El Andalous - My First Year

Sahl Hasheesh at Sundown

Well, believe it or not, from tomorrow (10th Oct), I will have been here a year.

Each year goes past faster than the last one – I think it’s because the longer you live, the smaller a proportion of your life a year becomes. There’s always that sense of panic as a year goes by and you wonder what you’ve done with it, but actually, I’m pretty happy.

In some ways, those early days seem like a lifetime ago. I arrived with a frozen shoulder and added a broken foot to that within the space of two weeks. I was probably 8kg heavier at that point (I’d already lost a few kilos before moving over here) than I am now.

Then I had the rats to contend with, I had to barter with taxi drivers, including getting into unmarked taxis. We didn’t even have our own beach at El Andalous and I walked up to Palm Beach every day. In the early days, I didn’t even do this; I just wandered around finding the nearest bit of sand that I fancied using.

So, within the space of a year, quite a lot has changed. I am (for now, at any rate!) healthy, swim every day on the El Andalous beach, I regard Esmat as a friend and not just as a taxi driver, I’ve met and made friends with some wonderful people who live or own properties here who all show me such kindness. I’ve been writing weekly newsletters for the owners club so that I feel I am doing my bit.

I’ve completed two books (25 New Year’s Resolutions – for Dogs! and 25 New Year’s Resolutions – for Cats! (out next week)); I’ve worked on two novels and am fairly well progressed with both. Thanks to Geraldine, I now have an illustrator for my German False Friends book (still deciding on the title!) and he and I hope to release that next year.

I’ve learned a bit of Arabic – but a bit of a slap on the wrist there for me, since I’ve neglected it in recent times and my reading ability is probably diminishing. But I was making progress.

I don’t regret leaving work, and it’s just as well I’m of a calm disposition because the value of my shares has greatly reduced since I’ve been here and they are supposed to be funding my existence at some point. But I have faith that all will come good in the end. Or blind optimism. Or sheer foolhardiness. I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.

It’s been good to have had some visitors – Holger, Snejana, Lena – and am looking forward to more to come (hello Geraldine!).

So, for a quiet life, it’s been fairly busy. I’m by no means fully settled in and I’m sure I’ll have more adventures in the next year. However, I sometimes struggle to find something to write twice a week here on my blog, so I will now reduce the frequency to Mondays only. I’m not sure I can even fill that, but life is unpredictable. If I have nothing to write, I’ll just stick a photo up so that you all know I’m still alive.

I’ve also reduced my El Andalous newsletters from once a week to once a month – isn’t that ridiculous, you don’t work anymore and you still feel that you have too much to do!

Have a good weekend everyone and I’ll be back on Monday!