Saturday 15 June 2013

It has been a long time

It has been a long time since I posted on here.

So much has happened - good, not so good - that the days have just passed by and here I am sitting in my house in Alcudia with a temperature of about 35 C in the shade!

This time last year we would have just been arriving. Little did we know how things would change. But that's the way life is and you have to go with the flow.  Kicking and bucking against change does nothing and life always pans out the way it is supposed to. Nothing you can do about it. 

After the stresses of the last 7 months everything has come together, we are resident here now, we have Spanish plates for our car and we have a little rescue dog. 

Friends are starting to visit and if I could only learn to chill out more and not want everything to happen 'today' then life would be easier.  

It has been a monumental change of lifestyle but I am still working and earning a living and gradually learning more about how things work out here so it can only get better.

I do feel awful that my mum is having to cope with her own lifestyle change and personal problems while I am unable to go back and visit - as yet - but somehow we will get back this year at some point. Not in the summer season though as flight prices are very expensive but I am just a phone call away and we have long chats instead. Sometimes we even manage to see one another on Skype. The wonders of technology :)

The very first thing we did when we arrived here was get on the Internet. That was an absolute necessity as we had to be able to keep in touch with everyone and I also needed it for work. But that is working almost perfectly - just an occasional glitch - and it also gives us a UK Skype number that people can phone at UK rates.

Still a few more things to sort out, but we are getting there and there is always maƱana!


Wednesday 10 April 2013

Love, Life & all that stuff

After the chaos and stresses of the past four months I have barely had time to breathe let alone think.

But the last 6 days the pace of life has slowed down and time has been allowed to think.  With a lot going on within the family at the moment it leads you to reflect.

When I was younger and ‘in my prime’ life swept by caught up in the world of socialising, young children, family, friends and working to build your future.  It was hard and busy but you barely thought of the future.  That was something to be considered later for there was ‘forever’ in front of you.

Heading towards retirement you start to realise that working life does not go on forever.  There comes a time when you back away from the rat race.  You realise that your colleagues and friends will not be there every day.

Looking around you the realisation that you are no longer as young as you feel comes as a bit of a shock.  Where have those years gone?  What are those aches and pains?

When you turn to your children you realise they are adults with children of their own and their own futures to build and when you look the other way toward your parents they have moved on to the next stage in their lives.

Life is full of all these different stages and each stage brings along with it the most frightening thing of all – ‘change’.

Why is it that when we move out of our comfort zone we feel fear?  Change brings fear but we cannot stop it for that is what life is made of.

This next stage in our lives together has brought along massive change and likewise the fear of that change.  Once again the future is unclear, unknown and at a stage of life when we are getting older – very scary.

But we cannot be accused of staying in our comfort zone; we cannot say we have taken the easy life and at a stage when perhaps we should be sitting in our comfortable home in familiar surroundings we have taken that step into the abyss.  To be an adventurer in our own little story, to resist the easy life and take a step into whatever the future will bring.

Life – hey – we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Wednesday 27 February 2013

Stolen Pets in the UK

Once again I have seen a photo on Facebook of yet another stolen pet.  With horses and dogs disappearing each day – literally grabbed from under the noses of the owners - I really despair at what the UK has turned into and I, for one, am glad to have left the country.

For those losing a loved pet I know how they must be feeling as a pet is part of the family just like a human being.  To lose a pet through death is bad enough but to not know where it has gone because it has been stolen must be even worse.

When people disappear, for whatever reason, it is the families that are left behind wondering and imagining all types of scenarios.  It is the same when it is applied to a pet.

I think that it is a despicable act – worse even than stealing possessions – because these are loved, living, beings and if you have ever seen an animal pine for its owner then you know that animals ‘feel’ too.

Those stealing these pets must be unfeeling, insensitive, greedy people and I can only hope that they, one day, will feel the pain that these owners must be going through.

Saturday 16 February 2013

Passing of Time

Those of you who follow my blog will remember two years ago how Stanley fell and had to have his hip replacement operation.

That was a long and slow road back to not quite the health he had previously enjoyed but nonetheless he had fought back.

Now two years later at the age of 97 he finds himself back in hospital.  After his legs gave way under him he was taken in to be checked out.

This happened almost to the day.  I remember the date so well because it is my Mum’s birthday and their wedding anniversary around that day.  Once again my Mum found herself visiting him in hospital on her birthday.

Now almost three weeks later he is still in hospital.  A urine infection and then a chest infection has meant that what should have been a quick check up and release is now a lengthy stay.  Couple to that his body’s own defence mechanism has kicked in causing delirium while it tries to repair itself.

It is a worrying time and my Mum has to face visiting someone who half the time does not realise she is there or who in fact she is.

Quite how the brain and body works is certainly both unknown and marvellous.  We think we are in control when we are at the mercy of our own ‘machine’ – the body.

Take each day as it comes is the answer from nursing staff.  It could be a day, a week, a month or even the next hour.  It is not the medication, for that is being reduced as his infection is subsiding, but it is a natural response from the body’s own mechanism.

For my Mum she has to watch and wait; for Stanley he will probably remember nothing.  For his body – well only that knows what it is doing.

I wish you a speedy recovery Stanley.  May you yet make your 100th birthday.