High Time for Pie Time!

Well not quite Pie Time.....but Cheesecake Time!

Quite possibly my favourite time of the day is after dinner when I serve myself the teeniest slice of Spanish cheesecake.

I discovered this little mini baked cheesecake in my local mercado and it's really delicious. In total the whole cake is about the size of a saucer and it's very good value priced at €1.30.

I eek out a little slice every evening so it lasts about 5 days - now that's really good value!!

Deliveries!

 I'm a little obsessed with how deliveries are made in the areas of Malaga city that are pedestrianised.

Check out these different types of delivery vehicles that I saw over the past few days.

I particularly like the branded ice cream bike box combo!

La Taberna del Pintxo

We had a fun little lunch yesterday.  It was rather spontaneous as we had planned to just stop for our first coffee of the day.  We liked the look of this place below and sat outside and ordered our coffees.

I then went inside to look at the food as I had got a glimpse when I first sat down. Once inside I could see that is was similar to a place that Ciaran had visited on a trip he made to Spain back in December. Basically there is lots of little tapas with different cocktails sticks in each piece of food which delineates different prices for each tapas. I liked the look of the food so said to Ciaran he should head in for a look too.

And sure once Ciaran went inside - this happened!!

After our coffee I ordered a cava which went really well with the little bites. Check out these peppers - it was the first time I've ever had them but couldn't resist as the server went by and offered them to us.  As well as the cold tapas with the sticks in them there are also hot offerings that are walked through the restaurant by the servers. A fun concept and I think would work really well with a group of friends. We chilled over our lunch and drinks for probably 2 hours and the bill came to about 22 euro.

A shout out has to go to Bones who was incredibly well behaved for the whole time we were there. He just sat quietly and looked at all that was going on around him. Normally he gets bored after about 30 mins and begins to make motions that he wants to leave but on this occasion he was content to stay.  We had brought water in a bottle for him which he had a long drink from to keep cool.

It's worth noting that yesterday was considerably cooler that other days with temps reaching 28 degrees but also starting out cloudy at the beginning of the day. It was very pleasant!!

In Malaga: Market Monday & Tuesday

After a dip in the sea on Monday morning we headed to the Malaga food market. The selection of fruit, vegetables and meat is incredible and the sights and smells are great. I've been to bigger more impressive markets on my travels but I like this one as it is small and accessible and spotlessly clean. There is also a fish part of the market but this was closed on the Monday that we visited.

Check out the Moorish entrance in the pic at the top - it is so attractive looking. The market is definitely worth visiting and you can get tapas and a beer on little tables just outside.

Later in the day it was time to go to the Padel Courts where Ciaran had lined up a game. I'd like to say that the sun was going down and the heat was leaving the day but can't given that it had reached well over 30 degrees during the day. It was hot for me watching but I was able to get a cold Coke Zero from the Snack Bar - I can only imagine how hot it was playing! He brought plenty of water with him.

The Padel Court was up on the roof of a gym which is pretty cool in my book!

On Tuesday our monitors arrived. I was wondering how this would be done, given that we are living in a pedestrianised area of Malaga. I had seen couriers making deliveries on bikes stacked with parcels and also DHL pull carts by bike. Our delivery came by what I presume is a little electric car. So clean and efficient it came right up to our apartment. Malaga is such a smart and civilised city and this is certainly one of the ways that makes it so.

After visiting the new studio for PIGSY we sat in Constitution Square and cooled off with a drink. I had my first ever Aperol Spritz which was just perfect in the heat. I highly recommend them and am a fan for sure!

And we finished another great day in Malaga with dinner on our terrace - not so late this time, I think we were eating by 8pm or so. Dinner was again simple, I cooked some spicy chicken that we enjoyed with salad.

After dinner we listened to an episode of the BBC podcast of Anne Enright's book "The Actress" (thanks to Cousin Kasey for the suggestion).  We are really enjoying it and are just listening to an episode a night.  It's read by the author and we are very much enjoying it. Listening to talking books or podcasts is not something we regularly do but we have enjoyed at times in the past.  At this time we only have Spanish television so after watching the news (where we try to follow along given that we don't speak Spanish) this is something novel for us to do and as I said we are very much enjoying it!

Sunday Funday

Oh boy was it hot today. Too hot to even take the dog for a walk that was for sure.

For us we cooled down with a visit to the beach in the morning where we had the nicest swim. The water was just perfect and the beach had a cooling breeze.

 After the beach it was time for coffee and we then hung out on our terrace for the afternoon where I took an outdoor shower when it hit 40 degrees. When I say outdoor shower I actually mean spraying myself down with the hose - it did the job!

And then later in the day (still hot!) it was off for a little excursion to the Picasso Museum which is exactly 300 metres from our apartment - how cool is that?!
I had visited it before but it was Ciaran's first visit. We both really enjoyed the visit and Ciaran said it was the highlight of his day. My highlight was the little morning swim - we plan on going again soon.

 And after a lovely dinner of tapas on the terrace we had water melon for after and then the sun went down on a perfect day in Malaga

Summer time.....and the living is easy

As we begin to settle in to Malaga we are beginning to see different areas of the city and get a feel for what they are like.  We think that Soho has a bit of a hipster feel and it may be on the up, then there are very upmarket areas around Calle Larios and then where we are living is possibly best understood by an Irish person is to describe it as maybe being the Temple Bar area of Malaga. This is exactly where we wanted to be in the city (right in the heart) and is a little ironic as when we house hunted for our first apartment the year before we got married, Ciarán found a really great apartment in the centre of Temple Bar that he was really keen on buying as he was very much in favour of city living. However, we then settled on an apartment at the Phoenix Park.

So far we have found living in Malaga to be easy.  Here's just some of the things that we have done with ease and no hassles and give you an idea of what it is all like.

Printing
We received an email with a document that needed to be printed and signed yesterday.  In order to do this we walked probably 2 minutes up the road to a print copy shop to do it, returned to the apartment and signed it and then scanned on the phone and returned it by email.  All in probably less than 10 minutes and I think that we can do it quicker by going at a less busy time as the morning time seems to be busy

Art Supplies
On the way to the print shop we passed by an art supply shop.  So this is literally less than 1 minute away from the apartment.  Ciarán went in and spoke to the owner.  They make up their own canvas for sale in the store and also sell spray paint.  Again so easy to have this resource on our doorstep!

Vet for Bones
Having looked online and chosen a vet near the marina (where we stayed in an AirBnB back in February) we cycled down on the bikes a day after Ciarán & Bones arrived. The vet was really friendly and helpful and didn't mind us bringing the bikes in to the foyer as we had forgotten our locks. He spoke perfect English and gave us lots of useful advice about Bones. I asked whether it was ok for him to drink the tap water here in Malaga but he advised not as it is too hard and could give Bones kidney stones. We also bought dog food in the vets and again so easy because "Canagan" dog food was available.  This is a British brand that is familiar to me as it is marketed in most Irish pet stores. We brought over some of Bones current dog food and will mix both old and new together to wean him on to the Canagan.

Waste Disposal
Waste Management is brilliant in Malaga. Large bins are on the street and are available to dispose of rubbish. All you have to do is split your rubbish in to recyclables and then pop them in the bins. This can be done on a daily basis so it stops having big amounts of rubbish for disposal here in the apartment. Again, as you can probably guess, there are bins available for us to use a few metres away from where we live - about a min walk.

Postcards
I wrote a few postcards over coffee on the terrace having picked them up from a little Tabac shop on our morning walk. Stamps (sellos) were also available so I was conveniently able to buy all I needed in the one shop. There is a post office very close to us which will be convenient for mailing packages, etc. but it does seem to have big lines outside it from time to time.

Padel 
Having visited a few padel clubs on our last visit, Ciarán had located a club that is quite convenient to where we are living. We cycled there yesterday evening and had a look around at the courts which are on the roof top! 
He has been hooked up with a game already on Monday (Lunes) at 7pm. I will go along too and hang out in the comfortable seating area and I'll blog about how that all goes.

Simple food
Having eaten out a few times when we arrived, last night for dinner (at a very late for me 9.30pm) we made a simple omelette which we ate with a little salad along with bread for Ciarán. Blissful to eat out on the terrace listening to the hustle and bustle of the street below us. A perfect end to a Friday night.

Big news - I've made a move to Malaga!

PIGSY in Spain

After a lot of planning and a long time (our initial plans were scuppered in March by the Covid pandemic) we have finally made a move to Malaga.

Both of us have taken breaks from our careers in Ireland and we have plans to live here for awhile with Ciaran concentrating on his art work - see www.ciaranmccoy.com

We are all set up with a rented apartment in the centre of the city (pics to follow in future blogs and studio space for PIGSY) and our flights went very smoothly - and most importantly Bones the dog arrived with no issues - he travelled in the hold on Ciaran's flight, as cargo.

I set off from Ireland on a 3.20pm Aer Lingus flight after leaving Bones & Ciaran in the dog friendly Travel Lodge in Airside, Swords. Then Ciaran checked Bones in to cargo on Tuesday morning at 4am and then made his way to Dublin Airport to put his baggage and bike on to his 7.20am Aer Lingus flight to Malaga.  We would have preferred to take Bones in the cabin with us but this is currently not possible with airlines from Ireland to Europe, it seems.  During these Covid times it could be a source of additional revenue for airlines (as passenger numbers were low on both our flights) so perhaps it will change and pets may be allowed in the cabin.  My sister's cat travelled in the cabin with her from Oman in the Middle East to The Netherlands so I am unsure what is the issue with travel from Ireland.

I arrived in to Malaga promptly on Monday evening and deplaned quickly and made my way to immigration to present my passport and after that went through a Covid check where I presented a QR code on my phone where I had completed a self declaration that I was well and gave my contact details for where I was staying in Malaga.  I then made my way to the carousel where my bag was sitting there waiting for pick up.  Honestly, it was like flying on a private jet in to a private airport.  It was pretty much deserted and probably took all of 10 mins to do the above!!!

From the airport I took the bus to Malaga and got off near Calle Larios and walked to the apartment.  It was that easy and felt very safe as everyone was wearing masks.  

As mentioned Ciaran was on the flight the next day so I got up and took the bus again to the airport and met him about 11.30am.  From the airport we took a taxi to the cargo terminal and paid a ground handling fee for the dog in the office and then went to the unit next to the office to pick Bones up.  He came through in a crate which I was under the impression that we had rented for his transport but they gave it to us to keep.  He hopped out of the crate and we put his lead on and he walked smartly to the taxi without a look back!
The taxi driver had no issue with Bones hopping in the back with us and he loaded up the crate in to the boot.

We were then on our way to Malaga with the taxi driver dropping us off at a spot a short walk to our apartment.  The bus ride in to Malaga costs €3 and the taxi cost us less than €30 and was well worth it as there was no way we could have walked to the cargo terminal with all of our baggage and in the mid day sun.  Additionally I am not sure if we could have taken Bones in the bus.

When we arrived, we had a good look around at the apartment to see if there is anything we needed to organise or buy. The place was spotlessly clean as we are the first tenants since it was refurbished and it has just about everything we need, bar two sun loungers for the terrace.  We will get that organised over the next few days.

So that's the state of play for the moment.....do keep any eye on this blog as I will post all about what we are getting up to and how everything is going.

Additionally for lots more pics follow the PIGSY insta page