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..