Goyo cake shop
Opposite the department store El Corte Ingles, after you have crept slowly through their handbag section…very slowly. Cross the road, feel a tad of sympathy for the cars being towed away by the police….unless it is a top of the range, range rover, or a ferrari and you will find Goyo. Their coffee is great and their apple cakes are to die for. Now anyone that knows me will understand my need for bling, caffeine and apple cake and not necessarily in that order. Of all the apple cakes I have tried in the Costa del Sol and that is quite a few. Goyo do the best! They are flat, pancake like, and MELT IN YOUR MOUTH. The worst apple cake is in the coffee shop in the middle of the commercial cente La Canada, by Zara and H and M. Their apple cake tastes dry, is sponge based, tiny in portion, expensive for what it is and only memorable for being so bad. Be warned….
El Corte Ingles handbags and Tous watches.
I’ve just been to El Corte Ingles to buy some bikinis. Air conditioning, no queueus, my daughter to help tell me that everything I was trying on was too plain and that really the hot pink bikini with lipsticks on was so much nicer than plain brown. Anyway, I found 2 bikinis after trying on about 25, so I’m happy ….How larger on top ladies manage I don’t know. Most of the ones I tried on were far too small and I’m not exactly Katie Price. Anyway, on the way back I passed the handbag section. El Corte Ingles had GORGEOUS handbags and I nearly choked when I saw the prices, over 500 euros for the bag that I liked. Well the girl has taste?! Then I spotted a white watch with a few jewels, bling, I love bling. Only 250 euros from Tous. I only had 250 cents so that was off the menu but hey ho, I received my first Google ads cheque today and if I save really hard by 2020 I may be able to afford it……
We have a creepy house
My daughter today told me at breakfast that she hadn’t slept well and that we have a creepy house. Had she seen ghosts, was my grandmother paying us a visit, was the house built on top of a graveyard, was she astrally projecting at night? Visions of the exorcist came to mind and I’ve heard that teenagers are prone to poltergeist activity. Before I reached for the yellow pages and looked up exorcism I asked her what she meant?
” Well I’ve dreamed of spiders climbing into my mouth, I saw a silverfish when I woke up and I think there are mossies in my room. We have a very creepy crawly house mum.”
So I don’t need to call the local vicar but I may need to call in pest control……..
Sephora in La Canada
I love Sephora, their dumpling shaped soap dispensers with their glorious fruity smells make hand washing a pleasure ( ask my children!) and at under 5 euros are good value too. If you ask the assistant to wrap them they do the most wonderful job, wrapping them in cerise tissue paper and ribbons. They make great gifts. I bought some Sephora bath products for my sister in law and she has just asked me to bring her back four soap bottles when I return to the UK for a holiday. My best buy so far though is an eye make up remover that actually works. Again just over 5 euros so much better value than eye make up removers from Clinique which are good but still not as good as this product. Buy FACE by Sephora. It says eye make up remover on the bottle and you can buy it in Sephora upstairs in La Canada. El Gato the fab gift shop has quite a few thing reduced, nearby to Sephora. I have wanted to buy their set of spoons that are decorated with huge glass beads in either silver or burnt gold. They were just under 15 euros until now ….they have been reduced to just under 10 euros. I bought two for gifts, had them wrapped and hey presto, my Christmas shopping is underway…..
The Shack by WM Paul Young
I love a good serial killer on the loose or chick lit but I thought I would try something a bit different this summer and have just had the delivery from Amazon of The Shack. It is on the New York Times best seller list and has great reviews on Amazon. Basically a man goes on holiday and is daughter is abducted and they suspect she was brutally murdered as evidence to support this is found in a remote shack. Four years later the father receives a letter, apparently from God inviting him back to the shack for a week-end. I can’t wait to start it……Remember Amazon deliver to Spain!
Is Dunnes going bust?
Heard something a little worrying recently. Someone I know that supplies products to Dunnes received a letter regarding late payment. Dunnes had sold the products and made the necessary profit but was not paying on time to the supplier. This was the first time that this had happened and rings alarm bells……
Paradise Lost – TV programme on Spain
It is fun to watch these types of programmes when you live in Marbella as it is a small world here and you always see someone or a place that you know. I recognized the house that Kristina the estate agent was standing in as some parents had built it a couple of years ago hoping to sell it to an Arab. It really is something else. If anyone locally was interested in going to the new hair salon opened up by Robert Calvin, you will find it in the parade of shops by Barclays Bank in Nueva Andalucia, where the DVD shop used to be. I have to say when I saw the location I thought ” oh no.” The Cutting Crew had a hairdressers there for years, then it closed down and then partially re-opened. It was established but still didn’t make as much money as the branch in La Canada the commercial shopping centre. There was a lovely cafe/cake shop there too and that too has closed down. The dvd shop moved further down the road and so I don’t think that area gets much passing trade there. Robert Calvin will also be competing against Reflections which is the busier area of Centro Plaza and has a first class reputation in the area and also markets itself heavily. I’m not sure how many people will want to pay 150 euros for a cut, colour and blow dry either, with around 100 euros being the price that most people seem to pay locally. A new salon has opened up opposite the department store El Corte Ingles in Puerto Banus and they are offering colour and a cut for just over 22 euros, absolutely amazing. It looks very busy and caught my eye as I just love their blingy lights that hang low from the ceilings.Back to where Robert has chosesn his premises, a negative can be parking your car, which can be a problem around there sometimes. The higher you have to park up the hill the more likely you are to break your neck once you get out and try walking down the hill, if you like to wear heels! In Centro Plaza parking is easy and along with any slopes there are steps. That aside, I really do hope that Robert Calvin is successful and he came across really well, a very likeable man on the tv programme. So many hairdressers just don’t have that factor and if you are having your hair done for 2 hours then it is nice to have someone who you can chat with and who helps you relax. I think he has everything about him to fit in perfectly with the Marbella lifestyle and I wish him the best of luck….
Chinese restaurant by Bruno’s, Cabopino campsite
Just wanted to say that this is a REALLY good Chinese restaurant. The decor is really warm and cosy, the service is friendly without being overbearing and the food is absolutely divine. The prices aren’t cheap but if that isn’t a problem for you then you will really enjoy eating here. Lucky Cabopino campers having it so nearby. My youngest daughter had the chicken tikka and it was great for her as it was very moist, not too spicy and she could recognize what she was eating. We will certainly come back to this restaurant again.
Wok Away Puerto Banus
I thought I’d treat my children and a friend of my daughter’s to lunch at Wok Away in Puerto Banus, a stone throw from the market that is currently there. I have to say I was really unimpressed and the only one that finished their plate of food was my son. Since he had said an hour previously that he was so hungry he was digesting his stomach I’m not sure if that is exactly a reference for good food at Wok Away. Firstly the place looks like a take away and we were served on disposable poly plates. No problem but I really don’t think that just under 9 euros for a plate of food like this with drinks on top is really good value. The children had the little Wok menu, just under 6 euros for a plate of food, good portion size but again on the disposable plate and it looked really unattractive. One child had noodles with chicken nuggets and they were left. The other children had the noodles with mince, also left. I tasted my son’s adult menu and it was pretty good, but considering the decor of where we were eating, the fact that there is no table service, you order at the counter like you do in McDonalds and the fact that we were eating on the disposable plate really didn’t add up to a good value meal. I really wish we had gone somewhere else and sadly, that’s what we will do next time we want to eat out.
Puerto Banus market
The summer market is now open in Puerto Banus. You can’t miss it, the square if full of white arabic looking tents selling tat, sorry I mean, beautiful artifacts from exotic countries. It is open all day and until late into the night seven days a week. They have to as the rents are so expensive! Acutally I quite like the market for buying little Christmas stocking gifts for my daughters, as some things are quite cheap, and I like to support it too. We also bought some fab and unusual pictures one year. Mostly though my girls want to buy tickets for the trampolene jumps where you are harnessed in and flung into the air. After waiting for them in the queue that always forms at this time of year I usually have severe dehydration, a thumping headache and feel nauseous from watching them go boing, boing, boing into the air, up and down again for five minutes. I then need to head to a bar and need to pay at least 15 euros for a few drinks.
I often come home after a trip to the Puerto Banus market and think I’ve been robbed. Then I remember, I have three children…..and I was in Puerto Banus.