So many things I need to be doing right now.. on the laptop.. keep opening it up, staring blankly at the screen click here and there and then shut it down.

Its like my mind is in shut down mode.

Things I want to do, need to do.

Just in a closed mind state of mind.

Changes turmoils around and around I go; down this road I shouldn't be travelling like this, overloading Facebook with reposts of sad sorry and meaningless nothings.

I am having to leave to do something in the UK, I on one hand feel like running away, as I do, and the other I so do not want to leave home, I hate leaving my home, my heart.

Other people's bad lives our bad lives.. what a mixing pot of crapola, still no information on how to live a life after pain, after heartache.

I just feel done with stuff, yet not.. 

I want to disappear into a movie with a pretty sunset and a happy ending.. the sound of birdsong and music from my theme tune.. a big smile a happy heart.. fade out.

I won't, I can't.. always keeping going eh... and tomorrow is another day. And tomorrow I'll be okay again.

Sorry friends, don't know what I'd do without being able to write my pain out.. overloading friends on the phone too with my constant whinging.

M.

Above the "Living the dream" moment of this morning! 

Watching to see which car will pop the tennis ball.. this highlight began way before I got to the bar, and bets were closed.. 

I also didn't want to play this 'game'!

Few spots of rain early but passed quickly away.. hoping my paintwork from yesterday was okay.. I haven't checked but I'm sure it is.. 

It's a Greek blue, beautiful color just a few shades different to the one up on the terrace already.

Painted the living room wall also, but the strange brown color bled through almost immediately, so I did what I did a few years also when we had this. I bought a can of silver metallic spray paint and covered it all up today.. no bleed through yet, will leave it, if I can! until Friday and paint over with white again.. fingers crossed it works.. again!

I've made a lasagne to feed me for about four meals.. maybe five? And a lovely chocolaté orange pudding! 

Last night I woke up before 3am.. and didn't get back to sleep until about 6:30am.. just enough time for my alarm to wake me!

But a beautiful dream.. walking through a multi colored forest.. puddles at my feet, shimmery and shining.. reflecting the amazing trees and colors around me.. then led to a table to celebrate my birthday!! Rockets and Lazer display.. the whole biz! Very strange, but nice to sleep and have this dream.. trees normally signify obstacles for the day ahead.. but I walked through easily and very happily, and the birthday? Celebrating!? Who knows... Was only me at the table and I knew it wasn't quite my birthday, but seemed happy enough!

Haven't managed a nap yet today, tried.. but been busy cooking and chatting on the phone, my eyes are very heavy.. maybe just a few minutes.. now.. need to make a list of the things that kept me awake in the night, parking my car when I'm away! Travel to the airport! Strange stupid things that I've done dozens.. and dozens of times... Time to practice mindfulness again me thinks! Or just not give a damn!

M.

Went visiting a friend down in Calahonda this afternoon.. made me sad... walking amongst shadows of the dead... Yeah, I know dramatic, but it always feels that way there, lived there nearly three years.

I try to make new happy memories, I really do, but it's not easy. Still the past lives with us.. does that ever change? I tell myself we have to live differently, accept the past and let it be, like a graphic designer, using overlays, wrap arounds, lay new memories over past.. see them still, but let the new be above the old.. remember to live and breathe and accept.

I say the right words I know, but to listen to my own words is the hardest part.

~~~

Mmmm okay, what else.. I had a lovely relaxing weekend.. was nice, was good.

Today also, if I can move forward.. Although way too many tiger mosquitos for my liking! Itching like... an itchy thing now.. need to cover myself with bite cream!

Watching Start up.. series on Netflix.. Martin Freeman... seen in a whole new light!! is all I am saying!

I bought blue paint today to redo the corner pillars on the terrace and some white for in the living room.. this I shall complete tomorrow.

And for now I bid thee adieu..

M. 

Some photography today.. above and below.. the Deaths Head moth..

This delightful specimen, dead sadly.. and laying on the street last week..but still scared me.. I am not a lover of the moth!! 

But how amazing is this!

Sadly no photograph but visiting with a friend last week also.. and a scorpion by the back door!!! Crazy.. small yellowy color.. and very much scorpion!

Yes just my foot and a small lizard who was flitting about!

Spent last Sunday on a bike ride.. not a bicycle.. a big bike.. was amazing!

Over five hours on the bike, final destination was Ubrique.. 

Two coffee stops on the way and direct home.

I did not want to go home..

M.

 

 

There are no guarantees in love

No guarantees in life

Risks

But then our whole lives are risks, from dawn to dusk and every second therein.

We mustn't look for happy endings we must look for happy moments, happy times and days.. 

Ends are over.. isn't it always about our journeys.. my tattoo Ithaca.. 

If we're about endings what's the point of a life.. it has to be lived..

So many of us are so very lucky; yes we've had the worse of the worse times, the end of roads times.. Times where we don't see the point.

But we're still here.. so let's make our point in this life of ours.. or .. what.

M.

Had a lovely few hours down at La Cala on Monday afternoon.. very quiet on the beach.. 

I read, watched a surfer.. surf.. kept turning like a kebab! Very nice.. then a cool drink at a Chiringuito and home...

M.

Been listening to a local radio station near back where I lived growing up.. 

Tring Radio.. an old friend DJ'ing, '70s music..

Like going back in time.. Strange hearing it here at home.

Had a good day, down town earlier for coffee with friends, then a quick trip to Coín, another coffee.. and home.

Bad, almost no sleep last night, so caught up a little today in a siesta!

Apparently being sent something from Google for being a guide! So time will tell with that!

M.

While I was away several changes happened in town, bars are open later being the main thing!

But also this amazing mural on the wall by the wasteland near the electrical store down the road from here.. beautiful and stunning!

From a distance looks so real.. of course!

We also have several new stores opened, which in present circumstances is a great thing indeed.

I've been busy since getting home, house is all good, need to fix a few things but in time. I do need to get painting a couple of places suffering from humid problems over the winter.

Just enjoying settling back home, and loving every bit of it.

Especially being with people I love, too long away from home isn't good.

My car is fighting fit again, ITV ✓ new battery ✓ Lots of driving, three months away from driving had been awful too!

I've got my new drivers license, as afore mentioned, my new TIE card, what all residents from non EU countries need! 

Next is healthcare to sort out, next week.

I've eaten in chiringuitos, walked along the paseos in La Cala and Carihuela as the sun set.. been to a wonderful birthday party, meeting new friends, where I had to practice Spanish or not communicate at all!! 

I've let my Spanish lessons lax a bit so need to get back to those, right now maybe, after this blog..

I've had sunburn and peeled shoulders.. and yesterday first time ever some weird water blisters all over my arms? Which itched and popped easily!! 

Y al final

"The universe has a way of getting you to a certain place at the exact moment you are supposed to be there.."

M.

Well, didn't actually post this immediately after my last post but will leave the words anyway.. 

Today also, second post, hold onto your hat! I felt the need immediately after posting previous post, to hunt down this poem from decades ago now.. And to repost... Probably the third or forth time now.. I've been blogging for nearly as long as I've been in Spain.. 

All of the following from the next paragraph is from the 2007 Blog post.

~~~

The following poem, if one would call it a poem? I have had for years and then some. someone wrote it and sent it to me... its a bit strange, not sure if  have posted it before or not, seem to be having a bit of de ja vu now!

Maybe someone even knows of its origins, or maybe the person wrote it himself, I am not sure...

'The sad sad voice in this heart of stone sings a song of a love that once was known.

This song now changed from its merry key, has, in its way no dint of misery. For on its way to composition, joy was known and joy was hidden.

As joy was shown, this sad sad song, sung with love by this heart of stone, must release the tears of a joy once known.

If joy was hidden, it must now be shown, to reveal the treasure locked in a memory of a love once known.

For love once shown is love alone, enduring in this heart of stone, let not treasures, both known and hidden be shut in and unbidden.

The sad sad song of joy sings its way from a misery to a life with sweet sweet memory, for joys, both shown and hidden, are treasures between us given.'

~~~

So, maybe it's time.

I should sign off here.

But that would leave you all hanging like the end of an episode of a soap opera.. and even I don't know what it's time for!

M.

 

I think, I am sure I have posted this before.. 

'We spend our days waiting for the ideal path to appear in front of us but what we forget is that, paths are made by walking, not by waiting'

... and I thought, not me, I have always forged my own path, sometimes the way has been tough, rocky or totally wrong, but I pushed through.. 

Always taking the path less travelled.. not always easy.. and a lot of sadness..

This whole thing above.. so sorry if I am repeating.. It's half six in the morning, I've been awake for an hour or more... It's not that I'm not tired, because I am, very very tired.

I fell asleep to a Boring bedtime story.. thank you Spotify.. they do work, they really work! 

Tried to make it work again this morning but gave up.. 

Head is full, I wish I could empty it sometimes.. but that wouldn't really actually be a good thing. I just need to quieten it down.

I write a lot, I talk a lot, I think a lot.

I need to be quiet maybe, very very quiet.. 

That would be weird for me? Moreso maybe for others... 

Why do I have to keep this commentary going, and I know categorically it's not just me. I have been reading a couple of good books about how our minds work, about mindfulness, about quietening the mind down.

I wanted to go away and and just quieten down my mind, maybe I should, who knows what's buried away in the dark damp recesses.. Things I've hidden away to keep me safe, protect myself.

Go somewhere off the grid, just a couple of nights.

I need to unburden my mind, if that is even possible. Because I can't carry it all around with me much longer.

M.

Talking to an old friend about music a few weeks ago.. And how much he had liked music when we were 14.. and still does.. and how music takes you on a journey.. Time travel may not be possible, yet.. but a piece of music takes you somewhere, to another time in a second..  

We were remembering being 14.. and now.. and the speed of these years passing.. those times seemingly gone in a blink of the eyes.. 

The clients I work with, they all say the same thing.. 

I walked for two hours last week, a long way down the path of the River Severn.. I had taken a lot of photographs.. and returning along the same path, but seeing it from a different view point.. Mmm that could be a life quote... 

I talked into the mic on notes.. most came out as gobbledegook! So have had to do a bit of a clean up just now..

Continuing from above...

As I walk I'm trying not to see things that are not photogenic, but to me this whole world is photogenic. I see things that some people miss.. Okay, I probably miss some thing's that other people see, but looking for the details, small seemingly insignificant details.. and now returning, from another viewpoint.. right now I have to stop and take a photograph... Or four..

That morning early I got a train to Birmingham, and on google maps it said that from the station the clinic, and it was the same company that I had used in Watford. I had had trouble finding it last time, and kind of expected the same.. but i came across it unexpectedly, and so unexpectedly I was an hour early for my appointment, the tester said she could see me straight away, so I was back on the train and back to Bewdley before I knew it and now on my lovely walk, before heading home. It's warm, it could be the last day of sunshine before I fly home on Saturday..

The weather been hailstones, sleet.. then sunshine and blue skies, skies the color of battleships, and I have walked and walked..

All the pathways I know here so well.

If places can be happy places Bewdley is definitely one of my happy places.

Last year at this time I was just arriving here, the bluebells were fully out, and in full swing everywhere, in every area of the forests and all along the river bank; violet blue purple carpets, sweet smelling gorgeous..because they were fully out, before not too long the wild garlic was also flourishing, and as you walked through the forest where I have been, the smell of garlic was pungent.. But this year although the bluebells are out, they look like they're going early without reaching their potential, and the garlic is slow to bloom.. I guess mother nature can pick her times.

They are her times, and not ours.

Oh dear..in trying to sort this out it reads very badly, last time I do this using the mic thing.. 

All sorts of random words came through.. like I was speaking in tongues!

My flight home was stressful, check in, watching people turned away.. security empty, very quick through there, and once in departures it was very quiet, alternative seats takes off like a war zone.. 

But time passed quickly..

Boarded and flight home.. 

Stress again at passport control, showing residencia and the QR code.. etc etc.. 

Then my neighbor was there and home.. about half right maybe.. and then a thunder storm and rain!! Honestly not my fault!

I've not slept well.. but it is so good to be home.. I don't want to be away again like this, fly, work two or three weeks and home.. 

Not this three months.. not again.

Yesterday, Sunday, I met up with friends in the morning for coffee, in the sunshine.. 

And came back into town a little later for coffee and lunch and a walk.. a beautiful day.. everyone looking so much happier and hopeful, a buzz in the air.. 

Today I collected my car, ITV done, serviced and new battery.. a problem that leaving my car standing for months on end has caused.

I need to post this now.. I am tired.. 

But just feel so happy to be home it's keeping me awake too! 

TTFN

Marian

The universe has a way of getting you to a certain place at the exact moment you are supposed to be there..

Not sure if I posted this before? It was part of a hedge, and you see where the two plants which must have been spliced together when originally grown in a nursery.. the main plant variegated red, and I'm guessing this larger leafed plant is maybe the stronger plant added for .. strength, resistance maybe? And you can see where the two have now seperated, one leaf red.. 

I think this happens when the original splicing has happens when the earth has dropped away down past the joining .. and the secondary plant gets the light and begins to thrive.

Mmm okay! This is way too much for me ..

I was saying this early, but days ago..

So now, it's Friday April 23rd.. 

Been awake since 4:15 got up, then back to bed, and finally up at just before six.. once the brain starts it's incessant gabbling it seems pointless to just lay there listening to it like you're a third party in the proceedings!

I've already very quietly got a coffee.. 

The day bodes well, another stunningly beautiful day here.. daylight before five! Can't wait to get home, it's still dark.. none of that early sunrise in Andalucia.. we get to keep the night for longer.. 

I think here on this placement I've had a day of drizzle, a couple of days of cloudy weather and all the rest beautiful sunshine.. sat out in the garden with the lady, soaking up the sun.. been beautiful.. England in the spring, the flowers and trees all in bloom, luckily no hay fever.. There is one tree in England and the odd something or other for me at home that causes me to sneeze, otherwise I'm luckily okay with that.

Now the bird song.. from 5am??? Enough already!! 

I am very tired, when I'm home I shall sleep, a long long sleep.. although I have so many friends to catch up with now.. I think, still all being well, we can travel a bit more, not out of Andalucia yet?.. but my calender is filling up.. so many people I haven't been able to see for over a year.. 

And destinations, small road trip is on my list, two stopovers and reach my friends up the coast, if we can escape our confines.. if not.. it's a one stop and return..

I also have two legal requirements to get sorted, first to pick up something waiting for me, secondly get back into the health system! I'm a walking time-bomb now, can I write bomb on my Blog? 

I'll have to book triple appointment and take a friend to reel off the list, with more urgent needs at the top down to the flotsam and jetsom.. which need to be!

Okay.. work calls.. 

TTFN

Marian

Bird on a Wire..

Mm been a long time, sometimes things get heavy in my mind.. 

Heard a good song earlier, Rag'n'Bone man and Pink.. Anywhere away from here.. excellent combination.. link here..

Been in this placement a week, one to go.. nine weeks away from home, seven too long. 

Very nice location, lovely customer, but again sleeping issues, I have to try to not focus on that, soon I'll be home and if I'm awake all night? Who cares eh.

Been catching up on some movies when I can, saw an old movie, Bird on the Wire.. Am I the last person to see this? I've heard of it, Goldie Hawn and Mel Gibson.. the theme song is so beautiful, by the Neville brothers.. Bird on a Wire.. link here..

Double for your money today with music suggestions..

I think the last song should be my end song.

TTFN

Marian

Four years

Trying to find words where there really are none, yet still the need to not be on these pages empty and without saying something.

I looked for a photograph but couldn't find anything to help or explain.. 

Its not an empty day, I'm lucky to be with family, two beautiful grandchildren with their smiles laughter and hugs and kisses.. 

Our third grandbabies 1st Birthday today.. and without my amazing family and friends I wouldn't have got this far.. thank you all for being.. just being.. 

But I have a shadow near me, close, a blink of an eye away, and I keep catching my breathe.. 

We all have so much to be thankful for, but there are times like these when we long for one last day with those we've lost.

Here is the place, where shadows play..

TTFN

Marian

Some photographs was our walk a couple of days ago.. 

Summer is here in Blighty, 22° at the moment.. Wednesday March 31st..

Quackers!

My mind is flitting today between the here and now, and another moment I'm sat on my day night bed chair in Málaga hospital...

I literally cannot keep my mind from time travelling backwards and forwards.. 

I'm getting a tension headache and my eyes are hurting.. well, my right one, wondering half the time if my new glasses are actually doing anything..

And outwardly.. the world turns..

People are allowed to meet outside and they've gone crazy too many people meeting in too many wide open places.. 

If they're not careful this country will lock down again.. 

Would be okay if the teens to 30's were vaccinated..

Okay I'm done, can't type or see screen easily now.

TTFN

Marian

 

I shouldn't, I need to? I have to? Sooner or never? Not look back.. December 2017 

Its good to remember good times, thoughts and feelings... Brings more of the same.

But I am still prone to going back in my head, and pick at my broken pieces...

Does that mean that I bring more sadness? I do believe we get what we think about, how can we ever move forward with happier times if always focussing on the sad...

I don't of course now, by no means always, and this month as aforementioned, always brings me down.

I'm trying to imagine good things, then my throat constricts and my stomach turns and the memories flood me and I start to drown.

I feel no further ahead than I ever have been.

TTFN

Marian

I have left my last placement, journey to family yesterday afternoon would have been much longer if Barry hadn't met me half-way, thereby saving me two trains and a tram! And even my last train I jumped 'ship' at Coventry, my tickets wouldn't open the barrier.. Like they knew!

Four weeks is a long time, and now I can relax, and sleep without keeping one ear open!

I also haven't read a single word of a book for four weeks, so I've begun a good one today..

Reading Diane Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale 

These are two paragraphs..

People disappear when they die. Their voice, their laughter, the warmth of their breath. Their flesh. Eventually their bones. All living memory of them ceases. This is both dreadful and natural. Yet for some there is an exception to this annihilation. For in the books they write they continue to exist.

°°°

Do they sense it, these dead writers, when their books are read? Does a pinprick of light appear in their darkness? Is their soul stirred by the feather touch of another mind reading theirs? I do hope so. For it must be very lonely being dead.

No way thinking myself better than the indi author that I am, but I like this thought; and this year now sold six books about my stepdad, so I am very happy with that!

TTFN

Marian

Here in this placement, it's difficult, I can't tell you anything obviously.. data protection.

But, I want to say how we learn from others, everyone has such an interesting story to tell.. 

We all effect eachother in different ways, she said something, which I can't say, but made me think of things I said to my mom.. how I wish I could take back some of the not so nice things, or things misunderstood..or how I spoke to her.. I explained to this to this lady, how had I said it, I wouldn't have meant it badly, or with any malice.. just the way we say things can sound harsh sometimes.

That daughters may say things to their moms, without thinking about how they might sound.. 

Some things are always remembered, and we need to remember to say the right thing in the right way.. or say nothing at all.

And of course, not just to mom's.. to eachother, all of us.

Today linking this Lee Dewyze, Horizon track. from the movie Dare to Dream, love the movie and love this song.. Just because..

I have been, and am so exhausted, but last night I slept so much better than the night before.. I don't exactly feel rested, but at least it was better.

Seemed to hear footsteps when no one outside the previous night; and then the other day during my break I thought someone had come in, a friend of hers, and expected.. I sensed someone, felt them move from the entrance to the living room. Heard no words, no one said hello, thought lady asleep, person just waiting.. 

Then, ten minutes later heard friend arrive, call 'hello' and get an answer.. 

I felt a chill through my bones!! 

So weird, and doesn't help when trying to rest, or sleep.

TTFN

Marian

I want, I hope, that this ten days of the year won't haunt me always, not keep reminding myself of the sad.  I want to remember the good; the past good and the present good.

Move my focus.

I don't want to forget, but I do want to un-focus.. To not let grief take me.

I read my blog from this time; not a good thing to do.. and I know I shouldn't.. I need to not remember pain.

TTFN

Marian

There is no such time as time, there is daylight there is darkness.

We do what we do when we have to, to work to others demands.. because of this we feel time is slipping through our hands.. but it isn't.. it was never there until man said it was so..

Wrote a little of this on Twitter earlier, and now expanded.. because I do.. 

'Most people believe their own thoughts as though they were facts, which explains why life is stressful and challenging for so many.' Rhonda Byrne - The Greatest Secret.

So true..

Near my home.. a kiss from the morning sky..

We think therefore we are, maybe we should do less thinking and more seeing, and feeling..

Open up to the here and now, because, let's be honest now is what we have.

Live today, notice what's around us, really listen to the people we speak with, really see this amazing world we have had the chance to occupy, however long the time.

TTFN

Marian

Well here I am, under two weeks left here.. 

Mother's Day tomorrow here in England, not Spain or the states.. 

Just popped my head out for some cold air.. it's a beautiful evening, dark skies with stars glinting brightly..

My little poem I so often say from my terrace..

Star light 

Star bright 

First star I see tonight

Wish I may, wish I might 

Get the wish I wish tonight..

Trouble typing, tired and eyes sore, be glad to get my new glasses a week tomorrow..

I feel I should have lots to say, I usually do!

But long days and unsettled sleep.. it's funny nothing actually keeping me awake, but for some reason sleep isn't easy here at all.

Maybe the Feng Shui is all wrong.. 

Actually I know very little really about the Feng Shui practices.. but maybe it is something to do with the direction.. 

I'm facing North is all I do know.. 

Random picture of me taken in the states.. probably seems very familiar! Even talking about the dress!

Okay should I delete?

TTFN

Marian

Caught on camera the other day.. a wood pigeon minding his own business.. was sitting on the wire.. until the squirrel came along...

And here.. squirrel head down tail straight.. perfect aerodynamics.. but, too late.. bird had flown..

Okay, what's been happening.. I tried I think unsuccessfully to register at a local surgery near my quarentine residence.. 

Have been here nearly two weeks and third surgery later, registered, but still not showing on the system to get my vaccine.

I am enigma it seems... Called 119 till I'm exhausted, online link is worn out.. even complained on the very busy, NHS phone line.

I'll keep you posted, but will be surprised if I get it here now.

Also, on another downside, need another pair of glasses.  Booked appointment with Specsavers.. usually use them, at least my records show up at all the places I've been with them.

Seems to chronic eye infection I had last June, did more harm than I realized, my left eye prescription hasn't changed for at least four years.

My right eye been the same up until April last year.. when I had a checkup.

Now it's not.. completely not.

The eye clinician said at the UHC (Coventry), that I could have lost my sight if I'd not contacted them when I did..

And it was only being told to get it checked professionally that I did.. third eye infection in so many months.. I just left it.

Now it's very blurry.. So looking forward to my new glasses, but wondering if I should get it checked thoroughly when I'm home. If I can.

Enough already, I have enough to concern me.

TTFN

Marian

It will be the whole day.. thinking of my mom's last day.. unfortunately I'll be here in the doldrums until this evening.. 

"It's like being caught in a rat run, every year. Reliving the events on the timescale of then.. it's so imprinted in my head.." today being eleven years since my mom died. And now, right now, this next hour the worse of times, or so I thought. Can someone do it twice, risk it twice, to lose someone is to die a little, and then we die ourselves.. we die twice.. or more.

I wrote some of these words this morning to my vecina back home, and decided I need to get writing.. it's been far far too long.. 

And I had my bloggers t-shirt on that day, with mom, and I haven't been able to blog since I got here.. it is about time.. 

I left home, and came to England, landing at Heathrow.. after not using Heathrow for years that's the second time in two months now.

The whole journey was fraught.. what with added security, masks, distancing, entry changes with extra paperwork.. preflight covid-19 test, quarantine when here.. Covid test again.

I had a good relaxing two weeks before starting work.. had the company of a wonderful little dog.. such a beautiful nature.. took till the last night though for her to decide to spend it in with me.. so lovely having a fur-baby close at night.. 

And now here.. Oxfordshire, pretty town, rivers all around.. weather over the past week has been sun and shade.. like our lives..

The days are going past really well, which is good, lady and I get on well.. long and busy days.

Three weeks to go.. 

Feel there should be more to write.

But this is it today.

Photographs taken on my break at a nearby river.

TTFN

Marian

Today is like summer... absolutely gorgeous... Was meeting up with a friend at one after my covid test, decided to see if he was free before as too nice to just wait for later.. So called him and yes earlier would be fine.

So I was down town before ten and had a good chat with friend in her store, then my eleven o'clock coffee date came in and we sat outside for coffee..

Lots of people passing by we both knew, and got chatting to a friend who was waiting to meet with her daughter, she started talking to a man at a nearby table and before long we were discussing this and that, learnt he was waiting for his daughter to come back from having her covid test.

That she is flying Saturday on BA... I said "me too!" So of course we are on the same flight, really not that many flying to Heathrow from Malaga now at all.

He said about her covid test and I said I was having the PCR he said antigen is fine, she had checked with BA, who she works for, and I checked there and then also on the BA site and the .Gov site, and yes, antigen is fine!

We left there, Bar Cruz and headed up Gerald Brennan to another bar where my friend has some of his artwork up, we joined some friends of his, restrictions at the moment to four at a table, so I sat with three friends of his and we chatted about my work and the what how when and where of it.. two of them have done similar in the past and thinking of doing so again.  My friend sat at another table with another of his friends.. until I went for my test.

So when I went for my €115 PCR test, and asked for the antigen test at €45 I saved myself some money! Absolutely fabulous!

I was in early for my appointment, and after ten minutes results in hand left.. all good, negative result.

What a life now we have when a negative result is the positive thing we want!

As I was only in and out quite quickly I came back to the last bar and rejoined the group, only three left so we could sit together.. Was nice, new people, four different nationalities.. the sun was warm.. one could almost believe we were having a normal day in a normal world, except for masks to hand, and hand sanitizer everywhere.

From there we walked down the street a short way and my friend asked me if I would join him for lunch, which I did.. I had my moms favorite scampy and fries, then for desert, my favorite lemon meringue pie.. good grief, its a wonder I can move!  

Last night a neighbour and I had a curry delivered, now this... I am well and truly stuffed!

A great day, still beautiful blue out there.. truly good day to be alive..

Some photographs below from our walk the other day.. These amazing olive trees, not so much for olives but topiary.. each one in the field a real work of art!

And above, our most unwanted of forest friends.. the pine processionary caterpillar! On the move, looking for a fine pine tree to make a nest and rebirth as moths, as we know dangerous to humans and deadly for dogs.

Digressing, on a sad note.. I was looking for something yesterday and instead found trouble in the form of melancholy.. Opened a cupboard for one thing and something else there.. a tuft of Pippa hair! Like she'd left it there on purpose.. And a Christmas card from Baz, but inside the card, was a note from Franco.. It read from him to me, "See you soon, I love you." After the initial jolt, I thought, I hope he doesn't know something I don't!

TTFN

Marian

I was motivated into clearing my shelves this afternoon when chatting on the phone earlier...

Since I've been home I've had a few things I seriously needed to do, and instead of doing them they've been pushed to one side, later later later..always mañana eh!

Well, today, chatting about meditation, yes, meditation, and clearing things from minds and 'to do list.'

And on a shelf an old photo album, with of course old photos.. the Bonelli ones I've posted on our group page..

And then these two of me, back in the 1990's.. I loved this coat.. but didn't bring it here with me..

And oddly, I saw a dress like the green one above, in a store I passed this morning.. and wished I'd still got mine.. then here the photo.. 

All too often we get what we ask for, in different ways maybe.. but we do.

Couple more photographs of the beautiful almond blossom.. it is perfect.. and the aroma.. smells delicately of honey to me..

After a break of a few days.. I'll explain in a moment.. did a good walk today, just over seven miles... 

And yesterday, as a warm up I did three virtual walks, courtesy of YouTube.. the first twenty minutes around Manhattan.. followed by another twenty around the river Seine running through Paris.. and I finished off with half an hour in Naples.. that was amazing, it was filmed in September 2019, only two months before I was there.. finished the day 6.3 miles of walking!

Also yesterday I made the trip to Fuengirola, with my appointment paper, as proof I could legitimately leave the town, for my TIE card, it's a card all non EU nationals needed to live in Spain.. other non EU citizens have always needed it, and of course now, lo and behold, British passport holders now need to also.

Felt very strange down there, bars and stores open, completely unlike here.

I arrived early for my appointment, walked in, signed in, was seated, only four of us, and all the rest of the seats taped off.. I was called, all the paperwork delt with, fingerprinted, and left, just before my actual appointment time!

Now, why I've taken it easy.. Sunday.. email came to say a delivery was arriving, and not good as the store is shut on Sundays and so I expected a phone call.. I was downstairs cooking and heard my phone ring.. I ran upstairs.. and not really sure what happened, but I fell, completely fell, flat on my face, turning in the nick of time not to smash my glasses into my face.

I'm okay, I was okay enough to jump like a cat straight back up and still answer the phone! 

Then I sat and thought right, what did I do.. I cut my right ankle, bruised both knees, surfed along the floor on my right cheekbone.. and kind of jangled all my bones, and especially the ones I fractured in my left foot, back whenever now.. 

I know, I know, walking might or might not be a good thing.. 

I am okay, and falling isn't the best thing.. and or rather 'taking a fall' as son says!

So, also, not sleeping too well, am trying things like meditation.. again, but seriously trying now.. It's those thoughts, ideas, plans.. they flood my mind at night.. 

Need a plan to plan them during the day and not between 3 and 5am!

TTFN

Marian