Missing Every Part

Well, the prediction that life would be a bit shit for a while turned out to be accurate. Dropping Sonalee off at Cordoba train station is one of those times when you do what you have to and not what you want to do.

To top that day off the cat complained loudly for pretty much the whole of the 7 hour journey back to Lisbon.

I am making the return journey on Saturday to spend two weeks back in Fuente Tojar. Sonalee will be joining us for a week.

God, I miss her. I miss being ‘improved’ on a daily basis.

The dogs miss her terribly of course. They are at home all day without anyone walking them or giving them treats. The other day it was a twelve hour wait for them. They’re just not used to it. The cat…well the cat doesn’t seem to care one way or the other as long as he gets fed. Saw him purring up to a strange woman the other day. He’s as much as a tart as Luna.

This is the station right near us for the train route that never got finished. It is a remarkable piece of engineering that ran out of money. It may well be part of the skyline for decades to come.

Sonalee is not a fan of her new school, to say the least. She will stay for the rest of the year but she has accepted a job at another Madrid school starting in September. Another capital city to spend some time in! I will find something. I am not taking up the offer of an interview with two schools in Moscow. Something about it just put me off.

I will miss living by the sea though. There is just something about it that calls to me. It always cheers me up to see, hear and smell it. Luna loves the beach as well; it’s her favourite place to poo.

Luna has now been on numerous train rides here. She loves it. So many people to charm and get strokes from. So many people to coo over her. So many people who will love her. She has also been on a couple of social occasions with my colleagues who all, to a man and woman, are delighted to spend some time with her.

Everybody loves Luna.

I am coaching again, which has helped if I am honest. I am in charge of the grade 6 and 7 boys’ team. Our first training session took place in driving rain and not one of them complained or moaned. Fair play to them, I was genuinely impressed. Some parents did, of course, because that is what you get in any school.

I am also playing at school once a week. I say playing, more like providing a body to be present on the pitch. I did score an absolute belter a few weeks ago, a proper bring the ball down in one go and smack it in the top corner from 20 yards. I turned round to see a dozen faces with jaws dropped to the floor.

It won’t happen again. I did, foolishly, try to go past one of my colleagues last week. He laughed as he caught up with me after a yard, overtook me a yard later and rounded me a yard after that. I really have to remember I am playing against people 20 years younger than me. Twenty years!

I am grateful that I do have some really nice work colleagues. They certainly do help. They tell me not to be such a miserable git. They like a few drinks on the weekends and some like lots of drinks. They love Lisbon as much as us. They all like Sonalee, of course. We are at that time of year when we find out who is staying and who is going.

So, a funny story. This is our village bank which has just been closed down. One night some lads tried driving a car through the doors. They got stuck. They had to leg it sharpish on foot. The nearest village where they nicked the car from is miles away.

My friends Mark and Shanthini are returning to England to live. It has been really nice to work with them again. Both are terrific at what they do. I would love to work with some of my other ex-colleagues again as well. One of the downsides of living in a variety of countries is that you get to know people and then, due to the transitory nature of what we do, we are parted and scattered all over the globe.

Speaking of friends in faraway places, we wish all of them in Sri Lanka the best in what has become a nightmare for so many of them. Sri Lanka is going through an all too predictable financial meltdown with electricity blackouts, fuel shortages and price hikes on everything. Horrible, just horrible.

This time next week I will hopefully be in Fuente Tojar once again. I have some DIY to do which will cheer me up. And some cleaning, which won’t. I will pick Sonalee up at Cordoba station a week later where Dora will greet her. Can’t wait.