Days 76-83, 27 Aug - 3 Sept 2014, Fuengirola, Spain. James and I reach an important milestone tomorrow - only three months until he joins me in Paris (always presuming our Fairy Godmother of Magnificent Windfalls doesn't come up with something in the interim). Essentially we're halfway there. After 6 weeks zipping about Europe and seemingly in a new country every few days, the last 5 weeks have been a gentle blur - new foods (ok... so Thai isn't new), local wines, a couple of day trips, treasure hunting at the weekly markets and, of course, learning Spanish. Which is coming along nicely - muchas gracias. Highlights of the last week? Was big and brave last Thursday and got up early for a walk to the waterfront. The bus is regular and convenient but after walking so much in my European travels, it seems odd to be limited to swimming and pottering about the house. Was an awesome walk after the brief scared-ness of negotiating the overpass/roundabout between home and the road down to Fuengirola. What was even more awesome was reaching the shores of the Mediterranean and going for a paddle after the 45 minute walk. What would have been awesome would have been being able to use the foot washers/showers to get rid of the wet sand. It seems that roughing it on the beach in this glorious weather with almost no bugs must have been common - because the showers and foot washers are turned off until 10 am and again after 8 pm. Devious. Still - lovely to walk along with the surprisingly cool water on my feet, watching the metal detector men hunt for solid gold Rolexes and diamond rings. Saturday was of course flea market day and Fuengirola was in the grip of a couple of days of seriously hot and humid weather. Normally it's just hot but the humidity had been insistent and intense and for the first time here I actually felt very off-colour indeed and after finding a bargain (it's compulsory) I skipped lunch downtown and took the bus home for a nap in the cool. Bargain? a pre-loved and essentially disposable bikini for €1.50. Trouble with all my bargains, essentially disposable or not, is I really, really like them - which means packing up could become a headache in roughly 5 weeks time. Which leads me to my next tid-bit of of news - I have another housesit confirmed in a tiny village in South West France - woo hoo! I fly from here to Paris on 9 October then get on a train for 2.5 hours to go south. Actually easier and cheaper than trying to head north from here overland. Looks like it will be a quiet spot indeed - 3 km walk to the village, couple of dogs to keep me company, an old farmhouse with woodburners for heat - I will indeed be a wild colonial girl roughing it until 4 December - when it'll be back on the train and north to Paris, the City of Lights, the City of Love - and checking into our latest most incredible bargain hotel - before heading out to the airport on the morning of the 5th to meet James. Finally. How did we find this most incredible bargain? TravelPony. It's been around a year or so and sends emails every few days but we never really bothered... I really hate paying upfront for a room even if I can get a full refund. This time however we couldn't resist - for a 3 star hotel in the 9th Arrondissement with a buffet breakfast included that would cost well over A$1000 on booking.com, we scored 6 nights in December for A$535 - and by our standards it's a pretty nice hotel - that's less than $90/night in a town where a continental breakfast can set you back €10/A$15 per person. So hugely excited about that bargain - anyway - the deal is you either tell all your nearest and dearest friends about the deal you got on facebook/twitter/whatever... or you make a TravelPony pledge to tell people about it... so there you go. Never one to look a gift-pony in the mouth, I've officially made it public - Travel Pony is worth a ride in the booking rodeo. Speaking of bargains (I know - I do it a lot) - the garden watering has finally paid off and I enjoyed a 50 cent Mojito the other night at sunset. Finally a use for my not too mellow cheap rum - got a lime at the supermarket, stripped some leaves from my Mojito plant, muddled with sugar and the non-business end of a wooden spoon, added some crushed ice and soda water and Voila! Mojito. Everyone should grow a Mojito plant... you never know, you might have one out there already... I've heard some people just call it Mint... Forthcoming plans (other than a Mojito later today), off to Ronda/Marbella/Puerto Banos for a day trip next Tuesday. Aside from a jaunt to Saturday's flea market, I'm staying nailed in the house until then and focussing on el espanol. Now that France is on the agenda, I need to accomplish as much as possible before switching back to French. Wish me luck.