Mike & Liz In Andalucia

In order to try and keep you all up to date, with thoughts and experiences from Andalucia. ¡Ole!

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Well I find myself with my laptop in a hotel in Solihull waiting for the 1st interview which I’m carrying out today for some students to join us in Sept. Unfortunatelly the day started with 2 cancelations but I’m hoping that my 12.30 appointment will not fail me.

Yesterday both Liz and I arrived in Birmingham 2 hours later than expected thanks to French air traffic control going on another strike again. But when we eventually got on the flight the journey was very very smooth.

Yesterday was the anniversary of my squash black eye. A week after getting hit with a racket on my right eyebrow – the black eye is still there. Picture to follow – now that the brusing has subsided.

Apart from that nothing much has happened. Liz is now been offered a contract to work part time at the clinic in San Pedro where she was doing some relief work. I’m busy trying to sort out her paperwork on that front too and get her qualifications transferred over.

I wonder where my Caeser salad is? Only 15 mins to go before the interview……….

Bless you all.

Mike

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Another week, another blog.

What’s interesting though is while looking at my previous post I noticed that this time last week it was really warm – well you will all be glad to know that this whole weekend just gone (Friday night onwards) all that we’ve had is rain around here. Because of that we’ve spent most of the time indoors and when we did eventualy go out with the car we noticed a couple of overturned vehicles who no doubt were going a bit too fast on the motorway. So even us here in Spain have been suffering a little bit of low pressure.

After a very busy week last week – (Mon: AGM, Tue: Squash, Wed: Music Practice, Thurs: Squash, Fri: Cell Group) things seem to have returned a little bit back to normal. Dave & Sarah are coming over this wednesday for few days and I’ve even decided to treat myself to one day off on friday. Haven’t really got much planed but I’m sure we will take them around somewhere or even recommend good places to get to while they are here.

Now I would go on, but Liz is waiting for me outside, so it’s good night from me for another post and see you all soon.

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Well another Monday comes round the corner. Yesterday as you know was church – it went really well. People seemed to have been really keen to be there and worship God. It was also a very hot day yesterday (25C) and after church Liz & I headed to the gym to start getting ourselves fit for the summer.

Other than that tonight is the AGM at the Ark and I’m hoping it’s gonna be fun.

Watch this space,

Mike

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Well it’s a lovely saturday morning. The sun is piercing though the clouds, the view of the beach as always is a stone-throw’s away and while only catching a gilpse of the ondulating waves I feel that this writing is sounding too much like a poet and not like me – so let’s get back to reality.

On wednesday, Michael (Liz’s brother) was over from artic Solihull to enjoy a little break over here. We’ve managed to keep him entertained with the wonders of Estepona & Ronda and the culinary challenges of our local bars & restaurants. In fact I heard that on his first day here he experienced octopus for lunch and rumours are he’s gonna be talking some back to the good old Midlands today. His flight leaves around 6.30pm from Malaga this evening and I think we’re probably just going to do some shopping between now and then and get him stocked with Spanish ingredients.

Tomorrow, it’s church with the AGM taking place on Monday – that should keep things busy and challenging at the same time. Well time to go and get a shower and get ready for some shopping……

Mike

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GOOD NEWS. It is official last friday we completed on Powell Road. That flat is now sold. I would like to take this opportunity and quote from an episode of “Friends” – It’s the end of an era. All joking aside, we are both very very relieved that it is all over and that we now concetrate on other things.

What’s going down this week?

Tomorrow night, I’m once again entering the Squash court to see if I can play without injuring myself after a month in recess. Wednesday, my brother-in-law is over for a few days so we’re going to be hanging out with me – rumours are that he is bringing with him Season 3 of Scrubs and also some sliced Malt loaf from the UK. Thursday, Friday – not sure what we will do but Saturday we will definately take Michael somewhere exotic. Sunday – back to church.

Most amazing feet I have performed this week?

Well last Saturday I went out for dinner with a group of Spanish friends and managed to eat 700 grammes worth of meat for my main (after having partaken in starters). Needless to say I got the meat sweats (a Joey moment for those “friends” aficionados) not only straight after but also the day after. Not recommended to be done – but the restaurant definate YES.

Well enough of my blurb keep reading and we will keep writing.

Good night and God Bless,

Mike C.

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Well it’s been nearly 2 weeks since I updated the blog, so I think it would be only right to do so today and get back into the habit of keeping this online diary full of news and happenings. For those of you that don’t know in the last 2 weeks both Liz & I have been back to the UK for 2 different ocasions.

The first one (Friday 23rd Sept) was Gerard & Helen’s wedding. What a lovely day it was! Both the bride & groom looked spectacular and as a guest it was a very special day to be shared with them. It was a small wedding with a max of 30 people there creating a lovely intimate atmosphere for everyone present. Liz and I had been asked to play at the wedding for 2 different sections – one was a little instrumental while both mothers light a candle and the second time was on the signing of the register (we sang “In Christ Alone”). After the ceremony we all got into taxis and headed off to Little Venice where we all boarded a long boat and we were served champagne and canapes. This was our mode of transport to the restaurant where the reception took place. I must say that was just so unique and so Gerard! I could go on, but I guess you guys are getting the picture that it was a very good day.

Day after, we were involved with “On The Move”, where we did some open air singing with different churches and invited people to a free b-b-q at the end of it. What a great way of showing God’s love to people, then by filling their stomachs with a free lunch.

Sunday we were back at New Wine leading worship and enjoying church lunch after the service. It was good to just be able to see people say hello and then head off to catch our flight back to Jerez.

Now this weekend just gone we were also in London and this time it was for “New Wine’s” Weekend Away. Now it was not just any weekend away but they managed to get Roger & Faith Foster to speak at the event so we thought it would be good to go and receive. Needless to say the whole weekend was amazing (great food – both spiritualy and phisicaly) and we were reluctant to leave but unfortunately we all had to get back home and do some work. On the bright side we did come back with my parents who are now gonna be with us for a week here so it should prove to be a good weekend.

Anyway, apologies for the delay and we’ll keep in touch.

Mike

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Even more car news – it went in for it’s 90,000 km service yesterday and there were no problems. Praise the Lord! Unfortunately it did not come cheap and it was only after I parted with about 500 Euros that they allowed me to take away the car. Next service will be a small one, in fact just a little oil change and that’s it. Less that 100 Euros.

Today David & Gillian arrived. They flew into Jerez this morning and I met with them at the flat this afternoon. So they are gonna be with us for one week.

Anyway I must go as I’m talking to them right now. Speak to you next week.

Mike

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Well another blog and another day. Things here are well, busy and active as always and sunny too!

Car news – On the way back from worship practice last wednesday we got a puncture at 1am. Nothing too traumatic but I must admit not the greatest of times. In most cases, it would’ve been straightforward but for some reason, the previous owner had used locking wheel nuts – so I had to quickly familiarise myself with the new system and find a way of removing them. Needless to say we got home about 2/2.30am – although we didn’t need to call the AA man! 🙂

Last sunday we had the pleasure of seeing Martin Hall & family (from Ichthus Chiselhurst) at church. They had come over for a holiday and after a few emails back & forth they managed to find the church and join us in our morning worship. Afterwards we all went out for a meal (including Pastor Dave & his wife Judy) to a local restaurant that does a 3 course menu for less than 10 pounds!

Also this week we heard that we won our court case wrt Powell Road (a year later). Praise God! She’s thankfully paid our costs, however the twist is this: she’s now refusing to pay our legal costs saying that they are too expensive as we expect these have escalated to between 4-5k. Oh well, what can I say – our solicitor reckons that she will probably pay but if she doesn’t then I guess we might have to go back to court again to get those costs from her which will incur even more costs. What a vicious circle!

You’d all be happy to know that both & Liz and I are due back in the UK for the 2 last weekends in sept (fri-sun). Ryanair has got some great cheap flights at the moment – otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to come.

More car news – next week is the dreaded 90k service (nearly got 95k on the clock) and that’s gonna dig into the pocket as it’s a big service. Now for those of you that know me well, I’m not great at taking care of cars, but I’ve decided that I need to take care of this one and because it’s a 2nd hand motor then it’s good to be reassured that there’s nothing wrong with it.

Next week we are also looking forward to having David & Gillian staying with us for 1 week – so we’ll tell you all in the next blog entry.

Enjoy the August Bank Holiday guys. Speak to you soon.

Mike

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Back from Revive 2005! We arrived at 9.30am yesterday after having left the UK on Sunday evening. Our crossing was delaying an hour or so and with the time zone we lost an extra hour also. No problem. So we decided to crack on with our journey and not stop the night in France. Anyway on the route down from Bolougne we had a small accident – but thankfully no casulties.

It was about 2am in the morning and I was driving about 140km and all of a sudden without any signposts or anything there was this roundabout in front of us. Needless to say we went straight over it and ended up on the grass verge on the other side of the road. The most amusing part of it was that as we stopped Liz said to me “Don’t panic!” – I wasn’t until that point :-). Soon after that a french man stopped and asked us if we were ok and told us we were going way too fast. (thanks for the observation Sherlock!) I then got out of the car and tried to assess the damage on the vehicle and thankfully apart from a few minor dents on the right tyre/wheel and some superficial damage to the left bumper everything seemed ok. I then got back into the car, turned the ignition and drove away. 30 hours later we were at home, so I guess the car held out pretty well.

Anyway, all things are back to normal and one soon gets into the routine – I was back at work at 9am this morning and liz was off to her class at 12. Then she’s doing her 1st shift at the local clinic from 3-7pm. After that we will head off to Fuengirola for our weekly worship practice. This weekend it’s a national bank holiday in Spain so we’re off next Monday – we will have time then to catch up on our lost sleep.

All that is left to say is that we had a wonderful time in the UK – Revive was excellent (so good to have been close to family & friends), lots of laughs and lots of things to think about. The little time we spen in London was also good and we look forward to being back in Sept.

Mike