You know that thing that Sonalee and I said we would never do again?  When we said we would never live apart ever again after what was a really shit year with her in Morocco and me in Spain?  When we said nothing was worth doing that again?

Well, we’re doing it again.

I know.

Sonalee got offered a job at a really good school in Madrid, one that has a fantastic reputation.  It is pure International  Baccalaureate rather than the hybrids we have been working in recently.  It is properly bilingual with Spanish used in all communication as the primary language and English kind of added on.  It is in the outskirts of Madrid, the cultural and financial centre of Spain and a city that is one of the largest in the EU. 

She was really happy to be offered the job especially after so many applications that have just gone nowhere.   Sonalee has been unhappy here in Lisbon since we got back in January.  Not because Lisbon is a horrible place to live; the opposite is true really.

Sonalee is a people person.  She needs to be around people all day.  We have had some great evenings out with my lovely colleagues and friends but it just isn’t enough for her  – she needs people to interact with on a daily basis.

So when this school asked her to start in two weeks’ time, she said yes.  So, she is off to Madrid at the start of March to begin a new adventure whilst I stay here in Lisbon to complete my contract and look after the four dogs and one very pissy pussy cat.   She will be back at the end of June when we plan to spend at least a month here, both on holiday and with a determination to enjoy the fruits of our labours.

The plan is then for us both to return to Madrid and continue to work within the Spanish system that we need to get into.  We did move to Spain in order to live in Spain and be a part of the Spanish system.  We wanted to learn Spanish and get to understand Spain and not keep flitting off to Africa and to Portugal where they speak funny. 

Sonalee has also been a kind of non-person here in Portugal.  Because she has no residency visa, she has not been able to work thanks to Brexit.  If you cannot work, you cannot get medical assistance on the national health service here.  You cannot rent a place.  You cannot get a tax code.  There’s loads of things you cannot do and it is very frustrating for her.  So Sonalee will be paying into the Spanish system which will, finally, get us the free medical care that is really important. 

Brexit is the gift that just keeps on giving.

But, back to me.  You know, because I am so important.  I am, unquestionably, going to miss my wife yet again and not just because she is the one who makes me my daily omelette and coffee to go to school with.  She needs to do this though.  She needs to be around people and around teachers and with a feeling that she belongs. 

And it isn’t a whole year.  It is four months, with an Easter holiday in between.  And the promise of a holiday here in Lisbon at the end of it and then a life together back in central Spain.  It will be worth it. 

The dogs will be  the ones who will be in shock.  Suddenly, after four years they will be on their own all day.  They had a period in Morocco when this was the case but it was only a few months.  Since then they had us both 24/7 for the lockdown in Rabat and the beach that we loved to roam around on.  Then they had me at home for a year with them exploring the campo each day and now with Sonalee at home for six months being driven from one semi-wild place to another during the week.  The pandemic has been good for them in many ways.  They will now be like most dogs who have to amuse themselves all day. 

The cat will continue to be arsey.  Because it is what cats do.  He loves it.

This is not what we envisaged when we moved here.  Mind you, I am really not sure what we envisaged.  It was yet another new adventure in a relationship that has seemed to contain so many new adventures.  Sri Lanka – Spain – Morocco – Portugal – back to Spain.  All in the space of 7 and a half years.  Bonkers, really.   And all with four dogs and cats.  Even more bonkers.

What to do?  Well, we would both like to return to Sri Lanka for a holiday.  We are both getting more itchy when we think about it.  We miss our friends there and drool when we remember some of the food there.  It might be time soon.

We would also like to visit the UK again.  The last time we were there was to get jobs at the fair in London and the time before that was our wedding, five years ago.  We need to go back.  Perhaps if we stop moving countries then we could actually find the time to go to the two places that we also call home after our house in the middle of nowhere in Andalusia. 

That might, in a year or two, be a big perhaps.  Perhaps we will start to get itchy feet once again, an affliction we cannot seem to escape.  We have talked extensively about working and living in Colombia…

With our dogs…

The next few months are going  to be a bit shit.  There is no way around it.  It is the way that it is.  But we know that, in the long term, it will be so much better.   The week days will not be so hard because working as teachers is exhausting and time-consuming.  The weekends will be hard.  They were last year, even when I wasn’t working for those six months.

The weekends here in Lisbon have been great.  We have taken advantage of where we live to really live.  We have done stuff.  Last weekend Sonalee and I went to the football at Estoril.  Sonalee at the footy!  She loved it.  I think.  Okay, she tolerated it.  She didn’t hate it.  I count that as a victory.  This weekend has found us getting smashed with some lovely work colleagues and eating a fantastic curry with old friends and a Sunday morning walking in the heather overlooking a vibrant Atlantic coast full of surfers.  Weekend living in Lisbon has been worth it.

All of my colleagues who have met Sonalee have been delighted for her and wish her well in her new job.   These are exciting times for her and my colleagues all recognise that, which says a lot about them but even more about how Sonalee really does get to know people to the extent that I am simply not programmed to do.  And I am excited for her; she has wanted to work at this school for quite a while now.  She is a great teacher and she deserves to be at a place that allows her to be great. 

It’s just that I wish she could still come home to us at the end of her day.  Alas, for a few months we will all miss that thing that Sonalee brings to our lives, that undefinable something that means so much to us. 

 Ayubowan,

Hasta Luego, inshallah

Ciao

Paul

PS The original. And the best cover of it.