I tried to make this blog private but it doesn’t work, so I have to accept it as something different. It was going to be what I wanted to say to my friends, who are pretty much spread all over the world at the moment. I can’t make it private because some of them don’t have the time to join WordPress. So please don’t link to this unless you find yourself of the same mindset as me. I am always open to meeting new people, and, indeed, the internet has, indirectly, brought me friendships, for which I am more than grateful, but this is intended to keep me in touch with people who are already friends, no matter how far-flung.
My current location is Tenerife in the Canary Islands.
I transplanted from the flat and cool North West coast of England in 1987, and I never looked back. When you emigrate people are always asking you what it is you miss. Well, they do at first, they don’t do that any longer. My standard answer was Marks and Sparks, and it still would be. Apart from family and friends there has been very little I missed, and, of course, year by year, thanks to the wonders of modern technology there is less and less reason to miss anything from anywhere.
Austin and me
Guy and me
So now we see where my screen name comes from.
Other Stuff: I am an avid reader (slowly in Spanish) of classics both old and modern, of travel literature (though I am finding myself defining a more narrow version of this, my current reading also covers history, Africa, politics and environmental issues.
I love The Blues and the African music from which they come. I love my daft dog (left on my doorstep six years ago – it was most certainly Fate). I love movies, but rarely have the time to watch these days. Ditto theater – well, money as well as time.
If I have the time and money I would love to travel. My feet have always itched. My dreams were always about travelling. It’s possible that I should have been a nomad!
And – I love food! above all, Italian food! When the mood takes me I like to cook and experiment. My favorite way of passing an evening is around a table with good food, wine and conversation. Actually, if all of that took place on a beach during the daytime it would be even better!
I love to walk, and this island has many hidden faces which you can only explore on foot. I have been known to dive, but the prohibitive cost of this means I haven’t been able to indulge over the last, few years. Snorkelling and swimming are good though!
Other than my family, I am most passionate about this planet with all its faults and all its glories. I am passionate about trying to conserve the best of it, while still providing a decent and peaceful life for its peoples. I am passionate about everyone having the same opportunity to enjoy its beauty and its bounty, regardless, of course, of color, race, nationality, religion.
Over the last couple of years I have become involved in the subject of immigration. How could I not? I am, afterall, an immigrant……but my skin happens to be light, and I was lucky to have had a decent education. There were some paperwork problems at the beginning, but the stabilizing of the EU means that I have, now, pretty much the same rights in Spain as if I were born here. Lucky me. More another time. Just to say this is something very, very important to me
