Big sighs all round!  Tonight we gather in Warung for a group dinner.  Seems everyone is leaving for a while – or for the winter at least.  There is a very morose atmosphere here tonight, which is really far from normality, or maybe it is just me.

 

Something else i noticed – nearly all of my friends here are german – not that there is anything wrong with that, it just seems to be the way things are.  I am even considering learning german as a 4th language and maybe on my return i can surprise them in their native tongue.  I like the idea of being able to talk to other people in their own language.

 

The house has been locked down, my car is packed and i am ready for the road trip starting tomorrow at 6am.  Another early start but i am used to that by now.  I treated myself to some new music for the journey – strangely enough – one of the things i miss most about england- Jo Whiley’s Live Lounge.  Was a big treat too, three double CD’s eagerly loaded into iTunes. Sadly, the iPod shat the bed last night and i am trying to fix it as we speak.

 

I have offered the house to a friend of mine at cost price and he will move in tomorrow (strangely enough, a german dude) and i have also listed it with an estate agent here in Portugal.  It is most likely that i will make it back at christmas for a few days but after that, i will be gone for over a year so i figured someone in there for no profit is better than nothing at all.

 

Today i completed my rescue diver training – another certificate to the ever growing portfolio of qualifications.  I was also treated to a few rather cool sights.  the biggest crab i have ever seen – so big, i was convinced it was from the jurassic period.  the thing was huge – its body had a bigger diameter than my head, those pincers were pure evil, then to finish the dive, some shrimps in a cave and lasty cuttlefish.  Coming face to face with a pair of these beauties was awesome.  Daniel my dive buddy and me both sank to the bottom to watch the pair.  The pair stayed motionless watching us – a medieval stand off!  Then, unannounced, one of the cuttlefish started to change colour to blend with the sand.  I have seen this on TV many times but to see this just 2 metres in front of me while peering round a rock seven metres below the surface quite simply blew me away – it was a perfect ending to a week in Portugal.

 

So, at 6am, i start out for a four month stay in spain before sailing the mediterranean and toward the end of the year another transatlantic crossing back to the caribbean for the winter.

 

Choose Life !!

 

What a difference a day makes !

 

This morning I flew out of Birmingham happy to be going home.  A blissful moment on the plane with my iPod and  Massive Attack’s ‘unfinished sympathy’ as the sun rose over the port wing brought a deep smile to my face.  The orange glow through the opposite window warmed my skin, dazzled my eyes and lifted my heart.  As we flew over Lisbon, the in flight map showed Vila do Bispo on the screen – it felt so good to see it there – I was heading home

 

Before 11am, I was home.  The sun was shining, the windmills still and facing east and a metre of swell at Praia do Tonel.  It felt like I had been beaming a big smile all the way from Faro to Vila do Bispo.

 

After having the love bus serviced and checking out the dive school I drove out to Praia do Amado with the 10’2’’  Groovy and my wetsuit.  The road to the beach is one of my favourite places – passing the pine and eucalyptus trees that line the road, the windmills still motionless and the roads tourist free!

 

I paddled out as the sun began it’s decent into the Atlantic, the water warm and salty on my face.  Just two others in the line up – blissful after the summer chaos.  Three beautiful waves later I was out – happy with my return to the water.

 

Getting changed again, a different wave hit me full on and held me under for longer than ever before – a melancholy wave of infinite sadness.  I had such a short time here this visit.  Within 5 days I would be road tripping again, back to Mallorca unsure of just when I would return.  I was aware it would be a long time, maybe a year or more before I can ‘come home’ again but knowing my next return would be for longer.

 

I don’t want to leave – not because I don’t enjoy the challenge and travel of work but simply because I have fallen unconditionally in love with this part of the world, even through all of its bullshit and bureaucracy, even when the cash point seizes my bank card without warning, when motorists drive like complete dicks and it takes two weeks to get a new bank card and another two weeks to then get your PIN number

 

It is still the place to be !

 

In the last couple of years, i have flown with these guys, i reckon at least ten times.  In those years, i dont ever remember them flying on time ever.  the minimum they are late is 1 hour, the worst they ever managed was 3 hours.

 

but dont think thats all they get wrong.  Being tall, i always get well pissed off with airlines that make you pay extra for a seat next to an exit with that little bit more leg room.  I get more pissed off with them when they sell those seats to short arses.  But what really pisses me of is when i turn up at the airport almost 3 hours before my flight is due to leave, find out my flight is delayed,  check in and don’t get the seat that i pre-booked and paid a princely sum of 15 quid extra for and then, get stuck in the back of the plane with all the screaming kids!

 

it’s a good job i can’t take my gun on the plane any more, coz i would have popped a cap in the ass of that screaming brat and also in the ass of his wishy washy parents too – and as for the little twat that constantly kicked the back of my seat all the way down, and his father , that did fuck all to stop him, even after i complained to him, i would like to repay you, and thomsonfly.com with one big final running fuck slap !! never again will i fly with these half wits.

 

And while i am having a moan – lets talk about paranoia.  specifically on behalf of gary, you remember my old friend gary, the gary whos name was changed to protect the innocent.  well tonight, when i logged on, i had 4 emails from her, ranging from a pleasant hello to a paranoid level of almost re-writing my blog.

 

Dear Gary……….i will contemplate your recent request.  I am sure you are aware of my reluctantness to change any of the entries on my blog.  i have done this for you a few times now over the last couple of years but i remain alarmed with your need to be erradicated from my past.  I am sorry that all americans appear to be freaking nut jobs and want to stalk you and track your every move.  i am also worried that you are seriously considering going to live with these arse wipes full time…

 

 

think it over honey