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Thursday 13 December 2012

Technical Inspection

Not having blogged for many months and being sat in line for 40 minutes (so far). I thought I'd have a bit of a catch-up.

Both girlies are now at "big school" and appear to be doing well - end of term reports will be the confirmation.  They are still very busy with dancing, flute lessons and the band.

Winter has set in with avengance and the log burner has once again been pressed into service.




Well, we passed.  But four new tyres are needed, just what you need weeks before Christmas.

Saturday 30 June 2012

Bienvenidos - Welcome




Last night the girlies had their end of music school concert.  They all had to play solos which they were all a bit nervous about, but they did fine.  When it was time to introduce the New School Band to the town, they all did exceptionally well and their director Jose Ramon should be feeling very pleased with himself.


After the concert there was of course a dinner.  I was not so politely informed by my offspring that my presence would not be required - as I am not a band member.  A couple of us unclean uninviteds trotted off to another bar to feed our faces, quench our thirsts and marvel at how well our rogeny were doing.


Dinner over we started to stroll back to the car and around a corner came across this band playing in the street.  They were fantastic and inbetween tunes I managed to ask one of them what they were playing for.  It would appear that as a band they have somehow "adopted" a young (I would say about 19/21) african lad and yesterday he received his Spanish nationality.


The party was to mark this.  What a truly lovely thing to do.  It made the hairs on my arms stand on end and gave me goose bumps.  Aren't there some truly lovely people around?

Thursday 21 June 2012

Wordle


This weeks Ex Pat Blog Hop was to produce your own Wordle - here's mine based on this Blog

Wordle: Untitled

Monday 18 June 2012

1 Encuentro De Bandas Jovenes


Yesterday the girlies had their first concert with their youth band.  They all did really well, although there were a lot of pre performance nerves.





I wish I had videoed this as Jose Ramon the Director was positively jumping in the air as the music reached it's crescendo.  Made me giggle.

Saturday 16 June 2012

A Quandry.....

Well, here we are in Euro 2012 and I find myself in a bit of a mither.  Who do I shout for?


Via




Or


Via

I mean really who is a girl to choose ...

Friday 15 June 2012

Whyyyyyy?

I was tagged by Very Bored In Catalunya to do this meme, and as I too feel like a good whinge, here we go....


Why did I find 3 cotton buds, 4 hair clips and 1 safety pin stuffed down the bathroom sink drain?


Why does nobody else in this house have a licence or ability  to use a toilet brush?


Why do my girls insist on using the bathroom tap as target practice when they are spitting out toothpaste?


Why am I the only one that seems to have succumbed to a tummy bug?


Why will whatever I decide to make for lunch be hated by at least one girlie?


Why can I only get a doctors appointment at either 08:15 or 08:30?  How am I meant to get Girlie #2 to school on time?


Why when presented with a "new" dish they've never tasted do they have to make "the" face and then proceed to ask for seconds?


And finally


Why can't I find a pair of comfortable sandals that don't look like Granny Wear?


Terribly busy today, so if you read this consider yourself tagged.  The rules are below


1. Post your whys – as few or as many as you like
2. Link up your post at Mummy Central, and leave a comment here too
3. Tag 5 bloggers to keep this going
4. If you’re not a blogger, leave your whys as a comment below. I'd love to read them
5. Show your support by reading a few others and commenting on them

Wednesday 16 May 2012

Compromising my Principles



The other day (well actually over a month ago - whoops!) when I picked them up from dancing, the girlies told me they were going to be dancing in a display in the local park with their class mates.  In two weeks time. 


The following week when I collected them, I popped in to find out the details for the Saturday morning.  A former pupil of the Academy had come to ask if they'd be willing to perform in aid of ...




Wait for it ...




The International Day of Life - or the anti abortionists.  Well, as I've always been a pro-choice sort of girl, I was somewhat shocked.  I was really not happy with them showing support for something that went against my principles, but the performance was to be held the following day, and I didn't want to let the girls down either.  So the show went on.


I wish I'd known about this at the very start of the negociations, or even a few days before.  I should have had my own one woman protest with a t-shirt advocating the right to choose.


So many years fighting the right to emancipation for women destroyed.

Tuesday 15 May 2012

¡Viva San Isidro!

Romeria San Isidro Labrador, 2012 Virgen del Camino

Leaving the Church


The 15th of May is the day of San Isidro Labrador, the patron saint of peasants and field workers. He is also the Patron of my village.  Here they celebrate him on the Saturday closest to the 15th, which was the 12th this year.  So bright and early on Saturday morning San Isidro was taken from the church to the Hermita of Santa Filomena at Casa Colora.


San Isidro

Another Interpretation of San Isidro

This year the procession had to take a different route, as the Guardia Civil weren't very happy about the previous route.  So off went San Isidro to bless the local fields.  I cheated this year and went to the Casa Colora by car, as I'd forgotten to put sun cream on and still hadn't fed the animals.  I arrived there before the procession, and was able to see them arrive - all in good spirits and some more spirited than others!!







Meanwhile they had prepared the fires to cook the sausages, chorizo and morcilla that was to be handed out to all the participants

Hermita Santa Filomena

The band carried on playing

the people carried on dancing ...

the Jota

So, after the mass the Almuerzo was served, more wine and beer drunk and the procession returned to the village where the paella was being prepared


After lunch there was a few cubatas, games of football, dancing, karaoke and I took the oppourtunity to sneak (or not) a few pics of some of the participants 






There are also a lot more photos on my Flickr page if you are interested.


So, for another year


¡Viva San Isidro!  


¡Viva La Virgen del Camino!

Friday 11 May 2012

My Ruffle Beach Bag

Well, its not often that I blog twice in one day.   But as I've just finished this, I need to show you.  It started life out as a cloth Lidl bag - a bit ugly and only for emergency use.  You know, when there are no bags in the car boot because they are all in the kitchen drawer.  


The girlies came back from their dad's with some new 3/4 trousers (from the market - so cheapies) that their Aunty had bought them.  There was no way they were EVER going to wear them, so into the charity box they went.  Then, I came across this tutorial and had a lightbulb moment.


The bright summer colours put me in mind of a beach bag, and as I find it really hard to source material here - and it is so expensive to order from overseas.  I decided to have a go.  Resulting in....



As this is my first ever real effort at sewing anything, I am really pleased with how it's turned out.  Especially as I also taught myself to plait with four strands.  Google it - there'll be a tute that works for you.

Girlie #1 hates it obviously -sighs.

So, it WILL be accompanying us on every single trip to the beach.  Especially when we go with friends!!





And here it is again loaded up with two big beach towels and plenty of room to spare.


Next sewing project is going to be some quilting, if I can just pluck up the courage to make the first cut into the material - oops.

Have they made a Booboo?



Source: timethemoment.files.wordpress.com via Mary on Pinterest


This weeks Time magazine front cover - have they got it so right or so wrong?

For sure it will bring out the cover your tits in public creeps right out of the woodwork.

As for me - well if it works for you, carry right on.  Personally I gave up at about 1 year old with both of mine. No saintly mother of the year award here!

Wednesday 9 May 2012

Blue Drawers

So, here I am back and as I said before I have been very busy.  I don't know if you remember this


Well, I finaly finnished painting it, and not the rainbow stripes or off white as I had first thought.  But this lovely blue



I have to say that the selection of paint available over here is somewhat under whelming to say the least.  This paint is by Luxens and is sold as an enamel for furniture, doors and radiators.  It's called Grecian Blue, and unfortunately I didn't notice that it was in fact a Matt finish.  I have a feeling I may have to either wax or polyurethane over the top of it, as it tends to show a lot of marks.

Luxens is the only range of water based gloss paint that I've managed to find here, and it does have quite a good range of colours too.

This past weekend, Girly #1 and I made our crocheted twiggy vase, which is here on location, but will actually live on my reclaimed wood shelf in the sitting room.



So, that's two of the projects I've been up to recently, off to check out my photo files, to remind me what else I got up to in my long absence.


Friday 4 May 2012

AWOL again and Testing

Yet again I've not updated for some time, but l have been very, very busy. Loads of things to report and pictures to show. 

This is also my first post from my phone, just to see how it goes. 

Have hopefully included a gratuitous girly shot as well 

Monday 12 March 2012

Tempus fugit...

And it's another whole month since I've blogged again! You would've thought that with having the girlies away at their dad's it would give me more time.  It appears that the opposite is true though.

I have however been a very busy bee, tackling jobs that I wouldn't usually have the time for whilst they are here.  All the hunreds of books I removed my book case - they were double and triple stacked have been sorted and I have kept those that I would definitely read again.  The excess are all going to be car booted when we've finishd clearing out the toy room.  So, not only did I get rid of the detritus, I also arranged the keepers into rainbow order!  Look how pretty.



I also made myself a headboard, from some old picket fence posts and painted it.


And a close up, really pleased with how it turned out, and I'll be able to change the colour as I please.




I just need to get some paint now for the bedroom walls, I'm thinking of a nice light bluey grey, something along these lines



Going for a bit of a beachy theme I think.  Shame the wardrobe and chests of drawers are all to new and nice to paint up.  What do you think?

Next up was this old chest of drawers, that has lived many years in the shed, mostly use for keeping tools and crap junk in

 
 They don't look too bad from this pic, but up close they are quite scratched and a bit ropey
 









So far these have been rubbed down and undercoated and are awaiting their top coat, of which I am in two minds - eek.  My first thought was white surround and rainbow drawers, but the girlies aren't too impressed with this idea - they think it's babyish :(  And I will probably go with a dark (Grecian) blue instead.

On top of all this, I started my spring cleaning and going aginst the norm I started in my bedroom.  Well, the sitting room has just been repainted so it's really only washing the sofa covers there, and I decided to put myself first for once.  The kitchen has been done too - just the infernal windows to clean and next up are the girls bedrooms - once I pluck up the courage to get in there!!!

So, I have beeen very busy, just not blogging. 

Meal Planning Monday 12 March 2012

 

Well, nearly a month has gone since I last meal planned, last week girlie #1 went on a school trip to Madrid - they saw the musical Lion King, Santiago Bernabeu and went to La Faunia (zoo), so there were only a few days I needed to make a proper lunch for.  On the bright side, my freezer is now empty of "freezer surprise" meals - you know, the unlabelled tupperwares that get thrown in there, ice cream containers with just one scoop left and anything that had freezer burn.  It's also neat, tidy and sparkly clean.

On to this week, which only requires four meals - as we are off to the UK for a long weekend to see my two new nieces on Friday - so excited I might burst!


Tarragon Chicken with Jacket Potato
Sausage Casserole
Spag Bol
BBQ Chicken Fillets with Salad and Pots

So, that's it for this week - won't be here next Monday as I'll still be in the UK - does happy dance.  But, I will be back some time next week with Baby Photos :-)