I have had some notes around the house for ages and ages about the Basharat Mosque which is just outside Cordoba……only really of interest to anyone who lives in the Andalucia area…….it is a small and quiet Mosque with a very friendly young man who looks after it and who offered us a cool orange juice….of course shoes had to come off if we wanted to venture inside, but well worth it as it is haven of peace and quietness. As I said I had notes of on sitting around the house but can I find them now I want them….NO.

The Easter processions will be on in Malaga in the next few days…..for those again who either live in the area or who are on holiday…it is well worth spending Easter Sunday watching the procession, very Catholic and very different…with the penitents and the carrying of the huge shrines. We went a couple of years ago, staying over the Saturday night and watching the night time shrines and soaking up the atmosphere.

Going through my book of lists…I find I have written that I want to put articles on this blog about my two American Lawyer friends……very interesting women…both of them Civil Rights Lawyers (one in Berkley, California and one in Washington)…..one represents Iranians in the USA and her friend goes on the boats into the Gaza Strip…the stories these two can tell……..I MUST get round to telling you about them.

Anothing thing I want to blog about is Malag Market……..brilliant….often in there when I venture forth alone with camera….but I took my friend Sara a couple of months ago and what she said just put it into words of how lovely it is. She said it is like a Harvest Festivel every day of the week and was a ‘feast for the eyes’. The stalls are piled high with fruit and veg and everything is shiny and polished…it is so colourful. The fish and meat part of the Market are loud and noisy with sellers shouting about their wares. It has an original entrance dating back a few hundred of years and apparently before Malaga reclaimed much land from the sea, the water used to come straight into the city that way and sellers etc., entered by boats….hard to believe in this day and age.

Going through my lists I have just found this recipe for Lemonade…a jug of ice, 2 leaves of mint, teaspoon of grated ginger, tin of lemonade…..mix all together and top up with cold water…..sounds lovely…and will try and make some this summer.

Think I have caught up with the bits and pieces….conscious I want to write bits about Northern Cyprus, Turkey and something more about the latest trip to Morocco….BUT at least I have written something. Plus….one of the Alter Egos aka Missie B has loads to tell about her bits and pieces.

I have lots of time to fill this week as partner is in the UK….trying to sort out a house full of stuff. God knows where it all comes from..but I suppose with all my projects that I have on the go…it has got to be sorted and tidied. So, to go along with this idea, I have just ordered some more mounts and cellophane sleeves for my photographic work!

To the busy world of ‘abizzyb’!

Let me introduce myself. My name is Sandra (though known to some people as Alex, depending on which ‘hat’ I am wearing), I originate from Stoke-on-Trent in England but have lived since 1993 in Torrox Pueblo, Andalucia, southern Spain, where the phase ‘Abizzyb’ describes not only my email address but my fluttering mind, my life…ME.

At any one time I have many ‘balls in the air’…I offer village house holiday accommodation; I am a photographer of old Spain ,I love the slowly disappearing doors, windows, corner and ruins of hidden Spain, these I turn into specialised postcards, bookmarks and notelets and eventually it is my dream to turn these into table top books..

I also write, research family tree work,knit, scrapbook,blog and I am hoping this year to turn some space space into a workshop for teaching scrapbooking

When not doing any of the above, I like travelling into the surrounding hills and mountains, venturing further afield with my partner on the quad bike and going even further afield across the Med into Morocco…..on a plane to places like Israel, Turkey, North Cyprus etc etc etc and I also LOVE reading!

I have family back in Stoke…a son and daughter and four grandsons.  But I am not the Nana who helps with the school run, the Scouts nights or even the dental visits. No, I am the Nana who wants to go into the Gaza Strip with camera and shorthand pad!

Spring is on its way and the HEAT will soon be here. Happens every year does my itchy eyes….change in the weather I say!

But yes…..start of another month as I have still not got to grips with all my bits and bods…GOD, I am getting slouthfull! Won’t be long before you find me hanging with arms and legs in a tree!! I hate myself for allowing this laziness to creep in  -  have a week to myself from tomorrow so GET A MOVE ON AND GET A GRIP ON LIFE AND SORT STUFF OUT!

One thing I have brought up to date is my selling site on ETSY  -  a selling site for crafty people – some lovely stuff on there.  Have a look at my shop by logging into Www.Etsy.com/shop/abizzyb

AND my FaceBook site is also current..if you are on FaceBook look at Eye with a Camera – and let me know what you think!

Now the sun is here and the thought of holidays in creeping into your mind then have a look at Www.Spanish-hols.com.uk where you will find that Casa Sandra…Casa Azul and also  Casa Artisto, Casa Sumara and Casa Sophie could well be available. Email me abizzyb@hotmail.com for details etc.

Back soon!!

Also sorting through all my notes on what to where and where to send it…and found bits of stuff which can come on here…thought not at the min as I’ve got a headache!!

I was getting myself confused, never mind you, with all my projects and starts and ‘I can do that’ themes running through my head. So, I have decided to start a new blog, hopefully it will bring all and everything under one ‘umbrella’ and I will be able to live up to my nickname of abizzyb.

Over the last couple of months I ave been concentrating on sorting out 1) all my photos and getting them submitted to all sorts of sites. This was really sparked off with selling one of them to an American from Virginia who saw one of my Potteries photos on Etsy, the craft selling site. Comments were that the photo was fabulous! I am now ‘a seller’!! I also had a new computer for Xmas and at last I was able to catagorise everything, name everything and use everything. 2) I now know where all my ‘writings’ are and they are going to be submitted to wherever…and I have started those books I have been on about for yonks. 3)I have decided that this is the year that my whole stock of  handknitted scarves are going to be sold so they are going to be shown on the Etsy site. 4) AND at the beginning March you will be introduced to my alter ego…known as Missie Berry..and she will be telling you of a new venture being undertaken. So, busy busy.

Travelling will be done as usual…starting with a week in Morocco beginning on Sunday 17th February…taking two cameras so more photos will be uploaded for selling. We are crossing with car to Tangiers, then onward to Fez…been at least twice before but feel we haven’t done it justice.

To catch up with where we were last year……end May/beginning of June saw us in Northern Cyprus via Istanbul………well worth going the proper route into Northern Cyprus and landing in Turkey (because the northern half of Cyprus is Turkish NOT Greek)….I loved northern Turkey, so much that I have to say if I hadn’t discovered where I have lived since 1992 , then I would have chosen to live in Kyrenia.  It is beautiful. Having spent many holidays in the 1980′s holidaying in the southern half and only hearing the Greek side of the islands history, so I was surprised and shocked to learn about the other side of the dispute. To those interested in this subject, have a read of ‘The Genocide Files’ by Harry Scott Gibbons.

Istanbul was fascinating. We only had four days there but having made a list of what we each wanted from the city, we managed to see everything as our hotel was 2 mins from Taksim Square, which turned out to be right in the centre of things, with a brilliant transport system….trains, metro, finicular railway, taxis, buses and the very useful Red Bus. The city is huge and so clean and it has, for me, the added bonus of the Bosphorus, the sea which separates western and eastern continents. When you fly into Istanbul Airport, you fly along the Bosphorus and I was so surprised at the shipping I saw through the plane window….I have never in my life seen so much movement and later we crossed it in the Red Buss and it is fascinating looking down on the variety of shipping from small fishing boats to the huge tankers….rather resembles the M6!!!  Both Northern Cyprus and Turkey will be returned to.

Boxing Day saw us drive to Setubal in Portugal to spend a few days. Prefer that part of Portugal to the Algarve and Lisbon, they disappointed me. But Setubal is nice, quiet and interesting but at the time of year we went it was also quite cold!

And in December of last year I was in England……very cold, very icy…..and I was really glad to come back home.

So, having caught up and introduced you to the abizzyb blog, I will ‘speak’ later.

Being a photographer (aka Alex Berry) it is a magical place for me, with the old streets, the run down areas, the parts hidden away, the crumbling buldings. Where your imagination can run wild and where you can sit and dream. I love it!  Many are the times I have caught the bus from the village of Torrox where I have lived since 1992. Arriving at 9.30am in the morning, the whole day spreads itself in front of me. Complete with camera and sandwiches, money in my pocket I have hours in which to just indulge myself in this lovely city. 

Anyway, imagine my finding something, a booklet, which has added more to my enjoyment of this lovely place. The booklet ‘Footsteps through the city of Malaga’ is just the icing on the cake.  It is a handy size for pocket, handbag or backpack.  It is centred essentially around the old part of the city, starting by the lighthouse and close to the castleand takes you on a walk through the most delightful prts of Malaga, while at the same time bringing together many of the city’s historical, religious andinteresting places……

…..andwhen you need to sit and rest for five, then the booklet presents you with the unusual and sometimes unknown bits of information of the city -tales of shipwrecks, spies and conspirices, burials on the beach, floods and German bridges.

The booklet allowsthe walk to take as long asyou want it to…do it in a morning OR let it take a whole day OR days OR over a period of time…tuck “Footsteps through the city of Malaga’ into your pocet, bag or wherever and take it out again when the mood takes you. And, as the booklet says “just follow the footsteps” and let your journey begin.

And now for the SELL!! The booklet is available from many outlets but why not buy from me? And why from me? Well, as they say..I know the author. In fact had a long coffee break with him only the other day, talking of many things, including his next guide.

PRICE and details…..5 euros plus post and packing. My details? email abizzyb@hotmail.com or phone 003461711115.

Hello, you say to yourself, what’s going on here? What delights or otherwise are on offer? Is it the equivalent of some sort of Turkish Delight (ay up, I am in Istanbul in 10 days!!)?…they are not only just off the roundabout but if you turn right and head along the sea front they are all there as well…laughingly at the edge of the pavement all offering keys to rooms, apartments. They are all so happy and friendly you feel quite disappointed to have prebooked IBIS hotels!

- abbreviations. Hate them. Why call for example the Doctor ‘Doc’? Do you call the Dentist ‘Den’? I make people tell me what they mean. Then there are all those initials used instead of the words…drive me MAD. I took part years ago on a course where ALL abb reviations were BANNED!

- Newsreaders and so called ‘celebraties’ who read the news and discuss the papers…Why all the stuttering and stammering and blustering as if they don’t know what they are on about and then all the repeating that goes on and then they go on thanking everyone for doing what they are paid to do. I like the ones that get on with it, for example Michelle Dewberry, John Nicholls, James Whale, Michael Portillo, Sam Delaney. They ‘cut to the chase’ and don’t faf about. Ann Diamond is an intelligent woman and can be good BUT she never stops talking, over and through everybody else.

- why do people say about us that ‘it is alright for some’? When it is found out that we may be off tripping again. Why? What is so specialy about us? Our trips are funded by using loyalty points from one of the big supermarkets. Why is it always assumed that we are rolling in money?

-   people who continually complain about the weather. What can they do about it? Nothing. So why waste breath and time by complaining.

-   Why do my grandsons have a need to put totally inappropriate information, well to me at any rate, up on FaceBook?

………I can assure you that there is plenty more!!!

I’ve downloaded loads of stuff lately. I like the music behind TV adverts which I look up what they are on YOUTUBE and then download from iTunes.  Right  mix of stuff goes through my ears…at the min I am listening to ‘Harry’s Bar’ by Gordon Haskell (lovely gentle voice). Ludovici Einoudi is a favourite, he of much music behind loads of TV adverts (went to his solo concert in Malaga the other month – total silence then eruptions of clapping. I have re-discovered  Chris Rhea from years ago so he is there as well plus tracks like ‘Home’ by Simply Red…’View to a Kill’ by Duran Duran…’Shame’ by Take That…the theme music to the TV drama ‘The Promise’…oldies like ‘Horse with no name’ and ‘America’…………there is plenty of space left to fill!! Oh, yes and also ‘You’re going to make me lonesome when you go’ by Madelaine Payroux plus her version of ‘Dancing to the end of love’