Chasing Noodles

When I was 18 months old, Santa gave me a bike/scooter. It had three wheels and the faster you pushed the faster you went and I could go FAST! I would wizz around the house and garden and shopping centers and every holiday HAD to have my bike. I was addicted to them, managing to wear out the tires of two.  Then the time came to get onto the "big bike", with fairy wheels to start obviously. Soon I kicked those ol' things off and was master of the two wheels. Then one day when i was 7, against my Moms wishes, I took my cousins to see a secret bike area that we had found and on my way rode smack into a moving vehicle. I snapped my tibia so badly it pierced my skin, spit the skin just below my knee and in between all that was flung into a nearby tree, landed back on the ground and in the process burst a vein or two in my eye.  I was in hospital for a week or so and had a cast that went from my toes all the way up to the top of my thigh. Not fun when you...

Who knew you could spend over an hour in a supermarket and walk out with just one packet? I didn't, until two days ago that is. With what i thought was a little gap in the rain, I headed off to the shop down the road. The gap was just there to tease as it rained all the way from the time i left the gate till much later that evening. My experience began with having to choose a trolley or a basket. Easy decision at home, I know. Oh wait, there are no baskets. There is a strange looking trolley thing that has a basket the height of me attached to a handle, with four wheels, the two in the front smaller than the back replacing the common spotted normal basket .  So I start pushing the trolley/basket, as one does right? Half an hour in to my epic experience, I see a fellow shopper, but something looks different. Turns out, you PULL the deep basket, not push it. That's embarrassing.  So, very nonchalantly I pretended I was stepping away from my cart to look at something, the...

I made it to Marbella with not a single English word to be heard or seen. Granted I did ask for a ticket to Estapona but Marbella was the last stop, so there was a slight communication problem there.  I really need to speed up my Spanish. Someone just asked me for directions, or a smoke or could have been for money, I'm not sure. Haha Okay, onwards to La Duquesa, or for now known as home. 

  I have an 7 hour trip on the bus ahead of me from Madrid to Marbella, so i thought, what better time to catch up on some blogging. Now, time to explain why I love Madrid. I'm in a points kind of mood, so here goes: * The architecture - Some of these buildings date back many years and the detail is mind blowing. From the statues on the top to the patterns and the detail on the doors is just too beautiful. I have read about places like these in books but actually seeing it right in front of you is like a dream come true. (Oh dear, the lady next me is playing the noisiest game of scrabble on her phone since my life. Lots of swooshing and bloeping and bling sounds. Not great I tell ya) * The people - As long as you can at least try say hello in Spanish you will receive a very warm greeting. They are so helpful and kind and even without a single English word manage to help you with whatever you need. I have found though that talking with my hands all my life has really ...

..with Madrid! I have begun a new adventure, again, and this time My chosen country is .... Spain! After a long flight via Doha and some lost luggage, I arrived in Madrid and managed to tackle the metro getting myself all the way to a backpackers that I closed my eyes and pointed to on map.  I must have looked like a proper tourist. All I needed was long socks and sandels to be 100% tourist. I can tell you that it was love at first sight. This city is magical. I actually felt like I was in a movie and was the lead in one of those old school flicks, where she arrives in this big city and stands on the street corner (no, not like that) and looks up and everyone around her is in fast forward and there is that dramatic music as she clutches her bag in front of her.  Well, it wasn´t quite like that, but similar. My heart felt as though it might burst with excitement. There is so much to see, and take in and I don´t want to miss a single thing.  I´m on my wa...

There are a few things in life that you don't learn at school.  It's not one of your subjects and your parents don't sit you down and say, for example, "Okay, let's talk about flight etiquette". It is however part of your upbringing and manners you are taught but it is also just general knowledge, right? While checking in on Monday for my big adventure, there was a group of "young adults" lets call them, behind me that we're pretty rowdy but I put it down to excitement of joining a cruise ship or re-joining for some of them, and I brushed it off. My sister, cousin and I joked that I would probably end up sitting next to one of them. Funny at the time, not so funny when I realised I was going to be completely surrounded by this group on the plane. Not just to Jhb, but ALL the way to Doha. Awesome. Let me sum up some things that I thought to be not so polite on an incredibly full flight. A grown man screaming like a girl at take off sho...