September... Everywhere!

From a sunny Autumn morning in Earlsfield I bring the promised blow-by-blow of where we've been/what we've been up to this past month.  After some good girl-time with friends and just chilling out at home, I'm feeling properly caught-up and Creative Things are happening in my Brain - which is exciting even if as yet completely nebulous & incommunicable.  For now, something straightforward - here is a photographic recap of September xx

Mallorca/Majorca

We left Perarrua with heavy hearts after a wonderful farewell feast with Jochum and Judith, and headed to Mallorca where my lovely friend Elise is working with the rich and beautiful on yachts in Mallorca. (Well, Elise is working, what the rich get up to in Mallorca could fill another few posts...)  A crazy world and a big change after our little farming village!

Bonnie, Nick, Me, Renee and Elise on the steps at Elise's pension

Elise - I love this photo

Elise's pension - a heritage-listed house run by an ex-navy Brit and his wife

The Diner where we ate on many occasions (burritos/burgers/apple pie...) run by a lady from Kentucky.  Nick took this photo which I love.

The road to a beach on the west coast of the island - not for the faint of heart.

The beach at the end of the trek

...accessed via a tunnel in the rock!

We spent just under a week in Mallorca, and found it to be a real mixture.  It was great to have Elise show us around, as we headed to the bars where the boat crews tend to hang out - it felt like a real pirate town, with all sorts of shady characters and dodgy deals alongside/overlapping with mega-swanky restaurants, spas and shops.

A week was enough though, and after two and a half months away from her shores we headed back to the United Kingdom.  

Specifically, to the hospitality of Freya and Colin, who welcomed us despite themselves being in the process of packing up house for NZ.

Freya and laser-eyes Delia, advising us on how to cook "a brace of pheasants" (which Freya happened to have in the freezer, posh kid).

Late Summer walks near Putney common

After a week in London it was time to head north for the one date that had been on the calendar all year - our friends Andy and Jo's wedding at Loch Lomond in Scotland. 

Walking in the hills above Loch Lomond with fellow guests post-wedding

For the first time in years Nick had convinced me that camping was a great option (a quick look at our bank balances helped), and we headed up to the Loch with sleeping bags and tent in tow.  Imagine my disappointment when, half an hour before turning up at the campground, we got a call saying the whole place was waterlogged, and camping was off the agenda.

I rose above my heartbreak and quickly booked us in at the local YHA - as it happened, an old manor house which had been used by American troups as a radio base during the war, and then donated to the Youth Hostelling Association of Scotland once they were done.  Thank you, sirs.

The hostel by the loch

The wedding was beautiful, complete with Ceilidh (Scottish dancing, half as weird and twice as fun as it sounds).  The next day we headed off in our little rent-a-dent to see a little of the countryside:

Hiking the hangover into submission above Loch Lomond

Standing stones!!!! Real ones!  "Pull over pull over get the camera" - we got our nerd on and were so stoked to find these guys.

And an ancient burial mound... so mysterious and awesome.

We may have overestimated the amount of distance we could cover one day ("this country's small, that drive will take us no time..." - small and windy and single-track, oops) and twilight hit well before we approached the town where we were booked to stay.  Nick suggested finding a spot for some "car camping" and in a moment of daring, I agreed.  Far too late I realised that "car camping" is a hopelessly optimistic way of saying "sleeping in the car".  

I don't know what else it could have been, but I felt duped.  A bargain was struck whereby "car camping" would occur conditional upon the consumption of two bottles of wine to get us through.  One each, only fair.

Car camping - the reality.  Dinner for two by head-torch.

It wasn't all bad.  It was good, even. The discomfort was counterbalanced by a spectacular spot with an outstanding view over a loch, and a clear night provided one of the clearest skies I've ever seen.  A serious downpour also made for enormous puddles which in the dark, still night turned into mirrors for the stars - windows into bottomless galaxies below the earth.  Nick and I stood on the grass at their edges peering down and, after a bottle of wine each, having our minds blown fairly spectacularly.

The morning brought more rain - and rainbows

The view from the "car camp" - Castle Stalker on the wee island, as revealed by a later google search...

It was soon time for city comforts once more, and a visit to a university friend now living in Edinburgh.  A night in a double room in a hostel felt like five-star luxury and was the perfect way to bid Scotland farewell before heading to visit Rose in Manchester.

Northern English summer - Woolen dress, sandals, hat, sunnies... out walking with Rose

Rose had recently suffered at the hands of a seriously ill-qualified hairdresser and, after a couple of glasses of wine, bravely charged me with remedying the problem.  Apparently the resulting haircut has earned many a compliment, so I deem it a success.  Unfortunately we only took a "before":

As this photo clearly demonstrates, Rose was not at all sceptical of my abilities... 

The train station in Rose's little town.  Actual steam trains went past here, on real rounds - not historical-fun-times steam trains.  Amazing.

A bakery stall at the Market in Bury, near Summerseat.  Overheard from two shopping ladies:  "well, I was just saying it was exactly like in Coro-NAY-tion street, when Deirdre BAR-low was talking to that Moroccan lad"... people here were gold for watching.

Walking on the moors above Summerseat.

The time with Rose, chatting in the evenings and chilling out while she was at work, was a much-needed rest after the month of travel.  There are many things I've learned, or realised more fully, this year - and one of them is the value of quality time with good friends.  An oldie but a goodie.  Nick headed off to London to start his job, while I conducted my job search from the warmth of Rose's couch, cooking us dinner when she got home and talking about everything under the sun.

The spell eventually ended when I got a job interview (for a Department of Health job I didn't get, booo), and the London machine called me back once more.

So, now it is no longer the morning - I resumed this post at a deli in Earlsfield an I'm now sitting here with jamon de Serrano, olives and a second glass of wine.  With a place to live, a job to feed me and the time and space to be able to look back on all that we've been up to.  I hope you'll excuse the lengthy post - we're caught up!  And soon I can perhaps talk about the journeys/happenings unfolding in my brain... who knows?  But we'll talk soon at any rate.

Lots of love,

Sarah

Autumn in London

Well, September - I think I registered you as you whizzed past in a blur.  Phew! And now, it's good to be back in London.  In a flat, with a job - and unpacked bags.  Even if that job is admin that makes me look forward to lunch like it's Christmas, the routine and normality is welcome.

It's autumn here. I took the photo above on one of my blessed lunch breaks, in the SECRET GARDEN next to my work.  As soon I enter the gate (with a KEY) my imagination transforms me into Mary Lennox, which is pretty awesome:

Aside from my over-active imaginary journeys, I've also been to heaps of actual places in the last month.  Namely Majorca, London for a bit, Scotland for a wedding & some exploring, Manchester for a great catch-up with Rose, and then back to London where we've managed to find jobs and a flat.  Actually now that I write that down, I feel a little less sheepish about feeling nackered and not having posted in a while...

On the moors in Lancashire whilst visiting Rose (not unlike moors in The Secret Garden... ok I'll stop)

Many photos were taken and Stuff Done during the month; I will post those shortly and separately as a sort of 'paint by photos' instant update, I think - for now I wanted to say 'I'm alive and in one place for more than a week - it's good'.  

I'm even relatively restored, after a chance wandering into a 'solemn mass' at Westminster Cathedral last night (not Abbey - Catholic, not Anglican... all latin-ey etc.)  For some reason an hour sitting in a seriously beautiful place listening to angel-music gets to me like nothing else.  Feeling wound up like a spring after a mildly dramatic flat-finding mission, I was reminded of (nerd moment number... I've lost count) that bit in one of the Harry Potter books where there's a solid egg which nobody can open, until someone-or-other hops into the bath with it and the steam slowly releases its secrets - or something.

The sound of the choir and the smell of the incense, as well as the feeling of being in such a huge, still space - wound its way into my brain and opened me up something chronic.  A packet of tissues and mildly out-of-body experience later, I emerged onto seething Victoria St a new person - capable of facing blog-post catch-ups and everything.

So, live from Starbucks in Belgrave Sq where I'm listening to posh English boys talking to a posh American girl ("well, I'm taking Arabic at the moment"  "no, I don't think I've ever met a Mexican..." - I'm not making this up) I've finished another day of clock-watching and am heading home for a bath which, on top of the Westminster Cathedral experience, might just produce a real update post - with photos and everything.  Until then,  I'll leave you with a photo of my secret garden:

Love and steamy cups of autumn tea,

Sarah