Travels with Jimmy

The year 2023 has been a big one for us so I’m listing things here, knowing I’ll bloody forget otherwise.

Why is it a ‘big one’? Well, because James turning 70 and our Golden Wedding Anniversary both happened in August. Last year, we did rather a lot of travelling around so we thought we’d try and top that, just to make a proper celebration of it all.

January was boring… haha, we never went abroad at all.

February neither, but we certainly celebrated paying off the house. Waheey, no more mortgage to pay.

March, we were in Edinburgh, Scotland, together for Ronnie’s funeral, so that was less fun, but as usual with funerals, you meet people you haven’t seen in a long time. Somewhat of a consolation.

April, things really took off. We went to Rhodes, Greece, for a week to an ‘All-inclusive’ resort in Ixia… was fabulous. We stayed on the resort the whole time and stuffed our faces at the lovely restaurants three times a day... it was ridiculous. The weather was decent and we had our own (freezing!) pool with the suite. Drinks were included in our package so we rather indulged. I basically don’t drink, usually - the odd wine, maybe two. This place had me working my way through the cocktail menu. Hey, it was paid for! The evening entertainment was usually a laugh so we were well entertained. It was a great rest from our usual marching all over the place. We didn't even go into Rhodes as have been before anyway.

Four days after returning, I was off again to Larkhall, Scotland, as that had been booked for a long time and I hadn’t seen the boys in March, knowing I was coming back soon. Met up with an old school pal too, which was great, and also an American friend visiting Edinburgh.

Mid May, I went to Innsbruck, Austria, all-expenses-paid for three nights, four days, by Med-El. So interesting! Met lots of lovely folks from all corners of the globe with CIs, and filmed and recorded for Med-El ads. Great fun. James joined me on my last day and we then stayed another four nights to take in more of Innsbruck, which isn’t big, but nice to see. The mountains were incredible.

We were only back from there for two nights before flying off to Tenerife, The Canary Isles, for ten days. This had been totally out of the blue until I prised it out of him as I knew he was up to something. We were going there to join Les’ and Aymer, how exciting - but they didn’t know anything about it either. So that was great fun. Our hotel was beautiful and so was theirs so we’d meet up every other day and most nights. We visited two other towns on the island too. Quite impressed with the town we were in but man, it’s a long flight to get there. We honestly hadn’t realised how far away it is - duh! They left one day before we did. It was so great to spend decent time with them again.

June, we were home practically the whole month, then on the 29^th we flew to Marseille, France for five nights, actually staying in Aix en Provence - a lovely, lovely place, chocka with places to eat and drink - until the 4^th of July. We were booked to visit the lavender fields as we’ve wanted to do that for years. It was absolutely as lovely as we imagined and we’re glad we did it, made some nice friends along the way too. We also had a day trip to Nimes, which was smashing, and on our last day we took a proper look at Marseille again before catching our flight back to NL. Lots of changes there, all for the better by the looks. Great town.

Middle of that month, Em’, T and the boys came to us for five nights before heading off on their InterRail adventure.

We didn’t travel far for his 70^th, but we did stay away overnight somewhere fabulous, actually here in Almere, called Life Contains Beautiful Things - I know, daft name, but really nice. Only three cabins, around a ‘wild’ swimming pool, in the middle of a vineyard… in Almere! Knowing that he was ‘surprising’ me with a long trip for our anniversary, I surprised him with this. Lis', Tim and the boys, plus Grada and Remy, surprised him some more by joining us for dinner after his oyster treat with Prosecco at the sauna in the garden. He knew nothing until it all happened and it was great fun. I overindulged and spent half the night on the bathroom floor, to my shame. Still worth it.

Then, 23^rd August, until 25^th September, we were in Madrid (and Toledo), Jerez, Cadiz, Vejer de la Frontera, Estepona, Ronda, Antequera, Granada, Murcia (and Cartagena), Albacete (and Cuenca) in SPAIN. Thirteen places in all, 3 as day trips. On our actual Golden Wedding Day in Madrid, the girls surprised us with the delivery of an engraved bottle of champagne. Tears all round!

James surpassed himself in all the bookings he’d done on AirBnB. Everywhere was great! Some were terrific, some less so, but all really good, clean, modern, and central to everywhere we went. We travelled by bus and by (HS) train, mostly managing well - barring the odd cock-up. We travel fairly light with only a carry-on wheelie bag each, plus small rucksacks, and then an extra bag, for extras like dirty washing. Never a problem, but I did obsess slightly, counting them every time in my head.

We saw so much, DID so much, walked loads (something like 450 Km over almost five weeks and averaging 15 Km per day!), ate an enormous amount (mostly tapas), didn’t cook one meal, and drank lots of alcohol too (even me). We had a ball, in fantastic weather the whole time. Never met one person who wasn’t nice, helpful, and kind, plus several who went out of their way to help us. I’ve written a whole journal of this elsewhere so won’t elaborate here.

Mid-October, I’m back over to Larkhall, Scotland and we will go to Glenshee overnight for the Enchanted Forest in Pitlochry.

November, will be hard, as going nowhere at all, haha, but December, J’s taking me to Nice, France for my birthday and we have plans to take day trips all around there. Menton for sure, perhaps Antibes, and just might make it to Ventimiglia in Italy as that's not too far.

So, I think we even surpassed 2022. Now wondering what 2024 will bring because we have, once again, been smitten with Spain and still fancy Italy… or yet the South of France, to just go and stay for longer. It will also be my 70^th birthday - hint, hint. Lots of logistics and practicalities to be ironed out first, but the heart wants what the heart wants. Time will tell. There’s no hurry. So, bring it on.

Sick

I’m sick. As sick as you get without being like… sick.

It’s confusing, because, how fuckin sick must you be to be actually, seriously sick? I never want to find out!

I don’t even have a fever - no high temperature according to my trusty thermometer, despite deploying it as I lie here ‘sweating carrots’, as the Dutch say (doesn’t translate well, but I love it). Maybe that's an indication that my metabolism works? Like, you sweat to cool you down, eh?

There are some among us who consider my languishing about and coughing my lungs out at regular intervals as mere ‘attention seeking’. I can only disagree. I really do not want this and the only one otherwise affected is the one specifically, deliberately, not giving me attention so… makes no sense and will ignore in turn.

It’s not even the bad Covid-19! How fuckin bad must it be that you need put on a ventilator and into an induced coma? I have been so miserable, so out of breath, feeling sooo bloody sick… while all the while aware, it’s ‘just a bad cold and a cough’. I have been terrified of getting Corona like that - pretty sure I'd be bad with that. We go for our next vaccination shortly… if they will allow me.

I know my lungs are fine - at my worst, the doc never hears a thing on them (this is a regular thing!), thank goodness. It’s just, when you feel like your eyeballs were about to explode at every cough in that last bout (flashing lights, the lot!), and your head is pounding, your eyes are practically stuck shut, your throat and chest burns, your nose is basically no longer an airway, and your stomach muscles ache from all the coughing… well, it’s hard to keep up the ‘nothing wrong with me’ story, or feel sorry for those around you afflicted with your noise. I’m not speaking about the neighbours either, whom I’m sure must also be about demented, listening to me all night.

As solicitous and helpful as ‘some’ can be under normal circumstances, they are the absolute worst any time I’m ‘sick’. I’d as well be on another planet… hah, they wish! I try, every time, to zap this ‘thing’ as soon as it starts up, I do, but nothing seems to help, and it always lasts so long! I know of no one who has this ‘sick, not sick’ shite and no, I do not prolong it myself. Why would I? How? It started while still on holiday this time, (so I don't believe it's a 'climate' thing), in the last week, and I went to a chemist that morning already, for a throat spray, and a nose spray, etc. Praying (to no avail) that it wouldn't 'develop'. It has only got worse since, like there is just no escaping it.

I do feel decidedly wimpy at times, but I suppose it is all relative. I remember when I broke my wrist, I seriously thought (still think!) I'd rather have birthed my babies breach than go through that pain ever again (I know, chronologically this makes no sense but...). My 'threshold' isn't the highest, I know.

So anyway, got that off my chest. Now this bloody affliction! Pulease!