More Wine Waiter

It was great seeing Tony and Gill (Gill why are you not in any of my pictures?). Not only do they have a lovely home we had a gourmet chef in house who also served the wine. I seem to remember you were very proud of this one Tony how much was it 1.5 euros?

I really relaxed and actually finished almost two books in a week which is fast for me. The weather was very hot as Gill and I proved by going out at lunchtime one day as I wanted to see Alhaurin. We arrived just as the last shutters were coming down on the shops at about 1:30 and there was nothing open not even a bar she was right it really is a one horse pueblo.......but actually what that means is just a working Spanish town with a traditional siesta. We did however go on to Mijas which is of course much more geared up for the tourist trade so we did get some lunch. Spent some time discussing the finer points of Spanish grammar. Since arriving in Spain Gill has a real grasp of the language that I envied.

We all went out to Marbella for dinner one evening at Garum on the seafront however there was a sea mist so not much of a view but were entertained by the fake handbag sellers playing hide and seek with the local police. We also went down to Fuengirola for tapas one evening and it was great to just watch the Spanish at play eating and drinking and being very social. Tony and I also went to a little local bar with their friend Gerry for the semi final of the world cup and there was much jubilation at Spain's victory. Although the highlight for me was being given a long lecture by one of the people in the bar at the end in Spanish of course. Gerry translated and it turns out this guy thought I was German and was commiserating with me! I had to duck out of the final though as I was not well that night so like many others watched at home although I did get to see the fireworks after they won. The amazing thing is I was down in Fuengirola the next day and it was so clean and tidy you had no clue of the sorts of celebrations that went on the night before.

Dog walking

I found on holiday it is so much easier to make them swim than walk around the very hot roads of southern Spain. The one in the pool was an amazing diver and would happily do lengths for most of the day if you let him. His chum however just stood in the shallow end with his ball in his mouth. Hours of entertainment thanks Marlow & Charlie

What I did on my holiday

Well back from Spain.

Having not been to the Costa Del Sol for about 4 years the first thing you notice as you drive out of Malaga airport is a huge billboard proclaiming only 3,500 Euros the cheapest breast enhancement on the coast!!! I remember when I first came in the 70's the nice black bull silhouette was the most prominent thing on the coast I think it advertised Sherry, a drink even out of favour in Spain itself these days, Tony told me that these are now protected monuments. The very next day I was exploring in the Los Boliches end of Fuengirola (ok I was lost) and there up on the hillside in front of me was this chap (in the lower picture no idea when they took the first one have you ever seen flowers like that in Southern Spain?).