Before the World Ends...

Thought I'd write a quick blog before the world ends later. I think they have been studying this at school, as every class this week has finished with the child saying that they would see me soon - if the world didn't end! It confused me first, as not being a follower of the Mayan calendar and not really listening to the news, I had missed this fairly significant event for today.

I'm not doing festive crafts this year. There are too many students to do it successfully and as I have classes on Saturday now, it would be difficult to do two crafty sessions on Monday. Particularly as we're without a car, therefore I can't get any supplies. It will be the first year for a while that we haven't had a glitter, glue and chocolate encrusted house for Christmas. How nice. Last year the bathroom looked like an explosion in a chocolate factory after they'd finished 'cleaning up'.  I have classes tomorrow, and then just a couple between Christmas and New Year.

The students have been getting their term results and I perfected a neutral face until I get a clue from them as to whether their result was good or bad. I still get it wrong. I commiserated with Alejandro because he got 5 in his exam, which is scraping a pass. However he was delighted with that result! I congratulated Nacho on his 7.75, but he was disappointed as he was hoping for 10! 

We've both been on bike rides this week. Although separately. We had to get the insurance people to take the car into the garage, so Ian went with the car and then cycled back. He got a message later to say that they had fixed the car, so he cycled back in. Only to be told they hadn't, and he had to cycle back again! We got another message today to say that they have - so fingers crossed that they really have this time. And fingers crossed that the bill's not going to be a nasty shock.

I went for a cycle ride too, but mine was purely recreational. This was the first time I had been for a few weeks, as having classes every day means that I am limited to when I can go. And I wanted to get all my About.com articles finished early in the month so I could concentrate on our mega-rewriting project on Freeneedle. So it is quite liberating to have all that done and dusted. It was nice to go out and see how much the countryside had changed this last month. Everything is green now, and they are olive picking so the fields were busy with people picking olives and tending the olive groves. I think that they are picking the black olives now, and the green ones were picked earlier.

The weather has been very mild this week, and the combination of curtains over the doors, the fire going every night and the mild temperature means that the whole house is a pleasant temperature this year.

Sprouts!

Ian's picture of the week last week included two things that were growing in our kitchen. One, was the pretty pink and fluffy picture of a mouldy beetroot, which needless to say we weren't purposely growing. The other was of, unusually for us, we were purposely growing, and this was a bowl of bean sprouts. Also, unusually for us, they turned out well with most beans sprouting. Given that we are without a doubt the least green fingered people I know, I was expecting instead of beansprouts to have turned into sproutless beans, so we were pleasantly surprised.

Last week we wrote the equivalent of a short novel. We were rewriting the introductions on Freeneedle, and we've introduced a load of new categories and sub categories, so it was quite a task.

I've been doing Christmas activities with my classes, however I have to remember that the little ones get confused when I say that Father Christmas brings presents - because of course he doesn't. I've got two new little ones starting in the new year, which brings it to 22 hours of classes!

Yesterday saw us stood forlornly by the side of the road, staring miserably at the over heated car engine. Not sure at the moment what the problem is, but it won't be good news. Most annoying...

Hot and Cold

The weather turned bitterly cold last week, with a very cold wind. We are pretty well insulated this year, with curtains hanging over the doors, however it was definitely time to get the stove working. Ian swept the chimney and the fire started with the minimum of smoke - which was good - and resulted in us spending the rest of the day in t-shirt! We went to Pepe's on Saturday after classes and he had hot ashes under the tables with the blankets on top for people to snuggle up under. This is a habit that gets into people from an early age. In classes, even the young ones come in and pull the table cloth over them. No doubt disappointed to find no heat!

I had 24 hours of classes last week over 7 days, however there are the equivalent of mock exams coming up which I think means I will see less of the eso 4 group (15/16 year olds). Trying not to let my rubber stamping site slip too much and Ian has helped me out with some Christmas things so I will start this month ahead.

Here is this week's joke. Admittedly it isn't that funny, however it was quite easy to do!

Joke

http://www.marchena35.com/joke-of-the-week-8-broma-de-la-semana-8-snowman/

At the end of a busy week

...there's nothing quite like sitting in Pepe's working out which was the most annoying student of the week. The competition is increasingly stiff - the sulky teenager who won't talk, the seven year old whose shrill voice goes straight through me, the 12 year old boy who has discovered girls and spends most of the lesson trying to find excuses to look at pictures with girls in them, the know-it-all who 'translates' English into English as a Spanish person would translate it for the others in his class (example I will say 'love', he will then say 'lu-BEY' which is how a Spanish person would pronounce those letters), the 5 year olds who insist on singing everything...

This week, without a doubt, the most annoying student was the 4 year old. I am trying to get him to learn the parts of the body. He spent the whole lesson pointing to his bottom, regardless of what part of the body I was saying. He found this so funny he fell off his chair, luckily, he found this funny too, and spent another 10 minutes in hysterics on the floor. Just as I was about to kick him, or throw some water over him at the very least, he decided he wanted to do some counting. He likes counting, so I was able to divert him from bottoms by giving him two dice and letting him throw them and count the numbers.

What fun!

Shoulder

I went to the Doctor's again about my shoulder. It had improved, as the Doctor got me to prove when he drived past me one day and got me to do some impromptu exercises, however it has slowly started to get worse again, and while it isn't too bad, I am aware that it is getting a little worse every day.

We turned up at 11.30, and within two hours I had been seen, sent to Llerena for x-rays, returned to the doctor and had the x-rays examined and a very detailed consultation. It is very difficult to fault the healthcare. The x-rays didn't show anything wrong with the bones, so it looks like it's tendons. He offered me an injection, but I think the look on my face my have indicated my displeasure at that prospect - particularly when he got on the Internet to show me photos of the injection process. So I am taking another course of tablets and doing exercises. I have an appointment at the physio if he doesn't improve - or, of course, I can go back for the injections.

He also confirmed the thoughts on my ankle, which is to keep the screws and plates in place unless they cause any pain.

And he confirmed that the reason why he couldn't find us on the system is because they had my surnames as Jane Pullen. We are quite the exception having only the one surname and the systems just don't cope with this anomaly!

Fully Engaged

I think we can say with confidence that Herbie is fully engaged with us now! He is quite happy at letting us know when he wants a comfy place to sit - or something to eat. Generally this entails his trying to climb up our legs. His fitness has improved tremendously too - here are some pictures of Herbie telling Ian that he wants to share his chair with him - and if Ian won't share his chair then Herbie will snuggle down on his boot! His back legs are now strong enough to hold him, and he can stand on his back two legs without his front legs supporting him. He doesn't run, but he certainly walks with speed, and I wonder if perhaps his blindness is now a drawback to his movement more then his limb mobility. His little legs will never work properly - give that the front legs are jointed at a rather odd angle and I think he has some joint displacement problems - however given his situation, his movement and mobility is certainly better than we could have hoped for.

and here are some pictures of the Halloween trick or treaters - many of whom are my students:

Talking Turkey

Here is this week's joke - http://www.marchena35.com/online-games/turkey-and-thanksgiving-quiz/ I also made a short comprehension piece as well. When I was writing this, I realized that it would be a great exercise for practicing prepositions of time. Another thing that drives Spanish people wild about English ie:  people will be eating turkey AT Thanksgiving ON the third Sunday IN November AT dinner-time IN the evening. We will be eating turkey again AT Christmas, ON Christmas Day, IN the Christmas holidays.

Our house is feeling warm with the backdoor shut and curtains across the living room door. However it is another month before it gets really cold. We've had quite a lot of rain during this week which makes it feel quite mild.

Ian's photo of a jar of olives is of a couple of pocketfulls of olives that I scrumped. I've often thought about pinching a few olives off a tree so we could have a go at preparing our own - although Ian's dire warnings about Spanish prisons tempered that idea a bit, However, when I took Pixie for a walk through an olive grove and the wind was blowing olives off the trees. I picked some up from the floor thinking that windfall olives was probably less illegal that taking olives off a tree.

A new joke

Here's this week's joke. This was quite a good one as it works in Spanish too - the spanish word for History is Historia. That's assuming, of course, that spanish snakes hiss. Spanish cockerals go keekie-leekie-leek, and dogs go woowoo. So we shouldn't take their hissing as certain.

It's actually quite difficult to find good jokes, as I don't want to have to go into too much detail to explain them - it takes some of the humour away! I've also got to remember that these are jokes for young children, so whereas I was tempted to discount the joke about giraffes having long necks because they have stinky feet on the grounds that it wasn't funny, I have to remember that a 7 year old might find it hilarious.

Got two new games finished -
To Be Game
Penguin Colour Game

We're not seeing any improvement in our google position, in fact a further decline. I've also seen my About Rubber Stamping site go into decline too, which is disappointing as it was growing very strongly until this month. I wonder if the storm on the East Coast of America is having a knock on effect. All very worrying after we'd been doing so well.

We're taken advantage of one of the panels becoming loose in the back door to take it out completely and to have a large dog door! So far it's been a bit of a challenge for Wilbur, however I am sure he'll soon get used to it. We can then hang a curtain over this and it ought to be a lot warmer than having to have the door open all through winter day and night.

Joke!

Emails from Jesus

I now have a student called Jesus. He is a teenager and after he didn't turn up to a class without telling me, I asked him to email me if he can't attend future classes. I therefore got an email saying 'I am Jesus, I am not coming to class today'. I wonder when I  will stop finding this funny.

I think it was made more funny by the way that he introduced himself 'I am Jesus...'. In English, we introduce ourselves on the phone and in messages in the third person, so we say 'it's Kate'. I don't know why we do that, but in Spanish they introduce themselves in the first person, which I suppose is more logical.

In the Dog House

Rosie and Bentley were  in the dog house this weekend. We'd left half a dish of mousaka on top of the work surface and they cleaned it up over night. I am inclined to think it was Bentley, because, despite of his size he is quite gentle and although the inside of the cooking dish was licked clean, nothing else had been disturbed. Rosie, on the other hand is more lumoxy and would quite likely have knocked everything else off the work surface.

Sam has had a couple of really bad fits this weekend. His fits generally are quite light and he comes round really quickly, often getting to the fridge and sitting waiting for his after-seizure sausage before we do. However these were very different, they were quite violent and he was woozy afterwards for a few minutes and banging into things. It's odd how the pattern of his fits changes.

The weather has been warm and everything now it turning green. Autumn is known as the second spring, and it is really apparent why, as everything starts growing again after the summer. So grass is coming through and things are flowering. I even found some asparagus last week!

We went to the shop last week to get some curtain poles. I was grumbling as we arrived on the day when they were starting to put out their Christmas stuff - although it seems early, I guess that the end of October isn't that unreasonable.

Here's this week's joke - what is a vampire's favourite dance...

Ice Scream

Here is this week's joke - http://www.marchena35.com/joke-of-the-week-4-broma-de-la-semana-4-halloween/ . I realised that I hadn't resized the little boy's hair - however as the image took nearly three hours to render, I thought I'd leave it as it is - it makes him look like his hair is standing on end. Perhaps.

I explained that this joke is a play on words, as people unfamiliar with English may just think it's a bit odd.

More importantly, however, we launched the new Freeneedle over night - Ian has been working non-stop on this over the last couple of weeks and we hope it will get us back in Google's good books again. This is now a nerve wracking time as we wait to see if visitors like the new site or not. We are currently reliant on our regular visitors, so we don't want to upset them!

Bye Bye Astra

We said goodbye to the Astra last week. On Thursday the scrap people came and took it away. Cars have to be officially scrapped, so there is a free service where the scrapyard comes and takes the car away and does all the paperwork. Hopefully the Mercedes will give us as good service (well, without the breakdowns).

Here is Pirata and Roland snuggled. The split their time between snuggling and having  a rough-and-tumble. Both being blind, their fights are sometimes a little random.

 Here is Herbie modeling his new sweater. I don't think he is particularly fragile, however we have noticed that the cough he came to us with has not improved, so I want to ensure that he keeps warm in the winter. Now he has become Super-Herbie, and almost running around, he was particularly difficult to photograph.

See what I mean!

He happily mooches around, ricocheting off any other dogs he bumps into.

Herbie's little sweater needs to take into account his slightly unusual leg angle. However it seems comfy enough and he is quite happy wearing it.

We have made Herbie a little nest under a table so he is safely out of the way. He happily snuggles up here, and instantly assumed it as his palace.

Poor Pixie!

I decided that it was time to teach Pixie that all walks don't end with tapas at Pepes, so yesterday she got treated to her first 'proper' walk. We did the ghost house walk, which is a round walk and a nice one for little puppy feet as it is quite clear. Unfortunately, it started to rain mid-walk - and blow a gale - and both Pixie and I were totally unprepared for it. She appeared very startled - we have had such little rain that she would probably have wondered what was going on. Eventually, when I was soaked through and my Crocs were slipping in the mud and Pixie was shivering uncontrollably, I gave in and rang Ian. What a good job I have a super-rugged waterproof phone as the rain was just coming down in buckets! Of course when Ian arrived, the sun then came out and had I not been weighed down with soaked clothes, I could have continued in glorious sunshine.

Pixie didn't appear to traumatized, however, although I believe that she would have much preferred a paseo to Pepes rather than a hike in a storm!

Water Ladrones

I forgot to say that when we went to the reservoir the other day, someone had written 'ladrones' which means thieves across the signs, and crossed out Llerena and written Berlanga on the name of the reservoir. Berlanga is the next village down on along the river and we wondered if they felt that the reservoir was pinching their water supply. With it being such a dry summer, it could be that they are noticing a poor water supply and wonder why Llerena nabbed it all further up the river!

Another week, another joke...

With a jigsaw to play too - http://www.marchena35.com/online-games/online-jigsaw-rompecabezas-halloween-ghost-boogie/

Green Tomato Chutney

We had some green tomatoes, and a few mangy red ones, so I made some green tomato chutney yesterday. It's pretty good. Just need to work out what we are going to do with a mountain of melons I misguidedly bought!

Doctor

I went to the Doctor yesterday with a bad shoulder. I've had it for about a year - in fact, since I fell off my bike last year - but it has got progressively worse and is affecting my movement. I went armed with a fully charged Kindle expecting a wait -and walked almost straight in.  It got a tad confusing, as some changes in July and September have resulted in requirements for new registration numbers that we don't have. We went through the whole rigmarole again of trying to find our names on their system. This is always a problem as we have one surname, yet Spanish people have two. So they often put one of our first names down as a surname. However we never know in what order they have put them, so we can be entered on the system with any combination of our names as our surnames.

I have anti inflammatory for my shoulder and have to go back in a couple of weeks if it hasn't got better.

I also asked for a revision meeting for my ankle, however the doctor said that current thinking was to leave plates and screws in. He said that the risk of taking the screws and plates out could be greater than the risk of osteoporosis. All this was fine for me and I am happy that I asked the question!

Ian has spent the last week working on an update for FreeNeedle. We are taking advantage of our out-of-favour status with Google to revamp the site. Something we're quite nervous to do when it is performing well - so now's the time to do it. It looks pretty good and Ian is working really hard on getting it ready for next week.

Resevoir

A couple of weeks ago, we had a picnic at the resevoir outside Llerena. In the past, we have sat on the edge, by the fence, with our feet in the water. We'd have needed pretty long legs to dangle our toes in the water now.

What did the monster say to the ghost...

Here's this week's joke for Marchena35. I think it should have been the other way round - what did the ghost say to the monster - however it didn't look right with the way I had posed the ghost.

Google Dump / Panda Slap

We've been, in Internet terms, Google Dumped and Panda Slapped. This is where Google change their search algorithms and sites that were performing well in search results, are downgraded so that other sites appear above them. This has a significant detrimental effect on page views - and on revenue.

These google changes have been going on for a couple of years and we've not been affected before - although we know lots of businesses that have. So it was a nasty shock when we looked at our figures last Monday morning and found that we had a fraction of the revenue we would normally expect. It was an even nastier shock the next day when we realised that this wasn't a one off and we had been panda slapped. Panda is the name of the google algorithm change, so sites which are affected are deemed to have been panda slapped. Google dumped is another term, as google has dumped a site from the first page of the search results.

So, we now face a major uphill struggle to get back into google's good books again. We have to tidy up our sites, make sure they perform well and that are up to date with current Internet good practices and then wait for another google algorithm change and hope our downgrade gets reversed.

It just goes to show that we shouldn't have all our eggs in one Internet basket.

Pasties and Flying Ants

We went for our first pasty ride of the season yesterday. Popped a couple of pasties in a backpack and did a round trip towards Usagre and back. The recent rain made the tracks dust-free which was nice for a change. Yesterday was also flying ant day. The yard was full of flying ants. It was impossible to step through the patio without standing on them, it was like a patchy carpet. Admittedly, a cycle ride on flying ant day was perhaps not the best combination. The kept getting in behind my sunglasses and when we got home there were about half a dozen inside my t-shirt. Eeew.

This is about flying ant day from Wikipedia -

"Flying ant day" is an informal term for the day on which queen ants emerge from the nest to begin their nuptial flight.^[6] In most species, the male ants also fly alongside them, although they are smaller and less noticeable. The queens fly around—some very long distances, and others going only a few meters—then mate, and drop to the ground where they lose their wings, and attempt to start a new ant colony ^[7] The mass of flying insects often attracts the attention of predators such as birds, and it is common to see flocks of feeding birds gorging on the readily available food.
This phenomenon occurs in many colonies simultaneously when the local weather conditions are appropriate, to reduce the effectiveness of predation and to ensure that the queens and males from different colonies stand a chance of meeting and interbreeding. It therefore has the appearance of being a 'timed' event or that the ants somehow communicate. However neither of these is likely to be the case - it is simply a common response to temperature, humidity and windspeed and time of year.

Classes start today. I have 17 hours a week and 6 new students.

Jokes

I've started a 'joke of the week' page at Marchena35. This was the first week, it made me smile and Ian groan...

Rain!

We had rain today - must be the first rain for 6 months. We knew it was coming as we went to Pepes at lunch time and he had the news on, and the top story was rain! The news featured outside broadcasts from all over Extremadura with people stood out in the rain with umbrellas. Admittedly, the rain looked a little light in some places and the umbrella was probably for show rather than proper use, however it helped to build the atmosphere. And then on the weather forecast it showed rain for all of Extremadura - except our bit!! However this afternoon it clouded over and we had a bit of rain. Not a lot, not enough to give the garden a good soaking or to form puddles - but at least it will have washed some of the dust away.

However, I think proper rain is forecast for tomorrow...

Cheese Feast

We're just coming to the end of a mammoth cheese feast which we started for Ian's birthday. In fact, we started the weekend before his birthday, having bought a number of different cheeses, including our favourite torta cheese. We bought some nice red wine too, and had some biscuits instead of bread a couple of nights and have had some very nice meals.

While it is quite expensive to buy, it does work out relatively reasonable over the course of a few meals and it is quite a treat.

We've also been playing padrones roulette. Padrones are a type of pepper grown in north Spain and one in ten is supposed to be hot. We bought a tub of them and Ian found one hot one, and we had about 24, so I guess our odds were a little disappointing. They are often served as tapas.

Pixie training is coming along ok. The biggest challenge is getting her to come, as she starts doing a little dance which is part 'yes, I'm coming to you now' and part 'but I don't want to so I am going to run away'. She is so small and fast that getting her to sit on command has been very important as otherwise she is neigh on impossible to catch. She does a lovely little sit, all pert and pretty, before she has her food - however she has just this week started to do a really odd thing when she sits at other times. Instead of sitting nicely, she flings herself onto the ground, facefirst, spreadeagled on the floor. Looking like she has been dropped by an overhead stork. Generally she gets picked up when she is told to sit, so I don't know if this is her way of getting ready to be picked up, but it is definitely odd. Talking of odd, Bentley who is a very odd dog anyway, out-odded himself last week by trying to squeeze into the tiny puppy bed we bought Herbie.

Tinkerbelle has been in season and as Herbie hasn't been neutered we've had to make sure they are kept separate. It is easy as they are both small, and if Tinkerbelle is on a chair, poor little Herbie can't jump up there. Mind you, he has been spending a lot of time following Tinkerbelle and this is giving him much better exercise then I ever could! He almost runs now, which is funny to see.

Every Year, The Same Question

Every year, on the third Sunday of September, we find ourselves asking the same question. "What time does the procession carrying the virgin pass through the square?"

Every year we struggle trying to remember what time it happened last year.

Every year we fail to remember and have to pluck a time out of the air and then find ourselves waiting for an hour or two until it passes by. This year we were only an hour early, which is quite good by our standards.

As we sat waiting, we determined that we would make a note on the blog of the time so that we could look back next year and use it as a reference. I clearly remember us saying the same thing last year, but upon checking last year's entry this morning, it became apparent that it was an idea that we failed to follow through on.

So this year, here it is. The procession came through the square at pretty well bang on 2pm - ish!

Leading the way this year was Fran, one of Kate's students.

Once more they failed to add to the spectacle by dropping the virgin, so I was reduced to photographing it at a jaunty angle to give the impression of impending doom.

Once a Year

Once a year we confuse the animals by dragging them away from the comfy spots they have commandeered around the house, and frog marching them into Ian's office where we subject them to very loud music - for their own good.

The reason for this is that the start of the fiesta marked by rockets going off at midday, and while Bob is now happily immune to this, the others are upset by varying degrees. I'm not convinced that subjecting them to loud music while shut in Ian's office is that much more relaxing for them, however it does at least seem to stop them getting jumpy.

I don't know the history behind these rockets, I can only imagine that in years gone by it would have been to let people know that the fiesta is starting in - 12 hours. As the fiesta doesn't really start until well past midnight. Could it really have taken people more than 12 hours to put on their dancing shoes?

One of my favorite parts of the fiesta remains Sunday morning. The September fiesta is the fiesta of the village saint and as so there is a coilition-style marriage between the council (village) and the church (church). The council arranges the 'official' party side of the fiesta, which is from 12 midnight until 7 in the morning.  And at 9 in the morning, the church arranges a parade by a band of drummers and pipers, which leisurely parades even the smallest lanes of the village. In case the fiesta goers aren't awake enough, the band stands on the corners and plays for several minutes to allow the slumberers to enjoy the vibrations of the drumming and piping music. I can't help feeling that the priest has a little chuckle at this.

More Treasure Hunt

They had to take a photo of themselves in front of 356,000 euros. This was the number on this sign behind them.

I did a surprisingly long bike ride yesterday. I spontaneous turn meant that I ended up taking a 10 km detour. Luckily it was a nice day for cycling and I was able to see little more of the countryside. At 50 km, this is the furthest I have cycled, and I was pleased to note that I could still walk this morning.

Barbeque

It has been the hottest and driest summer for 50 years. Hence the youngsters were drawn to the agricultural water tank after the barbaque. The water isn't drinkable, but it is fine for running in and out of if you are a 9 years old! 

Survivors!

We had a end of summer classes treasure hunt today. And lived to tell the tale. We had three teams who had to go round the village answering questions. To stop them getting completely lost we had some photo clues, so they had to identify places in photos, and say what door number or what colour something was (the photos were in black and white). For some reason, they decided that they had to run, which meant that I was then in fear of them passing out through heat and lack of water. The treasure hunt ended with a barbecue. They were surprisingly well behaved, and didn't demolish as much of the food as they normally do, however, by summer standards eating at two is a little early.

Ian was chef, and I don't think he poisoned anyone. We made a couple of ad-hoc barbacues as we don't have one. We chose a place by the park, which was quite good as we had to be careful of fires. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if there was some rule or other about having fires at the moment, but we were very near the pilar and the barbecues themselves were on a stone bench, so we weren't too much of a fire risk.

As I had teams and I knew they would arrive at different times, I gave them bits of newspaper, some brown wool, silver foil and cardboard to make themselves pirate costumes from. I am not sure that they were the most convincing pirates, however it did keep them quiet for a few minutes, while we panicked that the barbecue wouldn't light.

A trip to the fitness park...

Ed demonstrating a 'slack line' (a sort of tightrope that is tied between trees).  They had bought it with them and we went to the fitness park and tied it between a couple of trees there. It was about a foot off the ground.  PS. I don't know why the picture is on its side.

Ian- who was a natural.

and again...

and again...
and yes, I did have a go, however grasping onto Ian for dear life meant that he was unable to take photographic evidence (balancing on a strand of rope, a few inches from the ground was surprisingly difficult ).

 

Emma, Hattie and Ed trying out the equipment in the fitness park.

Home Brew

I was a little surprised to find the chickens brewing their own beer. However, they definitely appear dedicated to the task. They keep kicking their grain into their water container, which then starts fermenting. I thought our two ladies were broody as they aren't laying eggs and they spend much of the time sleeping. In retrospect I realise that they are probably tiddly for half the time and sleeping it off the other half...

Prince Happy

Here is a character for a new game. Aim of the game? To help Prince Happy keep his clothes on...

Expensive Spider

Our kitchen heater stopped working - not a problem at the moment, when water comes out almost too hot - but will be later in the year. The plumber came and found that a spider had got inside one of the tubes and had woven a tight web, blocking air, which stopped the heater from working.  Luckily it was a quick fix, however it was an expensive spider's web!

And relax...

Herbie doesn't allow blindness to stop him finding and testing out new places to lie, such as this bean bag that we thought we'd arranged to prevent the dogs using.

Super Herbie

Whereas a few weeks ago, little Herbie was very wobbly and unsteady on his feet, today he is so very much improved. He can not only climb out of the kitchen door, which although we have a breeze-block in front, still represents a mammoth climb for him, however he can now climb back in through the window. He is a little like Wilbur, as he stands there for a while plucking up courage and then throws himself off with gay abandon. The difference is that Wilbs used to do that over a step that was a fraction of his height, whereas little Herbie jumps down a step that must be three times his height. 

He is SO improved that I am now regretting not buying him a lead to match his collar. Although, all things considered, I guess he won't worry too much being taken out for a walk with a lead that doesn't match his collar. He may not be happy going for a walk as he is obviously very comfortable here, but he won't be familiar with the smells outside.

I bought him a sling instead of a lead, as I thought we'd have to carry him a lot more. I thought he may be a little locked away in his own world and had thought I may need to take him out in a sling where he could sense different things, however now he is increasingly mobile, he can happily take himself for a wander or a sniff round the patio.

We're now trying to understand his hearing a little better. We know he can hear some things - for instance the fridge door opening at tea time! However other times we know he can hear us, however he can't orientate himself to the noise. We're trying to work out if this is worse inside or out. Inside, he may have problems as sound bounces around the house. He probably has more hearing than Bob, who is now completely deaf.

We haven't taken Herbie down to Pepes yet - although we will do so as they have been asking about him (word gets around quickly in this village!).  I think he will be a hit down there too - however I guess he may not get his photo taken...

Odd

We went to the birthday party of one of my 7 year old students on Tuesday. After being subjected to lots of excited little girls, Ian was obviously in need of a strong drink so we nipped into Pepes on the way home. The funny thing was, we had taken Pixie to the party, as we thought she might be appreciated. She was pretty much ignored.

....however it was completely a different matter in Pepes. Not only was she much adored - however one of the big roughty-toughty builders even took a photo of her! Amazing - this is the bar where the television station of choice is the hunting channel, where hunting knives are sold from behind the bar and where the two main topics of conversation are hunting and / or asparagus. How strange that a little dog got so much attention - I like to think it was because they liked her and not because they saw her as hunting material.

Yikes

I can't remember having a red temperature warning before. The temperature tomorrow is forecast at 40 degrees in the shade - blimey!

Raining Dust!

Apparently we had the first rain last night for ages, it has been so long since it last rained that it has given us another date to argue over. However, it was very little rain. So little, in fact, that I could probably count the rain drops. The result was just a few dusty rain drop stains on the patio.

I have been watered a few times in the morning when I've been out cycling. I've manged to mistime my return to the village and to cooincide with when the water lorry waters the road to the cement works. This is to keep the dust down - well at least I hope it is that and not designed to stop me from returning to the village.

We took Wilbs back to the vet on Monday. An occasion that was a tad scary for all of us. This is still the new vet we are going to and I believe that 50% of our visits have entailed a car breaking down there and leaving me and Rosie stranded, a car breaking down at home and leaving Bob stranded, or no car at all meaning that we couldn't attend an appointment. No doubt the vet was as delighted as us to see us both arrive and depart. Poor Wilbs is looking a little odd at the moment. He had is undercarriage shaved when they did the ultrasound, however they left a little pompom on his, ahem, boy bits. It's probably a good job he can't see himself.

We obeyed the call of Ikea and took the new car to Seville. Ian said he felt a little sick. I like to think this was trepidation of taking the new car out and not the prospect of a delightful trip with his lovely wife. The car held up to the trip well, although there was some odd behaviour when the air conditioning was switched on. But as we've gone the last 6 years without air conditioning, not using it won't be a problem. On a plus side, we found that there as a cd player in the boot - so for the first time for over 6 years we had music in the car, which was fun!

We bought two small tables to put by our new chairs and some cupboards to make a new bed frame with built in storage - watch this space....

My New Chauffeur

I know it looks like we're parked, but we were actually heading along the Monesterio to Llerena road at a bit of a lick.

It turns out that the nice German engineers have placed the Merc's throttle pedal at much more sensible height than the nasty German engineers who were responsible for the Astra.

Wilbur got a drive in the new antique today, with a trip to the vet in Zafra. He seems to be responding well to the treatment, but we'll be shaving him bald before we let him in the car again. The back seat appeared to have been re-upholstered in a deep shag pile fabric by the time we got home. In a surprisingly uncharacteristic move, I took the hand held Dyson to the seat with the pet hair attachment. The Astra only ever got that kind of treatment the day before its annual MOT in an attempt to make it appear that we took care of the car. I don't think that the inspectors ever fell for it.

It's Not Fair

This is the look that the collective canine population in the household give us they watch Herbie not only being allowed to beg at the table, but actively encouraged to do so. While this may seem like an blatant inconsistency, there is method in our apparent madness. Firstly, when he arrived there is no way that Herbie could have stood on his beck legs to beg. The fact that his legs have strengthened so they will now support him is wonderful, and we hope by encouraging him to stand on them and get tidbits of food will help to strengthen his legs further and this will mean he can do more, and as he does more so he will strengthen and hopefully the virtuous cycle will continue. The other reason that we encourage him is to try to show him that he can engage with us. Being blind and deaf, he spends much of his time in his own world, however it would be nice to think that he learned how to get attention. It would also be ideal if he was to learn to bark when he needed help - however at the moment he saves his barking for things that are apparent only to him. He is very funny when he barks as his front legs lift off the ground.

His improvement continues to be significant. He can now get out the door in the kitchen, and while the first couple of times he clambered up, now, like the back door, he does little bunny hops to get over it.

Photos

One of our current plans is to make our million by creating and selling exclusive bijou boutique clothes for small dogs. Admittedly, the first prototype suggests that it might not be the anticipated sure-fire success. Back to the drawing board....

Our tomato harvest. OK, it may only be one tomato, however it is huge! Naturally if we were trying to show how small it was then we'd have photographed it against Bentley. While we've been delighted with the prospect of more than two tomatoes this year, it is apparent that everyone else is facing a tomato glut. We've been given some home jarred tomatoes, which would suggest that not only do they have so many they need to jar them, they have so many they can give some away!

Ian's 10 year anniversary chair, with Bentley and Pirata in the background and Rosie taking a good look on the right.

My anniversary chair, which is an adjustable lounger chair. In case they look familiar, Ian's is a copy of a famous Eames chair, and mine is a copy of the La Courbousier Chaise Longue. Our blind animals are currently finding things a little strange. This is the first time we've had a major change of furniture in the living room and there were a few bumps first as they found their way around, however it doesn't take them long to re orientate themselves.

Our new car - with Pixie looking at herself in the polished chromework.Ian is in the background putting the wheels back on his bike. He had to cycle to Usagre, chain his bike up, get the bus to Zafra and then walk to the garage to pick up the car. Happily the bike fitted into the back, although with the wheels off and  put in separately. This bodes well for if Ian ever gets an SOS call when I am out on my bike.

The car is old enough to be categorised as a classic car, however so was the Astra which didn't feel at all classic (edit: To qualify in the UK as a Classic Car it needs to have a value of over 15,000 pounds - so, of course, both cars are far from classic - they are instead just old!!). We now need to find out how to write off the Astra. No doubt that will be more complicated than expected...