Beach Boys

This weekend just gone I had a friend over for a couple of days. We had a good relax down on the beach, a few nights out (one failed beach themed party. If you’re going to throw a beach themed party make sure a few of your customers show up in beach gear) and barbeque.

While down on the beach I got to do a few things that I don’t normally do on the beach, playing frisbee and bat’n’ball.

As much as me and the missus enjoying going down to the beach as much as possible we have very different views on what to do when down there. I get very bored quite quickly if I’m just left with a book or mp3 player so I’ll always be looking to do something active. Go for a swim, snorkelling, anything which passes the time away.

Now the missus she likes to work her tan. I don’t mind working on my tan either but if I stay still for too long then I get much much hotter then if I’m moving about. So she normally takes a book and ipod down to the beach. (I think the reasons for these is to distract her from me looking very bored when it’s too wavey/cold to do anything in the sea.)

So my friend being over and doing some extra activities was possibly one of the best times down on the beach I’ve had.  And despite not playing for a while I’m a damn good thrower of a frisbee. And a very good catcher.

Bat’n’ball, I’’m not so good at.

So now that my frisbee throwing partner has gone, whose going to keep me occupied on the beach?

Everyone knows, girls can’t throw/catch.

Speaking of the beach, that’s where I’ve just got from. I went down a little too early. The missus wanted to top up her tan while there were no crowds (read that as no one AT ALL) and it was a bit chilly to go snorkelling. But I still managed a little bit. Reminds me of when I first moved here.

Getting my feet wet

Very quite this morning

The striped white bream are still about

Some fish I can’t spot. Might have to go and relearn my fish species 

Looking forward to more snorkelling. Will have to make a day of it while the missus is away over the weekend. See if I can spot any wrasse, goby’s or shiney Cow Bream.

San Isidro 09

Last month I went to my second San Isidro festival. Incidentally this was the first festival I went to last year when I first moved out to Spain.

San Isidro means quite a few things to old locals, to me and many yoofs it means a piss up, parade, party and the start of the summer.

Here’s some photos from this year.

As always there were many animals

Of all shapes

And sizes

Plenty of well dressed people

 

Of all sizes

Some people cheated and got the Party Truck to the main fiesta area

While others danced

It was very thirsty work

Although for some it was much harder to not sit and watch but instead join in with the parade. Good work A.

Where’s yer horse?

As always the whole slideshow. [Source My Flickr]

 

air strike

we dont often see planes in these parts
perhaps now and then we might see one cross-atlantic (???) jet high above but we never hear it
in fact just after we moved here we went a few months without seeing a single jumbojet or trail

we do get a lot of other different airborne travelers

there are alot of very low flying helicopters that pass right over us

this one hung around for a little while circling

i also see, more often in the summer, low flying single/double seater small engine planes
the biggest plane ive seen was a fire plane that was skimming just over the sea

it made some pretty huge waves

i even once seen a hot air balloon parked on the beach

and we very frequently get power paragliders
like this guy who has been hanging high outside for the last 10 minutes

seen here with a winged friend

and alot of the time i wonder what it looks like from up there
above everything else but still low enough to hear all the sounds

but most of the times i wonder where did they come from and where do they plan on going next?

and ive just popped my head out the window and paraglider man is still there

End of the storm

Sat out on terrace watching the football. Lovely weather. Hope the wind stays away.
about 20 hours ago from Me

So the heavy rains and strong winds have died down now. I even had time to catch the Arsenal/Tottenham game AND catch up on some work while sat out on the terrace in some lovely weather.

It seems that it wasn't just me that was enjoying the end to the bad weather.


The seagulls were acting suspicious




This guy was topping up his tan


This ladybug was a little overcome by the good weather


These holiday makers had a great start to their cruise


And the clouds looked liked they had given up
After a week of bad weather the clouds were looking like creamy blobs resting on top of the mountain peeks.

Update on house move and more

So we are in the new apartment now and all is going well.

The place is lovely. It's bigger, more spacious. It has a big patio window/door opening out on to the terrace so we get much more light in the apartment then the last place did.

What tea time will look like.

One slight downside is the kitchen and living room are together

We wanna be together

This kind of combination is bad when you are either cooking(smell, noise) or using washing machine (noise). I'm sure I'll adjust.

And here is the new office.

I get a decent window view now

Some other good points are I've exchanged this carpack view...



For this beach/town/moutain view...



But now we can see much more of the outside, which having been "locked" up in an apartment with a tiny window and no balcony is fantastic.


The Moon and Venus


Sunrise over the beach


Fishermen packing up after a nights work


A bird taking a rest

All taken from the comfort of the balcony




In other news

We've had some strange weather the last few days.
A day or two after moving in we had a sea mist that covered the town for most of the afternoon, lasting a few hours.



It was very strange as the neighbours mentioned how they had just got back from Malaga and the sea mist was only over Nerja and no where else.

We've also been battered by storms the last few days. Non-stop rain. A few times being woken up by thunder. Once slightly after the alarm goes off so that was a strange snooze alarm.

There are also some new additions to the house.

There is a new toilet. Well a new flush system on the toilet. Rather the the old fashioned "pull up" flush handle, we now have a current fashion push button. The 'fontanero' did demonstrate for us how to "push to flush" button. Just incase we hadn't seen a push flush before. Although it's very nice of him to go that one step beyond.

The other newer edition to the house is a brand spanking new 32 inch flat screen TV.


Very pleased with the birthday present


Its very fancy and has lots of hightech stuff on it

I'll be able to play Mario Kart wide screen now and also being a modern flat screen I can connect the laptop, which means we can watch all our DVDs and stream films and American TV right on to the big screen. No more watching The Office US on a small laptop hooked up to ipod speakers for us!


Watching Seinfeld big screen style/You can compare the previous laptop screen that we used to use too.

And finally some GREAT news. I read this article in the local magazine.



It appears that one of the supermarket/deli places down on the beach front will now be having a "london style" deli counter for sandwiches. This is possibly the best news I've heard in a long time and especially looking forward to being able to pop out on dinner hour to get a proper sandwich. Rather then just using the same 5 ingredients I have been using for sandwiches for the last 11 months.

Touching El Cielo

Just before Christmas I went for a little walk up a hill. Here's what happened.



El Cielo means either sky or Heaven in Spanish and it's also the name of the nearest mountain in Nerja.
Before I started I wasn't too sure whether 'sky' or 'heaven,' applied in this case. I was told that there was a Cross on the top of the mountain.

In hindsight I should of realised The Cross was a giveaway.


From here to the top of that 'hill' and back.

Although we were told that the walk wouldn't be the furthest (13km), it was a the highest up to now. Taking in to account that the World isn't flat it worked out that the total length of the walk was almost increased by 50% (up to 20km) by the height of the mountain.

Although being that high up had it advantages, mainly the views.

Someone, not me, pointing towards Nerja


And this is a close up of Nerja


Its very hill-y in this area of the World

So after walking to what people considered the 'base' of the mountain things started to get hard. We had already done about 7km up quite a bit of a hill but the hardest was about to come.
We skirted around the edge of the mountain. A few people couldn't handle it and turned back at this point, which I was relieved about.
And then just after we thought we had got past the trick-y part we then came to the last section which was the steepest and also on a lot of loose gravel.
I started to think the reason it's call El Cielo is because you spend most of the last section praying to God. And the reason for the Cross could only be to make your prays heard much better.

But as we scrambled up the spirally last section I glimpsed for the first time the Cross. And it was pretty impressive


I see you now

But eventually we made it to the peak and seen the cross in all its glory

Facing Nerja

Immediately on reaching the top I began kissing the ground and being thankful for making it in one piece.
The I sat down and had some sandwiches looking over some great views were I could see the start of the Sierra Nevadas Malaga, Almunecar and even across the Mediterranean at the mountains of Morroco.
(Unfortunately I forgot to upload some really fantastic panaromas I got and lost the photos after reformatting the laptop. But the views were fantastic)

Then everyone got their photo taken at the cross

Proof I was there

And you might be able to tell from that above photo that the cross is mirrored. The cross faces directly towards Nerja and at sunset the sun is reflected off the mirrors and if you have a good eye you can spot the little white dot on top of the mountain.


Nerja reflected in the cross

At one point while we were eating some guy walked off and came back with a snowball, which was pretty impressive. When I went to lok on teh dark side of the mountain and could see a load of snow but it was far too steep of a climb to get to it. So unfortunately I missed on touching snow for the first time in a while.

And then when it was time to pack up and leave we took an easier down hill route at which point my phone decided to die and I lost the stats for 1/3rd of my walk, which was annoying.

And despite being a hard and long walk the views were certainly worth it. But I could never do that tricky walk on my own. Far too scary.



But while we were at the top the last walk of the season was pointed out to me. This mountain is much higher. Over a thousand feet higher. This is now the walk I most looking forward and least looking forward to do.

Navachica. I think? See you soon.

The NYE Post

Yeah it has been a while but it's time to get this guy out in the open.

The missus had her parents visiting for Christmas and New Years so we all decided to go down to the Balcon de Europa (main square) to celebrate the Spanish way, which consists of eating a grape with every chime of the bell at midnight.
But just lots of people gather and do this at the same time.

In Britain I'd expect them to advise on wearing safety specs just in case there are "shooting pips."

So as you'd expect an un-experienced Brit attending a Foreign event we turned up too early. Much too early in fact. Like at 10pm! You'd think that wouldn't be too early but no one else was there. We were a but lucky the bars were open. But for celebrating The New Year the Spanish leave it pretty late and not starting until gone 11ish.


The Crowd

When we arrived I went for a walk to see what was on show and if I could spot where the fireworks would be coming from.
I certainly did spot the fireworks. Unattended and open to anyone to stand in the middle.

Health and Safety first


We past away the time by playing dress up


Tuck in
And finally twelve oclock came. I was given the task of photographing the moment. Moments before my mum phoned to go through the Spanish New Years moment. So I had a phone under my chin, eating grapes out of small cup while trying to take photo's.
I'd like to see THAT on Krypton Factor.


Swoosh BANG


Pop
And then a few of us went over to a "British" bar where we celebrated a "British" New Year at 1am with traditional Auld Lang Syne.

Not to long after that everyone went home at a nice sensible time.

The next day I took a walk down to the beach and it was packed. It was strange walking along the beach and seeing families out playing in the sand and sunbathing. Mind you it was in the 20's.

So all in all it was a very strange New Years Eve.