Viral Spain 24^th February, 2022.

Beautiful brown eyes, gazes exchanged, seconds pass, maybe a minute; It is Bio- dance night again! I arrived feeling a bit out of sorts, so much so that ten minutes into the dancing I was wondering about going home. Somehow this morphed into feeling wonderful, loved, loving and deeply content. I wish I could remember the dance that did it, or the partner. By the end of the session I had a sense of being in an altered state and was trying to think of words to describe it. None came.

So, yes I did enjoy Bio-dance last night. There were 29 of us, the biggest group ever. In fact it was the largest I have encountered of any sort of group in Orgiva in my 22 years here. Bio-dance appears to be taking off! I do not understand why this is happening now when previously such groups have staggered on with barely enough members.

Anyway I shall not I suppose find the answer, but I will enjoy. Last night it was a lovely escape from sadness about the situation in the Ukraine. Now I read eight people have already died in shelling. Can you imagine the feeling of being shelled in your home city as you try to get last minute supplies in or look for a safe place to be. I also note the views of people on the street in Moscow saying there has got to be a better way, and feeling ashamed of their country.

I am guessing this is not about any of the things that Putin says it is about. Most of them, according to a BBC fact check turn out not to be true anyway. No, I think this is about controlling Ukraine's mineral and other resources which are considerable. What do you think?

As I have been writing this I have been swapping backwards and forwards on the lap top with El Pais in English, The Guardian, and the BBC to keep up to date with this news. I shall stop now. There is a danger I will become preoccupied and increasingly miserable. Maybe I will see if there is a charity I can send to that will help the war victims. This might help me deal with the situation.

For now though I will move on.

At the end of last week we had an interesting three days of speculation and discussion and I cycled up to near Cañar to view a cortijo for sale. Two people very dear to us were interested in a property. We were on tender hooks, will they, won't they? It is a three bedroomed new build with 5000m2 of land for 75,000 euros, a bargain we all thought. Alas in the end they decided it was beyond their means. It does however signal that these dear souls are serious in planning to move to live in this area. That is good news indeed!

Also last week we had a Woofer as we call them here: A helper who works for their board and lodge. I found it took a little while to feel relaxed with her but during her four days we exchanged information on diet (ginger is good, lemon is very good, sugar is out!) and shared some yoga, plus I taught her how to do a ten minute grounding meditation. She even did the sweeping, juicing, sawing and digging we needed.

Since then we have exchanged two messages and I have sent an email. Could this be one of those very rare occasions when a casual visitor becomes a long term contact? We shall see. She is travelling Spain and France in her camper van so could be an interesting correspondent.

By the way my correspondent on his way to Cambodia arrived, missed his internet date but eventually caught up with her. How will it go? He is now being nursed by her as he has a temperature. Covid? More wait and sees.

You will be rushing to your computers next Thursday. 'Til then, enjoy all you can!

 

Viral Spain Blog, 17^th February, 2022.

What do you say after you say hello? It is a familiar question, but what do you say after you say goodbye? Not much, the person is not there, so the ending revolves around in one's head. I left a men's group on Tuesday after three plus years of sharing and connection.

I was no longer alongside with the aims nor some of the methods, and the timing had always been wrong for me. But....it is hard. Sadness and thoughts of missing out predominate. Fortunately there will be a brief leaving ceremony which I suspect will help.

Changes in life can be difficult or can be an adventure. My friend in Australia flies off to Cambodia this week partly to meet some women he has been connecting with via the internet. He may start a new life there. He is seventy!

Now I will begin to think of what new things I will take on. Do I need any? The last two years have been shaped by restrictions and Covid concerns. At last the chance seems to be there. Is that how you see it? Are you opening out your life?

I ventured out to canoe on the sea on Sunday. I had missed several possibilities and finally made it. What a joy it was. Like the big bike I ride I did recently it took a while to relax and enjoy. The sea caves were the key. West of La Herradura are several big enough to enter. The waves make strong crashing and bubbling sounds, there are bright red algae in the sunless corners and I have a sense of being in a slightly dangerous place. I love it.

The sea was almost flat which meant I could explore tiny inlets in the cliffs. Down one I found a beach barely bigger than my canoe and landed. It was magical. I had to keep my head down as the cliff came forward over the pebbles. I could not see beyond the tiny bay and felt totally immersed in this wild place. Inevitably I had a flask of coffee and sat and sipped in a state of delight.

Not a huge experience like the elephant story from last week but we do not need very many of those in a life time.

It feels good though to still be having little adventures at 69 and also to have a growing sense of satisfaction in my life. It is very easy to let my comfort zone contract and hold me back. I have to fight a bit harder to keep my life interesting.

Lately I have been focussing on my relationship with Sarah. What is good about it and what would make it even better? I am amazed to find that just holding that question and doing one or two tiny things ( peeling some mandarins for her, emptying the organic rubbish, a bit of a back rub ) has made an enormous difference to how I feel. I hesitate to say it, but it is rather like being in love all over again.... maybe with a bit more realism!

Okay, no more lovey dovey stuff ....at least not ´til next time! Which brings me to some questions about this blog. A bit like a relationship....what do you like about it and what would make it even better?

Tell me what you think and as usual feel free to comment on any other aspect.

Perhaps I can end with a little advertisement. I am looking to take on one or two people for psychotherapy sessions. Costs are negotiable and we would have one or two free sessions to start to see how it might go. I would also consider internet sessions. Nudge that friend (or yourself! ) who you know needs a bit of help.

So that is it for another week. Enjoy all you can.

 

Viral Spain Blog, 10^th February, 2022.

Have had further thoughts about banking difficulties...and actually it is the conversations on the phone I find difficult, not the logging in etc. And it is down to poor hearing which has happened in my life over decades. So it's a hearing thing not an old age thing!

I was hoping for a big improvement with hearing devices. So far no, I shall persevere.

I am excited and looking forward to the resumption of 'normal life' after being ill. Still waiting, it is taking a long time. It is a good feeling though. Normal life seems pretty good right now.

And warm weather is just around the corner. I love wearing nothing but shorts and teeshirts.....well you know, with the requisite underwear! I find here there is a relatively short period between too cold and too hot but I love it.

We have recently been inundated with voluntary helper applicants.....we still call them WWOOFERS from the original website that was for willing workers on organic farms! Now, 'workaway' and 'helpX' are more about cheap travel and meeting people. In truth the work they do in return for their board has always been of variable quality. Now we only take over 25's and there is some improvement. I remember young people not used to physical work lifting a pick a few inches and tapping the ground with it. We have had some great one's too. Here we do not have as much work as we had at the Cortijo and it is nice to meet and get to know a traveller and share experiences. We have a good cook (at least I hope her claims are true!) coming on Sunday. Her references talk of her doing a sterling job of clearing up after a party as well. We have had 'good cooks' before who made an incredible mess of the kitchen.

Funny thing is, nearly all our Wwoofers turn out to be good looking young women. I assure Sarah it is just down to availability and who had the best request and references. I am not sure she is convinced.

Next week then we will get lots of sweeping up done. I shall have some vegan cooking tips and one or two meals prepared in my slots. There will be a noticeable absence of oranges and olives rolling around the patios. All leaves will be swept up and several annoying stick trees will be for the chop. Do you know the ones I mean? This time of year they are literally tall sticks but they are an invasive species slowly creeping into our garden from the ham store grounds.

I am noticing how there are not always interesting occurrences in my life about which to write in this blog.....so here is a story from my past. My 30^th birthday in fact.

Do you know what a cross elephant looks like? I didn't, but there is no mistaking the sort of swinging thing they do with their trunks. I was travelling alone through India and out for a walk in Corbet wild life park with a Dutch woman. We had seen the park elephants used for tiger spotting rides. Then we saw an elephant ahead on the track. This was unmistakably different; looking at us, not happy. He walked towards us. We kind of shrunk to the ground, holding each other, terrified. A few yards away he left the track and we thought he was gone. Then there was a wrenching sound, undergrowth being torn up by a great force. It was the big guy circling round ! He came back on the track just behind us, gave us a glance then walked on. We watched in silence until he was gone.

Happy adventures.

 

Viral Spain 1^st February 2022.

Do you ever put things in 'safe places' ? I do not recommend it. Twice now I have put my banking details in safe places which I have never been able to find again! This last time I searched and searched. My safe places are too safe.

So now I have been through the rigmarole of setting up my internet banking yet again. I think call centre staff should be selected like the BBC used to select it's news readers, you know, nice clear voices, no beards nor regional accents, Queen's English. It seems to me the opposite policy is adopted with bank call centres. Rumour has it they are often in Asia so that would account for a preponderance of Asian accents! I had my secret weapon, new hearing devices, volume on high, but still I struggled to discern what my particular respondent was saying. My paranoia that I might get the process wrong or fail to record an important number/password/ code and its correct description accurately was not helping. I could tell she was getting a tiny bit impatient.

Maybe they should have 'old buffer' training as well as impeccable speech ? I waited patiently for my new coder and new code number to come in the post. I was told I would have to ring again and quite frankly I was dreading it! I opened the brown envelopes yesterday and found the code had expired on Friday! I will not repeat here what I said then. But....all was not lost, one could get a new code on the website! I went through the necessary steps, slowly and carefully with young, clever and computer literate wife on call. After ten minutes I found myself in on line banking! I was amazed and so relieved. No phone call, new code retrieved, wonderful. (Why do they send a code by post anyway?).

There was even another bonus. Sarah cannot access the savings account for reasons known only to bank people so we had not accessed it for a long time. The balance has grown over covid years, yes it is nearly two years now, and was three times what we were expecting!

So I have put all the papers, coders, numbers etc. away in an unsafe place. And I have put a note on the calendar to check our balances next week before I forget the unsafe place or how to do it.

Amazing I find all this. Only a few months ago I still felt like a young(ish) man. That is actually a huge exaggeration. I don't think I have felt young and competent in the face of internet banking since they invented it.

Anyway, to return to the concept of safe places. Last week, when looking for yet more codes, and user numbers, this time for making international transfers I was examining a very safe place, an old photo album when 350 euros fell out! So another happy ending to a safe place story.

Everything comes to he or she that stands and waits? Some of you will have read on my face book page that we both came down with nasty flu/cold type things ten days ago. And we tested positive for covid. It was miserable. It was not the mild post vaccination malaise we were expecting. I suspect that is just a feature of old covid, shiny new covid hits for six.

So stand back and avoid!