Mike & Liz In Andalucia

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.

Well we´ve been here a month already! In this time I have come across people asking me the frequent question of…..so, liz what do you DO everyday? : ) .For those who think I lie on the beach all day (with my skin?!!), I feel the need to address this question right here and now.

Everyday I have 2 hours of Spanish held in a language school along the coast in San Pedro. In travelling time I need to give it 1 and a half hours each way. So, I leave the flat at 10 and get back at 330. I then have lunch (our body clocks have changed too). After homework + housework and maybe a bit of saxophone practice, Mike comes in from work.

It´s been quite a change to my routine in London. I can go to church every week and even attend band practice on a weds night AND have every saturday off (the first time in, I can´t remember when). I´m also feeling the benefit of not working night shifts too. This routine will probably go on for another 2 months at least and then we´ll start thinking and praying about what work I can do.
But so far between you & me I´m really enjoying it!!! and if there are further questions , email me : )

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

Had a phone call this morning and it sounds like our stuff has arrived in Malaga and that it’s going to be delivered this afternoon! Woohoo! I’m no holding out too much as it’s Spain but I’ll be really happy if it’s true! They are due to call me back this afternoon to confirm a time and to take my address. Watch this space.

Today was our trip to Gibraltar. We went with Steve, a friend of Mikes from when he lived here before. We had heard various stories about the place and it certainly proved to be like no other place we had been to before.
On walking over the border and then the runway we took the cable car upto the top of the rock. On our arrival we soon noticed the monkeys who lived there. Whilst enjoying the view one had the cheek to sneak up behind me and attempted to raid my bag. After a little tussle the bag was free but I wasn´t, it was still touching my shoulder – much to everyone elses delight!!
Mike was a bit un-nerved by them too. When two monkeys were having a fight over some food near him I´d never seen him move so fast, he nearly sprung like they did. It would have been funnier though if he hadn´t landed on my toes in the process.
After that we took the long walk back down, through the undergrowth, past the fortifications of past wars, observing the English signposts, through the narrow Spanish pavements and finally dodging the mopeds.
It was a melting pot of history to say the least in such a small place and if you come and visit you could always fly in that way!!