Resigned

Tuesday 23 April - I handed in my resignation at work.  Last employed date: 31 July 2024.

The To-Do list just grew by an exponent of close to 10.

Now why would that be?

Preparing to leave the country might have something to do with it.  A Will, Pension arrangements, Taxes (still sorting out 2022 tax liabilities in Greece!).... Suddenly my life is plagued by the requirements of lawyers, financial consultants, accountants, a Notary Public, government departments, the keepers of medical records, and the HR department at work who had the good sense to schedule a meeting to tell me that they would be scheduling a meeting!  No time wasted there then!

There is also that sense of looking at some things for what might be the last time.  Last night on my exit of the station turnstiles at Havant on my way home from London, I picked up a booklet advertising the Hayling Island Arts Trail.  Before our move to Greece I used to go every year with a group of women who called themselves 'Birds on Bikes' - and cycled around all 40 or so venues to view the offerings and provide support particularly to those who might not otherwise have received a lot of visits.

I have no idea whether Birds on Bikes continued over the  'COVID' era.  At one stage it had been so popular that the organizer had to create 'Buzzards on Bikes' (for the blokes who felt left out) and send them round the houses in the opposite direction because 30-40 of us descending on a venue all together was proving a challenge for some of the exhibitors (such a challenge in fact that any new exhibitors each year were warned about a visit by the 'Birds on Bikes' crowd and to be prepared to handle a crowd and a lot of questions and sales in about 10 minutes rather than spread across the weekend.)

Part way round we would picnic on the beach, or inundate one of the local cafes.  Most of us preferred to bring our own lunch and get a takeaway coffee from the converted bus/cafe on the beach.  Another preferred stop was the ice cream parlour at Eastoke - which as you can imagine also experienced a hike in sales over a very short period of time. 

Diversion there from the general to the specific... And I wrote it days ago, and in the meantime have got myself bent all out of shape trying to catch up with lawnmowing and gardening, finishing sewing projects, keeping up with my art challenges (which are supposed to be a restful and restorative part of each day(!)), reading your blogs (it is important to me to keep paying attention) .... exercising regularly and visiting somewhere I have meant to go for years ...... more on that later in the week.

For now a restful photo  - or two.  I think this is called Deutzia - and it flowers spectacularly every year.

And yes, the lawn needed mowing...