Days 416-422, 2-8 Aug '15, Accidental Rock Concert Extravaganza Week... Yes - us!

The week just gone started with a whimper and ended with a bang - literally. Last Sunday was a hugely lazy day with a fabulous hit rate on Youtube for catching up on movies on our "must-see" list - Colin Firth in Kingsman, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Jason Statham's latest offering - Spy. In news just in, it's apparently been the hottest July in the last 30 years. No apparently about it, and August is shaping up to be hotter, humider and just plain all round "er". So lying on the sofa and gently watching movies is frightfully good for our constitutions. In keeping with our Spanish lifestyle, we peeled away from utter relaxation at about 9.30 pm and took the bus up the hill to Mijas Pueblo for the final night of La Luna Mora - the festival of the Moorish Moon. Under a stunning full moon we pottered about the food stands and enjoyed the atmosphere - even got to tread the boards in the municipal auditorium and scope out where our seats would be for the forthcoming Bon Giovi show on Thursday. All good fun. Tuesday was our weekly jaunt to the fruit and vege market and this week's enormous bargain was figs. Now in Sydney, a fig can set you back A$3-4. One might purchase one or two for delicate slicing and decorating purposes. One does not just eat them willy-nilly. Anyway - this week, scoring 2.5kg for €1.50, we went loco! balistico! indeed just plain crazy over los higos. We got our treasure home and juiced some. Hmmm still had lots... then decided to make fig jam. Huge success and now two massive jars of sticky, lovely fig jam are residing in the fridge, just waiting to pair with cheese, toast, you name it. Even had some left over for slicing into a salad. Wednesday we got up relatively early and walked down to the beach in the "cool" of the morning. We enjoyed a typical Andalucian breakfast (tomato smush and olive oil on toast) and a coffee, whilst waiting for things to open. Then. Sigh... tax time. Unlike regular folks who use the time-honoured shoebox method of collecting receipts, statements etc, us homeless types keep everything in one email folder and then magic all the details into a spreadsheet. All of this will eventually get emailed to our accountants who will hopefully magic up a refund. Hopefully. Wednesday was an excellent day all told as we won tickets on the radio to go to an Eagles tribute show on Friday night (Desperados) - including schmoozing in the VIP suite. Meanwhile, as the final part of our 10th anniversary celebrations, Thursday was our first night out at the Bon Giovi tribute show. Brilliant. Amazing. Incredible - that the show went on at all. After a massive warm up concert by "Stereo 80" - loads of hits and the crowd was thoroughly warmed up by 10.30 pm... when it rained. Aarghh! Looked like Bon Giovi wouldn't be coming on at all... as they said - water, electricity and musicians just don't mix. And it NEVER rains in August!!! But the rain abated and the night rocked on. Funniest thing was people desperately reaching up to touch the hand of tribute band leader "Jon"... I like a fake handbag as much as the next person... but really? Hoofed it to the cab stand quickety-quick after the show and made it home by 2 am. We were tired on Friday, but got our glad rags on again, onto the bus at 8.30 pm, into the VIP suite by 9.15 pm and the evening was a happy, happy blur of cava (sparkling Spanish wine) and nibbles. The Eagles band was super - actually didn't realise how many Eagles songs we knew and they did an incredible job with the music filling and overflowing the mountainside auditorium. Only 2 cabs on the stand and we shared a ride down the hill... nothing like a toasted cheese & onion sandwich after a night rehydrating with bubbles. Really dragging the chain after we got up on Saturday... Just. One. More. We hadn't planned the Saturday night concert, right up until they put the tickets on special during the week through the Spanish version of "Groupon" - tickets down to €13 each. So off we went to The Cops (yep - Police tribute) and Deeper Purple. Who were incredibly heavy. We only knew 2 of their songs as it turns out. Finally home on Sunday morning, we crawled into the hobbit hole and stayed there. Next week? Medieval Market at the Castle. If we can psyche ourselves up to leave the house. Rock on!