Category Archives: holidays

málaga monday

15 Monday Jul 2013

Posted by in animals & pets, cats, holidays, Malaga, spain, summer

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As most of you know, I love Mondays! To me there’s nothing like a fresh start to a brand new week, so many possibilities await! And it’s an even extra special Monday today waking up in Málaga at the beginning of my summer holiday. In fact I got here yesterday but after getting myself and Morcilla settled in and having a quick bite for lunch on the beach I suddenly felt ZONKED and knew it would be a quiet evening in and an early night. I really have been pushing myself these past few months and this is in part why this holiday is so important to me.

kitten on a trainAnyhow, I’m happy to report that Morcilla is quite a good little traveller. She kicked up a bit of a fuss on the way to the station whilst being jostled around in her travel bag, but once we got moving on the train she settled down and was good as gold. Later she was a little freaked out when we first arrived at Manolo’s apartment, but once I got our bedroom set up and got her toys out she seemed calmer and set about exploring ABOLUTELY EVERYWHERE. So I’ve closed off all but one bedroom, one bathroom and the kitchen. She can be in the living room with me when I’m here but I’ll close that off to when I go out. No big deal. There’s a big entrance area and a long hallway between the bedroom and kitchen so she’s got plenty of running around space.

I’m a bit unhappy to report that there will be no evenings here with me having the floor to ceiling glass terrace doors wide open to enjoy the sea breeze while I read or watch a film on the sofa… I thought the terrace had a solid cement “railing” when in fact it’s only solid about 18 inches up and the rest is metal rails. Far too dangerous for a rambuncious small kitten, especially as we’re 13 floors up. Oh well, if I feel a real need to enjoy some sea breeze I can either go downstairs or just close the living room door for awhile so Morcilla won’t be in danger. She’s already crashed headfirst into the glass doors a couple of times thinking there was nothing there – anything for a laugh that one. I’m so glad I brought her with me as she is such great company. Though there was really never any other option. This summer holiday had already been planned before she came along but if for some reason I couldn’t have taken her too then I wouldn’t have been able to go myself.

The only REAL disaster is that I realised last night that I’d forgotten my little coffee maker!

How’s your Monday going?

holiday plans

26 Wednesday Jun 2013

Posted by in cats, holidays, Malaga, travel, trips

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holidayA little while ago I made some changes to my original summer holiday plan to have a northern Spain adventure. The idea of schlepping around the northern coast on my own suddenly felt like it would be more lonely than adventurous. And it turned out that I really didn’t feel okay about leaving Morcilla (aka Smudge) for two whole weeks. She’s still too small to comfortably leave with the two bigger incumbents.

So now she is coming on holiday with me to Málaga! My friend Manolo (once again) very generously offered me his beachside apartment so I’m going to spend my first week there and then have another week in the centre of town in a very chic duplex apartment. I quite like the idea of having two very different Málaga experiences.

This is going to be my first “proper holiday” in, well, probably my whole life. I can’t remember ever taking an entire TWO WEEKS off, staying somewhere else, and just hanging out and enjoying myself. As I’ll be on my own it turns out that Málaga is a nice choice because I feel very at home there and also have friends I can visit. I also want to do a couple of day trips. But mostly I don’t want to over-plan. I just want get down there, unpack my stuff and get the kitten set up, pick up some groceries, and then…. BREATHE.

thursday

28 Thursday Feb 2013

Posted by in food & drink, friends, holidays, home, sevilla, tapas

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thursday
As the late great Douglas Adams‘ hero Arthur Dent, from The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, famously said just moments before the Earth was destroyed… “This must be Thursday. I could never get the hang of Thursday”. I feel something similar. It’s an ‘in between’ kind of day and especially today when it is also a dreaded Bank Holiday. Can’t stand Bank Holidays. Or Sundays. Everything shuts down and is, well, shut down.  So today is like a double-whammy and I had no recourse other than to go out and have tapas with my friends and temporary vecinos Ryan & Ang (aka JetsLikeTaxis). Not sooo bad, really 😉 … but what was meant to be a light lunch tapeo turned into a massive gastronomic feast. Ah well, these things happen.

Thanks for a great afternoon Ang & Ryan! Rooftop BBQ coming up!

northern spain adventure

16 Saturday Feb 2013

Posted by in animals & pets, cancer, cats, holidays, hope, spain, travel, trips

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northern spain

Last year around this time I started dreaming of taking a trip along the northern coast of Spain, but it turned out that I had to stay home that summer and take care of my darling Azar. So I have decided that – providing I get a clean PET scan next month – I am going to start planning this trip in earnest. I’ll fly from Sevilla to Santiago de Compostela and (so far) the plan is to go from there to A Coruña, Olviedo, Santander, Bilbao and San Sebastián. Then I’ll have to backtrack to Bilbao to fly home. I think I’ll be travelling on my own since it’s doubtful that Peter will have any money to travel, but I hope to meet up with friends along the way.

And so, fingers crossed for the next scan! I’ll also post this on the Azahar Sevilla blog (without mentioning dead cats and cancer) to see if I can get any suggestions for places to go, things to do, etc. And of course if you have any suggestions please let me know.