Marbella shops now opening on a Sunday

Not the small boutiques and shops in Marbella centro but La Canada shopping mal and El Corte Ingles in Puerto Banus are now open throughout the summer on a Sunday. The tents in Puerto Banus square holding the market are also now in place and open 7 days a week, morning until the early hours.....lovely African artifacts, silver jewellery, great place to go for gifts.

Latest savings rates and news

Find out the best savings rates and news, updated monthly www.insurance4all.co.uk.

Take a walk

Like everyone else usually I drive rather than walk and you miss so much of what is going on around you. Today I walked whilst my daughters rode their bikes around the local side roads just outside our front door. Imagine my joy to discover a wild and fully laden advocado tree. I just stared and stared. The advocados are quite small, they need to double in size before they can be picked and I'm now hoping that everyone else drives, so that I can pick the 100's that are on the tree later in the summer.

Gluten free foods in Spain

If you are visiting Marbella head for the large shopping centre in Marbella called La Canada. Inside is a large supermarket called El Campo and there is almost an entire aisle devoted to gluten free products and sugar free foods. From pasta to bread to cakes, there is something here for you and the prices are pretty good too. With weight restrictions on airlines, if you do have someone in the family that is following a gluten free diet, then these foods here in Spain will really help.
El Corte Ingles the department store found all over Spain also stocks gluten free products. The restaurant Terra Sana, quite a few restaurants in Marbella, also has some meals listed as gluten free to help.
More info on my "proper blog!!" http://www.helpful-ideas.com/

Domingo a la playa

Where better to spend a sunny Sunday then dipping your toes into the cool waters of the Mediterranean sea. Collect a few shells, throw some smooth pebbles into the water. I'll let the photos I took early this afternoon tell you more.

Washed up sailing boats become the ideal venue for a BBQ on the beach.

The paseo goes from the heart of Marbella down to Puerto Banus. There are plenty of benches to sit and pass the time away on route and ice cream booths too!

Tumbling cerise bourgainvillea spill over white washed walls.

Tropical plants and flowers border the paseo with the beach.

The best combination of all

I've picked up three second hand books today from Terra Sana on the Golden Mile. Next to their restaurant they have a deli selling delicious scented handmade soaps for under 4 euros, organic foods, hair and skin products made with olive oil and second hand English books. I love reading and miss an English library so much. I order in bulk from Amazon and occasionally spend 10 euros on an imported book from Bookworld Espana but mostly I rely on a mum at school to give me her cast offs and for holiday makers that leave me their finished books in the apartment I look after.
With three children there isn't often the time for the luxury of reading and being taken gently to another time and place, but I snatch 10 minutes here and there whilst waiting for the school bell. Rather than talk to other mums in the playground, I find a stone wall, perch and read.
So if you live in Marbella head to Terra Sana, the books are 2 euros each and the proceeds go to buying sapling trees to plant in a nature reserve. So I don't have to feel so guilty reading a book after all.....

I love Fridays

And today was a little special as it was just me and the three little darlings at tea time, not the host of friends. I'm trying not to be so obsessive over the pc and so sat down on the sofa and chatted to the girls about their day. I should do it more, much more.....
Husband came home early, so we all ate together. We should do it more, much more....
Tomorrow kiddies parties, a cookery class for my eldest ( not me, I can't cook...) and then by 4.30pm we will all be back together again. I have to work in the afternoon, but should only be gone for a couple of hours and then I will be ready for my Mercadona white wine!
Sunday is a day of rest, walk to the beach to collect some interesting pebbles for my daughter's art project,...homework, but mostly rest. I may even do some gardening. I should do it more, much more.....

Try new wines and have some fun

Here in Spain wine is so cheap that you can afford to be brave and try a new one now and then. If you don't like it you will have wasted a couple of euros, not the end of the world. You can always put a candle in the bottle even if you can't use the contents......

I have just spend 2.50 euros on a white wine in the supermarket Mercadona, my favourite supermarket in the Marbella area for its happy staff, great and I mean really great prices and its brown bread, delicious for toasting. This white wine blew me away, fruity, tangy but not tart and tastes like a very expensive white wine. It has that tell tale big bubble up its glass bottom, more expensive to produce than a regular flat bottomed wine bottle and that usually is an indicator that the wine will be better than average.

So if you are shopping in Mercadona pick up a bottle of Palacio de Vivero, Verdejo 2009. Absolutely DELICIOUS.

Flight disruption in Spain due to volcanic ash

I have had clients cancel their holiday due to flight disruption caused by the volcanic ash. New clients are due to arrive on Monday and they are now asking where they stand with refunds for their accomodation. Easyjet are offering flight refunds, Monarch have offered free flights on different days but if you have booked accomodation not as a package holiday, ie, done it yourself, then you look unlikely to be covered by holiday insurance for lost accomodation.
I know people have been stranded in apartments, owners and rental agencies in Spian unable to let people stay longer as new people are due to arrive. When possible owners are trying to find the holiday makers new accomodation, but the expense will have to be covered by these people. Some people here in Spain have been stranded since Thursday. The cost must be huge and although there is talk that on Monday flights from Spain to the UK may become available, this is by no means a certainty.
Some people have said that this volcanic activity is an act of God, personally I think it is more the work of the devil.....

property to rent birmingham

Property to rent Birmingham, last month over 12,000 people searched for a property to rent or let in Birmingham and the surrounding area. Rental agencies are struggling to find properties so if you have bought a buy to let property then now is a good time to get it on the market. There are tenants looking for a properties. Studio apartments and 1 bedroom apartments remain popular with people unable to get 100% mortgages. Time spent in rental accomodation is set to increase until there is an increase in accepted mortgage applications.
Property for let in Birmingham remains popular due to the vibrant city with plenty of job opportunities and also the fact that Birmingham has some of the best schools in the UK. The grammar schools are particularly high performing but competition is fierce. The grammar school of King Edward the Sixth in Birmingham continues to be placed very highly on the best perfoming schools in the UK. Application depends on examination performance. These tests need a great deal of preparation as they are consist of tests that are not dealt with in primary school mainly verbal and non verbal reasoning tests.
At King Edward the Sixth the school tests for children entering year 7 at 11 years of age, consist of,

Verbal reasoning


Non verbal reasoning

Mathematics and

Reading comprehension/literacy skills

Winter in the sun

Only this winter is hasn't been winter in the sun. We have started to develop fins and rather than say " buenos dias" in the mornings we say, " quack."
We have had pretty much non stop rain since Christmas and there are no signs of it stopping. Even in the UK it doesn't rain this heavily all the time. You get some fog, some broken clouds, blue skies with frost and yes, even snow.
All we are getting in Marbella is rain and the very occasional rainbow.

Sales are still on in Marbella

Particularly good sales in La Canada, Zara home and clothing stores. The department store El Corte Ingles in Puerto Banus has some designer clothing heavily reduced too for adults and children. Head to the 1st floor.