Franceses again

My friends in Franceses needed some help translating at the Town Hall, so today we went. On the way there we saw this practice rescue. At least I assume it was a practice because that's the coastguard cutter.

I left Julio with Helen while Theresa drove me to the Town Hall. There we established that a) the official permission for them to build steps to the house entrance isn't ready yet, b) the woman we needed to see about planning permission for thir new bathroom was out for the day and c) there were no tech jobs going at the Town Hall.

Oh great.

Then I phoned the previous owner of their house and I finally got though to him - it turned out that he'd lost his mobile and my number with it. And he planned to come next day and fetch the stuff he'd left in their cellar. So that was something positive to report.


When we got back to Franceses we had a go making paper logs.
Helen and Theresa's stuff has arrived from the UK, and much of it was packed in shredded paper. So they'd soaked the paper in water for a couple of days and were now making it into paper logs for the fireplace they haven't got yet. We had a go. You fill a mould with strips of soaked paper, put a mesh lid on, and squish the water out. After that you remove it carefully and set it to dry.

We had a lovely lunch cooked on their newly-unpacked gas BBQ and watched some DVDs before we came home.

An uninvited guest

Life's getting a little less frantic. Julio's school term has ended and Farida's better, so yesterday I took my son to see the friends at Franceses for the first time for almost a month. They've got a lot of re-wiring done, and they're busy hacking up the floor to put in a damp-proof layer. While they were doing that, the weeds underneath the vines shot up, so after a lovely lunch we helped pull them up. And then Theresa found an uninvited guest inthe bedroom. Here's Helen evicting it.

el Socorro

I sneaked out time to take some photos of El Socorro church. It felt great, since I haven't taken any photos for two weeks.

Running round the hamster wheel

It's been too busy for comfort.

My friend Farida wasn't in hospital for long, but she was sent home with strict instructions to stay in bed. Since she lives with an 11-year-old daughter, and infirm mother-in-law and a non-domesticated husband, I've been taking up rather a lot of the slack.

Meanwhile my son had a ton of end-of-shcool-year homework, which only gets done if I nag-nag-nag-nag-nag-nag-nag-nag-nag nag-nag-nag-nag-nagnag-nag-nag-nag-nag-nag-nag-nag-nag-nag. It's like pushing an elephant up the stairs.

Plus the usual housework, translating for the friends in Franceses, and updating the Ruido website.

Still, Farida is almost better, and my son's term ends on Wednesday. There is light at the end of the tunnel.

I just hope it isn't a train coming at me.

Today is Corpus Christi. In Mazo, they've decorated the streets with the most beautiful archways and flower carpets, as they do every year. As soon as I'd dropped my son off at school, I went to Mazo and started taking photos. Half an hour later, Helen and Theresa joined me, and we took more photos before stopping for coffee. I'll be putting up a page of photos on my web site as soon as I get time.

And this afternoon my friend Farida finally got the phone call to go into hospital for her ear operation. So I've got a daughter for a while. Farida's daughter, Marian, is staying the night.

Another Dream

Last night I dreamed I was in a motorway service station, having a cup of tea and a chat with Paul Harrison from the Beatles (that's what he was called in the dream, but perhaps I really meant George McCartney). And I was the age I am now, but Paul was in his late twenties, dressed as though it was 1970.

It was fun. I think I'll make a habit of hobnobbing with celebreties.

Stock Photography - part 2

Well the whole batch was rejected. That is, three were rejected for technical reasons, four because they didn't think they'd sell, and the other three because you need 7 out of the first 10 accepted for them to bother with you.

I was upset at first, but hey, I'm a writer and well used to rejection. I'll have a thorough look around their site and try to work out what I need to do differently, then I'll try again.

New month, new venture

I've been meaning to get around to signing up for stock photography for some time. This is where you upload your photos to a photo library, and you get paid a pittance every time somebody downloads one.

Why am I interested in getting paid a pittance? Because I hope to get an awful lot of pitances. $0.25 a go doesn't sound much, but if you have 1,000 photos each downloaded 4 times a month, that's $1,000 a month.

Of course "getting around to" means I didn't do anything for ages, so I put in on my "to do" list for May. Then a lot of real life got in the way, so yesterday I kicked myself and registered. I had to wait for the registration to clear, and today I uploaded my first 10 photos. Now I have to wait for approval. But at least I finally stuck my toe in the water.

990 photos to go.