Small Change (December Reflections 9)

December Reflections prompt number 9 is: Biggest Change in 2019

They say that Change is the only constant and this is possibly more true of my own life than of most. The biggest change that I could possibly experience would be to have no change happening at all.

I was born a May baby and they say that we Taureans are resistant to change. Well, I had to become used to change and to learn to roll with it from an early age. It began when I was 8 and the family moved away from the place of my birth. In the intervening years I have had 24 other home addresses (if I have remembered them all correctly), lived in three countries and twelve UK counties and have spent 10 months with no home address at all. I attended a total of 4 Junior Schools and 4 Grammar Schools. I don’t care to consider how many different employers I have had but I have worked in Public and Private sector jobs and also in what might be termed Very Private Sector. I am almost ashamed to admit to having been married three times and divorced twice.

If that were not sufficient Change to contend with, my life is now characterised by almost constant movement – we spend much of our life travelling in our motorhome and it is quite common for me to wake on a morning and to wonder where on Earth am I?

There is some stability within this travelling pattern. We seem to have established a habit of staying away from home for at least three months each winter – beginning with a stint in Dumfries and Galloway whilst we were still formally resident in Orkney. The year following that we were travelling for ten months, spending three of those months in the Iberian Peninsula. The following winter we had our new home in France but went down to Spain and Portugal again for the winter months and this year we are in the middle of a similar jaunt.

That’s all a bit samey! I hear you exclaim – but wait for it, it is coming…

When I was discussing this prompt with my dear husband I was unclear what might be the biggest change of the year for me – it’s all change, how do I choose? I pondered the fact that we had swapped vans this year but we did a swap last year too and the year before that… And that was when he pointed out that this year’s winter trip is different: Previously we have crossed into Spain from South West France and travelled down into Portugal, along the Portuguese coast and then crossed the bottom of the peninsula and travelled up through Spain and back into France – going anti-clockwise. This year we are travelling Clockwise for a change.

Currently in Portugal, in Sagres (at the end of the world) and staying until the 26th, when we will move further into Portugal and hope to explore some new areas. Eventually we will cross back into Spain and end up (weather permitting) at Zarautz, where we normally arrive in November, before returning to France.

We are considering a bigger change for next year – Sicily!