A Postcard A Day - Friday 1 December 2023 - Friday Smiles

 Hello lovely peeps, welcome to December! How time flies! I hope you are all well and have some smiles to share with us from the past week. 

I have lots to smile about, apart from the fact that I am extremely late today. I didn't have the opportunity to write something last night (I usually write on Thursday night) and this morning I had lots of errands to run as next week there are three fiestas (Monday, Wednesday and Friday) and I had loads to do in town.

But I'm here now and I'd like to share a few happy flowers:

The flowers are Coneflower ´Goldsturm´. And that is what they are: a storm of gold. Beautiful! It was sent to me by Ksenia from Belarus.

The stamp is cute:

It features a little red squirrel. Ksenia also adds a triangular sticker with writing on it that translates (according to Mr Google): The starry skies through the eyes of Belarussians.

Friday was a busy day. I went to Pilates in town and did some other errands while there. When I got back the man checking my gas connections was there (unannounced) and I have new tubes on every bottle. These tubes have a date on them and have to be replaced every so often.

After a quick lunch it was off to the hospital to accompany an English friend who doesn't speak Spanish,

 to a hospital appointment. 

Afterwards as I was walking back towards the car park, a mother and a teenager were waiting at the bus stop. His arm was bandaged and he was clearly uncomfortable. They asked me if I knew about bus times. As far as I knew the hospital shuttle only runs in the morning. I was just about to walk away when I realized this woman could probably ill afford a taxi, so I asked them where did they need to go. They told me and I drove them home, so that was my second trip into town. The woman (and her son) were Lithuanian and we had a nice chat.

In the afternoon my hairdresser could fit me in and I had my hair cut:

Saturday there was a walk to raise awareness for domestic violence (see Tuesday's blog). We walked a few kilometres and honored a local woman who was killed by her husband:

And we planted pansies and elected a bench.

In the evening I did Intercambio. I lead a group of people to practice English/Spanish. 

On Sunday I went to church and in the afternoon I made some Christmas cards as I can't find the cards I made from last year. (I didn't send any last year because Graham had just died so I was not in the mood)

Nothing as beautiful as some of you do. I just cut out figures and decoupage them.

This sort of idea.

On Monday I went to collect this huge parcel and I can now say what it was:

My new airfryer! I had one, a small one with one basket. Knowing that I'm having a family with children staying with me over Christmas, I decided to splash out on a new one with two baskets. 

I couldn't justify the high price of the Ninja, but I have something similar made by Chefree. I already love it. I have cooked two meals in it and I use it to reheat/crisp up, and the two baskets can be used independently and can be synched to finish at the same time. the baskets each have a light and the front is transparent so I can see how my food is doing.

The only disadvantage is the fact it is completely black and every fingerprint is visible!

The weather this week is colder and I have lit the stove a few times. But in the day the sun shines:

Also on Monday we had a power cut. It wasn't until the day after that I found out what the reason was:

This is the corner shop behind my house! The wires had caught fire. Scary! Photo courtesy of one of my neighbors.

On Tuesday my friends Kim and Andy come to lunch. I always forget to take pictures. Andy usually does little jobs for me. I had asked him to bring his drill and he hung up the ceramic sign that my mum had by the door:

Wednesday was a sad day for me as it was exactly a year that my husband died. I had lots of supportive phone calls. One of them was my sister and she suggested some tv progams that I had not been aware of. I follow Shetland (that is on a Wednesday) but she also suggested a series on ITV called Payback, so I watched the first episode on catch-up. She also recommended Portillo's Andalucia. That's on channel 5 for those who can get that. Excellent series about the region I live in. So I had a TV evening. I made myself some roasted chestnuts (in my new air fryer!) 

and warmed up some glühwein and of course I had lit the stove. Bliss!

Thursday was a busy day. I spent most of the morning at the town hall, talking to people about a problem some of my friends have (they don't speak Spanish). And also organizing a different venue for my Intercambio group. In the afternoon I met the marble guy at the cemetery as I'm ordering a stone for Graham's columbarium (a niche to put ashes in). As he promised it would be ready before the 14th, I've messaged several of my friends to see if we can get together to honor  Graham when I put the ashes in the niche and close it. You might not think this is worth a smile, but for me it is. I'm so happy that I have  a sort of a final resting place for him. And this does make me smile.

That is all from me today.

I'll try and find some funnies to put at the end.

Have a lovely weekend,

Hugs, 

Lisca

Sign on a church pew: