Tuesday 28 April 2009

Feeling lucky

These last few days I’ve been feeling very very lucky.

First I had popped down the shops to get some tomatoes for sandwiches. As I was lightly jogging up the stairs, as you do, I came centimetres away from stepping on a SNAKE! A monkey-fried snake.
25042009972
A monkey-fried snake on a Monday to Friday step. [bonus second photo]

This guy is by far better then any of the lizard spots I’ve seen over the last 13 months here.
Pretty lucky that I just happened to go get tomatoes at that time.

Then, later on me and the missus were out attending some evening for a local pub football and pool team. The seasons have finished and they' were having a trophy giveaway.
They were offering out raffle tickets and I picked up two. The tickets were for a game of “Play Your Cards Right,” you know, that game were you have to say whether the next card is higher or lower.
So my number got called out first and I stepped up to the cards. About 14 cards later (all in one go with only one change your card move) I had won.
A grand total of 89€. Sweet!
(There is a photo on someone’s camera of me, with trilby, €89 all gangsta style. A bit like this. Double sweet. If it comes back to me I’ll make sure to post it for sheer badass-ness.)
What makes this win a little bit better is that I was told Play Your Cards Right is a popular game in this bar and normally last 30 minutes to an hour with any number of people getting up to play after other fail. So me to get up and go from start to end in one go that’s pretty lucky.

And finally. After going down to one of the beach restaurants yesterday to spend my weekends winnings I topped up my phone on the way back. Since moving on to pay as you go I’m pretty crap when it comes to staying on top of keeping credit on my phone. So I grabbed a 15€ top up voucher from a shop, put in the pin and got a message saying I had 25€ credit!

DSCF4031
My tired old phone.

Now I’m sure that Orange were having some special offer for those people that keep forgetting to top up there phone and telling them “do it now for free €10” as I got a message from Orange earlier that day but like normal deleted it immediately.
So it’s pretty lucky that I can’t read Spanish very well otherwise I wouldn’t of been so surprised about this.

Tuesday 21 April 2009

Throwing shrimps left right and centre

So I got myself a new toy.
20042009966 
BBQ, chair and a view

You know, something for when the evenings are a little warmer, which shouldn’t be too long now.

I’m sure not only I’ll get plenty of use out of my new toy but all visitors that we have will too. Which seems to be an awful LOT in May.

After visiting the UK for a brief stop, there will be visits from a friend (my first since arriving a year ago!) and two different groups of families all in a few weeks. It will be busy.
(Which reminds me, I need to get round to posting highlights of last weeks events)

The only problem with the new toy is, it’s about 2 foot high.20042009968
Sorry for wonky photo. I think the missus was drunk!

It looks like I bought this thing from a toy store. “Fisher-Price My First BBQ set.

I’m hoping that hobbit’s come and visit to show me how to use this thing safely.

Also I’ve never BBQed before solo.
I mean I’ve been to a BBQ. And I’ve helped stick some burgers and sausages on and off a BBQ. Heck, even last week I helped start up a BBQ last week (except I but too much fire in to it and we had to wait a bit longer then had planned to eat)
But never got from start to finish on my own.

This should be fun.

Friday 17 April 2009

Friday Digg along

A few weeks off so there is some catching up to do. Shame Digg continuously tries to break itself when used on Opera as the list’s could be smaller from now.

Interview with Elmo and Gervais.

Hip hop flip flop pop off. This is how he rolls. [gif]
Dark Side of the Rainbow. Infamous video mashup of Pink Floyd album and the yellow brick movie. Never had the patience, nor Dark Side of the Moon…or even a copy of Wizard of Oz to do this. And if your like me now you can try. [video]
Super Mario Russian Dolls. Do. Want. [pic]
Kid can’t kick ball. Just kick it. [video]
Spiderman recues kid from window. With the aid of some juice. [news]
Free Style Rapping. Learn some rhymes “O.I.O.I.O.I.Two” [video]
If Atheists Rule the World. Truth speaks. [video]
Don’t mess with this guy. Period.[pic]
Woman locks herself in car. Not. Saying. A word. [audio]
Boy calls 911 to solve math problem. Those take aways are hard. [audio]
Last rites of Lucky the goldfish.

Bonus. Just because I love Ice Ice Baby.
From popbitch a few weeks back.

Peteybabes writes:
"I think we're gonna have to contend with a
Vanilla Ice revival. I was at the V Festival,
where Virgin had brought him over as a joke
to publicise their hopelessly wrongheaded
campaign to get pop stars to apologise for
supposed crimes against music.

"The last laugh was against them. Vanilla Ice
was way more popular than the supposed headliners
The Killers. We couldn't even get anywhere near
the building let alone get inside. We looked
and we saw through a window a little of the
performance. When the bassline from Ice Ice Baby
came on, I have to admit, even though I've been
to many festivals over the years including most of
the Glastonburys of the 90's, I have never,
NEVER, seen a reaction quite like it."

http://digg.com/d1oL38 [video]

Wednesday 15 April 2009

Since I’ve been gone

A few days ago my 1 year since moving here anniversary passed. Me and the missus didn’t do anything to celebrate, I had family visiting so we were probably out anyway. But some thing’s haven’t really change here that I wished had.

The biggest thing has been the let down that Spanish culture has yet, well at least here, to embrace the fantastic idea of sandwich deli’s. I love a good deli. I love a good sandwich. But I don’t have the patience for all that preparation to make the type of selection they have in deli’s. Or the knowledge. If anyone can teach me to make that chicken mayo fusion filling that you get in deli’s I’d be more then thankful.

There was some interest in one starting up but that never materialised.
One restaurant that does serve tasty, but slightly expensive, sandwiches had stopped. Although I have seen they stuck their sandwich board outside again.

But it’s not quite a deli.

I’ve resorted to having to find different, simple, fillings that I can stick between my two slices of Bimbo bread myself. I’ve starred at the meat counter for far too long then is allowed for a health sane person to.
And the best I could come up with is having corned beef filling. But I never really know what to have with corned beef, apart from salady stuff but at least it’s a change from having ham and salady stuff.
So I was doing at little investigating to see what I could have with my new meat and found some simple sandwich ideas that all ended with toasting the sandwich.
Which made me remember, I saw an advert for a genius idea on the TV the other day. You guys back in the UK now have the fantastic invention of Tostabag.

What a great idea. Any sandwich filling can now be doubled thanks to the easy idea of toasting your sandwich in a little sleeve and using a toaster, which I assume is in every home in the World. Ever. By law.

Amazing stuff.

But not only have the UK made advancements in dinner time snacks since I’ve been gone. No. You’ve also improved breakfast.
Watching some more English TV the other day, I promise, English TV is something that I see very close to nothing off. These are the only two things I remember watching. I don’t even remember what shows I was watching at the time, just the adverts.
Anyway, I now learnt that you have Weetabix Bitesize.

Now this is more of an “about time” invention then a “bloody marvellous” like the first one but I could so do with Bitesize Weetabix over here due to the fact that we have tiny tiny little bowls. My Weetabix look more like Weetastax then Weetabix in these tiny bowls.
Plus it means the bottom one gets very soggy and not very sugared and the top one is dry and over sugared.
I just want my Weetabix side by side.
Or in BiteSize.

Thursday 2 April 2009

It feels nice, when it happens to you.

So I have my dad and his family visiting from Saturday. It should be good. Their visit coincides with Semana Santa (Easter Week). There will be a lot of parades with men in cloaks and pointy hats (yes, like they look like those kind of pointy hats) carrying creepy statues of Jesus and other various things happening all week. This is also the only fiesta/parade that I have yet to experience since being in Spain. So now I can mark off the last one.
And expect quite a few photos.

Another favourite habit of mine when people come to visit, and I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before, is I turn in to “Vacation Mode.”
I’ll do a lot of things I don’t normally do, like eat out (although me and the missus have been doing tapas nights out again quite recently), go to the beach in average weather (average to me maybe, but there are a lot of holiday makers walking around in shorts and vests) and just generally walking around the main part of town really slowly (damn it tourists, pick up the pace).

I’m also looking forward to showing off my new favourite place El Molino.
Unlike other touristy flamenco bars which do big shows with all the dresses and proper dancers, El Molino is 90%+ filled with the Spanish. It has a solo guitarist/singer who performs on a very small stage and then anyone in the bar can join him on stage and dance to his music. And after a few drinks no one is shy.
I learned about El Molino when we first arrived but never went to it. Not sure why. I was taken to El Molino last week and had a fantastic time in there and wondered why I never went to it sooner? Although I plan to make up missed opportunities.

But I do need to work on my rhythmic hand clapping a bit more.

And if I'm ballsy enough I might start watching some youtube teach yourself Flamenco dance lessons....

or perhaps not.

Clapclap-CLAP. Clapclap-CLAP. Clapclap-CLAP.

Wednesday 1 April 2009

The Sun has just about got it’s hat on.

The last few days it’s starting to get a bit warmer here. Even the evenings haven’t been too bad.

Some noticeable signs of this are the heater hasn’t been on for a few weeks now. The butter is no longer frozen and destroys my bread every time I make a sandwich. And I don’t have to wear my slippers as often.

But I’m feeling myself slipping in to some British ways. No not wearing socks with sandals, but having a growing concern that the summer isn’t going to be all that hot.
With the UK’s inconsistent summers I find it hard to believe that this summer will be the same as last.

Last summer was baking hot here. For most of the summer it was 30+, even after 6/7pm. I didn’t attempt to take a walk past the farmacia to check on temperatures during the hottest parts of the day so wouldn’t guess on what they were.
There were times when we were staying up in Frigiliana and while waiting for a bus at the unsheltered bus stop, it was a killer waiting under all that heat. Especially as we were trying not to sweat too much in our dining out clothes. (Would of made for a stinky meal)

But these last few weeks I’ve found it hard to think that this summer will be as hot as it has just been so cold. When I came to Spain I expected it to be hot in the Summer and warm in the winter. But it can be nearly as cold as the UK in the winter (or at least it feels like).
Even when we spent time up in Frigiliana a few weeks ago, walking past the same bus stop I had a jumper on (but no coat as I had left it in home) and was shivering at about 6pm.

I’m sure that in a few months (weeks?) I’ll be complaining about the heat and this talk will just be impatient nonsense, but I blame a life time of poor British summers for my ‘Precognition Summer Dissatisfaction’.