Coming round the mountain

There is a breeze that flutters past my face as I sit on the terrace and drink cups of tea. I woke up last night to find a pair of green eyes staring at me through the window and the mewing of a cat tryng to get into the Villa. He could obviously smell the remains of the mussels and prawns that S and I spent ages scrubing clean last night.

I have read the first book that I brought with me, specially chosen to go on the top of my pile and I am onto the second. I love Milan Kundera and finshed 'Slowness', and am now onto Paulo Cohellos 'The Zahir', I adored Slowness and am enjoying The Zahir, which I chose because I read 'The Witch of Portobello' recently and decided that Cohello might not atually be a one trick pony of 'Alechemist' fame.

Other than that I am doing nothing and despite wondering how I would fill my days find that they are comfortably slipping by. I listen to the birds, talk to N and S and realise that hours have passed when I was sure that they were going to stretch out. Summer holidays are a beautiful and wonderful thing.

Lime trees and blue pools

I arrived at our Villa in Javea last night, in time to see the sunset over the mountains behind us. N, S, I and A are all splashing about in the pool and I have retreated for a bit of shade already, although the heat will push me back to the water soon enough.

S is going to do a guest blog over the nect couple of days. This should be a treat as he has his own blog givind details of his thoughts and ponderings as a trainee priest in Rome, although one post every three months does not a blogger make in my humble opinion. Anyway, must go as there are countless photo ops and sun to be soaked up.

Navel Gazing

Almost as soon as I left Budapest I felt better.There have been lots of ideas, a little creativity and a renewed feeling of possibilities. It has been six years since I left North Yorkshire and set up a life as a single woman roaming the lands of Europe and I would have to say that every single minute of it has felt exotic and exciting, even the moments of loneliness and the feelings of displacement.

Four weeks into my holiday I find that my mood is generally more positive than it was before and I am coming full circle in the opprtunities that I want to persue. There are things that I miss about all the places that I have lived and I still wonder if it is ever possible to go back. I am not sure that I will ever get an answer to that one, or if it is possible not to wonder and not to compare places to each other.

Spain is going to be the final part of the summers thought process, and I have to think about where it will leave me when I get back to Budapest at the end of August.

Ringing Bells

There was rain and there was sunshine, mostly at times that meant the Bride and Groom didn't get too wet. After months and months of talking about cakes and sorting out dresses, (very little of which I was privy to, living in Budapest as I do), she is married. Not the Miss B that I have known her as for about 8 years now, suddenly Mrs K in the space of a few hours, a glass of Pimms and a nice buffet.

Weddings are always emotional, often reflective and hopefully heartwarming. These occasions make me feel like I am totally on the edge of Yorkshire life, but also some-how completely at the heart of it.

Hunting for tea cosies

The rain hasn't stopped in the two weeks that I have spent at home. This time next week I will be in Spain and after that it is just a few short hours away from a flight back to Budapest. I have been happy this holiday and it has made me see what a difficult year I have had in Budapest. Even so, I am excited about both my holiday and what will come after it, am even missing my lovely Budapest apartment and work colleagues.

One of my missions these past few days has been to find a tea cosy, preferably a hand knitted one. Now, don't assume that I am an old lady, just a good old fashioned Yorkshire girl who is dreaming of hot pots of tea in the Budapest winter just like everyone else. This morning, in the town hall, there was a little country fayre and I got one for two quid that was knitted by a little lady that lives in one of the villages around Northallerton. You don't get more local than that.

All quiet

I am back in North Yorkshire and feeling relaxed and grounded. I know that I have been a little bit quiet, but I am planning on blogging a lot from Spain when I go in a couple of weeks. For now, I am enjoying being home and finding lots of moments that are making me feel happy, and even more moments that make me think about the future.

The weather is atrocious, and I am loving every minute of it. The grizzly rain that feels warm on my skin and the grey skies that mean that my skin no longer glows golden, and is covered underneath scratchy jumpers that have been packed away for weeks. I can breathe deeply, this is what my Yorkshire soul was born for.

Athens Pt 2

I still have not seen that much of the city, but last night we went to Glyfada town where I had proper gyros wrapped in flatbread and wandered around watching the sunset. The weather is still amazingly hot, and I find that I am looking forward to Spain again when I can enjoy the heat without a classroom involved. My flight to Manchester seems like it will never get here and I am just desperate to go home.

Meanwhile, the endless palm trees and gentle breeze mean that Athens is calm enough to keep me sane and relaxed. On the bus on the way to school every morning I am enjoying watching all the Greek pensioners having the early morning dip that is probably keeping them all fit and healthy, along with the endless beautiful, fat, ripe tomatoes that appear at every meal that I have eaten.

Sometimes, I look out of my hotel room window onto the Olympic sailing centre and think about how random my life feels sometimes. Last week I was in Budapest, now in Athens, soon in North Yorkshire. I always know where home is, sometimes it just takes a while to get there.