A bit of an oddball title but this morning for possibly the first time since we arrived I managed to watch the sunrise - this is thanks to two things, firstly the builders forgot to take their keys with them last night when they finished work so I had to deliver them this morning to let them in and secondly - the sun doesn´t rise here until around 8 to 8.30am so at quarter to nine I saw the most fantastic views over the valley as the sun rose!

The moonrise we saw was also spectacular when we went away last weekend. We got ourselves a hotel with a sea view and expected a fantastic sunset - only at this time of year and in Javea the sun sets behind the resort so there was no sunset to be had ... however when we went out for a drink that evening along the promenade we witnessed the most fantastic moon-rise I have ever seen - it really was spectacular. We also saw flying fish by moonlight...the weekend away did us lots of good - we enjoyed a boat trip round the costa blanca news and swimming in the sea...the weather was fine and we switched off from casa business for a couple of days!!!

So onto news of the house - we think the builders are two to three days away from completion - it is all really starting to come together and we have started to kick in to the physical work ourselves now .. as I write this Nigel is back at the house fitting the kitchen and putting up lights and mirrors (obviously not all at the same time!!) I have been shopping like mad to make sure that we have all the right accessories to install including the kitchen plus of course grout, tiles and finishing edges etc. from the builders merchants! This week included a holiday in Spain - thursday was a national holiday - so naturally most places shut for Thursday, Friday and Saturday (and why wouldn´t you if you could !!) - this is commonplace in spain and takes a bit of getting used to and planning for!! I seems quite mean that all the English bank holidays fall on mondays so there is no chance of that happening !!!!!!

We continue to watch DVD´s and I thought it might make a change if I updated you on some films worth watching or worth avoiding!!

King Kong - this is to be recommended, it´s quite long but is really well done, the special effects are good and Jack Black makes a really good hero/villain depending on your point of view!

The Matador - this is a black comedy starring Pierce Brosnan as an assassin and he is fantastic in it - totally out of the role you would expect him to play - we both thoroughly enjoyed this film so if you like your comedy quite dark then this is worth watching.

Keeping Mum - now we picked this for the cast - Kirsten Scott Thomas, Rowan Atkinson, Patrick Swayze and Maggie Smith and it didn´t disappoint - again it is quite a black comedy and Nigel found it more enjoyable than I did but the best part of the film - the scenery - it is all shot on the Isle of Man in our opinion - including golf scenes at none other than the Mount Murray hotel and cafe scenes at the calf of man..worth watching just to see where we´ve all been!!!

War of the Worlds - Tom Cruise and a total disappointment - the special effects are fantastic but there is no music (we expected the old score to be included) and no storyline properly - Nigel had to explain the background which sort of made it all make sense but stick to the original we say!!

Mr and Mrs Smith - another comedy with Brad Pitt and Angelina out of character again - this one is well worth watching (if you don´t mind quite a lot of shooting) and we really enjoyed it ...

Troy - I would love to tell you about but I only got to the first twenty minutes and two hours later I woke up to find the film still going and Nigel asleep - now this could be because we had a hard day yesterday or possibly because it is really complicated to follow .... we will probably never know!!!

Anyway - am off to the market now to get some fruit and vegetables ...catch up later and keep in touch everyone,
Love,
Sarah.