Isla Magica

On Saturday we, (Me, Marcos, Isabel, Domingo, Maria & Miguel - the dinner party couples gang) went to Isla Magica - A theme park - The Australia´s Wonderland of Spain which is conveniantly located in Sevilla. We went cause Maria got free tickets, otherwise I would NEVER pay the 25 euro fee - highway robbery! Most of us had never been before and we thought we would spend a couple of hours there and then go and have some tapas back in Sevilla centre - but no...., we arrived at 1pm and stayed till midnight!!!!! MAN IN WAS FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now normally I don´t like scary rides, back in the day of OZ Wonderland I went on EVERYTHING but being prone to the odd panic attack and scared of dying I didn´t think I would fancy most of the rides.... especially "The jaguar" a rollercoaster where you are attached above your head instead of underneath you so you are kinda hanging there (shoes off!) and it goes upside down at alarming speeds. Can you believe I went on this?????????????????

Maybe it was because I absolutely hate waiting around so the thought of waiting for everyone else to line up while I waited impatiently was much worse an idea than any of the rides. I went on everything. Fun Fun Fun! It was a damn hot day so we got right into all the water rides and wet t-shirt competitioned it around all all day.

One thing we went on was like a train thing where you went through like a pirates ghost house and had to shoot targets.... I came 2nd, at least 20 shots ahead of the others making them question if in Australia we are trained with guns!!! Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi!!!!

It was like having a wonderpass all over again - rides are FUN! We did feel a bit embaressed being of child bearing age and going around without child, as there were gazillions of families there. But oh well.... can´t say no to a free ticket and to a heart attack inducing rollercoaster ride!

The Crazy Family

So I thought I´d dedicate this blog to Marcos´s lovely family, who for the first time since Marcos and I have been together, are all in Sevilla at the mo. Marcos´s sister Irene and I call them "The Crazy Family" (said in english in a strong spanish accent), cause when they get together things can get crazy. Not in a funny ha ha crazy type of way, more in a mental asylm we need group therapy type of crazy.
















Here they all are (minus 1 who doesn´t do family social functions....don´t ask) in our little courtyard drinking some mojitos I prepared. They don´t normally drink to excess with beer & wine so Marcos and I like making cocktails - stronger than your average and watching them get a little loco. (in a funny ha ha crazy type of way). It could be illegal tricking people into drinking too much, disguised by the sweetness of sugar and craploads of fresh mint but do these people look scared? For the love of god thats one TANNED family! damn those spanish olive skinned people to hell! If I was in the pic I´d look like a big tomato red face. spot the foreigner!

So let me introduce you to everyone. In order of age.

El Padre-The Father
Luis AKA Luisito (which he HATES but we call him anyway)

Don´t be fooled by his unwillingness to smile in photos, he really is a happy friendly guy. Actually from the north of Spain in Cantabria he spends lots of time in "el campo" (the bush) on his land doing god knows what but coming back with honey (he recently made a beehive!), almonds, chestnuts & figs. He famously once made his own perfume which no-one else could stand but he covered himself it it claming parfum genius and during a discussion about what year they went to Morocco he once pulled out the money exchange receipt from 15 years ago in a matter of minutes. (To win the discussion of course).

La Madre - The Mother
Casimira AKA Casi

Don´t be fooled by those baby blues this lady will spear tackle you if you don´t stay for lunch.
She has the eye of sherlock holmes after once saying to marcos that she knew we went to the house while they weren´t there cause there were tracks (what am I, a bear?) on the floor from me wearing no shoes in the house and fingerprints the size of our fingers on the table (what is she, C.S.I?) . She likes to be forced into shots of liquer and can often be heard saying, "no marcos, not another one, I´m dizzy" then sipping Marcos´fathers while he is not looking.

Marcos!
AKA Marquitos, Amorcito or Amore in an annoying italian accent.

Has a penchant for pulling faces and making jokes until sometimes people can´t stand his voice anymore.
Likes watching movies in subhuman quantities and avoiding getting his drivers licence. Eats 3 packets of Kikos (bbq flavoured toasted corn) in 17 minutes (he times it - not for speed but he has eaten 3 packets of kikos in a row so many times he knows exactly how long the delicate process will take). Slightly obsessed with mopping and killing bugs in the apartment. (often at the same time).

Ruben
AKA Ruben

A nurse, probably the coolest nurse you´ll ever see apart from on ER. Lives in Lazarote in the Canary Islands. Was almost unrecognizable at the airport on arival a few weeks ago as last time we saw him he has short black curly hair.
Has lived in Italy, speaks fluent italian and also the italian language of fashion with spiffy over the top outfits.



Irene
AKA Irene

Marine Biologist (or something like that I can´t translate what the hell she does!) who works in the aquarium looking after the animals and breeding rats to feet to the snakes! Gross! Mocks me constantly saying "Feliz Navidad" in a really annoying voice cause thats all I knew how to say (or dared say) the first time I met the family. Can´t speak english but she memorized a whole monologue in perfect english about the penguins for the foreign guests at the aquarium without even knowing what the hell she was saying. She lives in Las Palmas in the Canary Islands and has also lived in Italy and speaks fluent Italian.
She laughs at my jokes so I like her. Once she got so tanned you couldn´t recognize her features for being blinded by her teeth.

So thats it. The Lastra Fenutria "Crazy" family. They´re a nice bunch and Casi and Luis, god bless their kind hearts, look after me alot, even if its in the vain hope that I will give them a granchild soon (Lucia that is - Casi has already given it a name and she talks about it as if it exists or is likely to happen soon. When Lucia comes.... etc etc!)

Verano, Portugal

Its bloody hot in Sevilla at the mo, we were or “orange alert” last week, which means extreme weather conditions as it was supposed to reach 45+ degrees. I don´t notice it tooooo much as its bearable in the mornings on the way to work, then I am in airconditioning. I sure as hell notice it on my bike on the way home from work at 3pm though (no work in the afternoons, too hot! Love Spain!) and I especially notice it when, instead of going straight home to eat, then have a siesta and not leave the house till the sun goes down, I, on one particular day had to ride 10kms to pick up Rohans license from the post office so he could drive on our trip to Portugal. THEN I had to go and pick up a jamon (big mother of a whole cured pig leg,) to take on the trip. The “jamon shop” was in a industrial estate like Wetheral Park (for the westies) All in middle of the day heat. I literally thought I was going to die. Now I know how people die from the heat, riding bikes to buy jamons in 40 deg weather.

So we had our little 1 week summer holiday in Portugal, not like we haven´t been there 1000 times before but its close, cheap and we vowed to check out some beaches we´d never been to before to keep it interesting. Also, Rohan & Brooke, Aussie´s who live in England were coming with us so it was a great opportunity to show them the stretch that we love oh so much. (They were sure to be easily impressed coming from torrential rain and still sleeping with the heating on). Here they are on the beach in Lagos, Praia Dona Ana, one of the best beaches on the Algarve…

We stayed in a village called Santa Luzia in Tavira whose town title is “Capital do polvo” which in portugese means, “capital of octopus”, but in Spanish it means, “capital of fucking!” Oh the joy of translation!

We ate a very impressive meal at our favourite restaurant in Santa Luzia, “Casa do Abade” On their menu they have a section for things you can have if you pre-order them the day before. We had a cataplana, a traditional portugese cooking method of a copper pot with a lid, of fish, tuna & mussels and it was deliciouso!!!!

Here is Marcos looking coolio on his blow up chair on a beach in Albufeira, he loves that chair but is barely on it cause he hates lying in the sun (freak) he prefers a bit of adventure and likes to go exploring along the beach. Lucky for us cause a few coves along he found this amazing beach bar, called "Enjoy Beach" (?) perched on the top of a big rock, overlooking another beach. We thought it perfect for a few mojitos on the huge ban bags as the sun went down.

Marcos prepared the terrace of the place we were staying as a moonlight cinema for “movie night” a relaxing night in after a big day at the beach.



We stayed in Tavira except for one night where we “got amongst it” at the party town of Lagos. (This was said to us by one of the many aussie´s that were working the street in Lagos, trying to get us to come in to the bar he worked for…it went. “Hey guys, come to the red eye bar & get amongst it” It easily became the catch phrase for the trip.
Here is a pic of one of the beaches in Lagos, we had perfect conditions during the day and then continued into the night drinking many a happy hour mojitos that the bars of Lagos have to offer.

Beautiful Praia Dona Ana....

One of the new beaches that we went to was Beliche, a famous beach in along the Sagres west coast of Portugal, it did not disappoint us. Similar to Lagos, but bigger and the huge cliffs much more dramatic.

Here is Marcos being inside one of caves along the cliff scaling the walls. And again, (always climbing) at another beach that I can´t remember the name of climbing a huge rock face with a rope left on it for the fisherman to escape.

No more holidays until October when Tula comes to visit!!! I can´t wait! Watch out – the ladeeee´s are hittin Europe.

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PS Marcos still doesn´t have his license, the only thing he can drive is this. I don´t fit unfortunately so we can´t go anywhere.

Cádiz Weekend

Word was out that last weekend was going to be the hottest of the season and seeing as it had been 42 degrees all week not one single soul in Sevilla fancied a weekend of not being able to leave the house. So we, along with every other person in Sevilla headed for the beach. Mass exodus! We stayed at the family holiday apartment of my friend Isabel which is in Cádiz and is right in front of the main beach with amazing views! See below....Oh the fresh sea breeze!

The whole "posse" came, our little couples posse that consists of Isabel & Domingo (they recently got married), Maria & Miguel (uni friends of Isa & Domingo´s) and of course Marcos and I. We regularly get together the 6 of us to takes turns cooking a big feast of exotic cuisine and drink lots of vino, they are a fun crowd. ..............................................................................................................

Here we all are at my place a few months ago eating in our little little patio with the new ikea chairs! 5euros each! bargain!

So we were pretty much relaxing on the beach the whole time, (why do I never get a tan below the knee or under my eyes? its a bit freaky really, a beautiful blotchy red tan everywhere else except for under eyes and below the knee. puzzling)

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we did go to this cool restaurant called "la gorda te da de comer" which means "fatty feeds ya" cool name. Fun times!

Only 2 weeks to go till we have a week off, we are going to Portugal with Rohan and Brooke who are coming from Bristol ready for some beach action...its too damn hot to do anything else. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Little Niece or Nephew

My sister teeny is having a BEBE!!!!! Here is the first pic of it to prove its existence, To most it looks like a big blob, but to the loving mother who clearly has superhero vision the baby has its 5 fingers spread out in front of its little baby alien face. Clearly to the loving aunty (me) its high fiving and saying whatsup??!!

OMG Nightology was so much fun!

You know its gonna be a big night when you get picked up by someone who has a loud speaker in her car…. God knows where she got it from!



The party was in a hotel near the train station in Sevilla. Marcos, me, Amy (my American friend, word up Amy, she is bitter she never gets mentioned in my blog!) and crazy as a firecracker Lola who works with Marcos. The party was put on by J&B whiskey, and although I am not generally keen on whiskey its amazing what a couple of complementry drinks can leave you a taste for! Viva Whiskey!

Who is this bitch that my boyfriend is kissing. Oh its Amy, my american friend that is bitter that she never gets mentioned in my blog, and now the bitch is getting it on with Marcos. I´m gonna smack that bitch out.




















So there were a few bigger rooms opened up for the bar and dancefloor, but then there were 2 floors of just normal hotel rooms, some of them were empty where you could just chill on the comfy beds and some of them had crazy things in them. Everyone was in a crazy mood, everyone friendly at chatty. here are some examples of the hotel rooms.

Pic.1 One of the rooms had a mariachi band, they were my favourite, they started up a crazy mexican tune and people went crazy.

Pic. 2 A gingerbread Man! He gave out ginergerbread men to snack on an dang they were tasty!

Pic. 3 A man dressed up as a tree. He was funny, maybe we were very drunk by this stage but he bounced on the bed with us.

Pic 4. Lets hope they were "actors" but poor granny and grampy´s much needed Zzz´s were interupted by crazy partygoers pumped up on whiskey. Lucky they had a truckload of pills on their bedside table to keep them drugged up and chilled out.

Pic. 5 Me with a pretty japanes lady who looked like a statue she was holding that poker face so damned still.

Pic. 6 The spanish people were spun out by this bloke who i later found out was one of spain most infamous criminals - Diony. He robbed one of those cars that take money to the banks. he was later caught and did 10 years in prison but not before he lived it up 1 year in Brazil spending all the money!!! I had a big long chat to him telling him i was from OZ and making him tell me the story. I asked him if he knew who Ned Kelly was and he didn´t.

There was a part where these crazily dressed queens were doing crazy hairstyles on people. They did one on Lola, lucky bitch (or perhaps unlucky depends which was you look at it, she spent 1 hour in the shower the next day trying to get it all out, and not only was she hungover she was V late for work!)


Here we are, Lola and I dancing with Elvis and Marcos and I wearing our flickering light rings. Peace Out.

This is one of my fav pics of Marcos EVER! They had this room with this big screen and this box you had to scream in to put your face on the person. The person would then cut some very daggy (uncool for the non aussies) dance moves on the screen with your face on it! Fun!

This is what whiskey does to you kids. Not very fresh looking faces after all the fun and games were over.

Nightology

J&B Nightology electric hotel, the new and suprising summer J&B event, will tour Lisbon, Sevilla, Madrid, Barcelona A Coruña Valencia during June, July & August. A unique and unrepeatable event, where reality and fiction meet. Extravegant characters, unexpexted situations and moments convert the rooms of each chosen hotel into an unforgettable experience.

Am very excited cause we have been trying for the past month to win tickets to this party Nightology Electric Hotel, its a party put on by J&B whiskey, you can only win tickets by getting codes when you buy a J&B whiskey at certain events in bars around Spain, with which you have to go online and entre in your code and see if you win. The website is an amazing 3D hotel which you can also navigate like a game, collecting points until they give you a code to try your luck. Its quite addictive considering we don´t even know where the "electric hotel" is going to be and don´t really know what its going to be like. All we know is that its a hotel with 200 rooms to party. It sounds like fun to me. When you win, you get 2 tickets, there is 4 of us who want to go, a few weeks ago we won 2 tickets and then just last weekend we won the other 2 - just in the nick of time. we are so excited! Its on Thursday (weird!) and we have just found out the location today, it seems to be in a 5 star hotel not far from the train station..... I´ll be updating soon with photos!