A finish

 We went along to the fiesta parade in Benissa on Saturday, this was the Moors and Christians festival. There were bands marching and various groups in very different costumes, they must have taken an age to make, very rich colours. We didn´t go along to the actual siege on Sunday, but apparently it was very good.

We have been in the pool most days and I am trying to build up the number of lengths as a good form of exercise. I´m up to 34 at the moment, although our pool is 10m in length, 2 m of that are shallow steps which are brilliant for Theo to play on, although he enjoys splashing around with us too.

I haven´t a clue what they are called, but these succulents by our little pond have been flowering, they remind me of little fairy hats.

Sashie and Sonia seem to be settling down more now, they venture out into the courtyard, but we have blocked up the escape routes until they are calmer. They have been trying to make friends with ours, but there is plenty of room for all of them to do their own thing.

Amber, on the chair, is rather feisty, she is a don´t pick me up kind of cat but does enjoy a smoothing on her terms, I think Sashie and her had had words.

Been a bit lacking in the crafting scene, but I have finished two beaded butterflies for my wall hanging, which is going rather slowly. Now I have to think of what to put in some of the other squares.

I have got a finish though, the crochet blanket, very simple, something you can do while watching the telly. There wasn´t any real thought in the design, I was just using up yarns from other projects.

Time for a swim I think

take care

xcx

At last

We seem to have skipped Spring and landed straight into Summer. We had temps of 37C on Thursday and 35C yesterday, thank goodness for the pool.

We went into town on Thursday as we needed to choose new taps for the en-suite, we have been putting up with them for ages, they are so old and clogged with limescale they hardly work. We went to the showroom first then on to the warehouse to collect. They had everything in stock and we were given a 35% discount which was very nice. Just have to wait for the plumber to come and fit them, that is usually manana, manana.

There was a cleaning party in the plaza on Tuesday, cleaning the church and strimming around the area. We were surprised as it was far too early for the fiesta in August. It turned out it was used for a christening yesterday. In the meantime Sunny hadn´t been home since the clean and our neighbour was also away. We managed to get the keys to the church etc but no Sunny. We really thought he had gone, maybe in a car or something. Then yesterday after the church was opened and the neighbour returned, there was Sunny waiting patiently outside the courtyard gate. Obviously hungry and thirsty, but other than that he was fine. We asked him where he had been but he was too busy filling his tummy lol

I have been using the pool and gradually building up the exercise, yesterday I managed up to 30 lengths, which with the size of the pool equates to 240m. It was suggested walking up to 45 minutes a day, but in this heat, no way, so this is the best alternative.

I received a call saying that my sewing machine was ready for collection. At last, it was the week before Easter it went in, but it needed a new inside panel that regulates the speed, 3 lugs were broken, how this could be I don´t know as it never goes anywhere. It was dispatched from Switzerland, hence the delay. The service engineer got it running to make sure I was happy and he showed me a couple of things that I didn´t know it could do. In his halting Spanglish he insisted I had a very good machine and that I should get to know its capabilities. Bit cheeky really, but true,  Although I don´t make clothes so don´t need the buttonhole foot, Patchwork is usually straight sewing apart from free machine quilting so its usage has been pretty straightforward easy sewing. I would like to explore the embroidery side a bit more so You tube and manual will hopefully get me going. Just have to be brave

take care

xcx

A little trip

Hi all, been a bit quiet as I didn´t have much to say, ticking along, a little reading, a little knitting and not much else.

Saturday was Rebecca´s birthday , her hubby had organised a little surprise for her and kindly invited us to join in. 

We had quite a long journey, along a route that had long gradients taking you up to 3000 ft, so we decided to go in 2 cars to save over taxing them, traveling at a reasonable speed, we managed to keep the fuel consumption steady, it was mainly duel carriageway but we traveled through areas that were quite diverse, pretty and interesting.

Our destination was Teruel, up in the north, Chris has been several times visiting the ski slopes up there.

It was a long way but the reason it was chosen was because it had adult spa facilities and a childrens Dinospa, so Theo could enjoy the fun too. While they took Theo into his area we had an hour in the spa, a main pool large enough to swim and several small multi spas, even a cold water dip which I chickened out of but was apparently very refreshing.

We then swapped over and had Yaya duties so they could enjoy free time too. After showers and changing we took a taxi into the town. Very different to around here, it was buzzing and very busy with lots of walkside cafes. 

We found a restaurant where one wall was actually part of this tower

There were some very ornate buildings and most of the signage for shops, banks etc were all in gold lettering. The square was very busy and noisy. We enjoyed our meal, although the owner was rather pofaced, and didn´t take kindly to being asked for bread and allioli, obviously  not the done thing up there.

It was rather late and Theo, who had been very good, was flagging, so we called up for the taxi, to be told there wasn´t one. After a lot of being pushed from pillar to post we were told to ring the police. Thank goodness for Antoni speaking Spanish, apparently the taxi´s could be fined up to 600e as one taxi had to be available at all times. Phew we got one. Bit of a worry for a while there.

Our room was quite basic but adequate and clean all we wanted really as we were ready for sleep. Breakfast was quite varied and comprehensive catering for most tastes. We left not long after, we headed for home but the others were going to divert to Valencia, promising Theo a soft play park, unfortunately the world and his wife were there and they had closed it to avoid overcrowding. Such a shame. To add insult to injury, when we left their apartment they had left the key on the inside of the door so consequently couldn´t get in. They had already inquired about a locksmith and he came out to rescue them, he used a very simple method with no damage or requiring new locks in record time but with a charge of 75e for the privilege.  

At last our pool is ready to use, Chris has worked hard trying to get it up to scratch, all the rain we had weeks ago ruined the ph etc and he removed so much leaves, twigs and general debris, its all sparkling now and R, A, and T came up yesterday late afternoon for a swim and stayed for dinner. Waited a long time to be able to do that, I´m sure they will be up regularly to enjoy a dip and get Theo more confident in the water. 

I´m melting at the moment, its about 31C so off for a cool drink

take care

xcx