail resulting in a $100 million fine. Mystic Geoff sees a slow puncture in the near future.
Then I listened to Manchester City v Aston Villa. 1-0 to City sees them go second.
Newcastle United play away to Derby County tomorrow night. If we're going to do anything this season we need to be getting three points from games like this.
We cooked a sweet n' sour chicken casserole. Beautiful we'll have to do it again.
Later we watched 'Knocked Up'. A young career woman has a one night stand with a loser ...
I expected this to be dire. It wasn't. It was well acted and at times very funny.
If your very tired or very bored and the kids have this in their Christmas stockings it's worth watching.
'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'... the drawing is excellent, brilliant quality backgrounds and detail. Buy it for the kids or grandchildren and you can watch it too. :-)
An overcast start but it soon became a warm pleasant day.
We spent a few hours on the computers working.
Then we went to see the donkeys.
They look well. We took them some hay as plenty of seed and carobs.
Then we drove to Algatocín to the Super Genal Supermarket for a few supplies (mainly cat food!).
Jane cooked tea whilst I waited nervously for the football to kick off.
No luck streaming from China tonight. We played really badly so it's just as well.
I listened to a very disappointing 1-0 defeat on Radio 5 Live.
I spent an hour or two on our forum watching videos that one of our members has been posting. So far she's uploaded over thirty different places (lugares). They are mainly short aerial videos of different Andalucian towns and villages. The bigger cities have two or three videos each. Well worth a visit.
If you visit YouTube.com or MetaCafe.com for example and you find interesting or funny videos you can share them with us on our video forums.
All you do is post the URL code (Not Embed Code) highlight the link and press the blue 'M' in the editor. Alternatively if you like hard coding your posts use [MEDIA][/MEDIA] bbCode.
You are welcome to join in. Upload photos or add videos etc. Chat and post with other people who live in Andalucia or have an interest in the area. You may be able to help someone out with advice or find some needed information yourself.There are now over 3,000 photos and over 200 members.
We had over 100 people on the forums and in the galleries at the same time a couple of days ago. :-)
A beautiful day.
We've been working.
We've also been to see the donkeys so a normal day for us.
I'm feeling down about last night's football.
I've been working on our Radio and TV section on the forums.
You can listen to Radio stations on your computer and also watch some TV channels.
We have a few Costa Del Sol radio stations and a good one from Gibraltar.
Some of the TV stations are Spanish so if you want to brush up on your Spanish watch some Spanish tV.
In the evening we watched Lord of The Rings. Part One. The Fellowship of the Ring.
We've had this on DVD for a while but we've borrowed the extended versions which should be interesting.
The added scenes certainly add to the film. I've read the books many times and the film is reasonably true to the story. Just a few serious changes but overall it's a fantastic film.
Another beautiful day.
We've been working. A lunchtime walk down to Bar Andrés Sánchez for a coffee.
We've also been to see the donkeys they seem to be enjoying life.
Some interesting posts on www.1costadelsol.com forums.
This one's funny.
In the evening we watched Lord of The Rings. Part Two. The Two Towers. Extended version.
We've had this on DVD for a while but we've borrowed the extended versions which should be interesting.
The added scenes are even better in this part.
Another beautiful day but a little windy.
We've been working all morning.
The passion flower covering the outside of the house is looking a little ragged after two years of rampant unchecked growth.
We gave it a severe pruning. cutting it back to about a metre in height.
We had a huge pile of leaves flowers and stems about 2metres round and over a metre high.
It took most of the afternoon up and down the ladders with secuteurs Using a ladder on the slope outside the house is always tricky and not a favourite job.
Also the fact the passion flower was entwined with a bougainvillea which we wanted to save, meant it took quite a while separating the two. It also meant that I got scratches all up my arms and all over my hands.
Jane swept the whole street twice to get all the plant debris away from our neighbour's houses.
Not an easy task in the strong wind.
The bougainvillea will hopefully flourish next year.
The passion flower will come back strongly and should also look better.
Later we went to see the donkeys they seem to be enjoying life.
It's a tricky task moving around the village at present.
A new bar is being built and a small crane on a truck has been lifting in concrete and materials.
The usual road out into the campo has been dug up to renew some sewer pipes. The surface is now being replaced with some stone blocks, bricks and probably next week concrete will be poured in the gaps. so we have to go right through the lower part of the village.
Some of the streets down there are barely passable even in a small car like ours.
We finally got to the donkeys who are well.
They eat their carobs and seeds and are very keen to protect what's theirs. Rosie in particular stands her ground and kicks out at Domingo.
You have to be very careful not to be the meat in a donkey sandwich.
In the evening we watched most of The Lord of The Rings. Part Three. The Return of the King. Extended version.
We spent most of the day working. Lots of websites to design and update keep us busy.
We went to see Rosie and Domingo. It helps break the day and gets us out into the campo.
In just over a week since the first rains, large patches of green are appearing. Closer inspection reveals millions upon millions of seedlings and grass blades.
We spent some time with the donkeys making a fuss of them and feeding them carobs and their seed mixture.
In the evening we worked until around 21:00h. Then we watched 'Curse of the Golden Flower'. Set in the Tang dynasty of China ... intrigue and power struggles in the Emperor's Palace.
I think I enjoyed it more than Jane.
A beautiful day.
We're going down to the coast to get some shopping.
We're also going to have a walk from Sabinillas to Castillo along the beach and through the marina.
The sun was shimmering on the calm Mediterranean. Some of the local fishermen were repairing nets and checking over their boats.
This beautiful beach front property is in an urbanisation called 'Los Flamencos' It stands out from the others because of the beautiful planting.
The view back towards Puerto de la Duquesa from Castillo.
There are more photographs in the gallery.We walked back to San Luis de Sabinillas.
We met Iris and Jack on holiday from Nottingham. We enjoyed a good chat with them.
The beach was very quiet, it was a beautiful warm, sunny Saturday, we couldn't understand where everybody was.We had another walk and then went to do our shopping.
The shops were quiet too. Which is good!We drove back up to the mountains and beautiful Benarrabá.
We spent a quiet evening cooking and sitting on the terrace. We enjoyed the warm Spanish evening and the unbeatable views of the Genal Valley.