September 8th - 15th 2007
Written by Geoff Forster
A sunny day (again!).
Good news from Lina and Nick near Jubrique. The German Shepherd puppy has had his operation for a dislocated hip and is doing well. He will be moving to a new home very shortly.
I'm looking forward to the qualifying session of the Italian Grand Prix. Then England play Israel at Wembley.
Jane's been out around the village taking a few photographs.
Jane called into Cafe Bar Guayácan to see Yolanda and Flora.
This is Euana and Yoly.
Flora, a wonderful lady.
I watched the football. Quite an impressive performance for a change.
I looked through Jane's photographs. You can find a lot more of Jane's photographs by clicking on the photographs above or by visiting Jane's www.1costadelsol.com gallery where she uses the pseudonym 'Rhiannon'.
More great weather.
We worked in the morning before I stopped to watch the Italian Grand Prix.
Later we went out to a few of the bars for coffee and tapas.
There's quite often a domino and card school outside the Ayuntamiento.
Play is always quiet and quite studious unlike in the Caribbean where dominoes are crashed onto the table in very dramatic fashion. In workingmen's clubs in the North of England where banter and game post mortems can get a little heated to say the least. Not in Benarrabá were it's played in a very gentlemanly manner.
I had some beautifully cooked Benarrabá pig's cheeks in Bar Barroso. Very tasty tapas.
We met our friends and neighbours Francisco and Antonia.
A good night out. Bar Barroso was very busy.
Later we watched the end of 'Sin City' a 'neo-noir' anthology. Shot mainly in black and white with colouring for selected objects. A huge box office hit and highly acclaimed. I'm a big fan of this sort of film but Jane wasn't so keen. An amazing cast list including Jessica Alba, Devon Aoki, Alexis Bledel, Michael Clarke Duncan, Rosario Dawson, Benicio del Toro, Josh Hartnett, Jaime King, Brittany Murphy, Clive Owen, Mickey Rourke, Nick Stahl, Bruce Willis and Elijah Wood, among others.
Then we watched 'The Hills Have Eyes 2' Wes Craven's sequel. A blood feast. A really gory film. Jane won't sleep tonight.
Originally made in 1977 and the sequel in 1984.
Both have been recently remade and released. Here's link to these new releases.
The weather forecast has been updated and the rain forecast for Wednesday is now forecast to start today and last until Thursday.
We went to see Rosie and Domingo. We gave them extra seed as we'd missed going to see them yesterday.
We went to photograph one of the shops in the village.
They are going to advertise on www.benarraba.com
An amazing shop that sells almost everything you could want. A real Aladdin's cave.
Back home we worked until around 18:00h.
We watched Goal and Goal 2.
A young Mexican is spotted playing in Los Angeles by an ex scout for Newcastle United.
The sequel sees our Mexican leave sunny Newcastle for Real Madrid. Why he felt the need to do this I can't imagine.
Lots of stars in both films. Surprisingly well done and both films were entertaining.
A few distant rumbles of thunder and a quick shower which just about wet the road outside.
Still it was rain!
More is forecast for tomorrow.
The weather forecast predicts a good soaking for us some time today.
Probably later as it looks perfectly fine at the moment.
Another trip to see Rosie and Domingo.
Their coats are beginning to thicken a sign colder weather is coming our way. (but not yet ... we've still got our shorts and t-shirts on!)
We worked in the afternoon.
Around 18:00h. the skies darkened and really unusual lightning could be seen above Mount Porón. It wasn't forked but the whole sky was flashing at around half second intervals. A very muffled and very distant thunder could be heard. It was a little spooky.
The flashing continued for around an hour, with the skies darkening as night fell.
Suddenly a huge flash and rumble of thunder and the heavens opened with some of the heaviest rain we've ever seen. It would have taken less than a second for a dry person to be absolutely soaked to the skin. An amazing downpour. Not good for erosion of the hillsides. As was evident by the brown river flowing from the campo into the towns drains.
The rains slowed but continued on and off all night.
The overnight rains have soaked the campo. After three months of hot dusty streets the village looks clean and fresh. The soil and rocks washed down the track from the campo being the exception. We'll sweep it up later.
First a trip to the vet's with little Charlie our latest addition.
Charlie's ear isn't quite right after someone stood on his poor little head. He's also due to get his first jabs.
We went to Gaucín. Only three people in the queue and we waited around twenty minutes to be seen. Not too bad as he hasn't been there lately because of holidays.
Charlie wasn't too keen on the injection and gave me a bite. Fortunately he's very small and not very strong. His ear is okay. It will just remain crooked for the rest of his life, and will serve as a constant reminder of just how cruel and careless his big footed owner is.
We bought a sack of donkey seed. Prices have risen from 10 euros a sack to 12 euros in the space of a year. Still it last them around four weeks.
More rain in the afternoon. In fact it rained for a few hours, good steady rain that will do wonders for the campo. Soon billions of seeds will germinate and in four or five days equally massive numbers of tiny seedlings will push up through the ground and make the campo green again.
We watched 'First Born' starring Elizabeth Shue. We thought it was going to be a 'Devil Cult', 'Anti-Christ' type film from the title. It wasn't, but I wished it had been.
It was about a mother cracking up. Jane thought it was okay I thought it was dire.
Jane watched 'Firewall' starring Harrison Ford. A good film about a companies computer security being attacked by gangsters. Worth Watching.
I watched England beat Russia 3-0 at Wembley. A great result. A little flattering, if there equaliser had stood as it should of and they'd made it 1-1, things might have been different. There was a spell where they got through our defence far too easily. This was glossed over by the studio pundits. What do the Scot's make of Alan Hansen?
Still Owen was magnificent. Very composed and clinical finishing. It could be a good season for Newcastle United if he can stay fit and maintain this level of form. :-) Later we watched 'Magicians' starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb. A UK film about ... magicians. Funny, quirky and entertaining.
Charlie spent his first night in the house. It rained most of the night. He was safe and dry, sleeping next to me ... !!
How can a kitten so small jump onto a king size bed?? He won't be doing it again.
More rain today but not as heavy as Tuesday.
We spent the day working.
Here's some photographs of Charlie, the smallest of the little kittens.
If you think Charlie's cute ... you can send his photo as an e-Card to your friends and family.You can also join our forum and upload and send your own photos. It's easy to join. 4 simple steps.
- You need to make up a username.
- Enter a password.
- Enter a valid e-mail address.
- Then click on a link in an e-mail we send you and you're signed up!
Now you can post in the forums upload your photographs into the gallery and send any of the gallery photographs as e-Cards.
We watched some films.
'The Condemned' starring Vinnie Jones and 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin. Wrestling fans will recognise Austin's name.
An internet entrepreneur 'buys' 13 condemned prisoners from death row, lets them loose on an island covered in cameras and streams the carnage onto the internet at $49.99 a pop. Last man/woman standing gets their freedom.
Now why didn't I think of this ... ???
Exciting stuff quite gory, worth watching.
Next we watched 'Epic Movie' starring Kal Penn, Adam Campbell, Jennifer Coolidge, Jayma Mays, Faune A. Chambers and Crispin Glover
Written by two of the 'Scary Movie' team.
The Da Vinci Code, Borat, Willy Wonker's Chocolate factory, Pirates of the Caribbean, Harry Potter, Mutant X and The Chronicles of Narnia are among some of the movies this funny film parodies.
Very silly/funny, worth watching.
The skies have cleared and it's a beautiful day.
A big day for our Border Collies. Now it's a little cooler and there's some water for them to drink we can head further a field with them. So their first long walk since July.
The first of many (I would think) of Sally and Jake enjoying a bath in a muddy puddle.
Jane took this of Mount Porón above Benarrabá
Jane took this lovely photograph of some Eucalyptus trees. They are beautiful trees. The bark peels and you often see different pastel colours on the trunks.
The Sweet Chestnuts are swelling and ripening. The village in the background is Algatocín
We spent some time with the donkeys. Their winter coats are starting to grow. Rosie gets a thicker coat than Domingo. We think that Rosie is a breed from Galicía in the North of Spain. She's a bit of a rarity in these parts. We've had lots of offers for our burrita negra. Including one man who wanted to swap nine sheep for her. Another man offered us a young mare in a straight swap.Here's one of me. We took some sandwiches and food for the donkeys.
We watched some movies.'Spiderman 3'. Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker/Spidey and Kirsten Dunst as MJ return to the screen. We enjoyed it. The critics didn't but what do they know .... ;-)
The special effects are amazing.
Later we watched 'Live free or Die'. A strange film about a small time criminal who by incompetence, lies and bad luck becomes a local legend. Slow to get into but compelling.
A lovely day.
We went for a walk around the village.
We spent a few hours on the computers working.
Went to see the donkeys.
They look well enjoying their life in the campo.
Back home ...
Charlie the kitten was in the dog's bed. Jake decided this wasn't on and that he was claiming his bed back. So he very carefully got in next to Charlie.
They both sat in it together for about ten minutes although neither of them slept.
Later I listened to the football.Then we watched some movies. After our 'film fest' I got up and did some more work until the early hours ... flexi time.
'Ocean's 13' George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Elliot Gould, Al Pacino +++. Directed by Steven Soderbergh.
Same formula .. Mission Impossible style heist/con. As good as the others. No Julia Roberts but who cares ...
We watched 'Pride and Prejudice' a favourite book and film.
Usually we watch the BBC Colin Firth version.
This time we watched for the second time the more recent Keira Knightley remake.
I prefer this version. Jane prefers the BBC version. Go figure ...
I think the sets and camera work on this version are excellent. The way the camera moves through the house at the beginning and during some of the parties is brilliant. Very clever. Got to be worth £2.99 a film you can watch once or twice a year and not get bored with it.
We get a measly 4% from Amazon. We put the links on out of interest rather than for financial gain. If you do decide to buy P&P we'd get 12p :-)
The BBC version.
The book.
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