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!

 

Viral Spain Blog 20^th January, 2022.

Moods, emotions, even at 69 they are a bit of a mystery to me. I woke up this morning feeling sad. I even wonder if in western society that is a normal thing to say? I don't think it is. Worse we are not even supposed to feel it. Yet is it not quite a common emotion? No wonder I have not got this emotion business sorted.

There is a tendency in my mind to ask why do I feel this way. I do not know. I do know that there is much to be said for approaching one's emotions with curiosity and compassion. The two together give an easier, kinder, sense of self inquiry than the simple question 'why?'

For me after the two Cs comes acceptance, and then the feelings usually slide away.

I was ill at the weekend, sore throat, head and face ache, very tired. Sarah was going to visit a friend on Sunday and I thought if I have got it I want to start my quarantine sooner rather than later. So we both tested. We were both negative.

By Monday I felt I was well enough to go for an extended cycle ride. I have not made time for this for weeks, so flask, and rudimentary lunch packed, off I peddled. All the way to Lanjaron I thought 'This is a mistake, I have hardly got better, I don't feel like this!' Breakfast in the sun, hot chocolate and buñuelo, simply added a slight queasiness. I persevered and turned towards the Beznar reservoir for a coffee break. I sat down near the fast stream running into the sparkling waters of the lake. A heron took off from nearby. I was suddenly in heaven and so glad I had come.

Now I have to tell you of a realisation from my visit yesterday to the audiologist. We, the hard of hearing are under surveillance. The technician was able to tell me the hours, minutes even and volume of use of my devices for the past week. I was expecting any minute for him to say 'and your wife has very noisy orgasms' !

I assume it is a government plot: the spy in the ear. Audiologists are agents of control. I am fooling him though. I left my devices switched on in the kitchen over night, and at high volume. Maybe 'they' were able to hear the cat snoring and will be wondering why I was up all night.

Anyway the trial continues. Or as I said last night with complete unawareness, I will just have to play it by ear!

Have any of you been watching 'Afterlife' on Netflix? Ricky Gervaise plays a difficult man coming to terms with the death of his much loved wife. It is a comedy but a hugely poignant one.

I have a friend who told me he likes to talk about death every day in order for it to stop being a taboo subject. It seemed like a good idea and so.....

My beloved grandfather died when I was 24. I did not know how to react so I didn't. Perhaps I have mourned him since. A suicide, a murder, and a stroke ended the lives of three dear friends when I was in my 40's. Then the big one, both my parents died within five weeks in 2002. I have not been the same since, it has been a release and a huge sorrow.

Now, approaching 70 I think, as more friends die, this is how it will be. Until it is me. I am continuing to look at how I make the best of my last decade or two. I am continuing to wonder how to cope as friends die. Death is inevitable. Lets talk about it.

Go well.

 

Viral Spain Blog 13^th January, 2022.

Our small electric clock in the kitchen ticks. Who cares? I do. It is the first time I have ever heard it. I have started a trial with hearing aids and it is one of a panoply of sounds I have never heard before. Actually I mustn't lie, it is the only new sound that comes to mind but I love that word panoply.

And I have had the hearing devices for less than 24 hours. In fact now I recall the weird array of sounds I heard in the car driving back from the audiologist yesterday. I hoped there was nothing wrong, there were so many new noises. No warning lights had come on before I got home so I guess it was okay!

What interests me is how different this trial is from the one I had four years ago. Sarah noted I already had the little devils in when I took her tea this morning. I am not so startled by new sounds. Either the devices are better, or better set up, or I have changed. Probably all three, they cost a bit more, the audiologist....well he comes over as less assured than the last one but seems to almost relish my questions so is pretty keen, and me?

I have reluctantly accepted that the time has come. I have got fed up with asking for repeats in conversation, of understanding so little Spanish, or English for that matter when people are wearing masks as I have to see a face to 'hear'. I am aiming to treat it as an adventure in sound and turn them up to full volume now and again to see what I can hear.

'Deaf aids' were what my Grandparents wore when they seemed incredibly old. So I still struggle with letting people know I am getting them. Last night at Bio Dance I had to steal myself to ask the leader if we might have the music at a lower volume due to my new aids. It was worse when I told the group. I saw it as a therapeutic act. No one screamed, ran out of the room, or the real fear (especially with a young and largely female group ) tried to avoid dancing with such an old man, well as far as I could tell.

Writing about them is not so hard. I know most of my readers are old or oldish and kind or kind-ish...well, no mean bastards detected so far! I still find the phrase 'hearing aids' difficult to use...maybe it is too similar to what my grandparents wore. I like hearing devices better, or even, note the link to my new years reso's, ' listening devices'. Perhaps that's a bit extreme.

Which brings me via this very strained link to the extreme 'Cards Against Humanity' game. It gives an idea of the nature of the game and its inventors that the person to start is the person last to have had a crap. For some reason my family just assume and I always start. We played it over new year and is more fun and less controversial than Monopoly but lasts almost as long. There is some controversy but more in the nature of one conclusion we found: 'Most marriages end with....throwing a virgin into a volcano'. It goes down better after a drink or two or even a puff or three as was my New Year's experience!

So it is coffee time here and I will end on a positive note. According to one expert and one very opinionated friend who describes himself as having read across a range of reputable sources, we are at the beginning of the end of the pandemic. The new strains will continue to be less potent. This means a virus survives longer in a host and therefore spreads better and becomes the more prolific strain, taking over from older strains, and eventually becoming more like the flu infections we have long known.

Go well my friends.

 

Viral Spain Blog, 31^st December 2021.

Happy New Year...but before we get on to that, how was your Christmas? We had a very average one. Oliver was a bit quiet then at lunch developed a head ache and headed to his room for the afternoon. (If only we had known!) And of course the very welcome rain meant we did not go out for our usual Christmas walk. We all felt a bit lacking in energy.

The new eco giving regime sort of worked. Some resorted to chain stores but we all managed to avoid Amazon!

The big and totally unexpected news of the week however came three days later when Oliver's preflight Covid test came back positive. We all took a day or two to digest this news, especially Oliver who had a flight to cancel and a new plan to work out. He and Sarah talked through the options yesterday morning and he hopes to get a second test which if clear will mean he can fly back next week. And now we understand why he, and the rest of us were not at our best over the festive season. We cannot blame it all on the competitive spirit and fuel for discord that seems to arise from the Monopoly board!!
We, Isobel Sarah and I are also quarantining and new regs mean this is only for a week. I was sorely tempted to breach mine as the sea conditions forecast is the best I have seen in years and I really wanted to exploit the great weather with a canoe trip today! The risks would be minimal...I don't socialise on the drive, the launch or the trip! However in the end it just did not feel right, and might not to anyone who saw me heading off. A canoe on the car roof is far from inconspicuous.

Maybe this year we should have played secret sickness?

Back to new year considerations, whatever they are. Actually I rather like the idea of new year resolutions having rather disliked them for much of my life. It does feel like a new start and a chance to review life. This feels especially pertinent to me as an older guy. Do other older guys feel the same? Each year feels to me a bit more precious than the last. And while I like to think in terms of at least fifteen more, who knows.

My resolutions for this year revolve around connection with my fellow humans; Listen and respond to what I hear, Touch (one word is all I wrote, but you know what I mean, safe caring touch, no naughty stuff ) and Speak from the heart, ie. with honesty openness and care. So there you have it. They feel a bit daunting, especially now I have revealed them to the world. Okay so aim high Chris, make those years really count!

' How to Blow up a Pipeline ' was one of my Christmas gifts this year. This was from Oliver. Who knew he was an anarchist, or perhaps he thinks that of me. That could make my final decades really count.

I am only half way through but already Andreas Malm is making a good case for direct action. Only empty words, and a few changes, are all that have occurred so far. Many millions are invested in coal and oil. It is obvious that the needed changes will not happen without a drastic new initiative. Anyone want to borrow the book?

I leave you to cogitate over this and to consider your new year. I wish you well.

Merry Christmas Blog 2021. (24^th December ).

So many things to consider in the run up to Christmas but hopefully it is now nearly all done for you as it is for us.

I have yet to wrap. I like to do that while listening to the carol service from, I believe Kings College Cambridge on BBC radio 4 (at 4 here ) . It is a ritual that might not last. I remember last year noting some of the, what is to me, nonsense, in the readings and prayers. I do like the carols though, or I think I do....maybe if I attended to the words!

We are back this year to our usual pattern of giving with more than one gift in every direction. Last year we wanted to get away from consumerist Christmas, and the resultant madness and brain strain about what to buy. We did secret Santa. It was a fiasco as the website got it wrong. They must employ the lousiest programmers in the English speaking world when the prime and very simple task of assigning one of four presents to one of four people could not be achieved. Fortunately some complications over posting and timing were discussed and revealed the mistake.

This year we decided to make guidelines for less consumerist giving. We want to give smaller gifts and to shop locally, definitely no Amazon buying, nor Amazon destroying gifts.

I will let you know how it goes. An added detail seems to be not using plasticised wrapping paper. Our kind neighbour brought us back last weekends newspapers from England so I am going to use those. Oliver has wrapped in brown paper with hearts on it! Other presents are still en-route to the tree.

It is however a plastic tree but I am sure we are on form after seven years to make it last the required ten years to make this more ecologically sound than natural trees.

We are also turning the heat down in the house. ( I mean physical not emotional !). This however I will admit is more due to our son being here from cold Canada than eco concerns. He and his house mates have their central heating at 21'c. Our temperature depends on the number of logs we shove into the wood burner. It is a bit hit and miss so we have to open doors, and stringently control the cylinder gas fire in the kitchen.

Before any aware readers throw up their hands on horror at these two environmentally unfriendly heat sources I will say we do have the house pretty well insulated.

Okay, so I wont get much into what we are going to eat or do over Christmas...I fear fish is not so sound, card games must be okay though?

So it is time and there is space to write of the true meaning of Christmas. If only I knew. It seems the powers that be picked a convenient date, many centuries ago to over ride pagan midwinter festivities and make a big Christian festival. Does that minimise it's real meaning for Christians? I only have, as far as I know one Christian friend, and she has only just mastered posting on face book so whether she will see this blog I don't know. Mary (good name for the occasion ) are you there? Please tell us about the meaning of Christmas for you!

I have evolved a sense of what it is all about for me. It is a time to reflect on what is important in our lives, on connection, love and purpose. That for me is almost a definition of my spirituality in general. Good congruency there then!

Happy Christmas and may 2022 be the year of much needed change in the world for all of us.

Viral Spain 16th December 2021.

 

Viral Spain Blog 16^th December 2021.

Do you talk to your hairdresser? If you are a woman this is a silly question. From my limited experience of women's hairdressing, that is half the reason to go there! However, to say the least, I have a very varied experience of haircuts, from being forced to have one as a teenager (aspiring to Rolling Stone 'styles' ) to these days quite liking them.

Yesterday's pre-Christmas trim was actually enjoyable. After three or four years I know the barber quite well. He is a portly 40ish bald local man who I knew had a tale or two to tell. Feeling my feet more in Spanish I decided to launch into conversation. His comment on the cold mornings set us off and I told him of my cold cold bike ride some 19Km. along the valley on Tuesday morning (for my spanish class as it happens). He was impressed, 'not like you are a spring chicken nor nothing' he said (roughly translated ) so I told him how exercise and meditation help keep me from ageing too much. Mentioning meditation was the key to his world of strange experiences. He sees himself as meditating all day as he cuts hair. He said he has amazing powers of concentration which started when he was nine with an extraordinary experience of disappearing into a source of light. These went on for three or four years but nowadays he simply has experiences of disappearing into objects! He was speaking in a heavy local accent through a mask. I questioned him pretty carefully and think I got this correctly. Maybe it was just his pet mouse disappearing!

You never know what you are going to learn in Orgiva. It is a place where every third foreigner practices some esoteric method of personal development but I did not expect to find Orgiva's alternative soul in the hairdressers.

I was just looking at Orgiva Massive face book community page (seeking the ultimate in alternative practices with which to entrance you) but read of the death of a Quaker Friend. I am saddened by her death even though this great lady had been in and out of hospital and care homes and I suspect was ready to leave us. Apparently she had a peaceful end with her daughter and grandson beside her. I guess we all hope for that and as one well wisher commented on face book it cannot be taken for granted these days.

Inevitably for us oldies this brings up thoughts of mortality, especially to one who is 69 tomorrow. Not so old I tell myself . I am just about the oldest in my men's group but some way from oldest in my bio dance group. I suppose I might have another twenty years. Each bit of reflection, each delve into consciousness brings me to a greater determination to make the most of my last decades. I can't recall if I have mentioned a final afternoon of my last men's group training looked at life purpose. I am now thinking I do not need a great project, a new business or whatever rather a growing awareness of how good my life is already. I have just taken a cup of coffee out onto our terrace, enjoyed the cool air and the recently risen sun, the large Jakaranda tree and the very blue sky. Inside is my lovely wife, emotional and physical warmth, and our lovely children are travelling many many miles to join us next week.

So despite Covid and brexit and global warming lets all do our best to be grateful for what we have and strive to make the world a better place especially for those who have least.

Merry Christmas, felices fiestas.

 

Viral Spain 9^th December 2021.

I have just been looking at the calendar to see if I could work out why I did not write a Blog last week. I can't, so then I looked at Facebook to see if I had written one; NO. My memory is not as good as I would like!

Yesterday I got a letter from the bank asking for me to log on to internet banking to give them an up to date email address. Unfortunately I cannot find the little code maker they supply for getting into internet banking. I guess my next step is to see if I can satisfy the requirements for phone banking!

Inconsequential happenings I suppose, but they feel significant to me because this Summer when we were in the UK I went into the bank to sort this all out and promised myself I would log on once a month so I would remember the numbers or where I keep them, where the codifier is, etc. Next thought I had about internet banking; yesterday.

This would all matter less if the bank would give Sarah and I (joint account holders)

equal access. They won't.

Makes me wonder how even older, even less competent people manage? I guess they do not have internet banking.

Anyway, gripe over, lets talk about my canoeing last Friday. I remember that!

It was a cold but sunny day, temperature just climbing to 18'c by the sea. (Yes that is quite warm for you Brit dwellers.) The forecast showed a gap in the windy weather with much of the coastal sea conditions 'rizada'. That means 'curly' but having just looked it up in the dictionary, to be sure of my facts, I am f-cked, or my story is. It also means slightly choppy. That is exactly how it was. I find a slight chop really uncomfortable in the canoe. I thought 'rizada' meant smooth and curly, which is how it usually is when the forecast says 'rizada'. Anyway despite hints of nausea I was able to enjoy being afloat, the sun, the sea, the dark cliffs and the tiny beaches.

And when I got in I remembered the steep beach-side steps. I wheeled the canoe on its rickety home made trolley up to the steps and was beginning the lift when a man walking past offered help. Wonderful, we had the canoe up the steps and onto the roof of the car in one smooth movement. What I wondered though is why this happens so rarely. The man was Belgium. Are the 'helping people' norms different with different nationalities? Do I normally look so competent? Is it a man thing? We men are supposedly bad at asking for help. I think that is the one! Ask Chris, ask. And maybe look less confident?

This is in danger of becoming a gripe piece: maybe if I ask questions it is not a gripe. Why do hearing aids cost SO much? For the price I have been quoted I could buy three electric mountain bikes, or four modular canoes ( a new direction planned to reduce lifting problems) or nine pairs of glasses with graduated lenses. I could even get a similar micro electronic device, a mobile phone for 11% of the price of audiofonos.

The man in the shop tried to baffle me with science talking of miniature processors and complex interlinking of the two units. I actually think he was talking b----cks! Surely even if you are a bit deaf the brain still does the processing to determine sound direction. Okay they have to be high quality mini-amplifiers with an exceptionally good selectivity and boosting of certain frequencies but 2000 euros each?

Anyway, I hope not too much of a gripe piece and that you are all lining yourselves up for a great festive season.