T is for Birthday Fun

 Hello to one and all, I thought I would try to join you all this week, it’s been busy here, taking boys to school, birthdays etc and we’ve all been ill with some bug our eldest Grandson picked up, he kindly passed it to me, I passed it to Grandad who is now still coughing, all tested negative for Covid thankfully.

We had three Birthdays , Eldest GS was 15 on 25th October, Mine 31st!! And GS was 11 on November 2nd, we had parties and meals out all planned, eldest went out for Sushi with his friends but actually on his birthday was feeling ill so we cancelled his meal out, on my Birthday the boys had parties for Halloween so we had an Italian takeout which was lovely but the next  night we had to cancel my meal out as I was ill too, youngest had his party at the Frontierland park, nerf guns and pizza, he seems to have escaped the bug but our son caught it too.

We finally went out to the Waterbar in San Francisco last Sunday for lunch to celebrate all three birthdays

The inside of the Restaurant, they had giant fish tanks but thankfully we didn’t have to choose the fish from there!

The beautiful view from the Restaurant, the Bay Bridge

My starter, chicory salad with walnuts, apples and a vinaigrette, it should have been blue cheese but I asked for a different one as I don’t like blue cheese, My DH had that and said it was delicious 

My main course of Sole, really delicious.

The accompaniments on some dishes I had to google as I didn’t have a clue what they were, most turned out to be some fancy name for the way a vegetable had been cooked!

DIL and Eldest GS had Oysters with some dips, apparently one was very hot, our GS drank two glasses of water after trying it

DH and DIL ordered this dish, another name I’d never heard of  which turned out to be Tuna, they both enjoyed it.

I totally forgot to take a photo of my Sticky Toffee Pudding, the best I’ve ever had, DIL told the waiter about our birthdays so they came to the table with three of these, fudge brownies, delicious 

On the way home DIL spotted this car registration plate, DH was driving and had to keep up while she took the photo, she said this should be mine, not sure my darling husband agreed !

Another busy week this week, DIL is away in London working, GS is being given a RISE award on Wednesday morning at school, we’ve been invited to watch but he doesn’t know anything about it.Eldest GS is in a school play on Thursday evening, Grandad asked if he is the third tree on the right, all he had in return was a grunt, haha Teenagers!

Just been to the Daycare where the boys used to go, we took four huge bags of toys and three bags of books, DIL is ruthless when she gets going, haha, it was so lovely that they still remembered us after six years.

Sadly we fly back to England the day after Thanksgiving, DH is cooking and has been told they all would like Roast beef and Yorkshire puddings instead of Turkey this year.

We have been lucky with the weather, it’s been very warm and dry, cool in the mornings but sunny and warm by lunchtime although this week we may get some rain.

I hope you are all enjoying some good weather and keeping well, I hope none of you catches the bug, it’s really awful, hope to catch up with you all later.

Jan x

T is Traveling again.

 Hello Ladies, I thought I would pop in to say hello from sunny England.

We had a good journey from Spain, a lovely drive to the North.

We left home at 6am and arrived in Albacete at 9am for breakfast, we always stop at the five brothers restaurant, quite empty for a Saturday, it’s usually packed.

I totally forgot to take a photo of our breakfast so I’m using the array of bottles on the back shelf as my ticket to the T party!

They have lots of foodstuff for sale, the boxes on the top looked like a sweet bread type pastry.

Sausages and chorizo, olives etc

 

Our overnight stop in Burgos wasn’t the best hotel we’ve stayed in, nowhere to have a walk or have food apart from the hotel and no secure parking, annoying as that’s why we booked it! 

It was only a two hour drive to Santander although we had some non motorway roads to get back on track but we only had a two hour drive to Santander.

Quite chaotic at the Port, usually we can leave the car and walk across the road into the town for breakfast but the Guardia told my husband that we would be moving to another parking place within half an hour so not enough time to go for a walk, then we moved and sat waiting to board for nearly two hours in 30c heat.

Once we boarded we had a coffee and relaxed, they now have VOD and TV in every cabin although the films were all ones that we’d seen on our last trip.

This is Santander, a part we’ve never seen before, just after we left the Port,  looks like the Marina 

This is another beach resort across the peninsula, maybe somewhere to stay next time

The sea was as calm as a mill pond as we say so a very relaxing journey.

This is passing the Isle of Wight, Newport, a lovely holiday place an hours ferry crossing from the mainland.

Still a little like the 60’s, we used to go there with our caravan quite a lot before we moved to Spain 

These were used in the war, gun emplacements, some have been sold for people to live in and one is a hotel! 

They are bigger than they look, some are on like stilts so much higher out of the water.

We arrived too late to see our GS before bed as we were the last to disembark unfortunately but I rang him to say goodnight, the next morning he ran in our bedroom checking we had actually arrived.

I’ve been taking him to school, a fifteen minute walk, sometimes collecting him too, he was quite happy to show me his new school although he doesn’t allow any kisses and we’re not allowed to go into the school gates, now he’s 7 he’s too old for all that stuff apparently!! We’ve also been to watch his football training at the local football team’s ground and also indoor climbing. This afternoon he has soft ball practice after school and then I will be taking him to kick boxing! It’s all go with our GS!

I will try to visit if my iPad lets me,  sometimes it tells me I’m not logged in, hope you are all well and enjoying some good weather as we are here in Kent.

Jan x

T is For Oh not not again!

 

I’d like to say sorry for not visiting many of you last week, it was so hot and humid upstairs in my craft room so I couldn’t spend much time on my PC and my iPad kept saying there was an error every time I posted a comment, so annoying after typing a message.

We were enjoying the cooler weather on Friday, lovely and sunny during the day and cool during the evening , unfortunately the pool temperature dropped from 32c to 28c in just a few days, I know such problems, haha!

And then this was our weather on Saturday morning just as we were preparing to go for our walk, fortunately I still managed to get my washing dry as it was quite windy, Sunday was a little better and everything dried nicely.

You can’t see my husband through the rain but he was sitting under the Arbor cleaning the filter for the pool, he had just finished cleaning the pool, now it’s even worse as we’ve had the red rain.

We had to go to the pharmacy last Thursday to organise three months meds for my husband for our trip so While we were out we decided to have breakfast in the Puerto, very naughty having a bocadillo, beicon con huevos, (bacon and eggs) far too much for me but that’s one portion!

A coffee with very pretty cups, my ticket to the T party for this week.

We had Sahara sand blow In overnight Sunday, Half done, you can see the other Half still with the sand.

This was the pile of Sahara sand , just half of the garden around the pool, I then had to sweep down the stairs on the other side of the villa where I go up to my craft room, I could see my husband’s footprints in the sand and also on the mat inside where he had walked inside!!!

Unfortunately we had some more overnight so I've just finished sweeping and mopping again, it's turned humid too and you can see the dust in the air, we can't even see the mountains.

I will try to join the T Party when we arrive in England if I can and hopefully when we arrive in San Francisco,  next week I will be rushing around packing, cleaning and having my hair done so I will be missing the T Party, until next time, keep safe ladies , see you soon

Jan x

T is for still Too Hot

 I just have to say that the comments a few of you made about photo I took in the restaurant with a straw hat on the chair made me smile as it was quite accidental, that is my husband’s hat and he always hangs it there, it did make think that I should think before I take photos, something my husband is always telling me.

This photo was taken when our eldest son was over, also my ticket to the T Party.

it’s a lovely place to have a drink as it’s on the beach side of the marina, jutting out over the sea, we’d never taken them there before so they enjoyed the surprise.

My husband took this as he was facing the sea view.

The same view but you can see at 7pm the beach was still full, you can also see how shallow the water is.

We also had a visit to the ice cream parlour, all the flavours and our Grandson chooses the blue bubblegum flavour! His favourite from being a tiny Tot, tastes and smells awful!

Far too many to choose from and I always end up with mint choc chip!

We are trying to get things done ready for our trip, yesterday my DH had his five weekly blood tests, he takes blood thinners, wouldn't you know his reading was too low so another visit in two weeks, really didn't need a bad reading when we are going away. His E meds certificate also runs out while we are away and we need it to collect the meds for our trip, luckily we have a new young man on the reception at the doctors who took the details and asked the doctor to update it, which she did so thats one job ticked off the list

The weather is still hot, we keep reading that will be getting cooler and I must admit last night was quite pleasant and this morning was a lovely temperature for our short walk,  we leave around 8am, sometimes there’s a small breeze, doesn’t last long though, by the time we do the shopping and walk home it’s already getting hot so we're pleased to get home.

Short and sweet as they say, not much going on with the heat apart from swimming and reading so I'll say bye for now, hope you are all keeping well!

Jan x

T is for

 Happy T Day once again, thank you for your visits last week and kind comments, they are much appreciated.

Still chilling in the shade,  funny in the summer we look forward to cooler weather and in the winter we look forward to Spring, when I was complaining last night about the heat my DH said he will remind me of that when I complain about having to clean the log fire every morning!

I’ve been reading a couple of books my DIL bought me for Christmas, one I really enjoyed, one of those books you can't put down, The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah, made me cry at the end , the second one The Red Lotus I’m struggling with, it’s not my kind of book but it is so heavy going I’m still debating if I should abandon it, something I don’t like to do.

Another meal we had at a Restaurant with our family, Restaurante Piccolo, very near to home, I only took photos of the starters, it was so busy that we had quite a wait even for the starters, so long that our GS had eaten most of the bread basket by the time his food arrived!

They offer a  three course Menu including a drink for €20! They always have different dishes on the menu and always plenty to choose from.

 Our son and DH had the Chilli Prawns,I’ve had this starter before and they are delicious,

My starter, called Brie surprise,it was so tasty, Brie wrapped in filo pastry,with honey and walnuts

I made this card for our sons Birthday, I’ve had these Embossing Folders for years and never used them but I had the idea to use the King and Jack as our son jokingly calls himself King Ding A Ling and our GSs name is Jack, he was really pleased when I gave it to him, always gets harder coming up with ideas for their cards after all these years.

I took this photo on the Marina a couple of weeks ago, everyone feeds the fish and a few weeks ago when our family were over there were only massive fish in there, now they are all the tiny fish.

My ticket to the T Party for this week, this is Mariano’s Restaurante, it’s just across the footbridge from our villa , we have our breakfast here quite often, always tostada con Tomate, I'm using the bottles of drinks on the bar as my drink for this week, I hope that's allowed!!

Have a lovely week and hope you are enjoying some cooler weather, apparently it's going to be 100F today and it's humid already!!

Jan x

T is for Time to Chill

 Happy T Day Ladies, I've been AWOL for a few weeks as we had our family over from England and then we've been slowly getting the villa back to normal, takes some time in the heat as we only do one job per day, we were getting up at 7am to clean before the sun came out!!

We had a lovely visit and our 7 year old Grandson kept us on our toes, he decided we all had to play volley ball in the pool, he of course made the rules up as we went along, always in his favour of course!! it was fun but tiring, luckily with the heat he was only allowed in the pool for 15 minutes at a time during the day, half an hour or so  in the shade before going back in, in between he tried again to teach me Roblox, at least he said I'm much better than his Baba, who apparently can't go in a straight line LOL

This is the other Marina, much smaller but it’s where the Restaurante Eduardo's is, the beach looks empty but it was really busy further along.

The restaurant where we took our son to for his Birthday, 51!!!! They had never been there before so it was a lovely surprise although we had a ten minute walk as it's so busy we couldn't find anywhere to park.

Our starter was a salad, it had feta cheese, walnuts, pine nuts etc, it was delicious, we shared it with our Grandson who loves salads, we’d already started before I remembered to take a photo

Our son had Carpaccio, looked lovely but I don't like raw meat. 

Our GS had Carbanara, I forgot to take any more photos unfortunately, our Son, DIL and DH had pasta dishes, I had chicken Escalope I think it was called.

 I always think of it as Schnitzel, I loved them when we lived in Germany, especially with Zigeuner Sauce, I think translates as Gypsy Sauce.

This is my ticket to the T party, we’ve had so many Strawberries, I’ve made Jam and we’ve had smoothies but I have bags of them frozen so I decided to make Strawberry Gin, this is my first batch , I’ve tried a taster and it’s lovely with tonic, I will be taking some to England for our son and DIL to try, it also looks quite nice too.

I hope to join you all at some point , it’s still baking hot but not quite so humidbut we are chilling out in the garden in the shade and taking the occassional dip in the pool, we are keeping away from the seafront as it’s packed with holidaymakers! How Dare they, LOL

Take Care Dear Friends.

Jan x

T is for Tenth Anniversary

 Happy Tenth T Day Anniversary to Elizabeth and Bluebeard,  a big thanks to Elizabeth for keeping the T Party going for ten years,  it’s been o lovely to meet up with so many friends each week.

A cake to celebrate the Anniversary and also my number ten.

My swap partner was Chris, (Pearshapedchris), who sent me a lovely package of goodies.

My package from Chris. Thank you so much for everything, the Handmade card is beautiful and the Butterfly note card.

My ATC from Chris,  a lovely blue BG with the pretty cup and saucer, I love the pretty lace across the bottom,

These are the two postcards Chris sent, the top one of the John Rylands Library at The University of Manchester.

Beautiful Napkins especially as they are from the recent Coronation of King Charles, I'm not sure I will be able to bring myself to use them!

The Envelope from Chris, the stamp was a lovely one of the Late Queen Elizabeth.

I was also lucky enough to have a beautiful ATC from my friend Sharon, (Foxystamper), It feels as if it's been made from a Napkin? Sharon and I are old friends from Splitcoaststampers.

It’s beautiful with the pretty bird, it also came in a pretty envelope.

This was all the lovely goodies Sharon sent to me, two pieces of embossed card and die cuts, pretty bird cages with birds and lovely butterflies.

My envelope from Sharon, the stamp is a pretty pink flower but I can’t say what it is.

This my ATC for all the ladies of the T gang to wish you a Happy Tenth Anniversary

Cheers Ladies, Hope you all have a Happy T Day

Jan x

T is for Trying To Keep Cool

 Not much to going on here at the moment with the excessive heat, we’re getting ready for our eldest son, DIL and youngest GSs visit in ten days time, last Wednesday our family from San Francisco left after their two week visit, it was a sad day made worst by having to be up at 6am to get to the airport.

Our son was mid flight from San Francisco and DIL and GSs at the airport in Berlin when the airlines cancelled their return flights from Spain to the Uk so our poor DIL spent the afternoon at the airport trying to find another flight, ended up flying into Birmingham, miles from London, in the end they hired a car with driver to collect them from Birmingham to drive them to Oxford where our DIL was staying with her sister and then taking our son on to London for his flight home the following Day, Hopefully they will get a refund on their original flight as it cost an extra £900 for the flights and £300 for the car! Quite disgusting that they are allowed to just cancel leaving people stranded.

Our GS pointed out the sky as we were driving to the beach, dark rays across the sky.

We had a lovely two weeks with them, it was exhausting as our ten year old GS loves the pool and so I had hours of fun with him, also playing Uno, we had a championship every evening before bed, it was fun but they are all very competitive so you had to have your wits about you at all times. Also some cheating going on too!

Our ten year old GS wanted to play in my craft room, he made this card for his Mum, he embossed the BG and he wiped pink distress inks over the raised pattern before adding the flowers, bling and the MOM across the front.

I think he did a great job for his first time!

it's 9.30am and already hot and humid, we have already had our walk and breakfast,  today and Wednesday we have heat warnings as they say it may get up to 46C, never had more than 40C here before and only once I think, fingers crossed it doesn't get that hot!

My ticket to the T party for this week; I sent this photo to our son to show that we are preparing for his visit, we always take a couple of beers to the airport, wine for DIL and cold drink for GS, to celebrate the start of their holiday, usually sandwiches too just incase they are hungry, it keeps GS occupied as it's a 90 minute journey from the airport, he told me over the weekend that he is travelling in his swim shorts so he can jump out of the car and jump straight into the pool, I had visions of him sitting on the plane with his swimming goggles on too. LOL

Hope all the ladies of the T gang are happy and well, that's me for this week, off to the pool for a swim, the water is 31c !  Take Care Ladies

Jan X

T is for Two Days

 Happy T Day, lovely to join Elizabeth and Bleubeard at the T party again this week, we’ve been busy preparing for the invasion, stocking the freezer up with ice creams, filling the wine fridge, also lots of soft drinks and water to keep everyone hydrated. I have another list for tomorrow, another supermarket dash for the rest of my extensive list, we always end up eating up what's left in the fridge and freezer after they leave although we have the youngest GS ten days after they leave so ice creams will definately not be wasted.

I thought you might like to see a photo of our Grand doggies although our GS tells me they are our GreatGrand doggies, Evie and Freya, they were from the same litter, very boisterous but very friendly. I can’t tell them apart but apparently one has some darker colouring!

I really enjoying going out for walks with them both while we were over earlier in the year.

Evie is quite lazy and when we were by the old quarry she would wait for Freya to get the stick from the water and then take it off her, she obviously didnt want to get wet!

My husband found this photo, a replica of the Phoenician boat that was found in the harbour in the Puerto de Mazarron, its made of steel and sits on the traffic island in the Puerto, it’s had red lights put around it to celebrate Blood Donation Day, looks quite stunning.

We had lunch out last Thursday, we had a dental appointment booked for yesterday but they rang to see if we’d like to go earlier so we thought yes let’s get it over with, not my favourite place! I thought I might need a tooth out , we didn’t know if they would do it there and then, turns out the pain is that the bones in my gums, they are weak so inflame my gums, apparently it will get worse, oh joy, anyway after half an hour of a painful clean and Polish off for lunch, although DH did have a filling on Friday, 

We met an English lady while we were waiting for the dentist, she has a holiday home over here,  she lives only half an drive from our son in England, what a coincidence! Anyway she asked if we could meet for a coffee some time but we found that we aren't in Spain at the same time until next January. She told me she owned a shop, I asked hopefully if it was a craft shop by any chance as I know there is one in Faversham, she has an arts and craft type shop where she sells her own jewellry, disaapointing LOL.

We decided to go to Blanca's restaurant, they had a large party arriving so we had to sit inside, as usual it was delicious.

A salad which I forgot to take a photo of and this lovely bread with aioli, garlic Mayo, homemade and strong! If one of you eats it you really both have to.

Gazpacho, obviously homemade as it was slightly thicker than shop bought, so delicious, with croutons and a drizzle of Olive Oil. Very refreshing on a hot day.

My DH had Codillo, pork elbow, that was solid meat, it fell off the bone, two potatoes cooked the the juices.

My Pork in Pepper Sauce, the pork was so tender,I didn’t eat those peppers in case they were hot ones.

We didn’t have a Postre just coffee as we were full to the brim.

My ticket to the T Party this week.

My DIL sent this photo, don’t you love the barman’s face, LOL, 

It’s our DILs cousins wedding , she married a famous footballer, well famous in Poland !they hired the whole hotel by a lake for the wedding and all the guests stayed overnight with a BBQ before they left.

I must say the Polish people like a drink, my husband asked for a non alcoholic beer when we went over and they didn’t have any but offered one stronger than you’d normally drink, they also make their own fruit vodkas, we haven’t tried any but apparently it’s very strong.

My final photo, the cakes, I think the little boy looks like our GSs cousin, just wish I could see his face! 

DIL is over there with her sister and the two boys, our son couldn’t get the time off work unfortunately. 

Only two days to go before our family arrive, Thursday evening,  they should have been arriving at 4.30pm but their flight was cancelled so now they arrive at 9pm, luckily they are arriving at Murcia airport, only 40 minutes from home, our GS told us he will be straight into the pool when he gets out of the car, they are in Berlin at the moment, this morning  they are catching a train to Prague before flying to London to meet up with their Dad so at least they will be over their jet lag, hopefully!

Happy T Day Ladies, see you all in a few weeks time

Jan x