6 weeks to go!

Here we are! I really do feel like 2 people now. Put on 2 stone so far - but it is all there in the tummy really. Legs and bum a bit heavier but nothing to worry about for the old recouperation stage.

I spent a day with Jessi (my sister in law) on the farm yesterday and I must say that it made me feel really lreaxed about this whole process. I swear she looks thiner than she did before pregnancy - and baby leire is only 5 weeks old. Jessi and I seemed to put the same weight on at every stage and we are teh exact same height - so hopefully by xmas time I'll be looking as good as she does now.

Leire was a pleasure to have all day. I was doing lots of the tending to her - think Jessi was holding back and letting me have a practice on purpose. Its just like playing at dolls when you put her clothes on. Not that I ever played with dolls much as a child. I was more into anything that involved running around. Maybe I was saving the dolls bit for now - when its necessary.

Leire stops crying imeadiately if Xabi sings the Barcelona football club anthem. Its hilarious! It works every time. He says he used to sing it to Jessi's tummy to make sure Leire would be a barca fan but it has had the effect of calming her because its something melodic that she recognises. Lets see what taste in music Olivia has! I put all sorts of different things on when I'm in the house - from Flamenco right through to full on gun toting Hip Hop.

We are in the process of making olives. Well obviously not "making" them. We have picked about 10 kilos from the trees at the farm and now Jose wants to try different ways of treating them. You have to leave them for a bout a month I think - in all sorts of different herbs and concoctions. His late grandma used to make them and since she has passed away (a year and a half ago) Jose's dad has taken the baton. However, we are not overly impressed with his results and so Jose is going for it early in the taking over of traditions time line and wanting to give it a try. I'm all for it but a bit worried that this batch will turn out rubbish because we have got to do them tomorrow night in a bit of a rush as we are going to La Zenia on Friday morning and they can't really be left until we get back. I would ahve prefered to have not had to have done it all in a rush, pero bueno, we'll see what happens. Its not like there is a shortage of olives to try again with. They have got about 80 olive trees.

A man in marroco told us to put orange peel in with the olives - so we are going to try that one out. See Jose was investigating the olive business back in June in Marroco - he's been thinking about this for a while.......which is a shame that we are now going to actually do it all in a bit of rush. I'll keep you posted.

S xx