Rain, Rain, Go Away...

Talk about a culture shock!  After ten blissful, warm days in Tenerife I come home to find Scotland is getting hit by the tail of Hurricane Katia.  A few days for cosy socks, tea and snuggling under blankets, for sure! 

I had an amazing holiday - me and Paul (my brother) were sharing a flat and my mum and granny were staying in another flat in the same complex.  We spent loads of time at the pool, and went snorkeling on the beach a few times too!  The first day we went we didn't see many fish - the odd stripy one floating about, but we did see a big sword stuck in the floor of the sea, which was pretty cool.  The second day we went, the water was much rougher and quite cloudy from all the sand getting blown about but we saw loads more fish - I swam right through a school of sardines!  Wish I had an underwater camera for such moments!

I'm happy to say I picked up a good tan, and narrowly avoided getting burnt!  I also did a good bit of shopping and got a lovely wee dress and pair of leather boots.  I'm usually quite fussy about boots - I don't like ones that come too high up my leg cause they make me look stumpy (!), and I want them to be chunky but not too much.  Anyway, I stumbled across this pair in Stradivarius, and despite the roasting heat outside, I immediately saw their potential as replacements to my treasured others that are well past their best - I've had them re-soled and re-heeled so many times that the last time, the cobbler told me he wouldn't be able to fix them any more!

I'm happy to report that they're very comfy, very waterproof, and have already been put to good use in the 3 days since I got back!

I also got a lovely wee star-print dress (in case you hadn't noticed, stars are the print to be seen in for A/W 2011), which actually goes quite well with the dress:

Hmm, that picture isn't the best, but you can check it out online here, if you like.  Happy shopping times, indeed!

So, I'm not exactly thrilled to be back - I've mostly been reading in bed since I got home, to be honest, but once I adjust back to the weather I'll be back on form.  Probably.

I've had a couple of call-backs about jobs - though I still haven't actually been given a job.  But it's more than I've had in a long time so I'm hoping that something will come out of it and in the mean time I'm still bombing out the CVs and applications.  Positive thoughts, please, peeps!

Cast Not Your Pearls Before Swine

I recently read a magazine article about women who had friends much older or younger than themselves.  One of the younger women said that the only thing that annoyed her about her older friend was the fact that she always wore a classic pearl necklace when they went out.  According to the younger woman, pearls are dated and old-fashioned. 

It was at this point that I decided the younger woman was a fool.

I love pearls, and I have about 4 strands that I wear all the time.  Some of them are real and some are plastic, but I mix them up and wear them together.  So, imagine my delight when, as I mentioned before, I found a stall in the Tenerife Sunday market selling lovely sets of fresh-water pearls.  They had pink, and white-ish ones, and they came in different lengths of necklace, as well as earrings and bracelets.  I zoned in on the medium length necklaces and came away with a lovely pink strand. 

I think pearls, like diamonds maybe, are classic and go with anything.  They don't look old-fashioned unless the rest of your outfit looks old-fashioned, and they go with pretty much anything and anyone.

Here are a couple of pics of my new strand, Thanks Mr Oyster.

 

 

 

 

 

 

For those of you sharp enough to spot it, I'm also wearing the new Lancome Colour Fever Shine lipstick.

 

 

 

I also picked up a cool thing that you can probably buy over here too, but which I've only ever seen in Spain.  It's just a hair clip, but it's so handy and is great if you've got mid-length/short hair like me.  Only in the last couple of weeks has my hair been long enough to tie back, and without the use of hairbands and kirby grips I always got big strands coming loose at the bottom. 

 

 Well, not any more! This thing (according to Google, it's called a 'banana clip') gets all my hair at once, gives me a januty pony-tail at the back, and a slight bit of height at the front, as if I'd done my hair in a chignon.

AND, it only cost about £2. Genius!

When In doubt, Wear a Cape

This is my new motto, to go along with the one I already have:  When in doubt, wear a hat.

I took my lush, green yaks'-wool shawl (bought a few years ago in the Himalayan market in Byres Road) to Tenerife and wore it almost every night.  It's so cosy and soft and warm, that it was perfect for slinging on over everything. (Except, as I discovered, a mini-skirt.  The furry gillet came into play that night.) 

Wrapped round the shoulders and fastened with a glittery brooch to keep it in place et voila!  No need for any hassle or fuss.  Warm, elegant, stylish and cosy.  Yes, the multi-tasking shawl is everything you need, and want, in a cover-up. 

For Scottish-winter use, I recommend wearing it over a couple of layers: vest top, jumper etc, and you can even stick a wee scarf round your neck if you'll be feeling the chill.  Go for a small, discreet scarf though, because if you wear anything long/woolly/brightly coloured you'll end up being all scarfy-fringey-action and look like you're channelling the Mental Boho Look.  And not in a good way.

If you're lucky enough to have a turban as wonderful as mine, you might as well stick that on with it, too.

Back To Reality

That's us back in Glasgow now, after an all-too-short holiday, and I actually cannot believe the weather!  We arrived in Prestwick to gale force winds and rain, and when we got home we realised that the garden fence had been blown down!

Had a long lie today and then went to the gym and did a punishing 70 mins of cardio, plus some weights and my TA arms routine.  Feel it!  Came home (soaked to the bone, thanks rain) and made a pot of soup.  So hopefully that's lunch for the next week sorted!

I got some nice new things in Tenerife: a Lancome Colour Fever Shine lipstick, in a lush nude/apricot shade; a leopard-print mini dress, which has already catapulted it's way to the Favourite Dresses list; a set of pink toned fresh water pearls, and a snazzy purple bikini. (Looked good, didn't hold up so well when swimming.  Nearly had to dive to the pool floor to retrieve my pants...Luckily I have fast reflexes and I caught them about knee-height.)  I'll post some pics once I've got them onto my laptop.

I've decided that taking your laptop on holiday is just not worth it.  Not only is it heavy, and you have to take it out at airport security (and then get a huge electric shock when you pick it up on it's way out the X-Ray machine!), but I only used it for 10 mins each morning for my arm exercises, and then 1 hour of overpriced Internet surfing.  Never again.

Can't say I'm thrilled to be back.  When I was over there I started to really miss being in Valencia, probably more than I've missed it since I moved back to Glasgow.  And I'm finding it quite hard to shake that feeling at the moment.  Crap weather and unemployment don't help, but I know if I did go back to Spain (and I'm making no plans to in the near future) there would be loads of things I'd miss from here, too.

I think it's just easy to stick on the ol' rose-tinted specs and forget about all the crap stuff that was mixed in with the good.  And, to be honest, if you were to weigh it all up, you might even say the bad outweighed the good, at least in the first year I was there.  So, must focus on enjoying being back here!

Really looking forward to the yoga classes I've signed up to with KM.  Not sure when they start, but I think you can go from next week onwards, and take the block of ten anytime you like over the next year.  So, maybe we'll make it once a week or something.

Speaking of KM, I saw something advertised in a magazine this week that I'm going to get for her birthday.  Annoyingly, I can't say what it is, in case she reads this, but after her birthday I'll post something about it, I'm sure most of you will appreciate it!

Here Come The Freckles

Tuesday 1st February

Today, the sun was beating down… but in fierce competition with the clouds. When there were no clouds about it was really warm, but as soon as some big cloud floated in the way, it got a bit cold and windy. So I persevered and got a sun bed down by the pool and caught some rays. Think I’ve got a bit of a tan, my arm freckles are making an appearance, that’s how I know!  The clouds have won, though, so now I’m back in the flat, and at a slight loose end cause my mum and my granny are away for a snooze.

I think I might head down the road to a lovely wee café where they have WIFI and surf the web. You can access it from here, but the complex charges you something ridiculous like 4€/hour for the privilege. Much better to go to a café and have a beer or something and use their WIFI.  Only problem is, there's this old guy who works there who hits on me every time we go.  He started out pretending he was just joking around and quickly slid down the slope to downright sleazy.  This is him: bad times, I think you'll agree.

Yesterday was nice, we went out for dinner to this place that my granny’s been going to for years. The guy who owns it always chats away to her and is dead friendly. Only problem is, my granny doesn’t understand a word he says! He speaks English, but very fast and with quite a strong accent. Good food, and wine though, so it’s all ood. Anyway, as soon as he found out I speak Spanish he dinghied my mum and granny, and chatted away to me. He was telling me about some girlfriend he had, back in the day, from Valencia.

Then, me and my mum went to this plush hotel up the road from the flat (my granny was too tired to go) and we sat in their bar/lobby and had a drink. Well, I had wine and my mum just went for a Coke. By all rights, I should’ve had a killer headache this morning but instead I woke up early, feeling very refreshed (finally figured out the best couch to sleep on; my mum says I’m like the Princess and the Pea, but I like my comfort!) and popped up to the supermarket.

We just had a late lunch, so I think we’ll be going out later for dinner tonight. In the meantime, I might crack on and do my exercises, which I’ve been quite good at keeping up here, though we were interrupted yesterday by my granny’s booking agent people coming round to give her money and an update. Never mind. The killer arms will still be mine, I have the faith!

Tomorrow is our last full day, alas, and then it’ll be back to the wind and the rain. Bums.

I Got Sunshine

Monday 31st Jan

Yesterday was, inexplicably, really sunny and warm. So warm that I went out and bought a new bikini (bright purple, with yellow trim. Best of a very bad bunch.) and spent the rest of the afternoon reading my book on the balcony and generally baking. (Baking myself, of course, not baking cakes. I wonder if you made a cake and left it to bake on the balcony instead of the oven, how long it would take. That’s an experiment for a warm-but-boring day.)

Today looks hopeful for the same, so I might trot on down to the beach for the day and really get to work on the tan. The beach should be quieter than the pool which tends to be full of loud-and-annoyings talking crap all bloody day.

Last night we tried to go to Mass (granny’s flat, granny’s rules) but there wasn’t one on in the evening after all so we just went for dinner. Went to a wee Italian place called Little Roma’s, which was quite nice, though nothing special. I had some tasty pasta though with a cognac and cream sauce and, weirdly, a bunch of half-peeled prawns. No heads but they still had the tails and half the skin on them. I don’t mind peeling prawns (heads included) but I don’t understand why they would mix them all in with the sauce if they still needed peeled, rather than just leave them on top of the pasta. So I had to get my hands dirty to forage about in the sauce every time I went for one. Daft. Apart from that it was very tasty and I had lovely frozen lemon cheesecake too.

So, today’s mission, should I choose to accept it, which I might, if I can be bothered, or if the sun isn’t up to serious tanage, is to go to the ‘real’ supermarket up the road and buy some Gazpacho. All the other supermarkets are tourist based and sell things like Heinz baked beans for 3€ a tin, Tetley tea-bags, HP sauce, Irn Bru, and other staples of the British diet. But there is a normal supermarket up the hill, and they do some Spanish-y stuff that I’ve been wanting. Tortilla de patata (Spanish omelette), gazpacho, chorizo or fuet, maybe. Yums.

Time for coffee and then my morning Tracy Anderson exercises. I’ve been doing the arm one every day and I’m still feeling the burn by 30 seconds in. But I think it’ll be worth it. I’ve yet to move onto the ‘butt and thighs’ one, mainly because kneeling on the tiles here in the flat is frankly too sore on the knees, and I am on holiday, after all. So, arms it is. If I come back looking like a mini-Popeye, post-spinach, you’ll know it’s worked…

Sayonara fair reader!

First Day

Well, we made it to Tenerife with no calamities. I love that word. No-one forgot their passport, lost their purse, ended up on the wrong flight…and there were no delays, which you might think was a good thing, except it means you have to listen to the stupid recorded message as soon as you land. Those of you who’ve flown Ryanair recently will know what I’m talking about. *RECORDED FANFARE* “Yet another Ryanair flight landed ahead of schedule, that’s because, even though you might have thought we were shit, we’re actually amazing. We hope you’re flight wasn’t too uncomfortable, (it was) and that you enjoyed your £6 soggy sandwich. (I didn’t.) By the way, you’ll be charged for listening to this message. Please provide credit card details on the way out.”

I’m pretty sure that’s what it says. Anyway, as Ryanair flights go, it wasn’t bad. I passed a good amount of time painting my nails a new mint green colour. Very nice, though it did need 3 coats of colour to get a nice solid covering (the only time this is a bonus is when you’ve 4 and a half hours to kill on a plane) (I mean killing time, not 4 hours to get all your killing done. Obviously.)

I had a seat empty next to me, and in the window seat was some dude who immediately whapped out Nuts and Zoo magazines and proceeded to stare at pages full of fake tits for large portions of the flight. I sneered and called him a twat, not quite as under my breath as I’d though it would be. I hope he heard. I ended up chatting to him for the last 40 mins of the flight and his banter was alright, but I still thought he was a twat.

Then we arrived to pouring rain! It was mad, getting from the airport to the taxi, 30 secs away, and the taxi to the covered walkway of the flat, another 30 secs, left my shoes soaking! Luckily it didn’t last and we went out for dinner a couple of hours later. My granny was so disappointed when she saw the rain. She said, “That’s the first time I’ve ever arrived here to the rain.” Which, I pointed out, is pretty good going when you’ve been coming here for over 20 years! But she still seemed quite bummed about it, and she brightened right up when it stopped. (Maybe she’s somehow cosmically-emotionally linked to the weather? More likely she just fancied a stroll on the beach.)

So I’m the first one up this morning and it’s bright, clear skies. Doesn’t look like a belter of a sunny day, but no sign of rain clouds either.

Last night we had plans to go out to dinner to my granny’s favourite place, Roma’s, where she’s also been coming for 20 years. She knows the owner now, and his wife, and every time she goes she orders the same thing. Chateau Briand rare-to-medium and a bottle of Sangre de Toro red wine. She didn’t even have to crack a menu. But last night, we walked along there to find it all shut up. The owner of the restaurant next door said that they’ve closed for good now, thanks to the ever extending arm of destruction attached to la crisis, or the Recession. Sad times.

We ended up having a very nice Chinese meal (sweet ‘n’ sour pork, yums) and then to a lovely café at the bottom of the road. I wielded some influence and bypassed the empty cafes we usually haunt, and got my mum and my granny into this new place which was a bit livelier and modern. Maybe it’s people like me who help places like Roma’s go down the tubes, ha ha. So we had a couple of brandies and a good bit of chat. My granny told me all sorts of stuff, like where she met my papa (at Mass, I should have seen that one coming), and stories about all the houses they stayed in and the neighbours they had, her children (including my mum, of course) and mad nights with her friends.

I love getting to hear all this stuff, and I’m glad that my granny is still ‘with it’ enough to tell me! Her short-term memory isn’t great now but her long-term memory is as good as ever! She remembers all the details: names, names of children, where they went, who moved away where and when, who died, who married whom, etc. Makes for some good story-telling!

So that’s been our time so far, want to keep a note of it cause I always mean to keep a diary when I’m on holiday but usually fail. Better things to be doing! I think I’ll type these out quickly each morning, and then I can post ‘em on my blog when we get home or something. Don’t want to spend the whole week on the computer!

Coffee time and then *drumroll* Sunday market! Happy days.

Holiday Time

Yup, off to Tenerife this morning, good times.  I'm a bit knackered cause I went to this family party thing last night and didn't get away til after 11, so we didn't get home til 12ish and then I fannied about for a while before I went to bed.  Never mind, maybe I'll sleep on the plane!

Bought the Dawn French memoirs, so I'll read that on the plane.  I started reading the first wee bit on the train home from town yesterday to get me into a wee bit and I was nearly killing myself laughing already, so I think it bodes well!

After much deliberation, I've decided to take my laptop with me to Tenerife.  Hopefully while I'm there I can put some time to good use and get my CV re-written and stuff, even if I don't actually get online.  Also, if I get bored I can play games on the plane.  It's a 5 hour flight which always seems uber long, to me!

Anyway, coffee time I think.  See y'all in a week!

P.S.: I'm happy to report that although bbc weather has been saying all week that it'd be hail and rain showers while we were there... now it's saying that it'll be sunny all week.  Ahoy!