I was stoked to be able to have my birthday in Espana – espeically with having my NZ clan there as well! I realised that I’ve kind of started a trend with having birthday’s in different countries… 2008 was in NZ, 2009 was in the UK and this year in Spain.  Next year it’s the big 3 0 so I’m kinda toying with the idea of treating myself to a Mediterranean cruise to mark the occasion!  We’ll see what happens tho… a lot can happen in a year!

SO this birthday we went to La Cala for brunch at the beach and I indulged in an absolutely delicious strawberry tart! Birthday’s aren’t a day to watch your waistline (not that I did at all while we were away but still!) After scoffing that down we went for a walk along the beach taking the long way back to the car, then just had a lazy day each doing our own lazy stuff!

For dinner we went to a really nice restaurant in Cabopino called Alfreds.  Dad was in heaven as it was right on the marina so he went a’wandering while we waited for the drinks to arrive… he pretty much told Mum what he wanted and he was off haha. Dad loves his boats! Of course for me the occasion called for mojitos… I love my mojitos and I had a reeeeally good one at Alfreds.  The food was to die for and we all waddled outta there a couple hours later and of course Dad had to go look at the boats AGAIN… so we tagged along and I took some pics for him. We walked along the beach and heard the Spanish fans going nuts as Spain was obviously kicking someone’s ass in the World Cup haha.

For more Spain photos click >>> here.

Day #6 was the one I’d been looking forward to the most – driving down the coast to Gibraltar!  The main reason being that first you have need your passport as you are technically leaving Spain as Gibraltar is still owned by the UK… then you get to drive over the main airport runway to get into central Gibraltar!

After navigating the manic streets to find the parking building we found the town square and sat down to have some food – british food!  Money is a bit of a funny thing to deal with in Gibraltar as everything is priced in either Euros or Pounds… so you can choose to pay in either, but you have to watch the change you get because Gibraltar also has it’s own currency which you can’t use anywhere else! I got caught out by this and ended up with a bit of Gibraltan currency in change when I got back to UK but luckily enough it still works in parking meters so I’ve managed to use it up.  Very weird tho.

We had a walk through the town and marvelled at the cheap booze… John got me a bottle of Jack Daniels for my birthday and he got some vodka for his Mrs back in NZ – super cheap!

While walking we came across this van tour that takes you up The Rock of Gibraltar and shows you all the sights while giving you a commentary also – so we said hell yeah!!  You can get a cable car up the Rock but then it’s miles of walking from one side to the other and it was super dooper hot so this was a much better idea!

We stopped a couple of times on the tour to admire the views, go into the caves and also see the monkeys!  I had a close encounter with one of the monkeys… it jumped on top of my head! Luckily I had my hat on though!

After the tour we headed further along the main street to a pub to have some dinner and drinks, then meandered back to the car to head back to the apartment. Exhausting day but totally worth it!

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Well this day was a rest day… apart from a trip to the market which is held twice a week and is pretty big! Mum wanted to get me a birthday present, as it was my birthday in a couple days, so I picked out a couple handbags (I’m such a bag-a-holic it’s insane!) The sun was particularly scorching that day so I was glad I had my cowboy hat on but still the open market got old really quickly as there was just too much to choose from and the heat made me a tad grumpy.  After everybody else had had enough we walked back to the shops and had some lunch and a drink at an Irish pub! It was the first time we’d ever been bothered by the beggars trying to sell their wares which got really annoying fast but interesting to see.

In the arvo John did another of his solo misions and headed down to the bars again… apparently there was a beach-side festival at Fuengirola up the coast, so he got the bus up there and we didn’t see him til the early hours haha.  I wasn’t up for it so just went to the golf club again but this time we took Dad along… Mum wasn’t so keen this time to have her drinks so as it was ’2 for 1′ I ended up having not only 1 & 1/2 of her drinks but both my own and one of my Aunties too! I was well tipsy by the time we left so was glad when we went to get fish and chips for tea

For more Spain photos click >>>here.

Day #4 of our Spanish adventure was my Dad’s 63rd birthday! Again we followed the lazy day + busy evening rule and had a chill-out day in the sun.  Dad funnily enough spent most of the middle of the day inside on the couch watching documentaries on telly! He doesn’t have SKY at home so having access to all these doco’s was the equivalent of a kid in a candy shop scenario for my Dad haha. He loves learning about how things are made, history etc etc so he spent most of his b’day drinking vodka, smoking cigars and alternating between doco’s inside and sunbathing on the deck!

While John and him were doing that Mum, Marcia and I went exploring down into the village to get some supplies… then Marcia took us up to the golf club on the way back and we somehow managed to get my Mum to not only drink some Spanish-heavy-measure vodka in the middle of the day (which is unheard of as she doesn’t drink!) but we actually got her tipsy! Such a laugh to deliver her back to Dad and tell him to have his way with her while he could haha.

Then in the early evening Mum, Dad, Marcia and I went to the lovely village of Mijas which is a proper Spanish village up in the mountains. John wasn’t interested so he just had some time on his own by the pool.  The view from up in the mountains was absolutely breathtaking and, even though I fell ass over kite while trying to take photos, it was fantastic!  We had a drink at this cafe that overlooked the entire coast and even got served by a proper Spanish waiter dude with such a gnarly moustache I just had to get a photo of Mum and Marcia with him!

Then I got a photo of Dad with a donkey as ever since he found out he was going to Spain he’s made these jokes about there being no cars and only donkeys haha.  So we wandered round Mijas for an hour or so and took in the views before having a couple drinks and watching the donkeys and horses being walked through the village to their stables.

For more Spain photos click >>> here.

Day #3 in Spain was another lazy morning as my Auntie follows the general rule of either doing something during the day or in the evening… but not both. So this day was a lazy day then a busy night!

We met up with Jill, Lee, Aston and Arlo (Marcia’s friends from UK) on the main road and headed south to Marbella at around 5pm and had a wee look round the shops at Marbella, and a walk along the promenade.

Then we ventured further along the coast to the rich mans playground of Puerto Banus for some dinner… and people-watching!

We had a very un-Spanish meal at an American TGI-Friday’s-like place and they had a deal on drinks to do with the football (soccer) so I indulged and got 2 strawberry daiquiris! SO yum…

After dinner we took a stroll along the promenade (slightly drunken at my end…) and marvelled at all the huge boats and expensive cars parked along-side them! So much money floating around there it was insanity…

For more Spain photos click >>>here.

Day #2 and I had a well deserved wee sleep in and then proceeded to spend most of the rest of the day sunbathing, reading & drinking! My Auntie Marcia had a massive bottle of vodka so Dad and I were taking advantage of that…

In the PM we met up with Marcia’s friend Jill (also from the UK), her daughter Lee, Lee’s two sprogs Aston and Arlo at a restaurant up the road on the beach for tea.  While Aston was practicing his kung-fu on the beach we had some drinkies and everyone else had paella (yuk!) and I had a very un-spanish Caesar salad but it was BLOODY delicious! Also I was on the Bacardi + coke and MY GOD the measures are absolutely fantabloodytastic in Spain haha. Be warned you get about half and half – it’s great!

So after gorging ourselves on dinner we went back towards the apartment and went to Bunkers Bar for bingo + quiz… thank god for alcohol!

For more Spain photos click >>> here.

Ok so on Saturday 19th June we went to Spain for a week… but before that Mum, Dad and John had a week in Newcastle to get over their long flight and catch up with some people.  It was a pretty quiet week except for my brother John doing a solo drinking mission to explore central Newcastle haha good on him!

So on Friday the 18th June we had a BBQ and invited the Park family down from Wooler as Mum and Dad used to knockabout with them ‘back in the old days’ before they emigrated to NZ.  It was awesome to see Dad catching up with Jim as they hadn’t seen each other in ages!  Needless to say that night was a bit of a right off where I was concerned as there was plenty of alcohol… not my best move as we had to be up at 3am the next morning to fly to Spain! But we had the most fun and I got some cracking photos haha.

Bright and early Saturday morning I awoke with the jack-hamming midget going to town in my head and the panic that I hadn’t exactly finished packing when I’d started drinking the night before… aces!  Got that sorted and Mum, Dad, John, Auntie Marcia and I were on the way to the airport… with me fighting the urge to vomit in the taxi haha.  The flight was the worst ever but managed to get there in one piece – and not lose Dad (a feat in itself as he tends to wander…)

Eventually we arrived at my Aunties apartment in Riviera del Sol at about 11am and just sat on the deck for a couple hours enjoying the sun & peace.  Later on during the arvo we went down to the shops to get some supplies and left John down there to have a drink at one of the many pubs/bars on the beach… next time we saw him was 4am!!!  well we didn’t exactly see him as hear him stumble in and attempt to get into bed haha and as he was sharing a room with our  Auntie and me he had to get past both our beds to get to his so I was rudely awoken! Needless to say he was not up spritely the next mornin… I think it was 11am before he surfaced!

Anyways, that was Day #1 of Spain…

For more Spain photos click >>> here.

Now this update is more than well overdue and I can only apologise for that… even though I could probably count on one hand the number of people who actually read this thing – I’m sorry all the same!

So… last time this was updated I’d just jacked in my job because I wasn’t happy and I’m leaving it at that for now as I don’t see the point in explaining why I wasn’t happy cos it won’t achieve anything & it’s in the past…

So I left British Engines on lunchtime on Friday 11th June and proceeded to drive down to Oxford to stay with my friend Amelia and her hubby Mike!  Of course it was lovely to see them both and we had such fun catching up but the main purpose of me being down there was to pick up my Mum, Dad and Brother from Heathrow Airport after their long trek from NZ!

The plan was that they would arrive either on the Monday or the Tuesday so I went down on the Friday to spend some time with Amelia… we went to Bournemouth on the Saturday then got kinda drunk on the night time (thinking I’d have Sunday to laze about in a hungover state before possibly picking them up on Monday/Tuesday) but all the plans went ass-up when at 10am Sunday morning I got a call from my brother to say they were at bloody Heathrow already!  I tell ya I’ve never jumped out of bed faster than I did then – or experienced a worse feeling of being totally hungover! I raced around packing up my stuff and hauled ass to pick them up.  About an hour or so later I arrived at Heathrow and headed for the arrivals… coming out of the elevator I saw Mum, Dad and John sitting near the door watching for me so I crept up behind them and gave them the shock of their lives haha.  I hadn’t seen Dad since I left NZ in Feb 2009 so I really enjoyed my daddy-hug.

We piled in the car and so started the longest drive of my life… I tell ya – driving from Heathrow to Newcastle is a bitch of a drive when you’re hungover!

Anyways… we all arrived safe and sound up to Newcastle later that night and it was awesome to see my Dad re-united with his sister who he hasn’t seen for quite a few years.  The next day the rest of the family came around to see them and wee cousin Findlay was rapt to finally meet my Dad as over the last few months he kept pointing to a picture of Dad when he was younger and calling him Indiana Jones cos he kinda looked like him!  Dad got in on it and had brought an Indy hat over with him so it was so cute to see Findlay totally amazed to be looking up at Dad in his Indy hat hehe.  Priceless!

Dad and Marcia

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Ok so last Wednesday (2nd June) I was forced to take an entire day off work to attend a 5-min consultation at the hospital to see about my wisdom teeth… ultimately resulting in me finding out I will be getting the remaining 3 teeth cut out in late July.  After hearing all the gory details from the Consultant about how my face and tongue could go numb, I took advantage of the sunshine (and the fact that it wasn’t even 11am and I had the rest of the day spread out in front of me with nowhere I had to be!) and went on a tiki-tour round Newcastle with my camera in hand… BRILLIANT!

First stop was this crematorium I had seen on the way to the hospital, but when I pulled in there seemed to be a funeral in progress in the area that had the nice archways… and I just felt a tad weird about taking photos with a full hearse behind me so I flagged the archways for now and ventured into the cemetery area. Which is where I found this memorial to the soldiers who were cremated in the line of duty during the war… it was quite surreal being there surrounded by gravestones in the first place and to then find this memorial was really nice.

So then I took a drive and decided to go back to Ponteland, where I’d been the last time Mum and John etc were here from NZ, and take some more photos of the church where Mum and Dad got married! I already took some last year on my old little camera but wanted some half-decent ones on my new camera – was really awesome to think of them getting married there and the next weekend I was actually driving through Ponteland on another tiki-tour and saw a wedding there!

Hmmmmm now what did I do after that? Ummmm c’mon memory don’t fail me now…. Shit.

Oh that’s right I went to my Grandad’s house (the one who’s in the home for the demented) to check on it and see if there was any mail… which there wasn’t. Which means my Mum’s evil Stepsisters have been there and cleaned it out as per usual… anyway that’s another story and Mum would kill me if I went into detail haha.

After that I think I came home and lazed in the sun on the swing-seat for the rest of the arvo and drank alcohol of some description… yip that sounds like me!

Well today when I woke up I didn’t think I’d be resigning from my job… but that’s what happened!

Yip, I finally had enough and after a couple of months of grinning and bearing it I just bit the bullet today and handed in my notice.   Which works out perfectly because my Mum, Dad and brother John are flying in from New Zealand next Tuesday for a month, so now I get to spend a solid month with them all! (well, except my pilot brother who’s only here for 2 weeks cos he’s got important exams back home to take so he can be a Captain in the cockpit!!)

All in all it was totally an impulsive decision that I handed in my notice today in particular but it had been building for a while.  I just suddenly realised that Life is too short to spend 8hrs a day in an environment that was so repressive and negative that I dreaded it every day and felt like I had to be someone I wasn’t while I was there…. and I wasn’t prepared to do that anymore.

So… my plan at this stage is to enjoy the time with my family over the next month… and then once they’re gone I’ll focus on scoring myself a fab job that pays millions and is in an office full of tall, dark and handsome tattooed men! (well…. a girl can dream?)