Monday 5 March 2018

UPSTAIRS FOR A PARTY & OTHER CARD PLAYERS!

No, I'm not telling you how 'old' she is, but the party was to celebrate Tereza's birthday which was on Friday.

There was a delicious cake..  besides all other manner of tasty things to eat plus wonderful coconut and chocolate goodies made and brought by Isobel, another guest.

We have known 'the girls upstairs' for seven years now and what fun it has been to see them grow and grow up! Georgia's now fifteen and Rebecca's thirteen. 

And Georgia's exam results last summer showed that every penny her mama has spent on her education have certainly been worth it! For her A* and A's are the result of many hours of hard work and of paying attention in class. Bravo Georgia!

'Uno', that's a new card game for her! When Rebecca broke open the two packs of cards, she thought they looked 'a bit different', but old card sharp that she is, she soon learnt that you could use 'strange' looking cards to your advantage and said 'Uno' first!

And left whilst she was ahead! No, money was not in play! In fact, the last time she played cards for money was in Spain with Harry, Lew, Christian, Tove, Hugo and Christian in the '70s.

When a San Miguel beer cost you 35 pts in a bar! Gone are those days. And, sadly, gone too is Hugo. For he died in 2012.

He was married to her great friend, Tove, who worked for Lew and Jenny Hoad at their Campo de Tennis at Mijas, they had a son, young in those days, called Marco, whom we believe now to be a photographer based in Paris.

Hugo had had a life! Related through his mother to old families of England and the Aga Khan. He'd been the first husband of Nina van Pallandt.. the Nina of 'Nina & Frederick, a singing duo. He, himself, had been an actor and singer, both Tove and he were good looking, a lovely couple and he was a really good card player!

He told a funny tale of arriving in southern Spain in the arly '60s and people saluting him wherever he drove. He thought this 'more than a little strange' so asked a new friend, who was Spanish, why he thought they did this.

The friend said he had no idea but about two weeks later came up to Hugo and with laughter said..

"Amigo, I now know why people salute you, it is because of your car", Hugo was sharp but this defeated him. "My car?, why should my car make people salute me".

The friend said "where are you parked, I will show you". So they went to his car, the friend led him to the front and said "You see, it says Consul, they think you're an important hombre". It's a silly story and still makes her smile.

She misses them, those crazy, funny, nice people she knew all those years ago..

Abe Segal, Jane & Burt Boyar, Lew & Jenny Hoad, Harry Hubert - whose previous bar in Torremolinos had featured in the book 'The Drifters' by James Mitchener, Bob Alger, the Wessels, Del Bland & Carla Harvey who lived in an old sauna on the beach in Marbella! Jules & Elaine Litvak, the Hollands, Lee Setomer, who came to the Costa in 1956 and bought land when it was under a thousand pesetas an acre and dear Christian van Merkestyn, who shot those lovely adverts for Martini!

It's over forty years ago that she 'ran' with this merry bunch and sadly, only Jenny Hoad and Burt Boyar are alive.. oi vey.

Now we have to start our day! For the pharmacist at Boots said yesterday "this is your last lot of eye drops, your prescription has now ended".

Somewhat alarmed by this, she called her surgery this morning and spoke to someone and they said "WHAT! You had better bring a copy of that into us and we'll sort it out, your prescription is non-ending as dictated by Moorfields Eye Hospital, what that is that pharmacist talking about?"

So there are places to go and food to be bought.. we are reduced to eating shop bought apples.. sigh and you certainly don't pick green vegetables when they are frosted or there's no gardening to be done as you don't tread on soil that's soaking wet!

And, soaking wet our ground will most certainly be. But that recent snow has been good for the soil, it brought nitrogen along with some sulphur and other trace elements and snow is, of course, a slow release source of moisture.

For it melts slowly and that moisture therefore has time to soak deep into your soil, plus, it acts as a mulch preserving moisture and providing winter ground protection. 

Hey Ho. Hey Ho.. It's off.. she must go..

GeeGee Parrot.
March 5th, 2018.

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