Biographical Log of Michael
Furstner - Page 319
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Jazclass - Contract Bridge - Happiness
Friday - Sunday, October 6-8
2017
(diary)
Lift from the lower level 'Plaza de la Peña' to the 'Plaza Bajo' level above. Note the little Chappel in the top right corner.
The lift was repaired after just one day of malfunction.
I have been here now 10 days and absolutely love the place. The beautiful weather we are having of course helps and I will see how the colder months ahead (reportedly with much rain) are going to be.
But at this stage I am sure I will settled down here at least for a year.
I have tried to look at an apartment nearby this Sunday, but there was no one home. So I will try tomorrow again.
The contrasting environments between the Plaza Bajo (a small enclosed square with lots of people and activity) and the La Muralla botanical park (which is a haven of tranquility) is just wonderful. They provide contrasting emotional moods just a few hundred meters apart.
At La Muralla, sipping a zumo naranja, I sit under the magnificent trees with three fountains bubbling nearby.
When I look up to one side I can see the mountain slope covered with trees and rocky outcrops.
When I look the other way the Costa del Sol stretched out in front of the Mediterranean sea.
At a place like this you can only feel one thing and that is grateful to be alive !
(Interesting to see what the bridge club members think of it when they come next year.)
On Saturdays and Sundays a small bagels (?) stall is making and selling its ware on the Plaza de la Constitucion (photo above).
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Monday & Tuesday, October 9-10
2017
(diary)
Nice clean beach at Fuengirola. Light coloured sand. Beach sunbed € 5.50
Weather as before and every day so far is like Darwin's dry season but 10° C less hot, wonderful !
Because of this great weather I did not want to waste my time going by bus down to Fuengirola on the coast. But today (Tuesday) I finally decide to go.
The bus takes just 25 minutes and costs €1.55. The trip down is a new experience for me as the female bus driver is burning a pleasant smelling incense stick, stuck somewhere convenient on her dashboard. I am sitting in the front row, so enjoy to aroma too all the way down.
There are two tourist ticket offices at the Fuengirola bus terminal where one can book and buy tickets for a wide range of trips and excursions (to Ronda, Granada, Gibraltar, Morocco, etc.). Here a list of excurions presently advertised.
My first impression walking down one of the Fuengirola streets is of noise, chaos and dirt. The place really could do with a clean up or a modern up grade. A mish mash of building styles and street pavements which must be 50 years old.
But once I reach the beach (just a few hundred yards from the bus terminal) this changes much for the better. A clean, modern Esplanade with palm trees, restaurants and a very pleasant beach scene.
I remembered the black beach sand in Marbella (?), but there is none of that here thanks goodness. Clean looking light buff coloured sand and no pebbles either !
For €5.50 you can hire a sun bed under a beach umbrella, and there are still lots of takers here, this first half of October. The sea looks clean but there is no surf.
Puntillitas fried in hot oil €6, delicious !
I walk around a bit, then return by bus (male driver no incense) to the pleasant tranquility (despite the tourists there) of Mijas.
I select the Restaurante La Piedra located on the lower level Plaza Virgen de la Peña for lunch. They have something on the menu ('Carta') I have never seen or had before : Puntillitas#.
It are tiny calamari, their main bodies less than 2 centimeters long with minute tentacles, fried in hot oil. Very crisp and absolutely delicious. I certainly will come here again !
# The double l ('ll') in Spanish is pronounced as 'lj'
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Wednesday & Thursday, October 11-12
2017
The dresses of some of the ladies in a city like Baden Baden are statements of style and fashion that put a smile on the face of someone like me for a whole day.
I just love stylish clothing and creative jewelry. Perhaps partly as a result of my involvement in our family business Martinshof.
In Mijas the clothes of just about everyone (including myself) are comfortable, plain boring holiday style, although some of the ladies walking here do try.
Most of the dresses for sale in the various tourist shops are also uninspiring.
But there is one shop NOVO LUXE ! (on the Plaza Estaban) that does stand out from the crowd. I look at it with pleasure every time I walk past.
The dresses are imaginative and elegant and some of the materials used are also unusual.
I did have a chat with the shop assistant Marièla about the elegant ware she has. Prices are not dear either. The dress on adjacent photo is only €51.
Today (Thursday) the sky is darkened by clouds and during my breakfast at the Bar PlazaBajo it even rains a bit. But by noon blue patches in the sky reappear and the temperature becomes quite warm.
For the past 3 days I have been going through the Bar La Piedra Carta for lunch. Yesterday Boquerones (fried anchovies) and today Albondigas (small meat balls in a tomato sauce). Each only €6. But I have a long way to go before I tried all the dishes on the menu.
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Friday & Saturday, October 13-14
2017
Enjoying a 'Tinto de la Casa' (€1.75) at Bar La Piedra, Mijas
Great !! I have secured a long term furnished apartment in Mijas.
Frankly I was getting a bit worried and started to look for other places to go, such as Mijas Costa (close to Fuengirola) and even Nerja, a very popular coastal town but 60 km away.
The rental market in Mijas is very tight. There are one or two local networks who rent out apartments bypassing the Real Estate agents. I enquired with one of those but they had nothing available. I also registered with one of the Real Estate agents but have not received a single message from them.
So yesterday (Friday) I visited another Real Estate agent Mijas Rentals and Sales and to my great and pleasant surprise they did have a few properties on their book. David from their office, showed me around and within an hour I agreed to rent one of their fully furnished apartments at a reasonable price.
Lovely living room, ultra modern kitchen, two bedrooms and two bathrooms, small study, laundry and a covered outside terrace overlooking both mountains and sea. Here in Mijas fully furnished includes even towels and bed linen, which is quite fantastic.
The place has a pleasant ambiance and I feel I will be comfortable and in a happy mood here. I would enjoy this apartment anywhere, but having it in Mijas, only 200-300 meters from Plaza de la Constitucion (village center) makes it doubly wonderful.
I have the same feeling of happiness now I remember from 26 years go after I had bought my house in Nambour (Sunshine Coast, Qld.).
Then too it was a shift in location and start of a new life after leaving Adelaide. I think at the time house prices were going up and that was perhaps the reason I decided to buy.
This time is different and more in line with Confucius' philosophy of making decisions that allow you to grow and don't tie you down.
By renting (rather than buying) this apartment in Mijas all my options for the future remain wide open. I may stay here, I may not, who knows.
"Ins blauwe hinein." (into the blue) would my student friend Herman Feber say, who passed away a couple of years ago.
Above dish : Fried pimientos (sweet peppers, €5) from Bar La Piedra.
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© 2017 Michael
Furstner