I am back driving!! ‘Bout time to, it’s been two years since my accident and I have been putting it off and off, but I have had to do these last two weeks…my other half has been in hospital, more or less situated in the centre of Malaga, so I had to get myself back from there, then as he couldn’t drive for two weeks, I had to collect him and get him home.  Realised how much I had missed driving and the lack of independence.  Must say though, since the accident we have been out and about, even 2000 miles through Morocco, and he has just taken it for granted that my confidence had gone.

The clocks went back  today….how strange to see it light at this time of night. Before we know it, it will be the height of summer with really long light nights and we will be complaining about the heat which goes along with it.

The jasmine is smelling lovely, especially if I type this up during the day with the bedroom window open, the scent wafts all through the house. I intend getting one for  downstairs on Casa Sandra, as its terrace is just outside my kitchen window and then I would get a double dose of its wonderful smell.

Going to the theatre tomorrow night, the Cervantes Theatre in Malaga, our third visit this year. This time it is to a concert by the pianist Ludovico Einaudi….I have his latest on my iPad i.e. The Islands. Fantastic. You will know of his music as it is used in many TV ads and in film scores.

It’s about 7 days since I last wrote, been busy what with this photobook, which YES I have had accepted by the owner of  Ww.Costacupcakes.com to be sold in her gorgeous cake shop in Caleta…..very tempting shop this, it  tempts you to buy and to eat cakes. |It’s extremely naughty.  Another thing that has taken up time this week is that my other half has had a night in hospital….not the local one, but one right in the middle of Malaga..with no parking….so could put off driving no longer and took him him, came home, fetched him home the next day but he can’t drive for 14 days as law here covering that is very strict, so I have been doing the driving. Tell you what, it hasn’t half pulled this hip of mine. Be doing a bit more of it in a min, as this binder has got to be fetched, so I can get on with these books, so I can then get them sold and then I can repay me for the cost of the binder!!!

Later……. shop had run out of binders hadn’t they so not my lucky day! So I will go ahead and make more book packs up and leave labels on them telling myself what needs doing, and turn my attention to something else! Not written that letter yet to my friend in America’s Bible Belt and I have now yet another friend in the Western Desert of America…not sure where that is, but where ever it is, it’s where the Cownoys and Indians played out their time in history. I love Red Indians, but not the old movies, can’t watch them any more, so dated, but the few modern films about them. They frighten the life out of me, rather like my kids watching the Daleks when they were younger.

Top Gear been on TV again, Jeremy you really must take a good long look at yourself and grow up. Such a shame because years ago, you were the only jean wearing man for me. But you have now really lost out to Andrew Marr and Count Franscisco de Mosto (the Venetian who presents an Italian history programme) and Andrew Graham-Dixon, the Art Historian.

Right, off now to cut some paper into strips with a very sharp gillotine (wish I could spell it!).

Calcium……said in the last entry that I had taken myself of the very strong stuff I was put on when I broke the hip. True, but I am still on the calcium they put me on when I broke the arm…..5 years ago! This is no problem, sachet to drink every morning and a squirt up alternative nostrils each morning.  Been told it looks as if I am squirting drugs, and I could be arrested if I do it in public!!!!  I also have what I call ‘my sleep tea’….a cup each night lets me have a lovely sleep as apparently with the fibromyalgia it is important that these muscles of mine relax. Now, that is more likely to get me arrested as when I travel I take it with me plus an infuser…because even I must admit that it looks like some strange concoction..it is a mixture of all sorts of herbs and flowers and I BUY it from a German Health shop..people also tell me that it smeels rather like horse dung!! But it does the trick and I wake up rested and usuall refreshed!

Www.Spanish-hols.com…….this is a holiday rental site, so I trust you will be having a look. Torrox is a lovely place to holiday and relax in and the village needs tourists desperately.  Most of the smaller village houses are priced at £175 per week..for the property not per person (and they sleep at least a couple) and there is a larger house which sleeps four with an very big terrace, which will of course come priced a bit higher.

Check out also Www.Barewall.com which is an art site based in Stoke-on-Trent and I have my photographic work on it…under my maiden name of Alex Berry.  My work is also on facebook under ‘Eye with a Camera’

Readers of my previous blog entries will remember the intrepid travellers Bert and Ethel……they are coming back again this year…..they hire a car (God bless them) BUT never go anywhere because of the locals and also they don’t know where they are going unless someone takes them first and then they MIGHT venture forth.  Also people ask me about Pepe…well he is still around but seems to spend more time up the campo. His daughters appear now and then to clean the house up, and then all the family turn up and life starts again. The other day one of the daughters boyfriends came knocking on our door, telling us that he thought she should have been in the house and that he could see somdethings of hers through an open window but he had  knocked and knocked but couldn’t get any answer so could he borrow our ladder, but he couldn’t go up it as he has a bad back! So, of course, our ladder came off the back wall and got hauled over our front wall and carried up the street and, yes of course, ‘im in doors went up the ladder’cause he hasn’t a bad back, got a gammy knee, but the back’s ok, pulled himself through a small window and looked through the house, no sign of said daughter.  But there wouldn’t be, would there? As 10 mins later she was seen walking up from the square!!

Want to find some more stories both for here and for the photo book I have done about this village….like the soap making article for a couple of years ago….the lady who showed me how to make the soap has since died but her daughter and family are still in the village.

I have a friend who has just told me that she and her family are thinking of trying to open a honey shop in Rabat, Morocco, so that will be interesting. She makes THE most fantastic jewellery see www.unique-handmade-jewellery.com.  She has also started making rather fetching bags using silks brought back from Morocco.  I am hoping to visit her hopefully within a couple of months..she lives near Waterford in Ireland…but if I don’t get there, then she will be in Spain in October and we will be meeting up in the ETAP hotel in Malaga, same as last year for a good old matter and trips around the art galleries and museums!

All my rental houses are now taking bookings, so don’t miss out. I have villages houses for one, a couple, two friends, a family with one child, two couple or four friends who want to holiday together, whatever combination, just contact me Www.Spanish-hols.com. I also have a brilliant guide to discovering Malaga, which I sell for a friend of mind, the guide is called ‘Footsteps through the City of Malaga, and I have just produced a small but perfectly forms photo book of the hidden secrets of Andalucia (my facebook page just tap in Sandra Rowe).

Just been watching Jame’s 30 Minute Meals (reminds me of my grandson!)…..people say they can’t be cooked in 30 mins….I say they can. Just get your work surface set out, oven on etc as he says, BUT and this is where I think you could get unstuck, DONT try and read his cook book at the same time. If you study his programme, get yourself a pad and pen and write down as he is doing them the things he is doing, blank out the info he is giving you about what he is doing…..divide you paper into sections..started, main, dessert etc. and just put under each heading what he is doing for that section. Lecture over.

I understand it has been snowing in the Potteries today….lovely weather here in the pueblo, even washed and dried woolens. Must start to get stuck into plans I have for selling my photos and my small but beautifully formed photo book………have a couple of outlets to sort out in Malaga, one in the pueblo and one in Caleta…just need to get myself doing them!!!!

Been smelling the Jasmine all day as the main plant I have is outside the bedroom window. It is growing up the wall and I have a wire across the cul-de-sac to the house across way, so it is growing along there, alongside the remains of the yellow winter Jasmine.  I do not consider myself a gardener, my plan is that if a plant grows and does well in one place, then I buy another, if not, then chose something else!!! All my pots downstairs now need a sorting out and soil freshening etc., so nearly plant buying time, usually around Mothers Day.

Have to write some letters today, a couple of long over due. A couple of cousins are due replies and I need to get a long letter off to Lawrence in Kansas, America where a long time penfriend lives. And when I say long time, I mean time time. Since I was 10 years old in 1952. We have been through our teenage years, married life, motherhood, divorce, widowhood, loads and loads. We drifted apart for about 15 years when she found God and I didn’t! Six months ago, I found her address and checked it out on the inter-net and discovered she still lived there, but the house was listed under her name not her husband, which led me to believe he had died.  On the off chance I just sent her a card saying ‘Hello’ and about 2 weeks later I got a reply.  Yes, her husband had died a couple of years ago…so she is the widow and I am the divorcee!!…..and we have been back in touch since.  At Xmas she sent me a long letter, detailing all she is doing, so now she is due the same back from me. But so much water has passed under the bridge since we were young and I do so much at the minute, that it is going to take some time to fill her in with everything!!

One of the other letters is to someone I used to work with…well, we both worked for the same employer but in different parts of Staffordshire.  I took early retirement in 1994 and she retired a couple of years ago, just after her husband died.  She often asks when I am in the UK I must stay with her, which would be lovely as she lives in Lichfield but it’s a devil of a job to get times etc that fit in with one another.  She travels the world, only at home about 2 months her and there….I go back to the UK about twice a year and have to fit things in around the Potterfies, plus I have given up driving in the UK as I think the drivers are mad, give me Spanish drivers any day of the week.  I will probably have about 10 days this end of April to do something on my own as my partner will be in Quatar for 10 days…I don ‘t want to go..why?….because I feel that the area of the Gulf are false Arabs and it is all show…just my view.  I want, and it is my dream, to go to the Gaza Strip….but being way the other side of 60, with a pinned back hip with gives me gip sometimes, the problems that could be put in my way from whoever, it will probably stay my dream….but how about the West Bank, now that could be easier!!!!!! It may end up in revisiting the Outer Hebrides where I have a friend or maybe Ireland where I also have friends……it could also be Morecombe where I lived when aged 5 to 7…who knows!!!!

I still have to tell all those who are interested about latest trip to Morocco, and then visits to the theatre and then…..

And now my eldest grandson has been given the push by his girlfriend of many years (since leaving school)…..I worry, but  what can one do? Not a lot.  He is my first of four grandsons and is the first born of my firstborn.

I leave my cat in the house when I go down the square. But when drinking my coffee in the square this morning, on a couple of tables to my right someone had brought their pet with them for coffee and tapas, because there on the table was…………………a rabbit! Merrily eating away at some salad.  I was in Malaga once, taking a walk along the promanade…the one by the sugar chimney with the war protest written on it, you know the one I mean, and there taking a little walk on a lead was a ferret……….and bless my soul if a couple of weeks after seeing this one, I was walking down the street where I live and there was another one………..being bathed!!!  Ages and ages ago when my son was a teenager, one of his mates knocked on my back door and said he had something precious to show me….me being the love of his life (in his dreams) at the time…….I did wonder… but out of his trouser pockets he took his father’s  two ferrets!  It cannot be said that the men of Stoke-on-Trent are not romantic!!  What woman would rather have perfume or roses if she has the chance of being introduced to ferrets.

Wonder what tomorrow will bring? Could go and do the monthly shop, who knows?

Beautiful morning here in Torrox even if a little cold.  I have just completed my latest project with my photography. I have produced a photo book….an A5, 8 pages, covered and bound book of a few of my photos of doors and windows here in Andalucia, which I have turned into specialised sketches, with added notes and memories I have collected since coming here in 1992. For someone who is highly self critical, I am very pleased with the final product. I now have to get selling in outlets…..and it is this I find very hard to do…..but I have a couple of ideas.

I also want to produce books not only of here in Andalucia but also in Stoke-on-Trent, where I was born, and in Morocco where I love to visit.

So, what is new? Well, the weekly Craft Market which has been running for the past 3 years has changed its venue and will now be held up at Torrox Park, in the Restaurant of the camping site, so fingers crossed. I am still Mrs. Grumpy and wish Jeremy Clarkson would take a good long look at himself and grow up…I used to think he was sex on legs many years ago and was one mature man who SHOULD wear jeans…but Jeremy please please stop trying to be Jack the Lad! I am now going for the more intellectual man……hello Andrew Marr!!!! I still get angry with the TV and I still argue back with it..and I will be boring you witless with some of my rantings. Just got back from 11 days touring Morocco, so that is another thing that will be written up on here … and many many more. Programmes being watched at the min are ‘ Kidnap and Ransom’ with Trevor Eve and ‘Homeland ‘with Damien Lewis and books on the go are ‘Homage to Andalus’ by Michael Barry and ‘The Last Coyote’ by Michael Connelly. Music on iPod is a right old mix of stuff..from Take That, Texas, Enaudi, Shirley Bassey, Alfie Boe, theme music from The Promise, Jamie Cullen. Star Wars, Love song from Titanic….and on and on and on. In fact, time to put the earphones on, choose a track and use my exercise bike.

Lots has happened since I last wrote, but I shall not spoil you all so will only tell you bit by bit!!

Anyway, Spring seems to be on its way, though bit dampy this morning. We have had a very cold winter with strong winds which in some parts of Torrox has whisked tables off patios and chucked ‘em down the road!! However, started clearing my many pots of dried up old plants this morning which makes the terrace at least a bit tidier. My usual yearly buying of plants and sorting them out begins around Mothers Day as my daughter always asks what I want and I always answer ‘give me money for plants’!  The nights are slowly starting to get a little longer, which tonight means I am now going to have a drink so will speak later!!

Through the earphones is a right mixture of music..as I say The Promise theme, the background music to the current Volvo S60 advert known as LiberTango, Take That’s latest album, a couple from Texas, Alfie Boe’s ‘Bring him home”, Gary Moore’s ‘Still got the blues for you’.

I am also trying to figure out how to display and photography my sets of postcards depicting the secrets of Andalucia (which I sell at the Wednesday morning market down on Torrox Costa in El Ancla Del Cirilo Bar) as I want to list them on my Etsy shop i.e. www.Etsy.com/shop/abizzyb. I also have in my shop on Etsy a collection of my photographic images……check it out. I am starting another shop there www.Etsy.com/shop/broadberry in which I am going to list all my knitted scarves. I use rather unusual yarns for these.

For those of you wondering about the broken and pinned back hip to leg which happened 14 months ago. I would say I am 95% better, taken a long time, but got there. The remaining 5% is what I will have to put up with I think and is more in the muscles now as I have fibromyalgia alongside the osteoporiasis (!!)……otherwise known as getting old! Still want to go photographing and reporting from a war zone………dream on as my kids would say!

Right, off now, things to do and people to see.

It is a very sunny but rather cool and breezy day here in Torrox today, good for drying the washing though. One of those days when loads of pegs have to be used as when the wind blows down the valley the washing could very easily go flying over the village. It did that once, just after we came to live here and I knew nothing about the winds……….pegged jeans out, next thing they were off over the roof tops just like Mary Poppins. Someone, somewhere had a pair of new jeans land in their lap. Learned my lesson!

Spent a couple of days in Malaga the other week, staying at the IBIS Centro hotel just across from the old part of town. I had cut out from The Olive Press, which is one of the freebie papers here, an advert for a restaurant named Pomelo (grapefruit), so after a drink sitting outside the Cervantes Theatre, that’s where we went for lunch. What a find!! It is fantastic. Sits about 50 covers and owned by a Belgium couple, the decor I would describe as boutique. The food is superb and rather different….you choose three dishes plus a dessert from the menu of the day sheet, dishes like pate of wild boar (delicious) or pastry triangles filled with three cheeses. You think it won ‘t fill you up, by my word it does.

It is one of very few restaurants we say we would go back to and in fact we have been back 3 tiimes as we have found ourselves in Malaga for one reason or another these last few days.

The area Pomelo is situated in is a rather up and coming part of the old city of Malaga. The frontages of the old houses are being kept and it is still retaining its lovely atmosphere. Anyone who used to read Torrox Diaries will know that I simply adore Malaga, it is high on the list of my favourite cities. Before I broke my hip, I was often to be found roaming the back streets, camera in hand (see www.etsy.com/shop/abizzyb for examples of my photography ..not only of Andaluca but also Stoke-on-Trent and Morocco. All for sale). Now the old hip is better, then I will restart my roaming!!!!

If you are ever in the area, then the guide ‘Footsteps through the city of Malaga’ is a very handy addition to your handbag or pocket, it takes you at a very leisurely pace through the old city and tells you all about the old buildings. If interested, contact me on abizzyb@hotmail.com as I sell them for the author at the really reasonable price of 5 euros.

It is ages since I last wrote anything on here, in fact it was May 2010 and loads has happened since then. You will all know that in December 2009 I quite badly broke my hip and then had 12 weeks in a wheelchair.  My latest news is that after 14 months since the accident I am now walking fine albeit with a walking stick, though this is more for my peace of mind than anything else. I don’t think I will ever trust myself not to fall again, but there we go!  life hasn’t and won’t stop for me because of what happened……Morocco was fine in a wheelchair and the UK was also done by using the assistance at airports and allowing myself to go in a wheelchair again.  We have just had 2 lovely days in Malaga (Footsteps through the city of Malaga is a guide to that city of which I will tell you more later) for my partner’s birthday……booked into the IBIS Hotel in the centre and I took him to MY Malaga. Had a lovely lovely lunch at a restaurant I had discovered called Pomelo……and would recommend it to anyone and everyone. As usual I did too much walking and my back and leg were knackered by the time we got home!!

I have not given up on life and I am not sitting on the settee moaning poor old me.  In fact it could be Abu Dhabi in October!! I still really want to go to a war  zone with camera and Blackberry, but difficult at the min with a stick!! However while I have been one legged I have developed a selling site for my photographic images so have a look at WWW.Etsy.com/shop/abizzyb. Plus another way I have been using my time is by knitting rather lovely scarves and these can been seen on the same selling site. 

The weekly market set up with my friend Rachael is also still going on and thriving and you can  visit El Ancla Del Cirilo down on Torrox Costa every Wednesday morning where you will find hand crafted items such as my scarves and photographic post cards, wooden items, embroidered items and loads more. Well worth a visit.

The guide to Malaga I mentioned is "Footsteps through the City of Malaga" a lovely, highly readable pocket/handbag sized guide to my favourite city of Malaga. It gives loads of information about most of the old part and is something you can pick up and put down, you don’t have to do it all in one day. Well worth the 5 euros it costs and available from me on abizzyb@hotmail.com.