A short path to inevitable

Before moving to Spain I got myself a few pairs of beach shorts. I figured I'd try and be cool and hip and hit the beach/pool in some surfer shorts.
Now it's been a few weeks and I've gotten myself a bit of an all over tan.

Well not quite all over. I now have white bits that extend down my thighs, from my waist to just above my knees. When I've been getting changed or having a shower it sometimes looks like I still have some ridiculously white shorts on.
Which has given me a bit of a image issue. Although I'm not a major fan of hitting the beach and laying in the sun for 12 hours, it's still something that I'd like to resolve.

So I tried wearing my swimming pool shorts a little more. They're much shorter but not quite short enough.

Now I've bought myself some smaller shorts. They're about the size of boxer shorts. Actually I think most of my boxer shorts are longer.
The first problem I have is now I have tanned shins, small shorts and in between bright white thighs. Something I'm going to have to work on now.

The BIG problem though is I'm going to get to the stage where I start to think that even these tiny shorts are giving me too much white bits.
So next I'll be changing to Speedos and walking around the beach in just them.

Which is eventually going to lead to the man-thong. It's inevitable. The Path to the Thong has started.

And that's a shame, as I thought that I would at least be in my 30's before I started walking around the beach in a thong.

I do have picture's but I think the mental image is more then you can take.

Get along with el vecinos

When we first arrived in Spain one of the things we had to come to terms with was our new house.
When we seen the house for the first time I was pretty dismayed. I was expecting a lovely, small, Spanish holiday home. What I saw -on a drizzle afternoon in the middle of the Spanish Spring- was a residential home. Not just any kind of residential home, but a high rise residential home. The tallest building in the whole of Nerja.
Except for the fact that geography of Nerja is so that it appears to be built on the side of a valley so the building isn't as protruding from the skyline as you would expect.

After a few days living here I started to find more things I liked and disliked, close to the beach; pool is closed, those kind of things.
One of the good points was the "residentialness" of the building.
I figured that no one is going to want to holiday here. The building is going to be full of Spanish. It'll be good to get to know a few of the faces and eventually, and hopefully, get in to small talk with people.

It turns out I was wrong. I don't think I could of been anymore wrong?
This building is like a big piece of fresh, clean, bare skin attracting annoying, buzzing mosquito's from far away.

We get plenty of holiday makers here. Mainly the French. Although there is the odd English, Spanish and German holiday makers. But those nationalities are no where near as noticeable as the French.

I'd say that about 80~90% of mosquito's holiday makers arrive on Sundays. This is the one day that I've started to hate.
All day we get taxi's and minibuses pull up. Kids shoot out screaming and running about. Suitcases being pulled up to the main door.
I'd like to mention at this point that we are extremely unfortunate to be living on the ground floor and have our bedroom right next to the only door in to the building. So we have all visitors pass us.
Some times, if we are very lucky, we will get a French group pull up on a Sunday/Monday morning at about 2am shouting and banging on while removing their suitcases from the car to the door. All of this happens right. Outside. Our window.


Another annoying point to having different weekly neighbours is you never know who is going to turn up at the pool.
A few weeks back we had a large group of French kids. The flat they were renting must of had bodies laying down in all directions at night.
For the entire week these kids did nothing but sing songs, scream and shout as loud as they could while in the pool. Which is really annoying if you just want a nice swim, relax and sunbath.
Some weeks we just avoid the pool and don't think of the holiday makers.
The last week or two we have been very lucky. We've had quite a few new families/mature people who have been very quite and reserved at the pool which has been beautiful.

But Saturdays are always nice. Things are much quieter around here. The pool is more then often empty. And all this quit time gives me the chance to pray to the Gods of First Choice and Thomson Cook that the next visitors we get are quite....


...and not French

Weird Pictures/Arpeggi

As mentioned earlier, I have my underwater camera back and got chance to take it snorkeling.
Here are some of my favourite photo's

At first all I was spotting was these guys for about 15/20 minutes.

It's quite hard to photograph fish when the current is pushing them, you and your hand about.

But then I spotted these guys

There were two of them.

I followed these two fish for a few seconds, turned around and found myself in a massive shoal of fish

I don't think I'll do a Fish Spot like Lizard Spot, as there were just too many.


Fish seem to live in perfect harmony.


And I just kept seeing more...


And more...


And more still.


But some fish let me get close ups of them.

And after swimming amongst the shoal for about 30 minutes I thought I spotted some old friends

Hey you guys.


But then all the fish got a little bored and headed somewhere else.

You should really check out this set, it's one of my favourites. [LINK|Fish Set Slide Show]
Not bad for my first go.

I was a little worried at first that I might get bored photographing the same three kinds of fish. This is all I've seen since being here. But I've been tipped off that there is an area of coast line abot 15/20 minutes away that is treated as a underwater National Park. They have Moon/Sun Fish, various eels, octopus and even some predatory fish (after little fish I hope and not me). And I'm going the first opportunity I get, ie when the missus is off work.
Can't wait.

A visit from more family

A few weekends ago I had the pleasure of the company of my niece and mum

They have a lot in common

They're both part time SuperHeroess'

We spent a lot of time at the beach

Writing names


Watching waves.

Well some of us watched, while others ran


And after a while the "other" of us were tempted in to the sea

The big inflatable thing was called Cakey...until me mum popped it.

There was dressing up

A Big Mouth, but not a big head.


Nice shoes

And dancing

Flamingo (as it was mostly called)


As well as some "Ice" Skating.

A bit too much Spaghetti was eaten


But all this excitement was too much for the smaller of us.



On a few occasions

But my mum was on her best behaviour all weekend.


It was great seeing both of my favourite girls and I was over the Moon to hear they already have their plane tickets for their next visit in October.

And here is the slide-show

[LINK]

Circle peg in a square tray

The last few weeks I've noticed a strange change in the ham that we regularly buy.

Without any notice the ham maker ahs gone from making square slices of ham to round slices of ham.
They haven't mentioned anything, anywhere about this major change.

I quite prefered square ham. It fitted perfectly on the strangly smaller sized bread. Absolutely perfect. It was almost like the ham makers made and effort to go out, measure the size of bread come back and make ham that size.
It was a minute detail to the ham, but it made sandwiches that much better. There was never and excess breadness* on the edges.

Now the makers have changed the design to round ham. This of course means that my sandwiches now have corners of sandwiches where there is nothing but butter. It's pretty plain in those corners.

I just can't understand why a ham maker, without notice and without sticking some sort of "New Improved Ham" (in Spanish of course) label on the front so people would know I don't understand.

Although one good point about the new circle ham is that it's a little tougher. Not that I like tough ham, but I hate it when it's so thin and flimsy that it falls apart as you pull it out of the plastic tray.

*I hate taking a bread only bite in to a sandwich

Tips for posing on the Beach

Here is my list of tips for all you due a vacation to the beach this summer.


Always try to look like you are looking at something REALLY far away. (Bonus casually points if you bite your nails)


Try not to let your camera person drink too much and collapse


Drinking beer on the Beach is pretty mansculine. Do it!


Standing this camp inbetween swigs is not advised.


Flexing muscles is good not just for passerbys but for those photos to hang on the walls too.

Finally, Big Warning now. Here is the one pose you should never, NEVER, adopt while on the Beach.
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I call this 'The Lost-Camp-Duck.'
And I totally meant to do this pose just to prove a point....ahem.

A well held secret

So last Thursday I had a big surprise.

After the missus made me help tidy up the house, she took me out for something to eat. We headed down the beach to meet our friend, nothing seemed that out of place.
That was until I walked in to the bar and spotted my dad.

I had to do a double take. At first I didn't recognise him. Then I did and I wondered if I where in some wierd dream? Or had I walked back to England? What the hell was going on?
It turns out my dad saying for a while that he had to get his passport sorted first and would hope to visit as soon as he could was all a lie. He and the missus had been planning this since I last visited Runcorn before leaving for Spain over 2 months ago.


Dad at the bar. He made sure he was dressed warm enough for Spains mild 30 degree weather.


Alot of fun was made by the fact I had converted to half pints (canas) since moving over. My dad and his friend would soon start drinking them themselves.


While my dad was here it was his birthday. Unfortunatly Spain wasn't agreeing with his belly so he was off tapas, food and beers for most of the day.
(A very rare photo of my dad drinking something other then beer in a pub)

We had a great night on his birthday. There was tapas, food, much of which my dad missed out on. There was chatting

Lots of drinking and even some dancing.



Everyone enjoying dad's last night of his visit.

And then it was all over far too quickly.

It was great seeing my dad and Mike. And I had a fantastic time showing them around Nerja.
Although I'm not pleased to learn that the missus secret keeping skills have increased an awful lot from the last time she had to keep secret.
And from what I gathered from my dad, he was very impressed with my new life. And the bars. And he seemed to be able to jump to half pints rather too easily.

And I look forward to his next visit.

Here is the rest of the weekend.

Link

Although I recommend you check out the missus photos, as they are much better.

(Also dad if you're reading this, you'll have to get me the videos and photos Mike took emailed to me when you can.)

Next on my family visits is my niece Megan, who I can't wait to see.

While you wait

So I have some photos to upload before I can tell you about my great weekend.

So while you wait I'll show you how my new hair is looking. It's been nicknamed "The Cockatil" by the missus.

Feria de San Anotnio

I know back in England I often wished for a country where the Nanny State didn't rule. Health and safety didn't ruin everything and that people could just get along with their life threatening days out.
Thankfully I have found that in Spain.

So yeah, the weekend. The Bull Run. I had a really good time. It was fantastic.

The whole Feria took up 3 days. There was a travelling fair, shows, all kinds. I kind of missed all of that and went just to the Bull Run. Which was a shame as it looked like a lot of fun.

On the way up to the festival I spotted that there were not that many people heading that way in cars. I was expecting there to be far more many people heading up. But there just wasn't that many.

Also, some advice. If your planning on going to a Bull Run, make sure it's a Bull Run in your own town. Or that someone can give you a lift up. Don't, whatever you do, leave a little too late and rush 3 miles up a mountain to a tiny town. That'll just tire you out.
Lucky for my when I was near the top a friend drove past going the other way, turned around and give me a lift up, saving me time and giving me chance to catch my breath back.

So when I arrived I found out why there hadn't been that many people passing by. It turns out the about 70% of the people watching the Bull Run where still out partying from the night before. I don't know how these Spanish kids can stay out all night.
Anyway so when I arrived I hadn't a clue where to go for the run. I could just see crowds of people around fences. I figured the run was heading this way, but I didn't know how to get to the start. So instead I thought the best option was to scout out this run, in preparation for next years.
Yeah that was the line I was going with as to not run with the bulls.

So instead I got aload of photos for you all.

1. IMG_1890, 2. IMG_1893, 3. IMG_1951, 4. IMG_1965, 5. 15062008299, 6. IMG_1915, 7. IMG_1923, 8. IMG_1969, 9. IMG_1933

It took quite some time to get the bulls in. There was even a point when nothing happened for about an hour. The guy even had to go get his rope as everyone was getting bored.
When all the bulls where in the truck everyone headed off in a big crowd. Now I didn't want to walk all the way back home. I mean I had only just got here. So I decided to go see where the crowd where heading. It turned out that they were having a bull fight. Which was even better.
And I'm still unsure about the whole Bull Fighting and where I stand on it all. I only found out recently that the bull gets killed during the fight.
But in these fights the bull's were more just annoyed. Like when people play fight with dogs.
So I had to get more photos.

1. 15062008308, 2. 15062008346, 3. 15062008311, 4. 15062008345, 5. 15062008343, 6. 15062008335, 7. 15062008322, 8. 15062008344, 9. 15062008318

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

Here is the whole side show.

Direct link

Training for el encierro

With the Bull Run just a few days away I have been doing some training.

This video is a bit lengthy, at just over 8 minutes. It took me a day to recrod and an hour to edit, have a look at my training technique.

My training for the upcoming Bull Run

Bull Run Swimming montage

1. 11062008209, 2. 11062008207, 3. 11062008206, 4. 11062008211

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

Trailer

What is it all about?

When a plan comes together

I have recently been playing a lot of Wii Fit. And now that we (think we) have access to the pool I've been doing a few laps swimming each day.

I thought that my recent spurts of exercise were to keep me fit and healthy.

It turns out it's not. It is in fact to prepare me for the Bull Run I am taking part in this Sunday that I only found out about last night.

So who can run faster? Me or a bull? Found out Monday.

Keeping up with the Jones'

It's not just the missus that's fell for the mosaic feature at Big Huge Labs.
It does have a simplicty about it that could be abused.

But before I start to use the feature I might as well start with how it all began, I believe the questions are:]

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you
12. And, here’s me!

So here you go

1. Robert Belly, 2. extra cheesy salami and mushroom pizza:), 3. Hidden Place ..., 4. ♫ YO Yo yo, there's no place like a green penthouse... so i told the genie i wanted to be well hung. ^o^ ♫ nah... wildlife from singapore♫, 5. Karen O, 6. UrbanArchaeology II, 7. Akihabara (Electric Town), 8. Toffeeee Cheesecake, 9. The view out the porthole, 10. IMG_8118, 11. He's up to something look, 12. 01062008157

On a side note, I've now updated my blog to include who is on my 'blogroll.' It lists the 10 most recent bloggers. If you don't think you've seen yourself and should be included I apologise, just leave a comment and I'll resolve it.

It should all work out

So if you have been watching my Tweets you may already know a little about this next entry.

On Monday I quit my job.

It just wasn't working out. The original job I was doing there I did enjoy. It was working in sales face to face. We were told that we had to do a two and a half to three hour presentation with people about the product. A holiday club.
When I did my training I almost bought one of the memberships myself. It was a great deal. It looked fantastic.
So I felt good with what I was doing.

Unfortunately there wasn't enough people visiting the sales deck so I was recently moved to telesales.
I was told this was pretty much the same thing, just with a differnet club.

But the whole set up was totally different. Plus you only had a few minutes once someone picked up the phone to get it sold.
Obvioulsy there were some advantages to this picth, like it cost a tiny fraction of the other sell. But this one just felt wrong.
I just always thought if someone phoned me up with the same pitch I wouldn't go along with it.

So I just couldn't do a good job. Which meant that the manager was always having a word with me about how to improve. Which just made me feel rubbish.

Anyway on Monday I walked in and told them I was leaving.
Don't get me wrong there was one product that I didn't like but the office were very helpful and good with me. They gave me a job as soon as I moved to Spain. Plus the people that work there are really good people and I hope that I spot them outside of work.

But I do have another job lined up thankfully. The missus brother-in-law told me about a job listening to telephone calls and ranking them. It can all be done over the internet so I can do it from home.
At first I was unsure that I would get the job. I sent off my application form and hadn't heard anything for a few days.
Plus I thought that the brother in law was only putting my name forward as a possible applicant.
Then the missus tells me not to worry. The in-law is in fact a huge deal at the company and owns quite a few shares. I thought he was just one of their best sales trainers.
Then I get an email which I have been copied in to, which is of my CV sent from the in-law to the HR team. I'm told that the in-law has put himself on my references. I have a look and under job title it says 'Director.'
Then I stop worrying and think, "if a director is going to try and get me a job then it might go through."

So now I am just waiting for some log on details and I'll soon be able to work form home.
I really do hope I don't pick up any bad habbits, like reading blogs all day.
Plus I've promised the missus I'll stay away from the pool of a morning.
I'll still be looking around for any bar work/waitering just for some extra cash/hours. The season here has just started and I have seen a few adverts in restaurant windows. Only problem is they are in Spanish or you have to be able to speak Spanish. So that's how I've been spendning a few of my hours. Getting back to learning my Spanish.

Just one more thing about the office. I was watching an episode of the American version of the sitcom 'The Office,' when Dwight (the US version of Gareth) was giving help to another character on how to do god in sales.
The advice he gave, "K.I.S.S - Keep It Simple Stupid," was the same advice I was given to me when I first start selling face to face.
I'm not sure whether that means that this office have been getting selling tips from The Office.
Or whether both offices are using the same sources for all of their material?

Lizard Spot: Walk in the Hills Edition

Here is a special edition of Lizard Spot.

During my walks I must of spotted about TEN lizards. There were loads of 'em! And I'm sure I heard a few more walking about in bushes.

Luckily I did get to photograph some of them. But a few didn't turn out as I had hoped.
Firstly the one from my previous post.
This is quite hard to spot, but this was the first lizard I spotted of the day. I had just turned back from walking up the wrong hill and seen this guy run under a tree. I was stuck on top of a rock and any movement I made was going to scare him. I was pretty desperate to get a photo of a lizard so I just took my chance.

If you look carefully you can see his wiggly body in the centre of the photo. If you still can't see him, here is a soft focus of the shot so you get a better idea.

I also spotted this next lizard. The battery on my camera was dying so I was using my phone now. The zoom isn't great and the lizard wasn't staying still very much. This was the only shot I could get of him.

This one is much harder to spot. I forgot he was here when I first checked this photo when at home.
But if you check out this edited photo it will highlight where he is stood. You'll need to pan across to just below and right of the centre to spot the focused part of the photo.

The lizards do get much easier to spot from now on. I promise.

This was the second lizard I spotted on the day. It took a few minutes to get a good position and luckily when he moved he didn't go far at all. So I was able to get some very good photos of this guy.

There is also Photo 2 and Photo 3 of the same lizard.

The last lizard I spotted on my walk was probably the cheekiest. I thought I heard some movement from the bushes, so like always I stood still and checked to my left. I looked all around the shrubs and dirt just behind some massive rock and couldn't spot the lizard. I was almost ready to move away when I spotted this guy sat right on top of the rock with his head held high.

It was almost like he wanted his photo taken. I tried to get a second closer up but he ran.
I wish all lizards where a bit more like him and photo genic.

But at the end of the day I didn't care. On one days hike in the hills my Lizard Spot count had increased 50%.

Hurrah!

I can relax now.

Lizard Spot:13

Walk in the Hills

It's been annoying not being able to take a proper walk in the hills right behind our house ever since the fall.

Hiking has been a favourite hobby ever since my dad got me practising for our walk across England. So when I injured my feet and could hardly walk it was annoying that I couldn't get up the mountains.

Fortunately my feet have been feeling pretty normal the last few weekends and last weekend I took the chance to go for a Walk in the Hills around what I belive is called Cerro Tragalamocha.

You can follow my walk by heading over here
Link to Sportstracker route or using this on Google Earth yourself


I only had a slight idea of where I was going. The smaller set of hills that the new part of Nerja is being built on. I thought I'd take things easy. I mean I didn't want to get lost or injured on my first walk now.

I managed, without realising, to take my walk on the weekly boot sale day. It's a pretty crazy bootsale they have here. Things range from VHS tapes to SEGA Master Systems. I haven't seen one of them since I was a kid.
I'll be heading back there with some cash another day.

After setting off it didn't take long for me to get lost. But I did have on my a GPS enabled phone and a decent explorer map of the area.
My first hurdle come when I realised that my phone only has the regular international coordinates and Spain has it's own local grid reference. This meant that although I could tell you exactly where I was on Earth, I couldn't find that anywhere on the map.
So straight away the map became pretty useless.
My next job is to see if there is a way of converting GPS coordinates in to Spanish Local map grid references?

So I ended up getting lost.
And heading up the wrong hill.
I wanted to be here.


But it worked out in my favour as I spotted plenty of wildlife

This I think is an Egyptian Grasshopper.

Although there wasn't much in scenary.


But I did get some good views of home.

It looks quite big from up here.

So I headed back. But spotted another route around the side of the Hill I wanted to be up.

So I decided to take this route and see where it went?

The dirt track wasn't terribly wide for most of the walk. And there wasn't much too see.


But when I got to the top I got to see where I will be heading next time!

But first I better get the GPS and map problem sorted out.

But I did have a very enjoyable Walk in the Hills. I got 4 hours walk out of it and climb to 470 metres.

But more importantly I spotted some lizards. And I'll have more on them soon.

I promise. There is a lizard there. ;)

But until then, check out some of my other photos.

Link