July 5 - 18 "The Stature of Waiting"

 This week for reasons which will become apparent almost impossible to get the pictures where I want them .....

The town band in action - actually very good and playing
tough repertoire by Shostakovitch  and Bernstein.

Cactus in flower

"The Stature of Waiting" was a book a read 25 years ago when on a long retreat at a Anglican monastery in Yorkshire, it was all about the dignity and thus "stature" of simply waiting, in this case of course it was waiting on God, waiting for a sign, for the time to be right, to be content in that simple act of waiting .......... well, this last two weeks I have been waiting, waiting, waiting for the damned estate agent/conveyancer.  

 
 

This stasis occasioned also by my heel which is still not 100%, the incredible heat and in the last few days feeling very under the weather with flu-like symptoms has been hard to cope with.   Everybody here adopts a kind of troglodyte existence from 10 am - 6pm, blinds drawn, stay in the dark and try to keep cool, so interaction with others is also difficult. I can walk the 3 kms round trip to Mercadona and maybe only see 5 or 6 people and maybe 20 other people shopping. 

River Argos

Also and this is a major factor this bloody notebook "computer" has decided that it has had enough, (maybe it too hates the heat) and I presented with a constant barrage of messages saying "not responding","not responding","not responding" to the point where it takes 20 minutes simply to get skype or word or the internet to function and then each programme freezes 2 or 3 times before it begrudgingly starts to work but oh so slowly.  Where is the f**king stature in that?

In consequence I can report that there has been little dignity in this, the last two weeks have been slow, boring and frankly a bit depressing. I have retreated into a world of listening to radio 4, the bbc i-player, eating too much, reading and staring at the ceiling.  You can have too much time to think and it's too hot to study! 

Well that's what you wanted I hear you say and it is, but I think I had planned on a little more control in the  process and had not thought about the waiting, waiting, waiting.  I wanted and had planned for "structure" and all this has thrown me off course a bit. Hence no blog last week. Stature is no use without structure!

Ordinarily, non of this would be a problem but at the moment it has all just piled on top of one another and in writing this I hope to relieve the strain a bit.   I am not feeling in control and the moment, diminished stature.

Wild Bamboo

However, looking forward, (waiting), I have a very good friend visiting for the weekend and I hope he will also be an "angel of mercy" as there is the possibility of him arriving with an old laptop (old for him, a modern miracle for me) and that I might be able to do more and do it more effectively. If not, I shall have to buy one immediately rather than wait and buy one once in the new place and  once internet connections etc have been sorted.

But more importantly than that I wait to see him, catch upon his career, family and life, explore some of the local wines and food and generally have a good time.

 

One other slight upside of all this waiting is that thanks to the Grexit-saga, and a pronouncement by Mark Carney (Bank of England Governor) the pound has strengthened  and a Euro has gone from being worth 73p to currently worth 69p making my house around 5% cheaper!

 


The food exploration continues, but without the counterbalance of my daily jog, my waist is expanding ...... not the kind of stature I want or seek.

Anyways, hopefully and finally my NIE registration will happen this week, and my hope is to have the house by the time of my birthday, so just 5 weeks to go.

Food pictures of Bocquerones (Anchovies) in a picante pimiento batter and a rather lovely but rich mixture of various spanish sausages  cooked with mushrooms, tomatoes, pimientos and cream cheese, yummy sauce for pasta.

Corgettes with onions and cooked with lemon juice.

A too rich pasta sauce?

Last night was the Cehegins patronal festival, St. Mary Magdelene, so I had the pleasure of thunderclaps going off until around 2 am and then couldn't sleep because I was waiting for the next bang!

All a bit of a moan this week ..... but let's "wait and see" what happens this next week!

"Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible"

Footnote:  "The Stature of Waiting" rather backfired in monastic terms, as whist waiting I got bored and  met and had an affair with a member of the community (a monk), which resulted in me springing him out of the community (clearing his room and leaving whilst the rest of the community was at prayer) and me being somewhat "persona non grata" - our relationship didn't survive the turbulence, but he went on to be a very successful parish priest and I learnt that maybe the monastic life wasn't quite what God had in mind, although of course it all boiled up again some years later. But these are stories for the biography.

Another great sunrise