One helluva week....

This week my group classes began and my first one was on Monday evening at 6.30. I admit to feeling just a tad nervous before I went in but that disappeared as soon as I met everyone. The time whizzed by and we had lots of laughter and lots of conversation as the group all had a reasonable level of English. And on Tuesday evening, at the same time of day, I had another group, a bit more advanced but a bit more reserved. I had to work a little harder with them but I feel sure it will go well. And each group have another hour and a half on Wednesdays and Thursdays...

My relationship with mornings was tested as well this week as my third group have their hour-long classes on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 8am. That's eight o'clock in the morning if you didn't quite take it in at first reading. That's early. And this group is all men and all with a fairly basic level of English but again, the time flew by and by the end of the first lesson, they could all remember how to pronounce 'J', 'G' and 'R' and by the end of the third lesson, they were having short conversations and spelling words out correctly.

I also have hour long lessons with some of the senior managers and I am enjoying the conversations very much. At one of the sessions, I realised we were discussing information systems and the collection and production of statistics...all my 'old' work interests and knowledge...so that was extremely interesting and only by a whisker did I stop myself from offering to take on the job of designing a reporting system for the production department!

And at home...well, we're becoming accustomed to the total destruction of our garden. FR has fashioned some steps to reach the outhouse and the garden gate and has also created a little raised flower bed area. He's also had some iron bars made to fix to the wall so we can put up some canopies for summer shade. We've had various men round to give us quotes to do the work and so I expect more action before long. For now, it's been all hands on deck...oh, perhaps that should read all male hands on deck as neither Romy nor I have had much to do with it so far.

Mateo is very happy these days too as our lovely English neighbour has done him the biggest favour she could....she asked if he could do a few hours work in her garden for which she is paying him. And he's delighted - not just with the money, which is fantastic for him - but with actually doing the gardening. And it's come at the right time for him as he now has found himself a girlfriend. It's just lovely to see him so happy, although as she lives in another village some distance from town and even more from us....a 40km round trip..which is of course, 80km there and back twice! I am encouraging him to meet her in town when he can, though I really don't mind the journey. There are no buses after school time so unless their parents help out, they could be doomed from the start!

However, not everything is going well for everyone. My dad, who had a stroke 10 years ago, has been most unhappy and difficult with my mum since she returned from her visit here. Things came to a bit of a head yesterday and I had a call from my sister to say it looked as though he might not be able to stay at home any longer. She and Mum were waiting for a visit for an assessment. I was concerned enough to be looking for a quick flight home but although I could find a flight to Manchester today, I couldn't find one to return. However, Judy called me a little later after the visit and said that they had managed to sort a few things out. Dad had agreed he would take some more medication - he'd been refusing to and had not been sleeping and spending much of the night shouting and being very disruptive during the past couple of weeks - so that he could stay at home for at least a bit longer. He's completely unable to control his feelings of anger and frustration but understands that his behaviour is making it impossible for Mum to look after him. He knows he doesn't want to be in a home and that the medication he's being given should help them both to manage life at home.

It's very sad. I'm phoning my mum most days and my sister, who is brilliant at dealing with Dad's unrealistic requests, is giving all the support she can. Between us, we can only try to do what we can. I'm going to England with the children in July and Mum said it would be silly to come beforehand as really, I can't change anything. But it doesn't stop me wishing I could. I'm glad to say that least both Mum and Dad had a good night's sleep last night for the first time in a while. That has to help.

So it's been a week of taking the rough with the smooth; being grateful for the good things and dealing with the bad things. Just keep swimming!

My name is NOT Earl....

Blog post disclaimer:  I do know that bad things happen to good people. I don't think life is always fair. I wish there were a formula.
That said, please read this slightly tongue-in-cheek post....and allow me to enjoy what I see as my good luck and good fortune.

Karma....very simply is the idea that if you do good things, good things will happen?

And vice versa.

Well,  I'm not sure I am a 'believer' as such but it seems to be a reasonable premise by which to live your life.
I have a standing joke with FR about Karma when we set off to go into town.


If HE is driving, we will meet a tractor, be almost forced off the road by an incompetent aged citizen coming in the opposite direction, be stopped by a policeman, be sent on a detour, have to stop at every traffic light and zebra crossing and have every car in front of us travelling at an almost negative speed or taking an age to carry out a simple manoeuvre....Whereas, if I am driving, traffic lights automatically turn green as I approach, I'm waved on by policemen, cars wait for me to pull out.....get the picture?

I call this KARMA...I enjoy telling him that I don't believe everyone else on the road is an idiot with murderous intent or enjoy getting something over on another driver - as he does - and I am treated with due respect and consideration as a result.

I exaggerate, of course. A bit.

The Earl that I am not, in the title of this post, is a reference to a TV programme called 'My name is Earl'. A man who felt the bad things he'd done in his past had caught up with him and were causing him lots of bad luck in the present. So he makes a list of all the people he had been bad to with the intention of putting things right with them and so negate his bad Karma. It was a very funny series and I loved it!

I said I'd tell you some big news a little while ago. And I will - it's big for me though not so big for anyone else, of course. But it struck me that it was also a little bit of Karma too.

When I first met Sam I was working at the Interlengua Academy and had just had my hours extended and my contract improved. I was very happy with this. At the same time, I was offered some work with one of the main companies in town - Derprosa - to hold English conversation classes with some of the managers and key staff who needed to use English on the phone and for business purposes. It was very well-paid work and required little in the way of preparation...a very tempting offer. And around this time I met Sam for the first time. She was urgently seeking work and I admit to feeling immensely 'good' when I passed her the contact details for the job at Derprosa...my halo very nearly choked me. But it wasn't a totally selfless act. I had been told that the work would be evenings and as such, clashed with the contract with Interlengua...I felt I couldn't turn that work down after I'd been given such a good offer.

However, I almost choked again when Sam eventually started working there as it turned out she was asked to work mornings not afternoons!! Aaargh....

In the intervening couple of years -  when we moved to Villalobos and I resigned from Interlengua - I confess to thinking more than once that those hours of morning work that Sam had 'could' have been mine and would have been so wonderfully convenient. And of course, Sam had passed on lots of teaching hours to me too - she didn't enjoy teaching children; I did. She taught the adults and we were both happy.

Well, Sam has also paid me back in spades when she left to return to Scotland recently, by making it a straight-forward task for me to take up where she left off at Derprosa. My only concern was that I would have to become 'autonoma' or self-employed to take on the work and that is a big commitment as a fixed payment has to be made every month, regardless of what you earn. However, the company want more hours now as they have recently been taken over by a big multi-national company and English is the common language. I will be doing not 'part' time work, but 'half' time work....

I started on Thursday and think I may enjoy this new venture very much. I will be able to continue with my children's classes too for the most part as only a small part of the work is in the afternoon. I am very happy indeed and unutterably grateful to anyone or anything that played a part in making this situation possible - I will call it Karma.

I will also make sure I try to be very good to people I meet every day. You never know!

Axxx

A reflective pause

Not well-known for my reflective pauses, I find I have reached one naturally without trying.  It occurred to me in the bathroom this morning as I was cleaning my teeth that for the first time since I left work, just under two months ago, the need to drive forward has relaxed a little now as we begin to see we have somewhere to go. I found myself thinking about friends and work colleagues - I was going to say 'past and present' but I mean those I worked with most recently and those I worked with many years ago.  I think it has begun to sink in that I will really be leaving.

I kept saying that leaving work would not be hard because those I was closest to would always be friends and we would stay in touch because of that. I am still in touch with others who left to work elsewhere or who had to leave for health or personal reasons. And they - you - still all mean a lot to me.  I don't think it will be any harder to do the 'staying in touch' bit even if I am in Spain - but the call to say, 'fancy lunch next week' won't come any more; I won't hear the latest gossip or bits of information; I won't bump into someone as I go shopping. Ever.

In the last week, I have had lunch or a coffee - with a number of very dear friends and they all know how excited and happy I am that our plans are beginning to come together and that we will be off, most likely, within the next ten weeks or so. What has hit me today is that it will actually be a huge trauma for me to leave you all. I think if I say it here, I will perhaps be able to deal with it a little better as time goes on. It IS what I want to do - what I think our family should do - from that perspective, I have no qualms at all. But.. and maybe this is the selfish bit.. I am 'giving up' my own access to a wide circle of very close friends - many of whom have known me for a long time and who know a great deal about me and my life - so I just wanted to say this very clearly: I will be trying very hard - and will probably succeed - in making this move look easy, great fun and a fantastic adventure. Underneath, I know how much I will miss everyone and how precious the memories and the links to each one of my friends are to me. I will be metaphorically wrapping everyone up to take with me and I am already cherishing the day when I have the proper time to unwrap each one and make them real again after this rather surreal period.

So - whilst not yet gone and not yet forgotten - my little period of reflection has served me to say to everyone reading this that I will be taking all those precious little moments of memory and friendship that we have shared and in a strange way, if I didn't have them to take with me then the leaving would be even harder. I do hope that makes sense.