Geri gets discharged - AUGUST

Our poor Geri had her cruciate ligament operation, around three months ago. I'm sure you have all heard me rattle on about the fantastic vetinary care here in Cordoba city. It is of course just our comparisons to living in the Brighton area. Don't get me wrong I cannot fault our vetinary care in Brighton, however it is completely different here. Our own town vet Andres is a truly lovely man, who explains everything so carefully to us. I guess as we do injections, take temperatures etc he feels maybe we know more than we do. He is extremely caring. When you attend his surgery, the first thing he does is bend down and make a fuss of the animal, he then talks to us, and continues to be as caring whilst dealing we the animal, talking to them etc. When the treatment is finished he again turns his attention to the animal. His face lights up when he asks about the alpacas, or Galaxy the baby alpaca. We feel so lucky to have him as our local vet.

We had to take Geri to Xavier, the orthopaedic vetinary surgeon in Cordoba for her operation. Prior to the operation we saw him weekly, then after the operation too. This gradually reduced to every two weeks, and finally once a month. At the end of August Xavier was happy to discharge Geri. At the end of her appointments Geri would go to the cupboard when she knew he kept the doggy treats!

Geri with Xavier, getting her treat!

The pleasures of summer, and poor Carlos!

By the time August arrived, we were exhausted with all the work we had done, and we took great advantage of resting. We were lucky enough to have lovely guests at times throughout the month, and when we do, we like to give them as much privacy as possible. During the times we had no guests we chilled a lot, even watching daytime TV, oooooh it was lovely! We spent time by the pool, reading and relaxing, although to be perfectly honest it is too hot to be outside very much.

Carlos likes to do a little bit of wasp catching, especially when they are buzzing around the water bowls. We took a look at him one day and he had been stung quite badly on his mouth. This has actually happened a couple of times since and we now have an injection just in case his tongue or throat swelled.  Poor little guy!

Carlos with his poor swollen face!

Frankie comes for a holiday! JULY

How amazing for me to have my little girl here for two whole weeks, and without her man..... thanks Chris! I miss both Mark and Frankie like I have two big holes in my heart, but they have their lives, and thanks to cheap flights we get together as much as we possibly can, then it is pure quality time. Frankie was six months pregnant when she was here, and had not been feeling great, so we did an awful lot of chilling, reading and relaxing by the pool, with a little bit of shopping thrown in for good measure. To be honest it was too stonkingly hot to do anything else. The car thermometer registered 46 degrees one evening! Alan took advantage of the fact the Frankie was here with me, so I would not be alone and he flew back to England for a few days to catch up with family and friends.

Below are some of my favourite photos of Frankies stay!

Is she or isn't she?

Little bump, lucky girl!

This is the life!

Frankie with Carlos about 11pm, one evening

In the pool with our friend's son, Jesus
Play time with Arthur and Blue

My trip back to Brighton

Towards the end of July I had planned a flying visit as Frankie was due to be dancing with the teachers in the JP's 'Streetfunk' show called Straight Up 09. Sadly as Frankie had had a few few health problems at the beginning of her pregnancy, she was unable to take part, but she still went along to help backstage. It was a great show, with Stacey, who JP partnered JP in Strictly Dance fever's, school taking part, with many others fabulous acts also. I really took me back seeing the groups of dancers that JP and his great team had been teaching, to my early days of teaching. Don't get me wrong I thoroughly enjoyed my career as a dance teacher. However for me when the competitiveness takes over, it becomes a whole new ball game. It is fantastic, it gives you the most fantastic adrenalin rush, it can also be heart breaking. Children who have grown up with you, and parents that you have become good friends with, occasionally leave and go to another dance school.  Of course it's the parents money they can go wherever they wish. If I am honest, as a dance teacher, unless you are really tough, it breaks your heart.  Every one that leaves takes a little piece with them. You can feel a failure and it eats away at your confidence. People also know that I am not happy with the pressure put on these children's bodies. I am sorry but physically pushing them until they cry.............. that is not acceptable for me. When I became ill, it had to stop. Physically and emotionally I was no longer able to do it.

Sorry I digress, Jp's fab show took me back to my early days! I was a dance teacher because I loved to teach people to dance. These children were there, at the beginning, dancing on stage, and having the most amazing time. That is what being a dance teacher is all about.

Poor Frankie was not feeling very well whilst I was in Brighton, and we even did a trip to hospital. Thank God all was fine, and I was even able to bring my little girl back with me for a holiday!

View from Frankie and Chris's little flat

Frankie on stage with the Sreetfunk team

An extremely condensed JULY

Time has gone on and I remember the month of July with swelteringly hot weather averaging at 40 degrees, and as I said in the last blog, finalising the work here. We had a lovely visit from Alan's mum and other half Bryan, at the same time as our first paying guests. We have had some wonderful guests during our first year of holiday lets, and surprisly enough quite a few children too. We never really thought we had the facilities for children, however we have always said, not everyone wants to be on the coast. I guess having the alpacas, and the pool, gives us that little something extra!

I remember one particular day Alan came rushing in saying he thought one of the feral cats had caught a small rat!!! He then realised it was not a rat she was carrying about, but a tiny kitten, followed by another two. For a while we had six cats. We named the mum and dad Jim and Barb, there was a brother, from last years litter, Antony, and the three kittens, Baby David, R Denise and Twiggy! Twiggy was obviously the runt of the litter, the weaniest strangest looking kitten.

The first site of the kittens, the mum carried them to a barn

Mum, Barb with her kittens, whilst dad Jim sits on the wall

From L-R Baby David, Twiggy and R Denise

Little Twiggy!

The work is finished!

With the help of Nigel our builder, and our poor old hands blistered from painting and more painting, we have more or less finished the renovation. It is a bit like the Severn bridge as in we could always being doing some work, or renovating another area, but for now we are done. Take a look at the Casita. I am sorry if I have published these photos before!

Casita

The Apartment

Outside Areas

JUNE - Antequera Feria

I had forgotten that nearer the beginning of the month, we spent a lovely day at the Antequera Feria supporting our good friends David and Di. It was their local feria, and Jane and Juli had kindly lent them some of there lovely alpacas for the weekend. It was in a beautiful setting, and obviously a beautiful day, well very hot actually! It was a very well organised feria with some beautiful animals, in fact we were next to the prize bulls, they were really quite awesome looking. It was rather fun watching them being loaded into their transporter, at the end of the weekend. For the first time in my life I saw an air display..... by helicopters!

Prize winning goat, look at his beard!

Flamenco display

Stunning little girl poses for me, in her traditional costume