missing........

surf beach3
Originally uploaded by nellyme

Ha!

So you thought I'd be loving life back in England by now??

Sadly, not really.....which is why there's another Tenerfie picture on my blog today!


This is the beach.....5 minutes or so from where we stayed.....quiet (except for the surfers at the far end), hot, breezy....sparkling sand, warm sea........bliss really.

This was the first day....we arrived at lunchtime, dumped our stuff and ran down to the beach.
We walked from our end to the surfers end and back......icecreams on the way, talking madly about where we wanted to visit first.

Sadly, I was looking forward to shopping at Hyperdino....yup, a supermarket.

But....a foreign supermarket.
It has some recognisable stuff (like cheerios for my daughter who is addicted to them) and loads of exciting holiday foods.
Strange cakes and biscuits, pipas (sunflower seeds in their shells that you crunch to open and spit out the shell!)...lots of weird sweets and fab toiletries.....saddo!

I'm sure I'll be back to normal soon....it was just that this year it was such an absolutely perfect week that everything else pales in comparison.

I'm even looking at Tenerife blogs.......

return of the native

zigzag girl
Originally uploaded by nellyme

Hola!

Well, I'm back from Tenerife......a bit of a shock coming from sunshine and temperatures of 25 to 28 to one of 9 (yes, 9!!).

And rain.
And dark by 4.30.

No handsome Spanish men plying me with tapas, cold beer, strong coffee......

Arrrrgh.

Isn't it odd to return from a holiday and feel like you haven't been away?

We've been to the same place in Tenerife four times now.
On my first visit, I had suddenly developed the worst cold EVER just before we left and then we had an 8 hour delay at the airport.

We eventually arrived, but to my dismay the landscape was barren, rocky, ugly and full of skeletons of buildings covered in huge, flapping sheets of polythene.

I sat in the car, dripping with snot, trying not to cry and saying 'oh my god, it's Basra' every few seconds.
I was horrified.

It is a dry, rocky, volcanic landscape (in the South) and there are a fair few buildings still with polythene overcoats, but it's rather beautiful.

It's unpretentious....at least where we stay.
We don't stay in the big places where all the bars are 'british pubs' and serve roasts every day.

We stay in a quietish, surfy place where Spanish is the language you hear most.

We love it.

As for the picture....isn't it great?!

A mannequin outside a shop in Los Christianos.......we visit for the big sweetshop where I stock up on enough coffee caramel sweets to last until our visit next year.......

Deliciousness

Life continues chez moi.

We have a new guinea pig called Rosti.

Yup.

Like potato rosti........

don't ask me....ask my younger daughter who is in lurve with the little creature.


He is about 11 weeks old, kind of teddy bear furry and is grey and white (with a tiny bit of caramel).

He is rather lovely.



Rojo (the black beast of Dorset) likes him too and it's rather amusing to watch him torn between being very grown up and big brotherly or popcorning around the garden like a grasshopper on crack.

They follow each other around, eat side by side and sleep in a squished up pile of piggy love.


I like to see it....life is simple if you're a guinea pig methinks.








The picture is of one of my obsessions.



I flat out ADORE this magazine....it is like creative porn to me.
It makes me salivate...creative juices gone wild.



It's American and perhaps a little expensive.

Sometimes I treat myself to a copy when I go to London and spend hours browsing big bookshops.
Then I sit somewhere with a big fat caramel latte and slowly turn the pages, smiling and sighing and admiring all the loveliness within.



I think I might treat myself to a subscription this year.....how exciting.
Perhaps it can be my christmas present to myself.







I'm doing lots of tidying...off to Tenerife next Wednesday.....a week in the sun, gorgeous warm sea, yummy tapas, handsome surfer men to admire from afar.

Lovely!


I'm tidying because my mum is coming to stay so that she can enjoy a week in Dorset and can babysit the guinea pigs............she thinks I'm disgustingly untidy and will probably check the skirting boards for dust as soon as she arrives.



Ha.
Well, she'll find plenty.



I am so NOT getting into that much tidying!

RIP

Casper
Originally uploaded by nellyme

Sadly, Casper the guinea pig died yesterday.

He's been around for four years and originally came with a little brother called Podge.
I got the guinea pigs for my two girls as my marriage was breaking up, just as my ex-husband left.
I like to think their presence helped a bit.

Casper has lasted through three other guinea pigs....Podge, Foggy and now Rojo.
His nickname became Uncle Casper because he was endlessly patient - allowing these young pigs to jump on him, sleep along his back as if he was some kind of bed and steal the best morsels of food.

He was Mr Tolerance...always with a guniea pig smile.

My youngest daughter sobbed yesterday....it's so hard losing someone you love....even a guinea pig.
And yes, I cried too....partly for her, partly because he's been through the last four post-divorce years with me too.

Sentimental?
Maybe.

But he'll be missed by all of us.

Well....

russiandollme
Originally uploaded by nellyme

I suddenly realised I hadn't blogged for a bit...where does the time go?

Well....in my case it goes like this:

Get up. switch on beloved classic mac.

Watch with mouth open as picture rolls and twitches like a poorly adjusted television.

Smile as it settles.....then listen in horror as it makes a noise like a quiet alarm clock mixed with an evil fizzing noise.....goes pop!

Then....nothing.

I cried.

Then, drive off to Dorchester for a fracture clinic appointment as my wrist is still wrong.

It's market day.
Everyone in the whole of Dorset has brought their friends and they're all trying to park.

Drive into the easy carpark....drive straight out as it's full.

Drive in to the County Hall car park....see loads of spaces....see a pay and display.
Park....with panache.
Walk to pay and display and realise that you have to have a permit to use this bloody car park.

I haven't got one, even though I work for the County Council.
Evil parking attendant is walking around looking important....so I leave.

Eventually park about a mile away and walk.

Hospital appointment??

Well, quite quick.
Lovely doctor....charming and handsome too.

He thinks I've ruptured a ligament so now need an MRI (it's a scan where you lie in a big metal tunnel and listen to constant banging whilst some kind of freaky magnetic field takes pictures......yes I'm medical, but that's my best shot at explaining!)

So now I have to wait for that appointment.............

My house is a pig sty.
My hair looks bad.
I am fatter than I was at the end of both pregnancies.

Ah well.....

The computer is working again, but still does the crazy screen dancing when it feels like it.

Maybe it's rolling it's eyes at my hair?

goodbye old friend.....

This vision of silver loveliness is my old car.

He was called Beef.

He has gone to the big scrap-yard in the sky......

I'm a bit stunned by how much I miss my old car....he was my first car.
He's too old to keep....but I want to.

I feel like I've said goodbye to an old friend...er...well, I have.























This.....monstrosity.....is my new car.

We are NOT friends yet.

She (yup, female, definitely) is called Carmen.

Why?

The redness.
The raciness (this car SO wants to go fast).
The fact that this is A BOY'S CAR.

(ie. a car that men would drive).

She is a Mexican slut.....I'm not sure why.

I have tried to bond.


I've filled up all the necessary things.

I've cleaned and polished her a bit more.

I've put my dangly skeleton on the mirror inside.

But she still feels wrong.

She starts with NO NOISE (I had to check lots...I thought she hadn't started at all).
She makes NO NOISE when she whizzes along....foaming at the mouth and swearing in Spanish (Mexican??) when I go too slowly.

She is electrified.....windows....mirrors.....bloody hell, even the aerial.....and an immobiliser.

What??

I find this new car rather scary.
It (she) is nearly a foot longer than that silvery vision of battered beauty......
Carmen feels HUGE.

Polished, shiny, no bumps or scratches.
Untouched by life.

Maybe I'm jealous?

But she feels like a big responsibility....a bit of a handful maybe.

we shall see............

How great is this?

Yup.
I love it.

You can make a font from your own writing and download it onto your computer!

Look here



And in the real world (rather than Nicki's Amazing Fantasy Land):

my car is almost dead.

Well, ill enough that the cost of the repairs (head gasket, water pump, cam belt...the list goes on) are the same as a new (ie. less old, new to me) car.

Just as I thought...'Gosh Nicki, you're turning into a money managing genius and therefore may have money for your holiday'.....ha ha ha ha. Not.

note to self: at least I have some money for a car.......


My new (old really) job is taking ages to sort.
My hair is greyer.
I have got fatter (now there's a surprise) due to the stress of everything happening TOO BLOODY SLOWLY.

My daughter's knee is still a crappish knee.
I have to go to Dorchester (in new car or bloody BUS) to borrow crutches from the Red Cross so that she can go to school on Monday.

BUT, she will need a lift there and back.

I DO NOT HAVE A WORKING CAR.

I need biscuits.
actually, that's a lie.

I have biscuits.

What I need is alcohol.
Lots and lots.