Welcome back, or maybe just Welcome!

 

So after a very long gap, I am resurrecting the blog as I start on my preparations for Gaute 2027!   I am so excited.   I hope if you are reading this, you are doing so as a result of my "begging" letter in support of my three month trip to La Antigua, Guatemala, and volunteering for Niños de Guatemala.  I want you to feel part of the experience, (especially if you are a donor, to my £500 target linked to this trip. If that is you, then thank you and welcome. 

To recap the story so far. I wanted a project to adequately reflect my arrival at 70 years of age!  And in a "Eureka" moment I remembered the great time I had in 2011-2012 volunteering in La Antigua, Guatemala with and NGO called CasaSito. Having now added a further 6 years of voluntary experience from my time in Peru, the need was to do something significant.

So I decided on a 90day trip back to Guatemala. I did my research and decided that the work of Niños de Guatemala fitted the bill. Mainly because of their high school and scholarship programme focusing on youngsters from 15 - 17 transitioning from school to the world of work.  La Antigua, is a major tourist spot and also home to many retired Americans. The entire city centre is a UNESCO world heritage site and tourism and hospitality is the name of the game!

However, imagine you are a young person from an Indigenous background, so your first language is probably Kaqchikal (A Mayan derivative language), you come from an extremely poor background, you have to learn Spanish as your second language (but the first language of non indigenous, paler, descendants of the conquistadors) and your city, thrives on the ability to speak English because it is a touristic centre. Quite a challenge!   You were lucky enough to be educated and fed, at one of Niños de Guatemala's three schools based outside of the city centre. ANd know you are going to jump into the hustle and bustle of life in the city, or maybe you want to start a very small business. Where to start!

Niños de Guatemala relies on the support of up to 200 volunteers a year to help them achieve their aims and objectives. Most volunteer stay for one or two weeks and combine a few hours a day volunteering in the morning with being a tourist in the afternoon.  I am offering eight weeks, mornings, afternoons and weekends, to work with the high school youngsters and scholarship students on the hospitality programme to get them job fit. Improve their language, communication and personal development abilities and to also build their self-confidence as personal esteem.

In order to do this I have already started to revise my rusty Spanish, and with the help of AI (artificial Intelligence) am starting to make real progress which will be backup by two weeks of intensive/immersion conversational Sanish when I arrive in Guatemala. And then a further intensive week of Kaqchikal language tuition so that I can communicate with  indigenous students and also in the wider community, respectfully in their own language. It will only be a few words and phrases, but I hop ein so doing, I also learn about the cultural,language and other difference that need to be overcome, to work in La Antigua in 2027!

So please follow my journey, ask me questions and let's be a part of this great adventure together.

Please look back at my posts from 2011 and 2012 to see many of the wonders of this fabulous orginal capital of Guatemala, and my volunteering back them.

Thank you.

WIll start work shortly on filling in the gap of the last 3 years. Never happened! But for Guate 2027 I am already up and running!

 I stopped my blog in 2019 but have decided that now I have more time, I shall fill in the gaps and start blogging again, once I am in my new flat in Hereford.  One of many planned retirement pastimes. 

Here is an external picture of my new flat which is currently undergoing refurbishment (new wet room) and complete redecoration. Hopefully I shall move in week beginning September 12 (fingers crossed).

Life goes on.

The long gap between posts is just that, life goes on and the new different and exciting is not a feature of the everyday. I have been battling with mice and slugs eating my seedlings but have at last got some plants to plant.

Today I have been on this adventure in France technically 1 year. It has had it ups and downs and after my last break I return with my “eyes wide open” and a clearer understanding of the challenges and the expectations of all concerned.

But, last week I was in the UK, having an MOT: Doctor, Dentist and Optician. I don't have Lymes disease (but do have a lot of muscle aches and similar symptoms – just wear and tear), I do have gum disease (now under control with a multitude of interdental brushes) and my eyes are fine but have the very first signs of cateracts (they will take years to develop).

Need to not work quite so hard at the tough stuff; less tree felling and maybe more work cooking and gardening!

But then the main reason for the return was a trip to Istanbul with Andy. Much needed and hugely enjoyable. Andy had found a small hotel within spitting distance of the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque and yet was completely quiet. We arrived on the first day of a three day Eid holiday, so along with tourists we had to contend with everybody out and about. We soon realised that we need to be up and out early and to take it easier in the mid-day and afternoon heat. But had a great time. As you can see.

Terrific food, terrific weather ( a bit too hot?) and lovely people.

Highlights, Haya Sofia and the Dolmahace Palace (absolutely amazing especially the 4.5 ton chandelier manufactured in Birmingham) . Trip on the Bosphorus strait local boat for 2 Euros for 90 minutes as opposed to tourist boat same route 30 Euros.

The Blue mosque resembled was overcrowded and under renovation (actually EVERYWHERE we visited was under renovation!)

Also visited the amazing underground water cistern, the Ecumenical Patriarchate Cathedral of St George, the Topkapi Palace (not impressed) and local bazaar.

Great transport system, especially as the tram stopped 20 metres from the hotel. Would like to go back off season. Amazingly both Andy and I returned to the UK with about 40% of our spending money as everything was so reasonable.

Turkish food and wine is really really good, varied and full of taste and again so reasonable.

Here is a selection of photos.

view from hotel rooftop bar

The Birmingham Manufactured 4.5 ton chandelier! This is one of the most amazing rooms I have ever seen.

Into the light of rediscovery ..... January 1. 2019.

Start of year …… Now that I “listen to” rather than “do” music, I am, as I have previously mentioned, on a voyage of discovery of music that is new to me. I am catching up on composers that I wanted to know more about and just haven't had the time to listen to and explore. With cutbacks in arts funding, orchestras play it safe and so play music that they know will fill the hall rather than music that needs to be heard. As a result we are knee deep in the “greats” and composers who have/had important things to say are left in the dark. We all lose out. 

Thankfully the internet has given access to music and scores so that rediscovery of forgotten masterpieces is available to all. But, as the saying goes, “you don't know what you don't know” so we might not know that the symphonies of composer x and the equal (and sometimes better) than contemporaneous composer y, but y had a better or more famous patron, or access to funding, or was in the UK and not trying to make a living in a developing country.

Anyway, this is a long winded way of saying that, as in life, sometimes the unexpected, the road less travelled or the riskier option can provide amazing riches and insights. Curiosity seems to be less in fashion, but for me, having time to listen means having time to be curious. Because of my musical training I can listen to a Beethoven Symphony whenever I want, because it is in my music memory and I just have to recall it and listen to it in my head, it is there if I need it. But how much nicer to discover something new and challenging and different. A new voice, a rediscovered but neglected masterpiece. And without the necessity of having to follow critical views past and present. One damning review and an amazing work of art, or book, or piece of music is cast into outer darkness sometime hardly ever to see the light of day again.

So I am looking forward to bringing works back into my own personal light by exploring the byways rather than the highways. Such a revelation.

On Sunday I heard a snippet of a piece of music and yesterday I tracked it down via you tube for the music and another site (IMSLP) for the orchestral score and today I have listened to a symphony which probably NEVER gets an outing in the concert hall, but is astounding music. Sir Arnold Bax: Third Symphony. And tomorrow I will probably find another and another and another ……. so much better than hearing yet another tired performance of Beethoven 5!

I know that this is just a metaphor for life, and a metaphor for my 2019. Yours too? Rediscover those discarded hobbies, interests and gifts. Search out the less familiar, take a few risks and who knows what riches are there to be discovered afresh .

What unexpected delights await you?

Happy New Year.

“Quand on a pas ce que l’on aime, il faut aimer ce que l’on a” 30 Dec 2018

End of the Year ……..

The end of the year review........   I don't think so. 

This being the time of year I most hate; short, dark days and little sun. I am sure I am affected by SAD to some extent and I always feel below par and a little miserable. The colder weather brings on chills and colds and again you feel a bit down. So this year I break with tradition and have decided that my last blog of 2018 is going to be different, no looking back and no setting up of New Year resolutions; therefore no planning to fail either.

I am writing this at my desk in my gîte looking out at the bird table and the flock of tits that seem to get through vast amount of sunflower seeds each day.

This time of year is busy with the harder tasks of maintenance that can't be done when guests are here so we are chopping trees, painting and decorating and getting things in order for March, when we open again.

Whilst I am making no resolutions I am looking forward to creating opportunities in 2019. There are some things I hope to achieve:

1. I think I would describe my style of cooking as what the French would term “bistro”: homely, uncomplicated and full of flavour with a firm focus on taste and less on fiddly presentation. So for 2019 I intend to improve my cooking skills so that I can present a more varied and interesting menu here at La Ribiere and to that end I want to improve:

- my knife skills – sharper knives and more even slicing, dicing and de-boning

- my pan tossing skills - apparently its all in the wrist action (now then don't be rude)

- re-discovery of the basics – I bought the fantastic book; Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nozrat (see her videos on Netflix) and

- using better ingredients leading to more interesting food and an even healthier diet

2. Work/Life balance is complicated especially when no two days are the same but I hope to get better at some of my work skills especially the cooking (see above) and also my forestry and gardening balanced off with more reading and learning. 2019 is the year I really make an effort with my French. But no pressure.

Forestry: Have got some books on chainsawing, ordered a nice new safety helmet with integrated ear-muffs and visor, and also got some felling wedges.

When John comes back I want to work with him to fully improve my skills. There is a satisfaction in felling a tree that falls in the right way and then processing it. And the neglected forests here need so much TLC.

Gardening: The plan is to have a good “allotment” sized vegetable garden up and running with both the usual and unusual growing in abundance. New Potatoes, beans, peas, tomatoes, squash, corn, chillies, fennel, peppers, etc. Multiple varieties. Carrots and onions etc., are not worth the effort.

French: to enjoy getting to the stage where I can hold a basic conversation and shop with confidence.

Read more: Years ago I used to buy the Man-Booker short list every year as a basis for my reading, so I have a good few years to catch up on. And I joined Amazon prime!

3. Linked to this work/life balance is a plan to make full use of monthly short breaks to the UK and elsewhere enabling short bursts of quality time with friends. It is good that David, Heidi and I have friends in common and I hope we can encourage them to visit and take part in life here. Quality time with a small group of friends has to be the order of the day.

The other thing is to finally get my stuff moved out here before the start of the season. I want to transform my space and own it more. And whilst the stuff is mainly IKEA and only acquired over the short period of 10 months since arriving back in the UK from Peru and my departure to France such as there is, is useless sitting in a storage facility in Hall Green.

Photos 1, 3, 4 and 5 courtesy of Heidi and David

Of course this is all subjective and I don't intend to beat myself up over any of it. I will achieve what I achieve and it is more a general setting of the compass firmly in a forwards direction for 2019.

“Quand on a pas ce que l’on aime, il faut aimer ce que l’on a”

“Want what you have and you’ll have what you want”

I have beautiful friends, beautiful surroundings and beautiful opportunities: I intend to positively exploit them all and I hope that you will also have the same riches in 2019.