September 1st - 7th 2007
Written by Geoff Forster
Another beautiful day, a strong breeze making it even better.
I've been working and catching up with the blog. Hard work now the habit has been broken. I will try to update it most days from now on.
Jane's been reading posts on some forums and it's mosquito season on the coast. We don't get many in Benarrabá.
We've heard the odd one in the campo, but no one has swimming pools, and there's no stagnant water for them to breed in. So luckily we're 'mozzie free'.
We went out to Pub Bar Dami and Bar Andrés Sánchez with Faye and Tony.
Good fun catching up on their lives and our plans.
They read the blog, so we didn't have much news for them, one disadvantage of blogging.
I got back in time for the football. I couldn't find a low quality stream. (I hope Telefonica increase our bandwidth soon. They were hoping to around September last time I called them.)
I watched the text version of Sky Sports Centre for updates.
We had lots of possession and lots of chances. Michael Owen came good, two minutes from time and we won 1-0.
Lots of new players in and old rubbish discarded. The squad looks excellent and for surprisingly little net cash spent. Now we have the base, we can start adding some world class signings in the £20-30 million range, but we need to qualify for European football to attract this quality of player.
We went with Faye and Tony to see Rosie and Domingo. We were going to walk them, but Domingo was feeling frisky, and ... well you don't need to see your donkeys doing what they were doing ... ;-)
We decided to have a quiet night in ... no fiestas until the end of September!We watched 'Captivity' starring Elisha Cuthbert and Daniel Gillies.
Two people wake up in captivity in a basement. Psychological, torture and captivity horror.
Jane loves and hates these films. I'm not really into horror, the plots are generally poor and seeing a succession of screaming American teenagersbeing chased through woods/houses/campuses is pretty boring.
This is a little different and quite creepy.
Sorry no DVD link but you can buy the poster if you have a spare £399.99. A bargain as the price has been reduced by £100 ... I'll have three please. :-)
Next we watched 'Mr Brooks' starring Kevin Costner, William Hurt and Demi Moore.
A pillar of the local business community is a delusional, yet cool and precise serial killer. A clever, intriguing psychological study of a seasoned serial killer, excellent movie.
The fantastic Spanish summer continues.
I've been working and catching up with the blog again!.
We said goodbye to Faye and Tony in mid-afternoon.
Great seeing them again.
Here's a few photos.
The kitten is Jane's favourite, the one which I stood on ...
We need a name for it. I think, "Three o'clock" or "Guilt Trip" but "Charlie" seems to be winning.
Any ideas are welcome.
We'd like something Spanish but we haven't been inspired yet.
Tony and Faye.
We cooked a chicken curry. The first for a while. It really tasted good. We often use chicken breast because it's such good value and healthy too. Tonight we used chicken quarters, it seems to add more flavour.
I listened to the end of Aston Villa v Chelsea. A good result for Villa 2-0.
Later Jane and I watched "Breach" starring Chris Cooper, Ryan Phillippe and Laura Linney. Another excellent film. A true story about 'mole hunting' in the FBI. Not much action but plenty of intrigue.
We also watched 'Hannibal Risng' starring Gaspard Ulliel, Li Gong, Rhys Ifans. A prequel to previous Lector films. We've seen it before a few months ago, it is good. No Anthony Hopkins or FBI investigators but worth watching if you liked the others.
Rhys Ifans plays a Lithuanian bag guy .. quite convincingly.
Later we couldn't sleep so watched 'Arthur and the Invisibles' aka 'Arthur et les Minimoys' A children's/family film. Partially computer animated.
Lots of famous stars. Freddie Highmore plays Arthur. Mia Farrow plays his Granny and others lend their voices to the animated characters including, Madonna, Robert de Niro, Harvey Keitel and David Bowie is great as the evil Maltazard.
Fairy tale fantasy adventure about miniature people living in a boys garden. If you have kids or can't sleep ... worth watching.
A beautiful day, yet again. Temperatures are now in the high 80'sC. Very pleasant.
We're having a quiet day.
A trip out into the campo to see Rosie and Domingo.
We gave them some carobs and seeds.
Rosie's looking fitter than ever.
Back in Benarrabá. I'm working on a website.
Jane's been going on our forums, there's quite a good recipe section building up.
Later I added some Gibraltar stations to the forum's Radio/TV Player.
If You'd like to listen to the radio whilst on the internet visit our forums
There are a couple of Costa del Sol radio stations too.
I also added a fancy image viewer and a new way to embed Video's and Flash files in posts.
When time permits we're going to start a video forum. We'll search all the popular video sites, YouTube etc for Andalucia related videos and if they're good we'll post them on the forum.
In the evening we watched some movies.
'Premonition' starring Sandra Bullock.
Quite a scary film as seven days in a woman's life unfold in the wrong order.
Jane really liked it, but then she's a big Sandra Bullock fan.
Then we watched 'Blood and Chocolate' starring Agnes Bruckner and Hugh Dancy . A modern werewolf film set in Bucharest. Better than your usual werewolf horrors. If you like this genre of movies this is a interesting new angle on lycanthropy.
We're off to Ronda tomorrow. I've had an eye test and have had some new lenses put in my gaffas (specs). I have to pick them up. It's Ronda Feria later this week and it might be very busy.
A perfect day is forecast and it looks as if the Spanish meteorologists have got it right.
We're off to Ronda today to pick up my new gaffas (glasses). I'm not sure how prices compare to the UK but we paid 132€s / £95 per lens for scratch/break resistant varifocals. I had them fitted in my old frames. The examination was free.
We turned the corner and headed to Plaza Socorro. We saw this pretty girl. Just as well I had my new glasses on, I might not have noticed her otherwise. ;-)
You can click on photographs for enlargements or send them to friends and family as an e-Card.
We walked up Carrera Espinel, looking in all the shops. The streets were a riot of colour, covered in lots of very striking bunting.
This man can often be seen in Carrera Espinel, the main shopping street in Ronda. He sells a mixture of dried and fresh herbs. Today he also had some very thin looking rabbits. Temperatures were around 34°C so these rabbits will become quite 'high' in not too many hours. It all adds to the flavour ...
The centrepiece of the Ronda feria is the 'Corrida Goyesca'. This year is the 51st staging of this special bullfight.
Ronda is the oldest bullring in Spain. It is also the place where the modern style of fighting was started by Pedro Romero.
In the Corrida Goyesca, All participants wear costumes and equipment of a style made famous in Goya paintings.
One of Ronda's favourite and most famous sons is Antonio Ordoñez.
Who was one of the greatest bullfighters of recent times. Ronda is rightly proud of his achievements. He topped the bill in many of the Corrida Goyesca during the 1970's.
There is an Antonio Ordoñez exhibition of paintings, posters, equipment and some of his 'suits of light' in the new gallery near the puente nuevo.
We enjoyed looking at the exhibits.
This beautiful poster was produced last year for the 50th anniversary. It features Antonio Ordoñez.
We went to Pastelería Davar for cake and coffee.
The cream cakes and chocolates are a bit special.
Very reasonable prices for quality cakes.
We bought a few groceries in Plus, Ronda. We also stopped off at the Super Genal in Algatocín for ingredients for another batch of gazpacho.
In Benarrabá we worked for a few hours before settling down to watch some movies.
We watched '16 Blocks' starring Bruce Willis and Mos Def.
An aging drunk cop (Willis) is assigned the ordinary task of escorting a fast-talking witness (Def) from police custody to a courthouse. There are however forces at work trying to stop prevent them from making it.
Hardly an original film, reminded me of Clint Eastwood's 'The Gauntlet' starring Eastwood and Sondra Locke.
Plenty of action throughout. Worth watching .... yes with a small 'y'.
Next we watched Quentin Tarantino's 'Grindhouse ... Deathproof'.
Now this is a strange film in that the it tries to reproduce the cinema experience of the old 'Double Feature'.
Including aging of the film by stressing it and missing out odd frames so it jumps like the old movies used to.
The DVD release is being split (clever) onto two separate DVD's which sort of negates the original concept.
There's also controversy about missing reels and missing sequences in different releases in different parts of the world. It causes confusion amongst the movie watching public and also lots of free publicity and hype for Tarantino.
There's also supposedly connections through one of the characters with Kill Bill vol 1. (A great film 9/10+)
Tarantino is a fantastic director. When he's exciting he's the best, but he can have extended lulls in his movies. (ie most of Kill Bill vol 2) and the first half of this film is slow.
The second half is exhilarating in parts.
There's so much confusion about 'Grindhouse' that I'm not even sure which part of the 'double feature' we saw. The second I think?
The other is called Grindhouse 'Planet Terror'. There are also Trailers to be shown between the movies to complete the 'double feature' experience.Shame it's not all on one DVD.
Best to wait a year .. or two when it probably will be, after everyone's bought it on separate DVD's of course, then soon to be followed by the 'Directors Cut'...
Here's links for a Kill Bill box set, fantastic action/cult movies.
If you don't own these .. you should.
A lovely day. Although the wind is quite strong.
Andy and Angela Beavis are driving across from Competa where they are in the process of buying a holiday home. Jane and I managed to get them tickets for the 'Corrida Goyesca' in Ronda on Saturday. It's Andy's 40th and he's treating himself.
Jane and I are both animal lovers and are a little dubious about bullfighting. Jane more than I am. I love most things about life in Andalucia and after chatting to a few people in the queue for tickets, I'm thinking about going next year.
It is such a big part of life out here, especially with the history of the Ronda bullring. The 'Corrida Goyesca' is a spectacular event.
Here's Andy and Angela Beavis. We hope they enjoy their big day out in Ronda. Feliz cumpleaños Andy.
The road out into the campo is not too far from our house.
At the moment a new sewer and water pipes are being laid and the surface of the road has been dug up.
This means we now have to drive through the village, passed the bank and down a maze of narrow streets, praying as we go 'Please nobody come the other way .. please nobody come the other way'.
Work seems to be progressing quickly and a new surface should be laid in a few days. Which will be a relief.
After the tour of Benarrabá we drove to see Rosie and Domingo.
They are both well. Looking very fit. They don't have a bad life, chasing each other around a beautiful mountainside.
Lina and Nick from near Jubrique have found a German Shepherd puppy.
It has a dislocated hip which is being operated on.
Their own dog has taken a dislike to the puppy so they can't keep it.
If you know someone who has lost a puppy in this area, or can home the puppy please drop us a line.
Apparently Adana are full and can't take it ...? It would be a terrible shame if it had to be put down. So if you know of anyone who can care for a lovely puppy ...
In the evening we settled down to watch some movies.
We watched 'Zodiac' starring Jack Gyllenhaal (as Robert Graysmith), Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Jnr.
Based on the Robert Graysmith books about the real life notorious Zodiac, a serial killer who terrorized San Francisco with a string of seemingly random murders during the 1960s and 1970s.
A long movie. Seemed to lose momentum in the middle but worth watching.
Here's a link to the book. Watch out buying the DVD as there are other films with this title.
'The Last Mimsy' A children's/family film starring Chris O'Neill, Rhiannon Leigh Wryn, Joely Richardson and Timothy Hutton.
Cute story about two children who begin to develop special talents after they find a mysterious box of toys. Soon the kids, their parents, and even their teacher are drawn into a strange new world and find a task ahead of them that is far more important than any of them could imagine! Good special effects.
Beautiful weather. It's been a great summer. Long range weather forecasts are predicting we get the 'first rain' for a long time on Wednesday next week. :-) We'll see.
We're working on the computers.
We walked into the village to see Mariangeles in the shop.
She wants to use some of our photo's in the Benarrabá feria booklet that is due for publishing very shortly.
It's very short notice, we don't really have time to scour through over 40,000 photographs. We've found a few for her, I hope they'll do.
We called into Bar Andrés Sánchez for coffee.
In the afternoon we worked on the computers for a few hours.
Later we watched.
'Blur' An artist is under pressure and overworks ... is it his mind or is he psychic/crazy?
Not brilliant. in fact pretty average stuff.
Later we watched 'Sin City' starring Bruce Willis, Mickey Rouke plus other stars. We didn't quite finish it so will reserve comment until later.
More beautiful weather.
We're working on the computers.
I've sorted a few more photo's out for the Benarrabá feria program.
Not a very exciting day I'm afraid.
We spent time playing with the kittens and the dogs.
A trip to see the donkeys.
We did see a Booted eagle flying close to the apartment.
A pair of Booted eagles are frequent visitors to the mountain sides around us, but this was quite close sighting. It flew about twenty metres above us.
We also saw a couple of Griffon Vultures. Not too many around this passed couple of weeks. We usually see them daily.
Lots of Bee Eaters heading South. Most of the Swifts, Swallows and Martins have gone. We will see other migrants passing over.
Not sure if we'll have time to go to Tarifa this year, previous migration trips have been disappointing. You have to be in just the right spot, at the right time of day. It's all down to the local wing strength and direction.
We worked until late ... so late we were too tired to watch any films :-(