Mike & Liz In Andalucia

Nearly a month after our last post and so much has happened. Not really sure where I should start. Ok here goes:

Tuesday 26th: We purchased a new car (Seat Ibiza 1.9 SDI)

Thursday 28th: Finished work, went home, packed our bags and then headed off to the UK in our new car. 11pm was our departure and we manage to arrive in our proposed destination just over 24 hours later Boulogne-sur-mer.

Saturday 30th: Bolougne – Dover crossing at 10.30 in the morning and then we made our way directly to Battle for this years Revive! Bring on the camping stove! 🙂

Back to Squash – The pain game….

Yesterday was the 1st time since we’ve arrived that I did some excercise. Went to a gyn close-by and decided to play squash with the gentleman that’s in charge of our IT support. I mean, I’ve been meaning to play but hadn’t found anybody suitable to beat and he seemed like a fair candidate as he’s about 10 years my senior.

Well how wrong was I? Just because he was 10 years older it only meant that he had 10 years more experience and was 10 times better than me. I haven’t had a wooping like that for a while and I feel so in my place. Don’t get me wrong it was a good game, but I think my fitness let me down and I’m definately gonna have to work on that.

Needless to say the pain after the game was quite intense (I mean throughout the game it was bad but at least there was some adrenalin running!) and as I walked / limped slowly towards the superwarket where liz was I realised that I really should start doing sports more often. Next week we’re planning to play again, and after Revive twice a week. I’ll see how I feel after next week before commiting myself to a long term life of “limping after squash”

Shorter news: Rosemary (Liz’s Bridesmaid from NYC) arrives tomorrow for a long weekend. We’ve now officialy booked for Revive and should be getting there sometime on Saturday(I’m looking forward to a break). Tonight is worship practice, time to teach news songs.

Hasta pronto, Mike

Another week goes by and I find myself sitting at my desk with my laptop coping with the every day runnings of the office. Things seem to have calmed down a bit with the summer being round the corner and more people being on hioliday etc. Finally getting on top of managing different projects, to name but a few things that I get up to.

This weekend it was the company AGM and we (Liz & I) all headed up to Ronda for the event. I was invited to be there to give my General Manager’s report on Saturday morning to the board of Directors. We stayed at the Hotel Montelirio – 4* establishment with lots of class, great views of the gorge (El Tajo) but an unfortunate smell of sewage that cames from below.

We went down friday evening, stayed the night and then left saturday afternoon. I think my report was presented well and as of yet no bad comments, so upwards and onwards.

We were back at church on sunday and a couple were renewing their marriage vows. It was a real pleasure to be there and just to be part of it all. The bride & groom (husband & wife) looked great and there was also a church lunch afterwards which was very satisfying.

Liz is doing well and I’ve been putting some feelers out there for any job possibilities. Right now we have 2 options although like all things in Spain – it’s not a done deal until you see a contract. Most of the time is all talk and no action – so we will see what it leads to. One job is in San Pedro, working at a clinic, and another possibility is working at a private hotel just outside Estepona. So watch this space.

Anyway that’s it from me for another blog. Watch this space for more updates.

Another Monday, and things seem to be just about under control 🙂 It was a nice weekend as both Liz & I managed to do and not do a number of things.

Friday: took my lovely wife to the cinema. Watched “Batman Begins”. (Wow what a great movie! If you like Batman, then you should definately go and see this movie!) We also treated ourselves to a little purchase of the new Coldplay album & Alias Season 3.

Saturday: Stayed in & watched Alias – because we spent so much money on Friday! 🙁 Only joking. We just slobbed around and relaxed.

Sunday – Church but with a difference! There was no electricity when we got to church, so no acetates, no amps, no bass, no mics. So we had to improvise and go unplugged and also rewrite my list to incorporate songs that everyone knew. In a nutshell it was different but God was in control so it was well worth it.

Today – Well I’m pretty much sitting in the office and writing this little blog on the end of my work day. Things are so busy but under control. We did get our phone line installed today so things are looking up! Please email for number, and if you are gonna call then you should use Price is 2p per min to Spanish landlines (subject to a 2p connection fee).

Anyway my work is done for another day, talk to you guys later. MC

Well if I were to say that the last week or so has been straight forward then I would be lying to both myself and you guys out there. Needless to say the job continues to be an ongoing challenge and discovery with some days going extremely well and others not at all. But I must admit that things generally at work are going pretty well!

Being the General Manager has its pros and cons and I’ve discovered that people are always waiting for you to make a mistake – so I’ve had to tighten up my game and make sure that everything that I do in the office is flawless. Last thursday was a real turning point and I felt that the staff are slowly beginning to trust me.

I mean that’s again the main reason why I haven’t been able to update the blog as often as I wished to as I’ve been working most days for at least 10 hours and with no internet connectionn at home the last thing I want to do is stay late and write my blog. But today I’ve managed to sit down at lunch and plow through and share these thoughts. Anyway, enough about work – things are under control on that front.

Friday night, Liz & I went out to do some food shopping – it’s costing us in the region of 40 – 50 Euros every week. It’s watermelon season at the moment (or it appears to be) and every week I buy a watermelon, and it’s probably as good as any watermelon I’ve had in Brazil – so I’m happy 🙂

Saturday Liz & I just spent chillin’, late breakfast, late lunch, went to the beach for a couple of hours and then just slobbed around. Sunday we were in church, doing the worship – again things seem to be going really well on that front. As far as things planned for this week: just the weekly worship practice on Wednesday night and the monthly men’s breakfast at 9am on Saturday morning.

That’s it from me guys. Please continue to pray and hold us up in your prayers.

Mike

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

Just a quick one guys, was reading one of my forums this morning and I found this link. …::: Integrity Europe :::… They seem to have a massive clearance sale and their prices are Songbooks for just 50p, Cassettes for £1.00, and CDs for £2.00! Enjoy!

Things last week were quite busy at work and I was unable to add anything to the blog, but this week I feel I should at least put something in today to tell you what’s been happening and what’s gonna happen.

On friday afternoon, my new laptop finaly arrived! Hooray! I know I haven’t mentioned anything about this before but you would not believe it took to weeks to get it sent from Seville (which is about 2-3 hours away in the car) – it probably would’ve been more worthwhile to fly back home and get one from any shop in London. Anyway this morning I’m just setting it up and it seems to be going just fine.

Today I’ve already been to the bank to collect by Debit Card and also to be told that I can’t get any money out until tomorrow. Well this month’s rent is definately gonna be late 🙂 Good news is that tomorrow I can get some money out and also add liz to the account and get her a cash card too.

And now for a summary of this week’s proposed leisure activities:

• Tonight (30.05) is the church’s AGM and we will be heading down to Fuengirola for 8pm. If it’s like any other AGM then we should probably take some sandwiches with us and maybe a blanket.

• Tomorrow night (31.05) – Worship practice: another weekly event that we frequent (being the worship leaders) which is normaly held on a Wednesday night but this week it’s been moved.

• Friday night (03.06) – Invited a guy from church who’s doing sound for the next 2 weeks for dinner.

• Saturday (04.06) – All day event! Heading over towards fuengirola again for a Pro Evo 4 marathon. My mate Rado and his wife Adriana came over last friday night for a meal and Rado loved Pro Evo so much that we’re gonna play all day. Liz & Adriana will have the day to themselves and there’s some rumours of them going for a bike ride.

• Sunday (05.06) – Church!

I would write more but I think this is quite a long entry as it is….. Enjoy your Monday.

Monday!

Well after a semi-heated discussion in the office in the morning I headed down to the local bank (3rd time lucky I’m hoping!) to open up a non-residents bank account. Last week I encountered some minor issues:

a) went into one bank and he said I couldn’t open an account because I already had been a resident and I needed to renew that.

b) then went into Barclays bank and they said I needed a minimum deposit of 1,500 Euros – yeah right!

However I am proud to say that I got back about an hour ago with a new bank account! So it looks like I’m gonna get paid this month! Woo Hoo. They will also give me a cash card in about a week’s time and liz will also get a card too. Things are slowly getting sorted!

This weekend we were in church both Saturday & Sunday for a conference – doing the music on our known on Saturday and then the full band on Sunday. In fact I must admit Sunday’s worship went really well specially trying to teach a new song: “There’s a pageant”. Needless to say the sound was tight and just seemed to have flowed really well. Thank you Lord!

Anyway, I must get on. My boss has been away for the last 2 days and today and tomorrow also so I’ve got quite a few things that need to be sorted. ¡Hasta pronto!

Woohoo! The stuff did arrive yesterday but some things let’s say did not arrive in their original condition. DVD player doesn’t play anything anymore, the bottom of the PC is a little damaged, to name but a few….

That aside everything seems to have arrived safe and sound & I must say I was so happy that our stuff is finally here. It finally feels like we have moved and last night as Liz & I were chatting over our celebratory dinner she mentioned that she really feels it’s right to be here and that we made the right decision.

So I guess that’s it really, I still need to call the moving people and ask them about a few things, but it’s not that bad… I remember when we used to move around in Brazil and a number of items arrived totally broken – and that was in the same country! So when the stuff did arrive yesterday I was quite surprise that most of it was intact & it hadn’t been stolen.

Laterssss