Catching Up Medley 2

It's been a few weeks since my last post. A lot of things have been going on, both in my life and in the Home Free world. To begin with I was going to put it all into this post, but then I decided to separate the two. So here is what's been going on in my life the last couple of weeks;

I had a week's vacation/holiday/vacaciones/semester the other week because I had visitors here from Sweden. They didn't stay with us, but I wanted to have the chance to hang out with them as well as do my own things around the house. We had a fabulous week filled with field trips, adventure golfing, nice (and sometimes not as nice) food, beach, bathing, sun and lots of laughter. I got to spend 7 days in a row with my little sister and I can't even remember the last time that happened, I think maybe when I was 17 and still lived at home. That was like 10 years ago, or maybe 28. Wow! It was also the first time I spent that many days in a row with any of the other people that came here with her; her husband, their 16-year old son, their best friends and their 16-year old son.

One thing I did around the house was to finish building that table for our roof terrace. I am very happy with the result, but I think I might stain it before the end of the summer. I'd like it a bit darker than it is.

We were nine people seated around it without it feeling tight with space. I am very proud of myself. Next thing I'll build is either a bench to sit on by the table, or a desk for me. One thing is sure, I will build something more.

One of the places we went to is a town called Ronda which is set up in the mountains; it is thousands of years old with a whole lot of history. Ronda is divided by the El Tajo gorge (canyon, ravine) which steeps 100 m from the town. The views are spectacular from up there, and from down the gorge as well, although we didn't go down this time as it was way too hot a day to do that. The walk down is not too bad, but the walk up is a killer even without the heat. I didn't get many pics from Ronda, but I got this one of some of the view;

This is a pic I took a few years ago from halfway down the ravine;

Gorgeous isn't it!


As a writer I find inspiration in the fact that both Ernest Hemingway and Orson Wells spent several of their summers in Ronda's Old Town writing. Maybe I should take my laptop with me and go stay there for a couple of weeks sometime.

My family and friends all left a week and a half ago, I went back to work for two days and last weekend I got the worst stomach flu I've ever had, luckily I didn't vomit but it was still the worst. I am still not completely recovered, it will take a few more days to build up the energy. My boyfriend and son were quite worried about me for a while there, apparently I looked awful. I lost 3 kg (6 lbs) in 3 days, but I'm up most of it again. Hopefully I can keep the last kg off to make it somewhat worth the while. Tomorrow it's back to work, and in a few weeks my eldest nephew are coming for a 10 day stay. I think the plan is to go to Ronda again then, and we will go to Gibraltar and Tarifa, but I will tell you all about it when it happens. Maybe we will go down the gorge if we go to Ronda.

So, how about my writing? Well, I am writing on my book, even if not as much as I would like to. I find it hard with just getting to it, but when I do sit down and write time flies and I love it so much. If you support me on Patreon for as little as 1 dollar per month you can find the first 2 chapters (rough drafts) of my book there. Maybe I will put some more up there. My plan is to have the book ready for release before the end of this year. Your support would surely help inspire me! Thank you!

Also, I am trying to get my fingers out of my butt (i.e. stop procrastinating) and do my next assignment for the writer's course I am doing. It's been almost a year since I did the first assignment and I've been mentally stuck with this second one. If any of my readers out there know of any publications; magazines, e-zines and such; that publishes short stories (I need to be able to find them online, though, and they need to be in English) would you please give me a shout. It is part of this assignment. Thanks!

By the way, there is not many things better than listening to Home Free while traveling on a bus on a road climbing around the mountain, like a snake, with green valleys below you. Soothing and comforting. So, shockingly, here's a Home Free video to get you ready for my next post about what is happening in the world of Home Free. You can expect it within the next couple of days.

I hope you are all well and are enjoying life!

Love//
Carina

Mixed up bags, love and laugther

The first two days of my trip were great! But, it started out a bit stressful and it could have ended fairly bad, but luckily, thanks to some very nice and caring strangers, it didn't.

Here's what happened; 

I had a big suitcase to drop off before going through security check yesterday morning. My flight was due to leave at 6.30 am, boarding was closing at 6 and I arrived at the airport around 5 am. Plenty of time to drop the bag off, get through security, buy a cup of coffee and find my gate. At least it should have been plenty of time, but when I dropped off the bag it was about 2,5 kg overweight. So, I had to move things over to my hand luggage, which had plenty of weight left to use, but not much room in it. Not thinking straight I didn't think of the fact that I actually had a proper cabin bag packed in my big suitcase as I will need it to bring things back home with me. Anyway, I had finally squeezed as much as I possibly could into my hand luggage, and the weight on the big suitcase was fine. So, I dropped the bag off, and I saw the girl at the check-in desk put the bag ticket on it. Everything was cool and I walked my way through the terminal, and almost all the way through the next terminal and I was almost at the security check when some people caught my attention. These strangers told me that there was something wrong with my bag. Obviously I had no idea what they were talking about, but they went on to explaining that my bag had been taken off the belt after I had left, they described it and told me that I'd better go back there to check on it. So I did, and they were right! My bag was standing on the side of the belt and the girl asked me were the ticket for the bag was, I told her that she had put it on the bag, and she started to discuss something with a couple of other staff members. They printed out a new ticket for the bag, put it back up on the belt and all was good. When walking back to the security check the strangers that had been so kind to actually go look for me to let me know about my bag found me again, and they told me that when I had seen the girl put the ticket on my bag the first time it had actually been one their bag's ticket, and they had spotted the mistake. I thanked them and rushed on. It was now about 20 minutes til boarding and I still wasn't through security. And with a hand luggage that was filled with electronic things that I had to take out of the bag, and the bag now being even more stuffed due to the overweight, it took some time. But, I did make it, but didn't have time to get my coffee. But, wow, that was a bit more exciting than I expected. Or wished for! Now, I could only hope that my bag would actually arrive as it should too. 

The flight itself was completely uneventful, I watched a few episodes of One Tree Hill, and some Home Free Videos (I am one of those people that get to try out YouTube's new features of add-free videos and downloading videos for a trial period, and it's great), and we landed 20 minutes ahead of time. My bag was one of the first arriving on the belt. Phew! We made it!!

My sister and our mum were waiting for me and we drove straight home to one of my aunts and her husband. Surprising us by being there was my cousin A, his daughter and her boyfriend. My cousin A and I were very close growing up and we had no idea he was going to be there. It had been almost 10 years since I'd seen my aunt and uncle, and about 5,5 years since I'd seen my cousin. A while later my other aunt, her husband and their eldest and youngest sons showed up. The eldest one is also my godson, and I had not seen him in 25 years, he was only 2 the last time we met. The youngest of the two I had never met before and he is almost 21. It was almost 10 years since I'd seen this aunt too, and her husband probably almost 18 years. But, you know, it's funny, because it was almost like we meet on a regular bases. We had so much fun and we laughed a lot, and I am so happy for my family and the fact that we have so much love for each other even after years and years without contact. Thank you to all of you for making my life better! 

Next stop was going to the town where my sister, my mum and my youngest brother live, the town I grew up in. I went to see my brother and his two elder sons very briefly. His wife and their new born son weren't at home. And then I went to my sister's and got to see her sons and husband too. It is always very nice to be here with them. 

The rest of the day was quiet, and I had an early night after a very long, but very amazing day. 

That was yesterday, today was a day of no real plans, one of two on my trip. I slept in a bit, and then had a nice lazy morning with my sister chatting before we went to meet up with our mum again. We took a walk to my mum's husband's grave and then we went for a coffee and a chat in the centre. 

In the afternoon I went to my brother's again and I got to meet my newest nephew for the first time! Such an adorable little boy. I got sit with him in my arms for hours, and I fed him and he fell asleep and slept comfortably there. And I am in love! This was one of the reasons for making my trip now, to see him when he was still a newborn. He's just over a month old. So precious. All my nephews and my niece are, of course! I've now got 6 nephews and 1 niece. 

The evening was spent watching telly and chatting with my sister and her family.

And now it's time to sleep, it's 1.30 am and I've got another long day ahead of me tomorrow with more family and also friends to meet. Different town, different people. And I'm loving it! I will tell you all about it on Sunday in my next post. 

Oh, and I want to share a video with you. This is Home Free's latest video, and it feels like it fits perfectly into my life on this trip. This video is made with Lego, and it is brilliant. There are even tiny little Lego Home Free Guys, and a cute story line, and you can actually read the emotions of the Lego couple in the video. Weird, I know, but it's really cute. Also, cousin A had a huge Lego collection when we were kids that later became my brothers', so it fits. 

Here's Crazy Life, the title track from Home Free's debut album. 

Enjoy and I'll see you soon!

Love//

Carina