Rocking Your World 2018: Week 12

This is the day each week when we look for the happy moments in our week. Sometimes that is easy and sometimes harder. This week is harder for me as very little has happened since I was here last time, and most of what has happened wasn't exactly 'happy' events, but they have a silver lining, and that is what is important.

The week did get off to a good start, because, on Sunday we had a special service to attend. It wasn't at our own church which cancelled it's service that day, but it was at our sister church in Mojacar. It was a confirmation service for two young people, a man and an elderly lady, and it was taken by Bishop David from Gibraltar. He was  a lovely man. He spoke so nicely and personally to each of the candidates, and gave a lovely message to us all. After the service he made sure he had a word with each person who was there.

Mojacar church is an even smaller building than ours, so it was packed to the doors on Sunday. It is set on a small hill with some steep steps leading up to it, and a fairly precarious sloping driveway to drop off anyone who can't manage the steps. From the top there is a lovely view of the surrounding mountains. Just behind them is the sea. As you can see, it started off as a sunny morning, but the clouds were rolling it, and just as we were leaving, the rain started.

Unfortunately, the lady who was to be confirmed, suffers from several medical conditions, and she was not well enough to come to the service. She and her husband had driven over to Mojacar the night before to stay in a hotel along the coast, and after we had left, the Bishop and our vicar, went to the hotel and she had her confirmation there. I thought that was so nice of them to 'go the extra mile' for her.

We had some entertainment as we were enjoying a cuppa after the service. We had heard a bit of commotion outside just after we had started singing, and some men went outside and came in a few minutes later with a fairly frail lady. It turned out that she had misjudged the tight turn into the slope up to the church and had to reverse to have another go, and unfortunately she had backed her car into a ditch! So after the service some of the men went down to get it out. The back wheel was not touching the ground, but it was a front wheel drive car, so some of them sat on the bonnet to get some traction, while one man tried to drive it forward. That didn't work and in the end one man fetched his four-wheel drive car and they cobbled together a tow rope from belts and bits of rope, and eventually managed to pull it up onto the road again. This was quite fun for us to all watch from the top of the hill, and the silver lining was that neither the lady, nor her car, seemed to have suffered from the experience. She got in and drove it home anyway.

Despite the fact we have had a fair bit of rain over the past few weeks, everywhere is still very dry, so we were a bit alarmed on Tuesday, to see a plume of thick smoke rising up from the rambla (dry river bed), across the road from us. We hoped it was a controlled bonfire, but we hurried over to see and found the start of a wild-fire. The tall bamboo that lines the banks of the rambla caught so quickly and it was alarming how rapidly it spread. It was crackling and popping, which had attracted quite a crowd of villagers lining the tall fence that runs along the top of the rambla. 

One man kept his hose spraying the ground nearest to the houses while we waited for the bomberos who had been called as soon as it started.

Soon one engine drew up near to where we were standing and the men took a hose down the steep banks towards the fire, while a second engine drove along the ramble and attacked it from below.

Fortunately they soon had it under control, but it took them a while to douse all the little fires that started along the bank as the wind carried the sparks. We understand from a lady who was walking her dog along the rambla at the time, that it was started by a group of young teenage girls messing about down there, so I expect they were in very hot water with their parents and the police that night. Fire is taken very seriously here because it can spread to danger levels so fast. I guess the silver lining is that it is quite good to get rid of some of the bamboo  each year, and no-one was hurt, nor was any property damaged.

As I have had the odd spare afternoon at home this week, I sat and watched a Photoshop Tutorial on how to blend a photo into a background. I've watched it before, but when you purchase a tutorial, you have it to watch as many times as you need to, and I need to watch lots of times before it sinks in. Anyway I managed to have a go using a photo of the church from my home town in UK, and a paper from a scrapbook kit, and then I used that to make a couple of Christmas cards, so it was time well spent. Here is my card and you can read more about how it was made on my craft blog HERE.

The only other thing that has happened this week is that I managed to have a fall while walking the dogs yesterday morning. I have to say it was entirely my fault, not the dogs', as I was wearing trousers that are too wide at the bottom, and I got my other foot tangled in them. Fortunately I didn't fall on my face, but I still hit the ground a bit hard and have various bruises and grazes to show for it. The silver lining? Well I let go of Kim's lead as I fell and he is not used to being free on the road, but we now know that he doesn't run off as he could have done. He only went a few steps and came straight back and waited while Chris held on to Foxy and hauled me back on my feet! And secondly, I did get away with only minor injuries and it could have been a lot worse. So that might teach me to dress more appropriately and take more care where I am putting my feet!!

And on that happy note I will link up with Annie's Friday Smiles, and Rocking Your World, and hopefully I'll back again in a week's time.