Reflections on recent travels and other stuff

Now I’ve had time to settle back in, here’s what I did to re orientate myself:

Completed 6 washes to rid my clothes and kit of 7 days of acrid, stale smelling cigarette smoke which seemed to accumulate in my bed area of the motorhome. Please remember if you ever stay in one where people are smoking/ cooking/ smelling, cover all your bags/ clothes.

Caught up on most of my mail: bills from the council tax, HMRC and estate agents…more bills and statements. Wonder what we’ll do in a paperless society without all those frikkin envelopes and flyers or whether the demands and advertising will just be beamed directly into your brain. You won’t be able to just chuck them in the bin, some tax Nazi will probably arrive in your virtual world to beat you over the virtual head, like a pinata to get at your virtual money…I digress.

I returned to work today to find it’s still there! Nothing blew up and the manager hasn’t fled the country…I still have my sanity!

Checked out the horses and stables again and sorted a few issues out.

All the horses are looking better today. When I returned I went to check on some of the stables we’ve rented out for 2 horses and a pony. Seems the owner trusted the wrong people to do a job they didn’t know how to do whilst she was ill. Sounds familiar…ahem. But they were much happier and am now keeping a closer eye on them. So cute when they nuzzle you.

I realised one thing I missed since I left facebook was sharing random links, so I mucked around on the interweb, found this stuff for you:

Hold your finger on the trumpet and move around (thanks Farah)

Extremely underrated movies for your Friday night

3 TED Talks they tried to censor

An old one but thought I’d share, as the photoshopped image is doing the rounds again as a meme

And so, to reflections on the last two weeks:

1. Expecting someone to host you as you host other people is a mistake. I believe that you should make a guest feel welcome and make sure they are well fed and watered. Entertain them if possible, relax with them. Share your home comforts to spread your own brand of harmony/ anarchy. NOT berate (shout drunkenly at) them for their political views/ views on the NHS or the fact they find xenophobia, sexism, racism and greediness abhorrent. You won’t make me racist if you shout loud enough or believe the NHS is good for nothing if you repeat it many times.
2. Even when everything is planned and you have communicated your needs to the other party don’t expect them to have set up more than 5% of what was agreed.
3. Don’t assume just because someone lives in a sunny paradise that they will take advantage of said paradise. Some people just like ham and cheese sarnies.
4. Don’t assume Southern Spain is full of Spaniards. It isn’t. It’s full of odd English people eating fish and chips/ pizzas/ burgers. They sit around outside their caravans/ tents barricading themselves in their own area with windbreakers drinking the same beer and eating the same food they had in their own gardens in England. Odd. They go a golden leather colour and sort of blend in with the surroundings, I spent many a moment staring at people by mistake trying to work out if they were animal skin draped on a lounger or actual people! Eeeuuuurrgghhhh.

I’m going to leave it there because I’ve just been on the phone explaining the rest and it warrants a non blog story to encapsulate the whole experience…the things I heard people say, honestly, it was like walking back into 1975 Yorkshire. I thought Enoch Powell was going to walk around the corner at any minute followed by a mob of Brexiteers with pitchforks.

I just can’t get my head around it…why? Why go there if you hate everything about the place apart from the sun? Unless it is just about the sun…in which case, skin cancer and heart disease will resolve any ongoing issues. Sorry but that is true whatever side of the climate change “debate” you’re on.