July 2013

The end of June beginning of July were spent doing some gardening and chores around the house and of course making some more friends. Charo and her daughters Paola (9yrs) and Ana (7yrs) have become good friends and several times a week we go to the park at 9pm. Also it is a great practise session for our Spanish as they don’t speak any English so we help each other. Charo’s husband is away for most of the Summer weeks with the odd day at home – he is a bullfighter! One day when we went over for tea she showed us his outfits, they were extremely heavy and adorned in the most beautiful intricate embroidered sequins. The outfits take numerous months to make and are very expensive. One Saturday morning whilst the kids were on their weekly run with Paul, I was quite happily eating my breakfast in the quietness when CRUNCH – a large quarter of one of my molars broke off! Now I was going to have to sort the dentist out, this will be interesting. We had all the excitement of grandparents arriving which was great, because I had lots of helpers to keep the house clean and tidy “as grandma would like it!”. Paul had decided to take the week off so we could all spend holiday time together. All work and no play just isn’t the lifestyle we relish, so all looking forward to some fun, and the kids looking forward to not studying! A whole suitcase was full entirely of gifts and kitchen ingredients/toiletries that you just cannot get in Spain or the prices are ridiculous. We had time to spend by the pool as well as outings. There was a three day night market in La Carlota, which started at 8.30pm but only really started buzzing at 10pm. It was great lots of stalls of food and crafts as well as a circus act. We also spent a day in Cordoba, visited the Botanical Gardens in the morning – we were the only people there – all day! Then the afternoon ambling through the cobbled streets of historical Cordoba. Somehow got our bearings wrong and ended up going too far in the wrong direction for 2 hours in 39deg c heat. But saw a lot of unusual and beautiful courtyard gardens along the way and there are always lots of drinking fountains dotted about. During the week we had a lazy picnic on the beachside of Lake Iznajar the biggest lake in Europe. It was backed by gorgeous olive groves on rolling hills and mountains, the water being a crisp torqoise greeny blue. A wonderful time was had however the week goes by quickly and Corrine just didn’t want grandma to leave (neither did we) but she is very sensitive and cries her little heart out, bless her. But grandma had left some clothes, etc. in the wardrobes, for when she returns in October – and that helped Corrine quite a lot, just knowing that personal items of grandma were here.