Today was the third Monday morning when I haven't needed to get up at 6.20am before anyone else in the house and it's lovely to turn over and go back to sleep or have 20 minutes with my book before starting the day's activities. I am making sure I have a reason to have a walk every morning, either to the shops in town or to the nearest Co-op. This is mainly to ensure I get some exercise, but I've also rediscovered the enjoyment of stopping to talk to neighbours and acquaintances. While I was working I admit that I did used to avoid people if I thought it would mean spending precious time having a chat when I had other things I could be doing, but I am now finding that it's enjoyable to spend 5 or 10 minutes just passing the time of day in light conversation, when I don't have to rush so much.
We moved to this place 25 years ago, just after I'd started the job from which I retired in December, which was 20 miles away, and this has meant that I have few local contacts, with many of my friends based near to where I worked. Over the past couple of weeks, however,m I have been seeing familiar faces, mainly parents from the 5 different schools our children have attended during their school lives or from their sporting activities and I have made a point of speaking to them as well, aiming to position myself more firmly into the community. This has felt like a positive thing to do and I've been pleased by the friendly responses I've received.
The planning for the big trip continues, with rail reservations made for the first third of the journey, from Paris to Switzerland to Italy and we have booked accommodation for Paris, Lausanne, Florence, Rome and are awaiting confirmation for what looks like a good find for Verona. We don't need to make rail reservations for Austria or Germany so our next accommodation searches will be for Salzburg, Munich, Berlin and Hamburg. We do need to book trains for the Scandinavian leg of the trip, but it's too far in advance so we won't be able to do that until next week.
On top of this adventure, we are going to Porto for a few days at the end of February and I have booked to go walking in Majorca for a week with my younger sister (the middle of three of us) in May, so there's lots to look forward to.
On Saturday evening we had an early celebration of my youngest sister's birthday, which is tomorrow, with a meal and a film called Radiator, with Gemma Jones and Richard Johnson. It was quite a dark film, but with some very funny moments, and was a marvellous portrait of the workings of a slightly strange family, set in the Lake District with beautiful photography of Ullswater and its environs. It's one of those films which you don't forget about but keep thinking back on and wondering about the characters and what happened to them afterwards.
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