An early start for me today and my last get-up in Mallorca for the foreseeable future.
At least I got a sunrise at the beach and a couple of low quality photos to share.
Between the packing and cleaning yesterday, I made some time to pay friends (bars) a final visit to say "I'll see you when I see you". The phrase is rather lame in text but makes sense, sort of, when you don't actually know when you will see someone again.
The community is fairly close in this seaside town and news/gossip gets around far too quickly at times, but it does mean that people always have something to talk about, when the long summer days are seemingly on repeat.
As you can tell by the photo below, the timing of my exit as far as the season goes is rather strange - this week pretty much marks the beginning of the main tourist season and the place is filling up quickly. Unlike this bus...
I'm sad to be leaving, but there are things to do and people to see in the UK - Mums Birthday is on Friday and my Grandads funeral is in a couple of weeks. Then there is my daughter, whom over the last 4/5 months especially, I have been missing a lot - a feeling stronger than in recent years that I am missing out on her youth. I'd like to see her as much as possible this summer when her school holidays begin and hopefully money/work/crypto/time will give me that opportunity.
When I rode up to one of the bars yesterday, the owner joked with another client about distracting me and 'pinching' my bike. My response was "you can have it if you want", and that led onto a conversation about his daughter, who is over for the summer helping out, looking for a bike to get around on.
She came in shortly after and we have an arrangement where it's hers while I'm away - which could be anywhere from 1 month to 10 years, so I think I just gave my bike away for free :) I have hope that this sort of thing comes around, and so hopefully when I get to Nottingham someone I've never met will just hand me a 400 euro bike, hmmm...
Anyway, it's better than it sitting in a shed, rusting away for who knows how long, and a nice feeling to leave the island with. My two beers were free yesterday, and maybe that will be the case next time I'm there - she could be running the bar next time I'm around.
The back of this bus is pretty noisy like, but it's where the legroom is so I'll suffer it. The sun is up now and the forecast is 29 today - the hottest day of the year so far. Looking at the weather app and Manchester, I see 14 and raining. Standard.
One of the main reasons for leaving the UK was the shit weather and lack of sunshine in the winter. It may sound lame but for those who haven't followed me for the past two years, Seasonal Affective Disorder got me pretty bad and got worse year on year until I felt I had to change my location. I learned how the mind can negatively affect the body, and it was scary. Anyway, I'm nervous to find out how (if I'm still there!) this coming winter will be as I don't think SAD is curable by overdosing on sunshine for 3 years. Perhaps if I'm not on a 9-5 schedule and working in an office then things will be different, but if that's not my duty then I'm not sure what else I'll be doing. If it's bar work then, after a nice summer with my daughter and old friends, I might as well be in the sunshine doing that eh?
Steemfest this year is very doubtful for me, which is a total bummer as I'd like nothing more than to get a single ticket to Bangkok at the start of November, get the conference in and then backpack it down to the islands. Anyone got €3000 to 'lend' me? 😀
If that opportunity is available to someone, I highly recommend it - solo or with a friend, male or female. I met a girl in an Internet cafe in Bangkok many years ago, she was planning to head back to Canada after getting really sick in Laos, I think it was. The other option was to go to the Perhentian Islands off the east coast of Malaysia - that sounded nice and so I asked if she'd like some company. I have fond memories of Asia.
Right then, we are almost at the airport and I've not copy/pasted this ramble into Busy and uploaded the photos yet.
See you on 'home' soil, I hope my bother has a spare coat.
Asher