They met us at the airport and transported us to their office, where two lovely little Seat Ibiza’s were waiting, we dithered a bit about the second car for the third week but when we brought it back they were cool about re-hiring it and refunded me straight away – there being a shortage of car hire on the Costa Del Sol in August apparently!

Jeremy and his team are very responsive to email, unlike many firms, so when I emailed him to let him know what time we were dropping the car off and could they give us a lift to the airport afterwards, they were ready and waiting.  Overall, a pleasure to deal with!

[singlepic id=209 w=320 h=240 float=left]Give them a call on the Spanish numbers at 902 012 287 or 952 623 297 or visit the website at http://www.arrowcars.es/and get the UK 0800 number.

They can be found on the Pologono (industrial estate) near Malage Airport and Ikea and as I had trouble finding them on Google Maps, here’s the instructions should you need them:

From the airport approach road take any of the Churriana / Alhaurin exits and instead of going up the main dual carriageway, immediately get onto the service road to the right.  Drive up that for a few minutes, past a roundabout or two, and look for Lidl or the Shell garage on the right or get your passengers to look out for a building painted bright blue on the left – that’s Arrow Cars.  Swing round the next roundabout and onto the service road  on the other side and park outside the bright blue building with the grey swing up garage door.  You have arrived.

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If you can speak Spanish, go check out their web page at www.myspace.com/baobabfestival and add them. I’m going to do my best to translate as much of it as I can here *lol* (gotta love Google translate tool).

Baobab Festival 2009

[singlepic id=105 w=320 h=240 float=left] We want to invite you once more, to participate in the 100 x 100 charity Baobab Festival 2009.

The intention this year is to use the funds raised at the Baobab Festival to open a shop of fresh juices in Guinea Conakry, to be able to subsidise and supply the needs of both students and teachers of the School BAOBAB.

For that, we are working hard to finalise the details of the organisation of the festival and are looking to recruit people who want to wholeheartedly join in to make this Baobab Festival a success.

Can you help?  If you can assist with Barras, Food, Crafts, Skills in Electricity, Sponsors us, etc, please contact us by e-mail : baobabfestival@yahoo.es

We look for people, men and women of the world who want to walk with us.

Along this road is going, slowly but surely, making sure that our way is the Earth more alive, giving the hand that is left behind. Gradually we will find. Each time we are more that we move from “Can not do anything” to “I’ll put my hand.”

You can change the things we do not like us if we start to change. It is possible a better world for everyone from today!, Now! sure that the steps that we are positive steps.

We can do it, and the more we are, the better

Welcome!

What We Do

Our next step was to organize a festival was the most beneficial and well Baobab Festival in September 2006.

This project was achieved thanks to the willingness of government agencies such as the Marbella City Council, private companies who decided to put their grain of sand to work with the pulicidad, venue of the festival and the artists, dj’s, artisans and volunteers, providing all his energy and knowledge.

With the money raised at the festival and the boat was made possible volunteer help to carry out our first project: Marbella School in Guinea Conakry, with a capacity of about 70 students who could attend primary school both in English and French as a free.Thanks to these efforts the school Marbella opened its doors the day April 2, 2007, with:

- 40 children between 7 and 12 years
- 36 students between 12 and 30 years
- 2 Teachers
- A class room
- Desks and benches
- Books and school supplies

The school started functioning with great enthusiasm and effort from students and local people, so we had to keep moving forward!

In September of 2007 to meet again to prepare the second Baobab Fetival with the objective to collect funds for the School Marbella to continue working.

This time success was even greater, with the participation and support of many people (Thanks to all!) That enabled the school held its first anivoersario in April 2008.

With the money we raised:

1. Build two classrooms in the school, for children from 1st year and another for Year 2 of a total of 78 children

2. Hire more teachers. There are now 3 teachers, two for children and another that offers courses in English in the evening to about 30 youths. The number of youth attending class varies each week because the government recruited to serve in your army

3. Buy a van to school bus and taxi, which generate daily profits that help and self-management of the school.

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We are at the stage of the holiday where we are counting the days left, and we ONLY want to do things we know we will enjoy, the time for experimenting is past.

[singlepic id=199 w=320 h=240 float=]Tonight, after video skyping Steve to show him our tans, we thought we would do the climb to the castillo and go up to Bar Castillo to eat, the little place highly recommended by Roger & Claire, his chef wife.   They said, just go up and sit at the tables and someone will come out and bring you food, there is a “plat de jour” for 10 euros a head.

[singlepic id=198 w=320 h=240 float=]We found it, sat down, and ordered from the very sweet waitress.  Unfortunately the place was full of English with only one Spanish family up there but we did have a laugh as it was not exactly fine dining with one of the English familie’s border collie cocking his leg on the wall by us, and then trying to scratch grass all over us!

Well, I don’t know if we just didn’t pick the right stuff on the menu, but apart from the sizzling chorizo, we just didn’t like it.  Very high on chips and low on Spanish tapas.

The whole evening totally didn’t do the dress Susanne had on, justice!

Back down to the square where a couple of the bars were quite busy, but our usual was a bit quiet so we decided to all have an early night – much needed by the way!

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We walked all around the very lovely port, full of fancy cars, fancy boats and even fancier shops!  Cowabunga, glad the girls never spotted these shops!  La Perla, Tod shoes, Gucci, Salvatore Ferragamo, you name it, every designer on the planet has a shop there!

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Really makes you realise that, if you spend your childhood in gorgeous places like this, it has to change your aspirations a bit.

I never went abroad till I was 18, and then it was only Lloret De Mar which was hardly aspirational!

My slightly older friend M, though, went to place like Puerto Banus from the age of 18 onwards and she was always VERY focused on earning well so that she could have as many holidays as possible.  She also loved beautiful things in her house, as a result of seeing loads of upmarket home interior shops, I’m realising now.

So I’m delighted that my kids occasionally say things like “I’m going to have a Pink Hummer one day….” because it leads into a conversation about what kind of careers or businesses might provide those kind of toys.

I’m not bothered about cars really, I only go from home to Tesco’s or the Station in Shoreham, but I sure want more holidays, and holiday homes abroad.

Even if I rent them out most of the time (have to earn their keep don’tcha know!) I want to just get on a plane when I feel like it and be able to find the sun.

I feel so much happier getting up to sunshine and this kind of view and I’m sure I’m not alone.

And with portable broadband and most houses having wireless, it’s getting easier and easier.

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I sent the first of the marketing emails for our new term of the Money Gym Silver Elite, it’s a three week lead in to the start of the new programme and I’m warming up with some gentle announcement emails of the 9th September start.  I’m not expecting anyone to sign up yet….they are all still in holiday mode in the UK, but it will warm them up and alert them to the fact that something is happening on the 9th.

They are also down to the last 45 cabins for the Internet Marketer’s Cruise in the Mexican Caribbean in January – I know I’m still on holiday but I’m thinking about the next one (if you work online you can work from anywhere – so if you want to spend a week or so with some of the brightest minds in Internet Marketing, you won’t want to miss this!  http://www.TheMoneyGym.com/holidays will get you all the info, and there’s some nice Money Gym bonuses if you choose our name from the drop down menu on the booking page – including a 1:2:1 wealth coaching session with me worth £500 plus!

We went back to Casares Playa today – it’s really a great little beach and we didn’t get out particularly early.  Nelson is so hard to wake up it’s unreal!  He must be growing as he’s eating well too.

Then out to dinner at the rooftop restaurant “La Bodeguita de en medio” where the food is consistently great, the waitress lovely, and Susanne managed to win over the owner who is not a natural smiler!  She had him eating out of her hand eventually and he brought over a small “cherry and cream” liqueur, which he keeps in the freezer – for us to try – absolutely delicious!

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Susanne loved the house immediately and Casares ditto!  A lunch of leftover paella and fresh tomato salad (we found a fresh basil plant on the roof…) then we took her down to Casares Playa – the little beach at the end of the road, past Finca Cortesin, with the warmest water on the Costa Del Sol and our favourite Chiringuita bar and she liked it a lot there too!  Water was so warm!

We hung out on the balcony, with a bottle of Penescal Rose, looking at all the action in the village square then cooked at home tonight, catching up on all her news.

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We were planning to go out today, but in addition to our lack of sleep, Keturah is not feeling well, which obviously changed our plans to go to the Roman sulphurous pool, Los Banos de Hidionda, and then onto the beach.

She comes downstairs at their usual lunchtime, suddenly slips/slithers to the bottom and, after we check she hasn’t hurt herself, says she feels a bit cold again, so we wrap her up in a blanket, before finding out that she originally woke with a bad headache and feeling a bit sick.

Obviously I’m a bit worried that the belly bar infection is having some other side effects but she doesn’t have any kind of temperature and she’s got her usual healthy appetite so I’m not massively worried.

However to be on the safe side, I think I’ll take her to the chemist in the lower plaza, where English-speaking Antonio the Younger presides, but it’s closed because they open 10.30am to 1.30 weekday mornings, 10.30 to 1.30 on Saturdays.  And of course it’s already 2.00 on a Saturday because the girls get up so late!

Ready at any moment if she feels worse, or the headache comes back, to summon the doctor and get her airlifted off the mountain, if things change at all, we keep a close eye on her for the day, but after a couple of Nurofen, she picks up a bit, and after cleaning out her belly button with loads of salty water (I’ll spare you the gruesome details!) and slathering some antiseptic cream on, things in that department improve a bit too.

[singlepic id=102 w=320 h=240 float=]It’s Day One of the Radikal Mountain Bike downhill racing through town, so loads of whistles sounding all day as the cyclists go past but you get used to the noise after a while!

To keep Ketty company, the girls spend the day on the private roof, going topless for first time every, getting a bit pink as of course they didn’t listen to me about covering their boobs in sun cream!!  This evening I cook chille con carne again, Sarah and I go out to the bar in the square, and after a while, so do the girls, Keturah seemingly totally recovered!  I give the other girls strict instructions to

a) keep Keturah in their sight at all times

b) if she starts to feel unwell, they must ALL bring her home

c) tell those boys the first one to ring our buzzer gets a bucket of dirty dishwater casarwater over them.

And a), b) and c) must have worked because everyone came home safely and slept soundly all night.

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Keturah felt a bit cold this evening (cold? cold?!!) which was a bit odd, but has no temperature I can discern, and after an hour on the sofa wrapped in a blanket decided she felt much better – just in time to go out, there’s a suprise!

She had managed to lose her belly bar in the sea the day of the big waves, Phoebe lent her another one but that came off too, in the sand and actually I’m thinking she’s better to leave one out as her belly piercing is looking a bit sore.  But she’s scared it will close up and she’ll have to have it redone, and vanity is everything so they persevere!  I’m keeping an eye on it though….I wish they had followed the instructions and left the bar in for four months, that they were pierced with, but of course none of them did.

We have an easy Italian themed dinner tonight, leftover lasagne, mushroom risotto, pasta with pesto (kids favourite!), pizza and a big mixed salad.

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Camel Humps and Strawberries follows the progress of an ambitious house renovation project – Calle Arrabal – in a small Spanish village, Casares Spain.

Along the way, the writer Marianne Tommsen, captures the trials and tribulations suffered as they encounter Spanish legal formalities, a drunken architect, local builders and an unpleasant elderly eccentric.

This quirky and candid account of their experience reveals a truth about immigration that reality television often fails to depict. Tommsen wonderfully evokes life in a small Spanish village and underlines why the hassle and cost of relocation is worth it in the end.

This book is a must for anyone interested in travel, property renovation or lifestyle change, but it will prove an enjoyable and inspiring read for everyone and if you have ever been to Casares this will add to your enjoyment.

Buy the book here at Melrose Books >>>

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