When the days are more wet than dry, when incarceration, over our own freedom to choose becomes a choice that is taken out of our own hands, then, having a ‘Comfort Zone’ in which to feel safe and secure, is definitely something of a luxury. There were times, not very long ago, when being incarcerated, for more than two consecutive days, even within the relative comforts of our own home, resulted in the onset of ‘Cabin Fever’, our need, not just a leisurely desire, to get out on our walks along the seafront, to feel the fresh air upon our faces, the wind in our hair and, the sights and sounds of life going on around us, were quite overwhelming. However, over the last few months in particular, when those incarceration periods have become more frequent and much more extended periods, four to five days at a time, but where we now realise that ‘Cabin Fever’ no longer strikes, I have to wonder whether this is just a case of putting our positive heads on and saying, “It’s the weather, we have no control over it, so it is what it is 🤷♂️”, or, is the reason for that lack of feeling that we are being forcibly imprisoned in our own homes, a little more sinister ? A case perhaps of us becoming just a little too comfortable in our ‘Comfort Zone’ where Lethargy overrides personal motivation to want to get out and move ?
For those of you who are regular reader’s, you will already be familiar with my more ‘contemplative’ ramblings, I don’t necessarily need to have any excuses, to write about the numerous things that are going on in my thoughts at any given time, and I certainly do not necessarily have to feel incarcerated before willingly sharing such thoughts with you, whether you want me to or not. However, these recent, and much more frequent periods of incarceration, have entailed me having much more time on my hands, and subsequently as a consequence, with I hasten to add, some other coincidental things being thrown into the mix, I have had a lot more time to do a lot more contemplating but with a nagging voice inside my head screaming, ‘Don’t Get All Philasophical On Me !’ So on yet another stormy and miserably wet morning, I found myself sat on the balcony staring into space and posing myself a question, ‘Is having a Comfort Zone a good thing or a bad thing ?’
Now this wasn’t a question that I had just conjured up from thin air, in fact it was a comment that was made recently, during one of the ‘many conversations’ that Shazza and I often have between ourselves, on a wide variety of subjects. We had made the decision to come and live permanently here in Spain in June of 2023, in complete acknowledgement and agreement, that in doing so we would be away from all of our immediate family, including our three grandchildren who, at the time of our move, the twins were 7 years old and the youngest just 4 years of age. Although we knew that they would be keen to come out and stay with us at least once a year, and we would occasionally return to the UK to see them and other family and friends, but we had told them that we did not intend to return to the UK on an annual basis, perhaps every couple of year’s or so, as we wanted and intended to use the opportunity, of us being based in Europe, to travel to and explore many other European countries, and perhaps even some countries further afield that were on our personal bucket lists. However, in the very nearly 3 year’s that we have lived here in Spain, whilst we have had some extended road trips exploring other areas of Spain in this time, a few days with our daughter in Germany one Christmas and, a few days in Austria attending a large family wedding event, we have not travelled anywhere else in Europe on personal holidays in this time, although we regularly both sit and watch ‘You Tube’ tourist documentaries on countries within Europe, and of course, we make all the right noises about visiting them 🤷♂️
Anyway, on a wet and dreary afternoon we were scrolling through the lists of programmes on the TV when we came across one entitled, ‘Old People’s Care Home for 4 Year Olds’ and that gained our interest. Now I won’t go into too much detail but basically, it was a ‘Social Experiment’ in an Australian Care Home where they introduced a group of ten, 4 year olds, to a similar numbered group of elderly residents aged 84 year’s and above and over a period of seven full weeks these individuals spent everyday with each other doing a variety of things, both in and out of the care home environment. As you may imagine, it was quite amusing to watch, especially as 4 year olds do not have any sort of ‘Filter’, they say exactly what is in their heads, likewise the ‘Older Adults’ were set in their own ways, it was set over six separate episodes and we binged watched the first series in one day, we found ourselves laughing, tutting and even shedding a tear at the end. But why am I telling you this, well initially, our reason for watching it had nothing to do with the ‘Old Age’ aspect, I mean this was about ‘Old People’ so, as far as I was concerned their was absolutely no correlation there, I mean I am not even a ‘Septuagenarian’ yet, well not for another seven months, but in my head I am still barely fifty-years old and still as healthy and fit, although yes I will admit to making some old people’s noises occasionally, when I first get out of bed usually or, on sitting down when we get home after one of our long walks, but to be completely truthful I have probably been making those exact same noises for the last twenty-years 😂 But here is the real impact the programme had on the both of us, we missed the one-on-one ‘in the flesh’ contact with our three grandaughter’s, it reminded us of just how much fun they are, the energy they have, and the energy they make us have in doing things with them, and the conversations we have with them. It made us realise just how much of their growing up years that we have missed out on and why, perhaps, when we have so much free time in our retirement, that we can not hop on the relatively short flight back to the UK, to go and see them a little more often.
We already knew that we would get to see them all again this Summer, for whilst they have confirmed that they are definitely coming during the school holidays, the exact dates still have to be determined, but we will be here nonetheless. However, it got us to thinking how we could kill two birds with one stone as it were, by also satisfying one of our own personal holiday trips. One of the biggest regrets I have is in not actually taking the opportunity to do any real travel explorations of France, whilst we were living in our Motorhome full-time, yes we had done a bit but not a great deal, we were always in a rush to get elsewhere, France was always just on the doorstep and we all know that we never usually visit places that are so close to home 🤷♂️ Whenever we travelled from the UK to Spain, in either the Motorhome or the car, we always took the ferry directly to either Bilbao or Santander then drove straight down here to the apartment, to what was then just our holiday ‘Bolt Hole’. So, we have made the decision and have booked the ferries and, in a little over six weeks time we will head up to Bilbao, where we will spend a couple of days exploring the city before departing for the UK. Strange how many times we have departed, and returned, via Bilbao but never stopped to look around 🤷♂️ We will put this right this time. We spent a little over three weeks in the UK last year, visiting family and friends, this time we will spend only one week, stopping first in Wiltshire to spend a few days with our grandchildren whilst they are on their Easter school holidays, then driving up to South Yorkshire to spend Easter with Shazza’s mum, then we will return to Wiltshire to spend a short time again with the Grandchildren, before catching an overnight ferry to the north coast of France. I have made a rough route plan, there are far too many places to explore in just one trip, so we have a general direction to head towards but with no definitive locations to stop at, and no time period for how long we will stay at any one location, but we will celebrate Shazza’s birthday whilst we are there and the France part of this particular trip could well stretch to just beyond three weeks, then back into Spain with stops at San Sebastián, Zaragoza and Toledo, which are three major places in Spain that we have not yet visited and are on our ‘To Do List’, before then heading home once again. We need to be back at home in May to get all our ducks in a row (Administration) in readiness to submit our annual Spanish Tax Return, and then, at the end of May, our daughter and son-in-law from Germany, will be our first scheduled visitors of the year.
Now, with June and July having to be spent here in Spain, as we have to apply to renew our Spanish Residency Permits (Mid June) and then wait to receive our new Identity Residency Cards, which could take between 4-6 weeks and then, with the two-week Summer visit to us by Chris, Sarah and our Grandaughter’s, we may, or may not, get a chance for a mini-break somewhere before those two events. One of my nephews and his wife and young son, who live in Australia, have also said that they are potentially planning a Summer trip to Europe and would like to come and stay with us as part of that trip, so that will fit into the schedule of visitor’s somewhere 🤷♂️
However, earlier in this ramble I also alluded to a certain ‘Septuagenarian’ event taking place later in the year. Shazza has decided that as we only really marked my 50th, and did nothing special to mark my 60th, this time she wanted us to make a memory, with the proviso that she will be organising it and that I am not to question any unscheduled withdrawals from the Bank Account 😲 My OCD Buddy certainly had some concerns over my agreeing to that one I can tell you !! My sole input, I have been informed, is to decide only on which European City, excluding any in Spain or UK, in which I would like to celebrate this event. Oh my goodness, choices choices, Copenhagen ? Oslo ? Florence ? Rome ? Athens ? Although, coming to think about it, I seem to recall seeing something about an annual five day wine festival in Budapest ? 🍷🍷🍷 Although I may not have too many memories of that city, or my birthday, afterwards 😂
So, it looks as if we are going to have another busy year ahead of us, with Shazza’s mum scheduled to arrive for her two-week stay in October, which quite conveniently brings me back to my original question, ‘Is having a comfort zone a good thing, or a bad thing ?’ Well we certainly do have our own very nice ‘Comfort Zone’, both within our safe and secure home and also, with our location, we have everything we need on our doorstep, a swimming pool just steps away from our front door, an incredible choice of a number of lovely sandy beaches, the nearest just a five minute drive from our front door, a lovely long seafront and promenade to walk along, so many Cafe/Bars and Restaurants to choose from, when it isn’t raining of course, we have all the day to day shops we could ever need, top notch medical facilities close by and with two Airport’s also nearby (Gibraltar and Malaga), within just a short drive away, which enable visitor’s to get to us quite easily. So yes, being in our ‘Comfort Zone’ is definitely a good thing, in my humble opinion. But, just because we have a perfectly good ‘Comfort Zone’ should not mean that we should not, or cannot, step outside of it occasionally, especially whilst we are both still capable of doing so, for we just never know when the time may come when we cannot do so, for whatever reason 🤔
Unlike our prolonged periods of recent incarcerations, where we have had little choice in the matter, we do still have the freedom to decide for ourselves, if, when, and on how many occasions, we may choose to leave our particular ‘Comfort Zone’, only ‘other’ external global factors can interfere with that, if we allow them to.
If this stormy weather doesn’t stop soon, you may have to persevere with even more of my ‘Contemplative’ thoughts 😂
Until the next time………………
Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena
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