It’s been a months!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We left Gurmels on the 14th July and arrived here in Forres on the 16th July. So after one months of our sabbatical, what is my resume?

My life has become simpler. Simpler not easier. I have less different things to juggle. I get up in the morning. I meditate. I have breakfast. I cycle to ‘work’. I work. I eat dinner. I write my blog. I go to bed. That’s it! At work there are the very same problems I have seen in other teams. I meet exactly the same variety of different characters. Some of which I am getting better on than others. My work is not mentally or emotionally challenging. Sometimes it is physically hard, like the last couple of days. But that feels good. The people here are friendly. When we cycle they always will greet us, on single track roads, there is always a ‘thank you’. People smile a lot. Are they happier? I don’t know. The people that choose to come to Findhorn to do a program, they are smiling because all of them wanted to come. They might not all like the program 100%, but in general they are happy. The people that live here don’t have a choice but smile: The weather is usually harsh, cold and rainy. There are hardly any jobs up here. And only during the summer there are lots of tourists. I guess in winter it is very very quiet here. I am spending a lot of time with the girls. More than usual. I like being with them. We talk. We sing. We play. We cuddle. If they fight, I am the mediator. If they are not motivated, I am the motivator. If they are in pain. I am the doctor. Stéphane spends his days in his ‘office’ and sees us only in the morning and at night. In fact at home he saw more of us. So I have the impression of becoming even more of the focus point of my children. They meet the people I meet – he doesn’t. They do the work I do – he doesn’t. It will be a challenge to work on the feeling of a family when we are spending so little time together. How do other families do that? They talk I guess. But when we come home we have done so much talking already, so that I just want to get a couple of things done and by 22:30 am asleep and all of that without TV – amazing. I have also realized that a daily blog is a challenge. I really have to be on my toes if I want to keep going. And especially if I couldn’t write for a couple of days like when we went to Orkney, it takes me hours to have everything back in order. ‘I’ll do my very best’ as James would say to Miss Sophie.

And financially… in those 31 days we spent 57% on accommodation, 22% on food, 17% on transportation, and a minute amount of 3% on fun. Definitely not enough fun. The rest is a bit of sightseeing, a bit of shopping, a bit of communication etc.

So for today: Sunny hot weather, blue sky, hard work in the Forrest Garden. But fortunately with Frédéric I have found a co-worker to my liking: hard working, practical, experienced, funny, playful and very French 🙂

What else will I remember from today? Oh yes, I was bitten yet again by a bee. This time underneath my left eye. I am starting to develop a phobia and get very scared and nervous as soon as I hear them. Yesterday it was my ear. Today my eye. Which of my five senses will it pick tomorrow? And by the way my ear still hurts.

day31

Guess who has been working in the office…