Days 72-75, 23-26 August 2014, Fuengirola, Spain. As the old adage goes... when the going gets tough, the tough go shopping. Not that the going is particularly tough I must admit. Now as most of you know, "frugal", "thrifty" and "tighter than a fish's..." could all feature as my middle names. It's not that I don't like new things, shopping etc. I just don't like spending (much) money. And as very soon to be retired flibbety-gibbets travelling about and housesitting "con no mucho dinero", really shouldn't be shopping at all. BUT if one must shop, Spain is the place to do it. Saturday I cruised into town for the big flea market with no clear goals in mind other than a bargain treat of some description and found a wonderful stall "todo €1" - that's "All €1" - absolutely my favourite kind of stall and found a lovely pendant and necklace extravaganza of venetian glass and lapis lazuli. Immediately purchased and slung around my neck and off I went. Bargain. Have been wearing it to death for the last 3 days. Today (Tuesday) it was of course Tuesday Market Day and another jaunt into town. Truly - just for fruit and veges and shoes... Well it's not that I planned the shoes, but just as I arrived at the fairground I decided to wander down a section not yet visited and I happened upon a shoe stall where the blokes were desperately trying to unpack boxes of shoes but were being swamped by (face it) mainly women. Why? "Todo €2" - Yep - You might as well say that's Spanish for "FEEDING FRENZY" and I was right in amongst it. "Senor! Quarenta blanca y negra por favor!!!" In like Flynn I snapped up two pairs of glitzy, blingy, Costa del Sol style thongs (pictured above) for €4 / A$6. Just too nice. Lucky I made it out alive mind you - some people were snapping up the white, black and also the blue and pink versions just because they could. I took my time strolling the rest of the market before hitting the fruit and vege section and learning my second lesson of the day (first of course being how low the cost of a container load of shoes from China must be). Second lesson is locals are not always out to rip off tourists. Went to buy some muscatel grapes, big green juicy numbers - €1/kg. Half of them looked a bit dodgy mind you... brown, shrivelled etc... So I asked for a kilo and picked up a bunch of green ones... and he put that in the bag and added a bunch of yucky brown ones too... I managed a fairly strangled version of "I don't want the brown thanks" and he was surprised and indicated I should try one... gosh I'm a dork - it's obviously how they're supposed to be... phenomenally sweet and en route to being sultanas. Anyway - live and learn... my accidentally purchased delicacies will adorn my luncheon platters for the rest of the week - see today's album for a photo of my manky grapes! Right. Back to studying el espanol!