Rocking Your World 2015: Week 1

Yes, here we are back at week one again. I wonder what the new year has in store for us, but it is probably for the best that we don´t know. So let´s just face it and takes what comes with a smile.

And talking of Smiles, anyone who has seen the posts on my craft blog this week, will not be surprised to find that this is my Friday Smile for this week.

This gorgeous little bruiser is my new great-grandson, Alfie John, who finally arrived on 29th (ten days later than expected!), weighing in at a bonny 9lbs 7 ozs. This photo reminds me so much of his grandad, my second son, who was also born at 9½ lbs, and compared with all the other babies on the ward, he just didn´t look like a newborn. Just look at this little fellow, with his eyes open, taking it all in, and looking so wise at just one day old! And here he is with Mummy, being introduced to his big  brother. Won´t they have some fun together.

I´ll be linking this up at Annie´s Friday Smiles as soon as I´ve finished writing.

The days just after Christmas can seem a bit flat when there are no relatives nearby to visit, so we were grateful for an event at the back of our house to liven up Saturday morning. The Public Services staged a simulated accident, I think partly as a training exercise, and partly to raise awareness with the people in the village.

The Bomberos were there of course, plus el Cruz Roja, Guardia, and Proteccíon Civil. Several people were filming the proceedings and there was a good crowd gathered to watch it all.There were three incidents altogether, starting with this white van that hit the card in front.

Then the white car which had crashed with the red one in front causing it to roll.

And finally this car which had collided with a motor-cycle.

Various volunteers had been selected to act as the victims in the vehicles, and they played their parts well. One by one they were all assessed, and treated in order of importance. I was a bit dismayed by how long that little baby was left lying on the blanket, but it was eventually ressucitated, and as soon as possible each person was driven off in a red cross ambulance. 

I was particularly interested to watch them deal with the rolled car which had two victims trapped inside. The firemen had to cut the roof off, and although I have watched this on TV, I have never seen it done in real life. (And I sincerely hope I never will have to see it in an actual emergency!). It must have been pretty scary for the casualties!

There were a lot of people involved and we were impressed with the way they handled everything.

Here they are loading the last casualties in to the ambulance. I included this one because if you look between the group of men on the left, and the man by the ambulance, you will see a window in a white wall. Well that is the window of my craft room! This was all taking place on a piece of flat land on the far side of the green zone that I often refer to. So now you are seeing it from the other side.

I am very grateful for some lovely walks we have had with the dogs, over on the campo this week. It is lovely to see them run and play together.

Because of the distance, we do the first bit in the car, and then we can take them far enough away from the road to let them off their leads for a while. That gives me more freedom to watch where I am putting my clumsy feet. The ground is a bit rough over there. 

Foxy runs like the wind and goes much further than the others, but she always come back to us. Sometimes she leads Kim astray because he wants to follow her, but despite his long legs, he is not as agile as her, nor quite as adventurous.

He goes so far, and then he comes back to Miki and they keep coming back to check we are still there waiting for them.

These mornings when it is sunny, but not too hot are just perfect for dog-walking, and good for us too!

While we were over on the campo I spotted some of these flowers. The broad green leaves make fairly close ground cover, but every now and then these flowers pop up from among them. They look like they are sticking their tongues out at us. I really like them.

After a busy week last week, we were happy to see the new year in together at home. Of course we do it all twice, because at 11.00 UK time it is midnight here. The Spanish tradition is to toast with cava, and to eat one grape for each dong of the clock bell. It isn´t easy to eat twelve grapes that fast! At 1.00 our time, we watch Big Ben striking midnight back in UK. I love to see the fireworks, and we probably get a better view of them on TV than all that crowd of people on the river bank do. I took some photos of the TV screen and was quite pleased at how they turned out. Here are the ones I liked best. 

I love the city skyline silhouetted below the blue ones, and the movement that I captured.

Last week I introduced Flat Susan who is staying with us for a while. Of course she joined us to see the New Year in. I gave her a glass of my sparkling rosé, but she wasn´t keen on it.

I also gave her some of our little salty biscuits. She needs to eat this one quick, or I know someone who will eat it for her! Note Miki is totally unmoved by the celebrations, and has gone to sleep on the mat!

I was glad when the village workers came round and planted poinsettias under all the trees that they put in planters on every corner when the road was renovated a few years ago. I didn´t think they were going to put any there this year as time was passing, but we came home on Saturday and found them there. They add a lovely splash of colour to the street. The village is getting its holiday attire on ready for the Three Kings fiesta next Tuesday.

I am grateful for all the lovely sunshine we have had this week. It is true it has been very cold, especially at night. We caught the tail end of the polar wind coming from the north, but when the skies are blue, the cold is much more bearable. 

I just add another layer of clothes, and find somewhere out of the wind to sit. During the day it is usually warmer outside than indoors, so this week I have tried to sit out for a little while each day to do some sewing. I had to put my cross-stitch picture away while I was making Christmas craft items, but I only have the top-sticking to do - there is an awful lot of topstitching! - and it is for my son who is coming out in February, so I really want to get it finished for him.

Today was particularly warm, so, as I needed to go down to Mojacar for some shopping, I took the opportunity to walk along the beach. I was warm enough to leave my jacket in the car, and it was lovely to walk along, briskly because I am trying to do more regular exercise, and to listen to the waves breaking on the sand. There were even a few fool-hardy surfers in the sea. They had wet suits on, but it must still have been pretty cold. But they were having fun and I stood and watched them for a while. 

Before I went out I opened my craft room window for Arwen, and when I got home I found her laid out on the window sill, belly-up, enjoying the sunshine. Can you sort out head from tail? It was taken at a funny angles because if I had stopped to get in a better position, she would have moved. She doesn´t like the camera!

When I walked up through the village on Friday to post a letter, I met my Spanish friend Cati. I had given her the cheque from the Anglican Church for her charity ASADIS, and she wanted to give me the receipt for them. So she took me into a local bar for a coffee so the bar tender could take our photo.

I am so grateful that my Spanish has improved to the point where I can both understand and be understood in a fairly basic conversation with Cati. I wish I had more opportunities to practise. There is a lovely man at out Farmacia who I know quite well because of my regular prescriptions, and this week he carefully told me how much I owed in English. I told him  he should speak to me in Spanish because I need to practise and he laughed. Although I can count well in Spanish, I find numbers - particularly when a shopkeeper asks for money, quite difficult to hear. Some of them sound very similar, but practice makes perfect so they say, so I will keep trying.

With clear blue skies there have not been any sunsets worthy of photographing this week, but I will leave you with the sky as it was on New Year´s Eve, at around 7.00.

When I look at that, the words that spring to mind are Peace and Tranquility, and what better wish could I have for each of you at the start of a New Year.

Wishing you the Blessings of  Health, Happiness and Prosperity, and above all Peace and Tranquility in the year ahead.

Don´t forget to follow me over to Virginia´s blog and share the love. See you next week.

Rocking my World 2014; Week 52

Yes here we are at the last week of the year. I have enjoyed sharing my smiles each week, and relating the high points that make my life out here so enjoyable. I hope to continue into 2015 with a positive post each Friday. It is a great way to keep in touch with friends and family, and also a good way to ensure we do focus on the positive aspects of our life, so that any negative ones seem smaller and less important. My mantra for this year has been "It is what you focus your mind on, that determines whether you are stressed or blessed". So let´s all think positively and be blessed rather than stressed. 

For my Christmas smile here is a picture I saw on the internet a week or two ago, and it made me think of our big boy, Kim.

Kim stands like this for ages, but instead of his head being on the chair, it is buried in my lap! But on Christmas Eve, we went out to some friends for a while and when we got home we let the dogs in with us for a bit. And Kim decided that, despite my telling him that he is too big to be a lap dog now, he didn´t agree. Tango, who usually has that spot was not impressed, but he didn´t move off completely, so I had them both. At least there was no chance of me feeling cold!

So, before I link up with Annie´s Friday Smiles, I´ll give you a quick run down on the rest of the week.

Starting with last Saturday, seeing as we had been entertaining everyone else for the past few weeks, with the choir concerts, we decided to be entertained ourselves, and booked two seats at the local camping site restaurant, for a Christmas buffet and entertainment by´Jon the Fiddler´. The meal was excellent and we took photos of each other, with both of us looking as though we had enjoyed it, which we had!!

Sadly the musician was in hospital following an accident and we weren´t all that inspired by his replacement, but we still had a good evening.

On Christmas Eve we were invited to some friends for our own little ´carols by candle-light´, as nowhere around here does a mid-night mass, and our carol service had been in the morning two Sundays ago.

It was a bit of a last minute arrangement, but it was a quiet day for us so I decided to make a gift to take with me. I had seen a poem on a plate, on the internet that morning, and wanted to have a go at it.

Someone on the Silhouette facebook page had kindly shared the cutting file so I was able to just resize it to fit the plate I was using, and thankfully it cut well the first time, (I was cutting it from black vinyl). It was a bit fiddly to weed out the unwanted bits,  - so many letter ´e´s to remove the little eye from - but I only had to recut a few, and then I transferred it to the plate. I filled it with bite-sized mince pies that I had made first thing that day, so my gift was done just in time.

The house we were visiting was rather off the beaten track, so we met up with other friends when we were nearly there, and followed them for the last bit. We had not been there before, and I doubt whether I would find them again! We spent a lovely evening with lovely people, enjoying good food, warm candle-light and sang some favourite carols together as well.

Christmas morning dawned bright and sunny so we managed to take our traditional photo to post on facebook for our family and friends. As you can see, we toasted the morning in with a big mug of tea. How very British of us!!

While we were doing that, the dogs sat patiently waiting for their Christmas treats.

It clouded over later in the morning and then the sun broke through again. We were going our for dinner at a local venue, where we were meeting up with a group of friends. I think there were fourteen of us. As we drove there, the clouds began to part and long shafts of sunlight lit up the countryside.

Again we had an excellent meal washed down with copious bottles of wine and cava. We were in great company, the staff were efficient and friendly, and there was an English singer/DJ to provide background music. It was great fun and much better than our usual quiet meal for just the two of us at home. We had two round tables put together, so I took a photo from each end.

We were home in time for a relaxing evening in front of the TV.

This morning was again bright and sunny so I suggested we had a walk along the playa at Mojacar. It was lovely and warm, and there were surprisingly few folk around. 

It did us both good to get out in the sunshine, and walk off some of the extra Chrsitmas food and drink.

Boxing Day is not celebrated out here, so all the shops are open and everything is back to normal. There will be a bit of celebrating for New Year´s Eve, but our main celebration is not until Three Kings Day on 6th January.

One nice surprise was waiting for me when we got home. Our house guest had arrived. Her flight from Australia was delayed so she was too late to share our Christmas dinner, but I am sure we will have lots fun showing her around for a few weeks.

Allow me to introduce Flat Susan. This is not a

particularly good photo of her, but she is a bit jet-lagged so we´ll take a few more when she has rested. Flat-Susan has been around the world during the past year, travelling in her own suitcase, (a matchbox), and she has had some amazing adventures. I shall enjoy reading about them in her photo albumn and passport. She is nearing the end of her journey now, and I shall be returning her to her home in UK at the end of January, but I hope we can give her a good time in our corner of Spain first. I´m sure you will be meeting her again.

So that is the excitement of Christmas over with. I hope you have all had a lovely time so far. I have chatted to most of the family via Skype this week, but I have a few more calls to make now, so I´ll leave you with just one sky photo from the past few days, link up with Virginia at Celtic House, and I´ll hopefully see you all again, Next Year!