Putting the blog to bed - bed number 200 - goodnight!

When we started blogging in 2009 it was just a news update for friends who did not have Facebook and wanted to check occaisionaly that all of us were still OK. As it happens there were long junks of time when we had no idea where Donald was but mostly we have travelled the world with quite a lot of ticks in the 1000 things to see before you die. However things have changed and there is nothing more I want to tick off. I dont want to see any more luggage or boarding passes. Eastwest was a good college but home is best. We started counting different beds each time we stopped on our travels and on coming back from Spain last week I had to sleep downstars as I was proper poorly. Enough is enough, Bed 200 ends the Blog. Thanks for reading and, no, I won't need to ask you any data protection questions cos this is it, all over, Goodnight and God Bless! XX

Ribadeo Adios.

Just back from saying goodbye to Ribadeo. A good week with lots of surprises and parties, we enjoyed my last ever night in a Parador, last visit to Lugo church who were very kind between annointing us with oil and showering us with gifts. The local church plant encouraged us and threw a secret bakering party on the Monday which blew me away. The final chat was on 50 ways to leave your lover and it turned out no one had ever heard the phrase Good Riddance before. Then finally a trip round the market to say goodbye to all the stallholders and finally my GP who I needed to see for anitibiotics to deal with a soft tissue infection in my back. Ribadeo never fails to surprise me with medical conditions previously unheard of. In true Spanish style it was 5 minutes on the matter in hand and then 15 minutes asking us for contacts to teach her daughter English. We have enchufe!!

Pallet-surprise

No he hasn't won a Pulitzer Prize but Les does get a prize for a very big flit and for tracking down our missing pallets which surprisingly were delivered to Wolverhampton.   (Sorry , we have no idea where that is!)  Anyway a man with a van arrived at silly o' clock with all our stuff, goods, chattels, worldly possesions call it what you will. Nothing broken except a chipped gin glass. We can highly reccommend having your stuff sent to you, wherever you are, as every box you open is filled with things you like or love. Maybe like when we were kids tidying we used to tip loads of toys and books in a box and pretend we had tidied up, hiding the box. Several months later we would look under the bed and enjoy finding it. This too has been worth the wait! PS if anybody drives past Wolverhampton and notices a draining rack and some orange mugs...

Fire fiestas

What a weekend, suprise appearance of 2 sons and
then fire festivals- Family members gifted tokens to allow
Les to buy a chimenea for his birthday and later the same
day he had a rather large blaze to out, 60 candles in total.

Aye some Ballet thing!

Just been at the best ballet ever!  Partly of course as we were treated courtesy of Loganair our favourite airline. Also the actual fusion of ballet and highland dance was amazing and the story, although modern, gave room for all the glamour and fairy tale scenes you would expect in a traditional ballet. Outstanding and in parts hilarious. Some sadness of course and a bit of blooshed but all in all the best ballet thing I have ever seen. Thanks Jacqui for entering the competition and helping e celebrate the end of Chemo #3.

Trek, Tech and Travel...

I know I blogged a few years ago about my dream life without luggage. I actually love luggage especially in the Trek and Travel shop we have here in town.  For the meantime though I just don't want to travel anywhere. I want all my socks to be in the same country. My country. Bless Les he went and packed all our worldy good into 16 suitcases and several crates. Sorted, they will be home next month.  I was unfit to fly due to fluid in my chest cavity. This meant travelling to Aberdeen by ferry (9 hours in a force 9) so for the next visit they kindly sent an air abulance to collect me and fly at sea level so the cabin pressure caused no damage.

So Les boxes up our life and I bottle up the fluid each morning, hopefully in the month it will takes for our stuff to come home the production will have reduced and the bottles we unpack will be of Spanish wine, gifted by friends. Blisséd bottles!

Putting you in the picture.

This week has been like no other when looking at the big picture.  And talking of pictures this print of La Jument lighthouse in France is my first ever purchase from an art exhibition, beautifully framed and collected this afternoon. It seemed to portray exactly how we felt when the waves of life threaten to swamp life as we know it. And yet, like the keeper stood watching in the doorway, there has been calm. I am reminded of the verse in Proverbs 18:10 "The name of the Lord is a strong tower the righteous run to it and are safe." I am also reminded of the many friends (here and in Spain) who are praying for us and that too accounts for the sense of peace we feel.
It started when we lost a dear friend suddenly and her teenage kids phoned to tell us, it continued when we hit a patch of unseen slush on a dry road and adjusted some fenceposts meaning our car was written off and then finallly the news that the cancer from 2015 was still circulating. This time the chemotherapy is to make things bearable rather than aiming to cure the condition and so we have had to bring forward our plans to leave Spain and return to Orkney. We have much to be thankful for with family support, good friends and fantastic medical care. All we need now is a bigger boot. I was delighted when the old MX5 emerged from storage and passed it's MOT this afternoon but the boot is only big enough for my hospital bag, and my lovely new picture!