A Postcard A Day - Friday 29 April 2022 - Friday Smiles

 Hello lovely girls,

How has your week been? We are still in Granada, staying opposite the hospital where hubby is having his treatment. 

I have obviously not been able to receive any postcards but I have bought some tourist postcards and this is one of them:

It shows the interior of the Alhambra palace here in Granada. We have visited several times  and it is exquisite.

This blog is about the good things this week, the smiles and the silver linings. I’ll be linking up with Annie at A Stitch In Time. Please join us if you have something to smile about.

I don’t have any collages this week as it has been a strange week. It has rained a lot and we haven’t been out much. Hubby had a bad day at some point and he was admitted to hospital where they sorted him out and he was able to be discharged again the next afternoon with new medication. The whole team at the hospital have been fantastic. I can’t praise them enough. I’m glad he’s feeling better and that is my big smile for the week.

Having coffee at one of the many coffee places in town. The little cake is called a pionono ( named after the pope Pio the ninth).

Our hostess has a cat called Flea ( because she had fleas when she was first adopted) and she once came into our room.

She sniffed everything and then just sat on the chest of drawers. (Smile).

The other smile is that Monday is a national bank holiday here and there is no treatment. All the radiotherapy machines are having a good overhaul according to the staff and we are planning to go home for the weekend. Our hostess is letting out the room, but we can leave all our luggage here so we can travel light. Apparently the weather is going to be good, which is nice as I’ve had enough of rain.

When hubby has his treatment, I go for a wander. I walked along this avenue that has the center bit pedestrianized ( how do you spell that?). There were lots of sculptures.

I’ll see if I can find some funnies and thinkies, and that will be it this week.

Have a lovely weekend wherever you are,

Take care,

Hugs,

Lisca

Sculpture of Nello and Patrache in Antwerp.

Literally a very large smooth statue of a boy and his dog sleeping under a cobblestone blanket. The artist is Baptist Vermeulen. 

It's crafted after a British story called "A Dog of Flanders" by Marie Louise de la Ramée. She wrote the story after witnessing child labour and animal abuse in Belgium. The story is supposed to have happened in the Antwerp sub-city Hoboken. 

Not many people in in Flanders nor Antwerp/Hoboken knew the story until it was noticed that many people (really busses full) came looking for the statue as the story is extremely popular in Japan.

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 26 April 2022 - T for Granada

 Hello lovely ladies, 

Today I have a postcard from Granada as I’m not at home, but still in Granada. Hubby is having his radiotherapy every day, so we are here until that finishes in May.

It is a photo of the famous fountain of the lions in the Alhambra palace. The lions have been restored https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Court_of_the_Lions#cite_note-:0522-6

I tried to paste some information but it came up with a link.We have been to the Alhambra a few times so we are not visiting this time. Hubby is tired all the time and is in bed a lot, but today (Monday) it was nice weather and we’ve been out and about. Let me see if I can find some photos from this week.

I go off on my own while hubby is having his treatment, and the other day I walked down one of the main avenues. The middle segment was pedestrianised. It had lots of sculptures. Here is a lady with some chairs. 

When I walked back, there were three real life ladies sitting on the chairs, having a lively discussion!

Let me find a photo with a drink in it, after all, this is the T-party hosted by Elizabeth and Bluebeard.

Here we were having a drink. Hubby an alcohol free drink and I a white wine called Verdejo. The waiter remembered that I liked that because we were there a few days ago.The meat in the middle is the free tapas we get here with our drinks.

Today we went to a large supermarket called Auchamps . Living in a village, a large store is a treat, and we walk around looking at the food..

That’s it from me. It’s taken me more than an hour to do this, fiddling about on my iPad.

Happy T-Day all,

Hugs,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 22 April 2022 - Friday Smiles

 Hello lovely ladies,

Today is going to be a short post. Not because there is little to smile about, but because  we are away from home. In fact we are staying in our capital city Granada. We have found accommodation opposite the entrance to the hospital where hubby is having his daily treatment. So that is absolutely fab. It’s what they call Airbnb. Not that it includes breakfast but we have a room, a bathroom and we share the kitchen with the lady of the house. ( who is very nice)

Because I’m not receiving any mail, I’m showing you a postcard of the Alhambra, the palace Granada is famous for:

I haven’t sent it to anyone yet but over the weekend I will.

When hubby is having his treatment ( in the morning) I can go for walks in the area. Here are some photos of places I’ve been. When I walked one street away from where we are staying, I walked past a large old bullring:

Bottom left on the last photo, just behind the tree, you can see a reddish sign. That is a restaurant. Little did I know then, that a day later a friend of ours would take us there in the evening!

We had a lovely evening with her in that amazing place.

The lady of the house is a doctor at the hospital ( now doing a teaching stint) and she has a cat called ‘Flea’. Don’t worry, she has no fleas.

Here is another place not far from where we are. Southern European cities are generally ugly, but there are some little gems like this:

It’s on a large busy roundabout. 

Her are my collages. Not in order because Blogger wouldn’t do it any other way.

I haven’t been able to find any funnies, apart from this one:

I’m going to link up with Annie at A Stitch In Time to join in with this week’s smiles. Why don’t you join me.

Have a lovely weekend,

hugs,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 19 April 2022 - T for Tuesday - T for ...Dubai and tapas

 

Hello lovely ladies. How are you all? 

We are doing okay and enjoying our stay in Granada. No, not Grenada as one of my followers commented. Nothing as exotic as that. Grenada is an island in the Caribbean!  A few years ago, when we still lived in Bristol, there was a story in the local newspaper that a lady from Bristol had always wanted to see the Alhambra in Granada and she booked a flight to go there. But she found herself on a plane bound for the Caribbean, as she booked a flight to Grenada in stead of Granada! The story got around and I think the newspaper later paid for a flight to the right location in exchange for her story. One letter can make a lot of difference.

But let me not digress.... A postcard is what this blog is all about:

Dubai! My first card from Dubai! But when I turned the card round to look at the stamps, this is what I found:

Of course they are beautiful stamps, just not what I expected. 

The card was sent by someone called Trevan. Who is originally from Sri Lanka but came to the USA with his family as a child. He travels a lot and this card was one from his recent travels.

Dubai is an ultra modern city that not so long ago was desert:

Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates known for luxury shopping, ultramodern architecture and a lively nightlife scene. Burj Khalifa, an 830m-tall tower, dominates the skyscraper-filled skyline. 

At its foot lies Dubai Fountain, with jets and lights choreographed to music. 

On artificial islands just offshore is Atlantis, The Palm, a resort with water and marine-animal parks. 

Here is a closer look:

There is (an expensive) shopping mall:

Below is the Burj Al Arab, a luxury hotel.

From an architectural point of view it's amazing. It must have been wonderful for architects to be able to go completely mad as money wasn't an object it seems. But otherwise it saddens me to see all this opulence when there is so much poverty in the world. My only consolation is that one day the oil wells will dry up and then they will have to find some other means of income. 

Enough of that. We are now in Granada.  Let me show you what we did this afternoon:

This is a tapa. It comes free with a drink. They are toasted bread rolls with rotisserie cooked pork meat. Really delicious. There were four of us, so four drinks and four tapas. In the whole of the province of Granada, the tapas are free. 

Here you see hubby and our friends. Kim and I are having white wine. This will be my qualifier for Elizabeth and Bluebeard’s T-Party. 

We’re sitting outside as the weather is lovely.

I’m writing this late on Monday night. It’s nearly lights out time.

Happy T-Day all!

Hugs,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 15 April 2022 - Friday Smiles

 Hello lovely ladies,

How was your week? Lots to smile about? Let me show you some really lovely smiles on this postcard that I received last week:

Of course it's Queen Elizabeth. The card was sent to me by Jo, who lives in Windsor, near Windsor Castle. It put a smile on my face.

Our week was okay although we are exhausted from getting up at 6 every morning. Hubby has to be ready at 7 for the hospital transport to pick him up to take him to Granada (2 hours in the ambulance) , then hanging around in the hospital, getting his treatment etc and then wait for the transport to take him home. Another 2 hours, dropping off other people on the way. No wonder he spends the rest of the day in bed!

The good news is that he now has 4 'days off'. Thursday through to Sunday. Back on Monday to continue his treatment. Hurray for having a lie-in!

The other good news is that we booked an Air bnb in Granada, next to the hospital for the whole of next week. We're both looking forward to that. 

I'm afraid I didn't do many collages this week, but what I've got I'll show you.

We've had awful weather, but on Saturday the sun shown and we were invited for lunch by our friends. 

They managed to prepare something that hubby can have with his strange low residue diet. And we had a lovely time.

Sunday we had a lie-in again and when we wanted to watch the online church service from Bristol, the Internet went. So we didn't have Internet for a couple of hours, but it came back later luckily (no idea what the reason was).

On Monday, after hubby had rested, we went into town to do the shopping and pop into the local hospital for an errand. There is a helipad next to the hospital with 'our' helicopter on it, but next to it was another pad with another helicopter, which was just warming up. We stood and watched it leave. I love watching helicopters.

Dinner was scotch egg. I didn't know it was called that. I had some chicken mince and was thinking what I should do with that, when I had an idea to boil a couple of eggs, and then wrapped the seasoned mince around it, flattened it and cooked it in the Remoska. It was really nice. Will certainly do that again.

On Tuesday I didn't do much. Our chickens are still laying 4 sometimes 5 eggs a day, so we have many egg breakfasts. Here is hubby making  scrambled eggs on toast:

And Wednesday was another good day as I went to town with our friends. We went to the market to buy small vegetable plants for Kim, then popped into to a few different supermarkets. By the time we got home, hubby had arrived too and couple of hours chatting and catching up. Hurray for good friends!

I'm writing this on Thursday which was the first of hubby's 'days off'. So we just lounged about and relaxed. It is a very dull day with rain and wind. Not nice. Look at that dark sky!:

That were the highlights of my week. Now it's time to join Annie at A Stitch In Time. Please join us with what made you smile this week.

Next week more news from me and hopefully more photos as I shall be in 'the big city'!

Have a great weekend and for those who celebrate it: Happy Easter!

Hugs,

Take care,

Lisca

If popsicles had art classes, this would be their nude model:

This wall art is by Cité Création and is found in Lyon (France)